It’s shameful for me that I am just learning about the Miracles of Christmas programming on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. I thought that I knew everything, but I have obviously been letting myself down.
Because the more Christmas movies the better.
Last nights movie, We Need A Little Christmas. In the movie, “Julie is juggling being a single mother to a grieving child and facing her first Christmas without her husband when she develops an unexpected friendship with a neighbor.”
The thing about movies on Hallmark or in this case Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, they don’t ask you what you need, they tell you. They give you the reminder of finding the beauty in the moments, the beauty in love, the beauty in seeing what is around you.
Christmas is a hard time of the year for a lot of people. For some it’s a reminder of loss, of being alone, of not having someone to share the holidays with. For some it’s a first – a first time to experience loss, a first time to really come to terms with feelings.
And We Need A Little Christmas, explores all these moments. Julie and Gavin are having their first Christmas alone. Gavin’s Dad (Julie’s husband) passed away and the two are really feeling the loss. Gavin doesn’t want to talk about loosing his father, because he’s afraid of hurting his Mom. He’s afraid of his Mom being sadder.
Julie is trying to keep up with the same traditions, because she doesn’t want Gavin to feel the loss of his father. She’s trying to be a good Mom, but her pain is coming across and making Gavin sad. Only she doesn’t notice it.
Their next door neighbor, Irene, is a good woman. She’s filled with cheer and joy. Christmas is her favorite time of the year, because her grandson, Miles comes home. She raised him and he’s the only family that she has left. Miles parents were career military and went on their tour of duty, but didn’t make it back home.
While Julie is trying to figure life out, and the balance of things, she becomes angry when Gavin opens up to Irene versus to her. She lashes out at Irene, who is experiencing her own pain. The thing is – if we all stop to look at the world around us, we’ll see that people aren’t always trying to butt in to our lives, but they’re trying to help.
And sometimes we need people to lean on. We need people to see us and hear us. We need people to hear what we’re not saying.
Irene and Julie don’t seem to realize that they’re doing just that for each other. But by finding the community that they need in each other, they’re also helping Gavin.
As it comes closer to Christmas, Julie and Gavin are forging new traditions, thanks to – in part – Irene’s influence, but also in part to finally seeing each other. By forging a friendship with Irene, they embark on new traditions that give hope and start to break away at the pain that both are feeling.
Irene is feeling her own pain. Miles, a doctor in the military, had a last minute surgery and needed to stay where he was in order to watch a patient. She’s sad and feels alone.
Julie has been spending all of her time working and trying to keep her business a float. She comes across a client – one of the most trusting men I have ever seen. Julie wanders into a restaurant and meets the owner, who gives her the job of redoing the restaurant. Peter is a nice man, one that reminds Julie that it’s okay to be alive and to live.
Between Peter and Irene, Julie is learning valuable lessons on living her life and showing her son that having a well rounded life is the best way to honor her late husband. He wouldn’t want them to just exist. He would want them to live.
Irene has made such an impact on everyone, that Julie wants to do something to show her how much she means to everyone, especially her. So with Peter’s help the two set out to make the impossible happen – bring Miles home for the holidays.
The two reach out and ask others for help and are able to find a way to get Miles home, surprising Irene. She’s shocked, but somehow what we see even more in her eyes is that hope is never fleeting, it’s a part of who we are. We just have to hold onto it.
And believe in it.
New Miracles of Christmas movies air every Sunday on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.
