Ahhh, Christmas, how you get me. How you get not wanting to go home, but knowing that you need to. How you get the pain and joys of going home, the expectations and the reality, and everything in between. Sometimes we want to avoid Christmas. Sometimes we want to avoid going home. But the truth is, sometimes you need to go home.
And sometimes home is where you go to find yourself. Even when you didn’t know that something was missing.
Lisette is a popular singer, who is finding out that her album isn’t performing well and that she’s doing so bad that her label is removing her from headlining the Christmas party. They’re moving on to the next big thing and she’s not it.
Lisette isn’t willing to accept that and is pretty pissed. Rightfully so. She’s not about to be pushed aside and is talking with her manager. Unfortunately for her, a journalist has it out for her and is ready to break all the bad news that they can find on her.
Not to mention the good news too. I mean, if you’d call interpreting a picture that they have no idea what is going on in and putting it on the internet as you being engaged, even though it’s just your ex that broke your heart coming across you in a Christmas market and picking up the ring that you dropped on the ground.
Oh the craziness of life. I’d like to say that this can’t happen, but look, we living through a lot of crazy things, so the chances of me underestimating anything is slim to none.
Christmas markets should always be a cautionary tale.
But when the news breaks, because of the paps, that she’s engaged, Lisette doesn’t know what to do but when her person at the label tells her that this could work out good for her and garner her attention. The issue for her, it’s her ex.
She has the chance to tell her ex right then and there, but she doesn’t. She’s wanting to avoid him with everything that she has in her, but the thing is – she can’t. For you see her parents have already seen the article and by the time that he gets around to see it and confronting you about it – you just happen to be on the phone with your Mom.
And he just casually says, hi fiance.
Lisette and Michael used to work together. He was her producer – which makes everything complicated – and she did love him. Sometimes love isn’t enough, especially when you let people crawl inside your head and they live there rent free.
See, for Lisette, she’s always wanted to live up to her fathers expectations, but she’s always felt like she’s fallen short. He’s been right a lot of the time and that makes her feel worse about her choices, because he warned her. He tried to tell her.
The thing that gets me is that a lot of us have the same issue and it’s this sense of pride that makes us not want to back down. It’s not a matter of telling our parents that they were right, it’s a matter of seeing the disappointment in their eyes. It’s a lot to deal with, because the truth is, we all want our parents to be proud, to know that we listened and we did our best.
Lisette has hated knowing that her Dad was right about her boyfriend before Matthew. It’s the reason that she’s never talked to her Dad about her relationships – because his judgement would be the thing that breaks her. Only what she doesn’t realize is that isn’t the way that their relationship is, is in part to her inability to be open with her father.
Yes, this movie is about a lot of Daddy issues and how they affect ones life.
Matthew agrees to go home to New Orleans with Lisette for the holidays. This is really awkward, because their relationship didn’t end well. Matthew broke up with her and it broke her heart. She didn’t realize though, how much it broke his.
Until she spent time with him.
See, Lisette has thought that she’s been there for everyone else and she’s thought that she’s done what is best for everyone, what she’s done is what is best for her. What she’s done is taken away choices from those around her and she hasn’t realized it.
But going home and hearing about all the things she hasn’t noticed with her family, her brother, her sister… it’s an awakening for her. It’s an awakening when she realizes that the journalist that she insisted hated her, is actually a girl that she beat out for a part once and grew up around – a person that she didn’t notice.
In all honesty, to a certain point, I didn’t like Lisette, but then I realized that it’s not that I don’t like her, it’s that I don’t like reality checks. Hard pass on those, even though I know that sometimes they are the things that we need most. We being me.
We all can choose to look at life however we choose. That’s a fact of life. But what is also a fact of life is that we have to come face to face with the choices that we make. We don’t get to outrun the past, when the past is something that is always going to be there. It’s better to just face it head on – sometimes.
When Lisette confronts her past and her future she’s left realizing that she’s been existing on fear and everyone else’s dreams. So finding her own again is a win.
At least it is for me.
OTHER THOUGHTS
- I thought that this was going to be somewhat religious cause of the title and I was wrong.
- Loved the music
- I want to go to New Orleans.
- One thing about Hallmark is that they have made me start think and sometimes I hate that, but I love their movies
- The music in this movie – love it so
- Loved Matthew telling Lisette the truth about why he broke up with her, I was like damn and also like felt that truth.
