Have you ever dreaded Christmas?
Well, Marie dreads it a lot! Four years ago, she mistakenly thought her boyfriend was going to propose to her.
Instead, he breaks up with her.
Now, whenever Christmas is near, she is NOT EXCITED about the holiday. All she seems to do is remember that fateful day.
But Marie’s world changes when her parents start sending her mystical Christmas ornaments. Every time she receives an ornament, it turns out that that particular ornament is somehow meaningful in her life. For example, she meets her next door neighbor, Nate. She’s attracted to the male nurse and when she receives an ice skating ornament, Nate takes her ice skating (Nate is not aware of her ornament). Also, after she receives a pancake ornament, Nate takes her out for Christmas pancakes. The pattern continues throughout the story and at one time, she mis-reads the meaning of a lighthouse ornament.
Marie likes her job. She wants to move up in the publishing industry and be in charge of her employer’s fiction line. However, her Christmas dread gets worse when her ex is assigned to work with her on a piece of fiction. She’s upset to discover that he’s writing a story about their former love life.
I could really relate to Marie’s life working in the publishing industry. Although I’ve never been an editor for a large publishing house, I’ve written for them. So I could relate from the other side of the table. I used to attend romance writers’ conferences each year just to pitch my books to editors. It was a blast and meeting those editors, plus lots of hard work and dedication, led to my first contracts with large publishing companies!
I thought that Nate was a great, sweet, understanding guy. He’s great with kids at the hospital where he works. In spite of Marie’s negative feelings about Christmas, she manages to spread Christmas cheer at the hospital where Nate works. She’s also great with the kids.
I liked this movie but felt that Marie’s stance against Christmas was a bit harsh. Her boyfriend broke up with her during the holiday season four years ago – four years ago – four years ago! Yes, I’m repeating myself because I felt she should’ve been over her ex and moved on. Four years is long enough to heal from a breakup (unless there are huge extenuating circumstances and I didn’t see any of those in the movie). If I’d written the script, I’d have had her breakup to happen last Christmas, one year ago. That way, her pain would’ve been more raw and fresh and her apprehensions and fears toward Nate would’ve been more plausible.
I loved how the ornaments were like a road map to great things happening in Marie’s life. I wish I could’ve known if the magic from these ornaments was coincidental or if the Lord himself had sprinkled some magic onto those Christmas decorations.
I really enjoyed this Hallmark movie and I think you will, too.
So, have you ever dreaded Christmas? If so, what did you do to cheer yourself up?
While four years seems like a long time to hold onto the pain and upset of a breakup, sometimes this does happen when the person feels they were at fault. Sometimes we tell ourselves we did something. Or we feel we were unjustly and unfairly treated and hold a grudge. And when we get stuck in those feelings, we have trouble seeing past them. I have seen men and women mad at a spouse or significant other for dying and leaving them alone. They see the death as a personal affront to them, even if the death was from an accident or a heart attack or cancer.
Sometimes we need something to shake us up and refocus. That may be what the ornaments did. And I can see the hand of God in that in that the particular ornaments were chosen for what memories they would bring back. And help work through the issues. Finally able to see that she had punished herself all those years.
Just my thoughts on this.
Hi, Elaine
I do agree with you.
Losing a spouse, child, etc. due to death would fall under the extenuating circumstances that I’d mentioned in my post (I’d mentioned that four years would be long enough unless there were huge extenuating circumstances). I’d imagine if I lost a child or spouse due to death, not sure if I’d ever get over that. It would be hard.
But, when simply dating someone, seriously dating and then you break up – well…for me, that’s not the same as being married for decades, or getting a divorce from someone. I’d imagine that four years would be time to get over a non-marital dating relationship.
What I would’ve done to make the story more plausible would be to have her to have broken up one year before the story began. Or, maybe she was engaged to be married and lost her fiance through death four years ago. The death would be hard to get over because they’d been committed to the happily ever after. Or, have her to have been a widow and her spouse died on Christmas four years ago, that would’ve made the story stronger IMHO. I don’t know. I just felt that it’d been a stronger story if her relationship with her ex wasn’t the only thing that made her hate Christmas is all.