Well, well Hallmark, I didn’t expect my tears to flow this early in the Countdown to Christmas season. And boy with Where Are You, Christmas? did I cry my eyes out. Like full on used a box of kleenex.
I will freely admit that I am a Scrooge. I forgot the meaning of Christmas a long time ago. S*** happens in life that changes us and for me, that meant forgetting why Christmas is important. Maybe my love of all holiday movies is to recall why holidays, family, and connection are important. Maybe it’s to melt my scroogish heart.
I am not sure. But I do know that that Hallmark continues to put out movies that are special. They continue to put out movies that make us all feel something.
A friend asked me why it is that people relate to Hallmark movies. I smiled and said that it’s personal for everyone, that it’s different things. But you have to realize that they are doing something that people need if you have scores of people tuning in each week.
And Where Are You, Christmas is a perfect example of what they are doing right.
The movie is different than the movies of Countdown to Christmas past. The network is willing to change with the times. They are willing to grow. They don’t necessarily ask what you need. They just pay attention to what their fanbase is talking about so that they can give them the things that they need.
And we definitely need more movies like this one.
It’s About This: Addy (Fonseca), a marketing exec who has lost her Christmas spirit, returns to her hometown to spend the holidays with her family. The town’s over-the-top celebrations and her mom (Warner) and dad’s (O’Heir) questioning of her life choices causes her to wish for Christmas not to exist. When Addy blacks out after her car veers off the road, she wakes up in a world of black and white, devoid of any color – her wish came true and she’s the only one who remembers Christmas. The town’s mechanic, Hunter (Rady), helps her after the accident and she unknowingly stirs up a meaningful memory of Christmas within him that brings him back into full color. Addy doesn’t understand why she has not turned back to color, but puts that concern on the backburner as she and Hunter work together to try and spread Christmas cheer to help the rest of the town return to color.
Standout Performance: Lyndsy Fonseca. Just watch the movie and you’ll see why she’s amazing and we need her in more things. I give her a 10/10.
My Scroogish Thoughts: Last year, it was the movies Time For Him To Come Home For Christmas and The Ghost of Christmas Always that broke me, had me crying on the floor and melted my scrooge heart. This year, we’re only on the second day of Countdown to Christmas and I am a mess. I am a mess because Where Are You Christmas broke my scroogish heart in a way that I didn’t know a movie could. At least that I didn’t know it could this year.
Lyndsy Fonseca you are a gem. You are definitely a gem. There is something about your energy radiates off the screen, that draws the viewer in, and makes the viewer feel like they can relate to whatever character that you are playing.
Lyndsy stars as Addy, a branding executive that doesn’t like to go home for Christmas. When Christmas is your job, you want to be away from it when it comes around. At least Addy does. She doesn’t want to have to deal with the festivities, because it’s what she deals with all year long.
Can’t blame her for wanting to escape to the Maldives for the holidays.
But she’s drawn to go home, because her brother is proposing. She heads home and is immediately greeted with a lot of people surprised that she was there. Even her own father bet against her coming home for the holiday.
I about choked on that knowledge. Everyone in her home town seems to be surprised that she’s there, but what killed me was the way that Addy’s Dad didn’t seem to even want to be in the same room as her. How’s she supposed to deal with that? How is that supposed to be easy? I get though, as we get older, we all tend to move forward and there are a lot of parents that don’t know where they fit in. We get older and we don’t even know where parents fit in.
The hardest part of that is, well that’s that as human beings we move forward and we live in a hustle culture. We tend to not make time for the moments and Addy is living that reality. She makes a wish on an app that she created, not knowing that it would come true.
She wishes for a world without Christmas.
After a car accident, she wakes up in a world that is just that – a world without Christmas. The world has lost its color, everything is black and white, and she’s not sure what is going on. The town mechanic, Hunter, has picked her up, to tow her car and takes her home.
There is something about Michael Rady and the roles that he plays. He comes across so soft spoken and inviting. Like you can’t help but crush on his characters. I crush on them all. Hunter is just the opposite of Addy, but I kinda feel that is what is balancing them out.
Hunter is the first person to remember Christmas, which brings him back to color. It’s then that we find that he wanted to fade away, to not stand out. Hunter has blamed himself for not being there when his Grandpa passed away, but for the first time he feels as though he’s been forgiven.
Hunter and Addy set out to help the whole town heal and remember the magic of Christmas. As the town starts to come alive and remember the meaning of Christmas, it’s Addy’s father that is fighting the change the most.
Jim O’Heir as plays the father and he’s just a little bit angry. Well a lot angry. But as fathers can be, he’s a little distant. Her Mom, played by Julie Warner, seems to be the only person that understands him. The two are the parents that you want – the supportive parents that see the good in you, remind you of how great you are, and how they’ve always seen the potential in you. They remind you of that potential and how you’re reaching it and how you can still let people in, too.
They remind Addy that they want to be a art of her life and that she’s important to them. It’s the conversations that everyone is having surrounding their pain, the secrets that they keep, and the things that they love that are moving everyone forward and bringing the joy of Christmas back into their lives.
While we go on a journey of turning the world back to having color and people allowing love in their lives, it’s a journey that well… personally, I cried my way through. It’s the moments of this movie – the ones where people connect – that made me cry. It’s the moments where people remembered what love and joy truly were that broke me and made me cry and remember the joy that Christmas can bring.
Where Are You Christmas made me want to remember the joy of Christmas and the love of the holiday season. It just may have melted my scrooge heart.
(Spoiler Alert: It did melt my scrooge heart)
Holiday Cheer Factor: 🎄🎄🎄🎄.5
