THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – ARDEN DRIVE (2016)

 

All Eddie Kirkpatrick (Sean Ryan Fox) wants for Christmas is a pair of Breezy 3000s, the hottest new shoes which will make him the envy of his friends.

But come Christmas Day, he finds there are no presents under the family tree, let alone his shoes, because his older brother, Zack (Colin Smith) is getting married and the family is so focused on the wedding they have side-lined Christmas.
He storms out of the house angry that his Christmas has been ruined, and heads into town where he comes across a mysterious new shoe store.

After meeting the store owner (Joey Lawrence) he is granted one wish, so Eddie wishes to have his Christmas back, and the wish is granted.

However as a result he is stuck reliving the same disappointing Christmas day on an endless loop, and is destined to do so until he learns what the spirit of Christmas is really about.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – THIS IS OUR CHRISTMAS (2018)

 

“This is Our Christmas” tells the story of love, redemption, courage, and the importance of helping others.

A father, James Bennett Foxworth (Vincent De Paul) tries to help his spoiled Beverly Hills teenage daughter Ravin (Ravin Spangler), overcome the loss of her mother Angelina (Donna Spangler) find the true meaning of the holidays.

He does this by sending her to stay with Aunt Maggie (Nancy Daly) to help with her failing country style bakery business.

James is are ably assisted by friends and family as well as their magical guardian angel, Angelina, in reaching their goal of discovering the true miracle of Christmas”.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER - A CAROL CHRISTMAS (2003)

 

An enjoyable and humorous reworking of Charles Dickens well spun yarn of redemption.

This retelling of the story is of an ego-maniacal driven and heartless TV talk show host, Carol Cartman (Tori Spelling) who is determined to destroy the festive fun in the studio.

However on Christmas Eve she is visited by the ghost of her Aunt Marla (Dinah Manoff).

The story unfolds much as you might expect from then on but the late Gary Coleman is a quite excellent Ghost of Christmas Past and William Shatner steals the show as the Ghost of Christmas Present.

The use of the Star Trek tele-porter effect when he "moved" Carol from one location to another was quite inspired.

There are also very credible performances from Nina Siemaszko as ill-used assistant Roberta and Michael Landes as Roberta’s love interest Jimmy.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – THE CHRISTMAS GETAWAY (2018)

 

Claire (Alexandra Breckenridge), is a savvy venture capitalist from New York City, who decides to escape to the quaint town of Glastenbury, Vermont for the holidays, following an uncharacteristically bad company floatation.

She chose Glastenbury for her getaway because of its reputation as a great Christmas Town with many traditional activities and a famous festival.

And as she is not the kind of person to do nothing she books in as a guest of the Fortenbury Bookstore, which entitles her to run the Store for the duration of her stay.

However upon her arrival, Claire finds Christmas celebrations have been cancelled by the town after a devastating autumn flood and the bookstore in a dire state of disrepair.

Unshaken she immediately takes on the challenge to revitalize the store, but clashes with the owner, Andrew (Jamie Spilchuk), who initially rejects all her proposed improvements, though she finds an ally in his Aunt, Mrs. Tumulty (Jane Alexander).

Gradually Claire wears him down with her infectious optimism and revives his yuletide spirit and inevitably romance blossoms, until Claire discovers that Andrew is planning to sell the bookstore in the New Year.

Which begs the question “Will the spirit of Christmas be enough to change Andrew's mind and encourage him to follow his heart?”

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER - IT'S CHRISTMAS, CAROL!

 

An enjoyable and credible reworking of Charles Dickens well spun yarn of redemption.

This retelling of the story is of a driven and heartless publishing executive, Carol Huffman (Emmanuelle Vaugie) who on Christmas Eve is visited by the ghost of her former boss, Eve (Carrie Fisher).

Eve tells Carol that she has lost sight of the things that are truly important in life and that she is there to show her the errors of her ways.

There is a wonderful reference to Dickens in the tale when Eve explains why the normal trinity of ghosts were all represented by her alone, as she was in sole charge of Carol's journey through her past, present and future, and that was because “Chuck” was prone to over embellishments.

It’s very much worth a watch if only for Carrie Fishers mischievous Eve.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER - MY SANTA

 

Jen Robbins (Samaire Armstrong) is a single mother, who works as a writer of human interest stories for the small town newspaper in the town where she has lived all her life.

Alas she lost her Christmas spirit after her ex-husband Paul walked out on her six years earlier when her son Eric (Gabe O'Mara) was only one year old, and to add insult onto injury it was also Christmas Eve.

Despite her disdain for Christmas however, after a number of encounters, Jen finds herself falling under the spell of Chris (Matthew Lawrence), who is the shopping mall Santa Claus.

Eric truly believes that Chris really is Santa although in truth he is Kris Kringle Jr the heir apparent to the magic of Christmas.

He has set his cap at Jen to be the next Mrs. Claus, so that he can continue the Christmas spirit into the next generation.

But that woman has to truly believe in the spirit of Christmas for Chris to be able to take over the reins from his father.

So a cynic like Jen may not be easily persuaded.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – SMALL TOWN PRINCE (2015)

 

Prince Duncan (Kirk Barker) is experiencing cold feet about his upcoming arranged royal wedding, so the charming European prince steals away incognito to the America in search of true love.

Pretending to be someone he isn't, the prince-on-the-lam rents a car and hits the road but he loses control in the wintry conditions and crashes, and that’s where he meets Emma (Viva Bianca) a diner waitress whose Christmas needs brightening considerably, and that’s where the Christmas romance begins in earnest.