I love watching Christmas movies - where everything works out wonderfully and you finish the movie feeling good. I have been working my way through a couple on Netflix, and as there's quite a few to choose from, I thought I would give a quick summary of 3 of the films I've seen to help you make your decisions of what to watch...
The Holiday Calendar
A single young woman who wishes her life was more exciting and that she had the courage to pursue her dreams and become a successful photographer, inherits a traditional European 'magical' boxed advent calendar by her late grandma. Each day she gets a trinket from the door which tells her what will happen during the day. The doors automatically open so she can not look at the whole month.
She comes from a loving family, and her parents want her to give up on photography and join the family law business as they feel this will provide a financially stable future for her. Her old best friend returns home after travelling the world as a photographer from the past 18 months.
The acting can feel cheesy and the story line a little too convenient at times, but its a clean, romantic easy to watch Christmas film. There are a few funny moments, weirdly staged angry/annoyed moments as she discovers who she really is and eventually all her Christmas wishes come true, as she pursues her dreams and falls in love with the right guy.
The Princess Switch
A heartbroken, super organised baker has been elected to enter a special cake competition in a foreign snowy country. Her partner is her best friend, from school and he has a daughter. A duchess due to marry a prince (of this country) is dreaming of what a normal life looks like. The women accidentally meet and discover they look identical, so decide to switch lives for 2 days. The baker agrees to the switch because her best friends daughter could then (conveniently) attend the specialist ballet academy for free.
The duchess takes to this new life happily - but the daughter quickly spots that she is a fake. The baker discovers - its not 2 days relaxing and has to fulfil royal duties. The prince decides not go to a meeting abroad and wants to spend time with his bride to be. Its such a tough life being a princess!
It really doesn't take much working out that the duchess falls in love with the best friend and the baker falls in love with the prince, as the film spells it out quite plainly. They win the competition and everything works out for everyone.
It is a contrived movie, simple and quite sweet. It has some funny moments and quite a few parts of the story are a little 'too convenient' for my liking even for a Christmas movie. The only moment where it became too much was when the daughter happily decides to do the washing up spontaneously, which I just found too hard to believe.
This is okay to watch with children or your brain is overburdened and you need something simple to watch.
Christmas Inheritance
A busy New York socialite is keen to take over her fathers company but her father is unsure if she's ready. Her over enthusiasm to raise money for charity, her New York and rich upbringing means she doesn't always understand the company's ethos. He hatches a plan to see if she has what it takes. His silent business partner, who helped found the company, lives in a sleepy village in the middle of nowhere and they always exchange a Christmas letter, which must be hand delivered. It is her job to deliver the letter, but can only use the cash he gives her, which is purposefully very little. She leaves her fiance and luxuries and heads to this place - Snow Falls. When she gets there, the partner is away and she runs out of money. She then has to rely on charity/the villagers kindness to help her.
She see's for herself how the company ethos was filmed, meets some wonderfully kind helpful villagers, see's an impatient side to her fiance and then falls in love with someone much 'worthier' Oh and her hair stays perfectly curled throughout the film!
I really enjoyed this film, best out of these 3. I think with busy lives its fun to fantasise that living in a slower paced village, cut off from our busy life, would bring peace, joy and help you find your 'inner' self. The reality is, its probably not like that in small cut off villages because if we're honest Christmas movies don't reflect reality. However, this does touch on a craving that society would like to escape 'busyness' of life and a simpler life looks more appealing. To be honest, I don't think that living in a village would mean that life is just simpler or less busy - life is as busy and as complicated as you make it.
This film was filled with kindness and made me feel good about humanity, so I would recommend this one for the feel goods.