THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER - TRADING CHRISTMAS

 

In South Woodbourne, Washington, widowed second grade schoolteacher Emily Spengler (Faith Ford) loves the Christmas holidays, as do all the townsfolk, and she is looking forward to spending the holiday with her grown up daughter, Heather (Emma Lahana), as usual.

However Heather, who is at college in Boston, drops the bombshell a week before Christmas that she is going to be too busy studying to make the long trip home to South Woodbourne.

Emily calls her BFF Faith Kerrigan (Gabrielle Miller) for sympathy after receiving the news and asked her to come for Christmas instead but she is further disappointed when divorcee Faith tells her she is too snowed under with work to make the trip from San Francisco.

Also in Boston lives an unsentimental novelist and English professor Charles Johnson (Tom Cavanagh), who his desperate to break his writer's block and complete his latest novel which is overdue at the publishers.

In addition to his lack of sentimentality, along with his workaholic brother Ray (Gil Bellows), he doesn’t celebrate the season.

Ray, as the owner of his own lucrative business, is trying to decide if he should accept a very generous offer for his company, and advises Charles to do a house swap for the holiday suggesting that a change of scene might well help to unblock him.

And that is where the story really starts.

Emily and Charles meet on a house swapping website and agree to do a one week swap in the lead up to Christmas.

However all does not go well, Emily goes to Boston to surprise daughter Heather only to find on her arrival she has secretly flown to Phoenix with her boyfriend Jason.

Charles meanwhile finds the over decorated house and the over friendly townsfolk of South Woodbourne somewhat over sweet.

But that turns out to be the least of his problems when Emily's best friend, divorced corporate events planner Faith Kerrigan, arrives in South Woodbourne from San Francisco intent on keeping Emily company during the holidays in Heather's absence.

Due to circumstances beyond her control Faith is forced to stay at the house with Charles for the better part of the week.

At the same time Emily sets off the silent burglar alarm in Charles apartment and brother Ray and the Police walk in on her.

Obviously in true Christmas tradition romance blooms in both Boston and South Woodbourne.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – LITTLE WOMEN (2017)

 

This is a modern retelling of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel, an autobiographical account of her life with her three sisters in Concord, Massachusetts in the 1860s and is a “coming of age” drama tracing the lives of four sisters: Meg (Melanie Stone), Jo (Sarah Davenport), Beth (Allie Jennings) and Amy (Taylor Murphy), who struggle to make ends meet in their New England household while the girl’s father (Bart Johnson), is away fighting in the Civil War.

I his absence the family is headed by the girl’s beloved mother Marmee (Lea Thompson), and the March family are supported by the help of their kind and wealthy neighbour, Mr. Laurence (Michael Flynn), and his high spirited grandson Laurie (Lucas Grabeel).

The story details the March girl’s passage from childhood to womanhood and despite harsh times, they cling to optimism, and as they mature, they face blossoming ambitions and relationships, as well as tragedy, while maintaining their unbreakable bond as sisters.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – POLAR EXPRESS

 

The Polar Express is a beautifully animated magical Christmas feast based on the book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg.

On Christmas Eve, a boy who has come to doubt Christmas boards a magical train that is headed to the North Pole and Santa Claus's home.

The story that unfolds is an engaging adventure aboard the magical train which for the boy and his new friends becomes a journey of self-discovery which shows them that the wonder of life never fades for those who believe.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – A CHRISTMAS CAROL: SCROOGE'S GHOSTLY TALE (2006)

 

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge's Ghostly Tale is an animated retelling of Charles Dickens' tale about miser Ebenezer Scrooge “A Christmas Carol”.

The classic tale in which he is taught the true meaning of Christmas by three Spirits who visit him, revealing to him the truth about his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current catalogue of cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways.

Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold, death or redemption.

The vocal talents of Tim Bentinck, Brian Bowles, Teresa Gallagher, Keith Wickham, Jo Wyatt, Adam Rhys Dee and Alan Marriott bring the story to life.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – THE FAMILY MAN

 

The Family man is a Capraesque style film in many ways, in which Jack Campbell (Nicholas Cage) a happy singleton with a successful career as a talented businessman wakes up to find his world turned upside down.

He has everything he could ever want, or so he thinks, then one day he wakes up in a completely different life where he is married to his old college girlfriend Kate (Tea Leoni).

He now lives in Jersey with Kate and their two kids and instead of being president of an Investment House he sells tires for his father in law Big Ed.

He desperately wants his life back, he wants his Ferrari back and not the temperamental family mini-van.

But after a bad start, day by day he become's more comfortable in his new life and starts to see what he's been missing and it turns out in the best Frank Capra tradition that money isn’t everything and love wins out.

 

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993)

 

Christmas Eve is a magical time, but for many people, the coldest, loneliest night of the year falls on Christmas Eve.

“The Night Before Christmas” tells the story of one of those people, Nick Allman (Mike Kelley), a disillusioned young man, who has broken up with his girlfriend and has lost touch with the true spirit of the holidays.

The story is set in Chicago on Christmas Eve, and it follows Nick’s day, from the moment his alarm goes off in the morning until beyond midnight as he encounters a variety of characters who help renew his belief in the festive season where everyone's expectations run high.

 

As a veteran devotee of Christmas movies, I watch more than my fare share and although this is by no means perfect, it is exceptional as it does something original with the material.

It is slow paced and has a very definite “film noir” feel about it with its use of Chicago's north side neighbourhood’s and has a very realistic feel, and at the end you are left, not with a happy ever after, but something much more precious, hope.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – FOUR CHRISTMASES

 

Brad (Vince Vaughan) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) have been together for three years. They are very much in love and spend their time having fun and doing a great deal of things together purely for their own enjoyment.

They have no intention to marry or have children and do their level best not to spend the holidays with their families.

However, on Christmas morning, they are on their way to Fiji, having told their two sets of divorced parents that they're off to do charity work.

But the flight is cancelled and when, they are caught on camera by a TV news crew at the airport, they are forced to visit each of their four idiosyncratic parents.

As the day wears on, Brad and Kate remember their respective childhoods, and each learns more about the other.

As a result, Kate realizes that her life isn’t as good as it could be and finds she wants more from the relationship.

But does she want more than Brad can give?