Christmas In July ‘Unwrapping Christmas: Tina’s Miracle’: A Reminder Of The Joy Christmas Can Bring

I think that sometimes we all need to believe and immerse ourselves into the magic of Christmas. I think that sometimes it’s what makes us feel hope and gives us the ability to believe in something. So, like a lot of you, I look forward to Christmas in July on The Hallmark Channel. It’s one of those things that gives me a check-in with my life and the ability to find hope.

Because believe me, hope is something that we all need.

Now, I do have a subscription to Hallmark+ and I do love and use it frequently. However, that being said, I haven’t sat down to watch the Unwrapping Christmas movies. There’s something that is different though – watching them on The Hallmark Channel. I don’t know how to explain it – it’s like watching them on the channel reminds me that Christmas is coming.

And that makes me happy – kinda the same way that Unwrapping Christmas: Tina’s Miracle made me happy. And I needed that.

The premise, “Successful gift-wrapping shop owner Tina is in charge of planning this year’s annual Christmas gala. But things begin to go awry when the gala faces cancellation due to a scrooge-like estate owner.”

What I love about Hallmark descriptions are that they tell the jist, but the story is always more. We’ve got four best friends who have gone into business together. They own a wrapping store – All Wrapped Up. The four of them can wrap a gift beautifully, but taking time for themselves seems to be something very hard for them to do.

They are excited for the Christmas Gala and Tina seems to be taking the lead on planning with the city. She’s out one day, where she is at a store shopping and runs into Hailey. She’s a teenager who is trying to learn to work a polaroid camera and thinks it is broken. However, Tina fixes it quickly and then helps Hailey find a gift for her father

Enter Michael Alonso, and there is no shame in drooling over him. He’s hot. Tina and Michael meet and there is something between them. They can deny the chemistry, but I saw it. The looks that they immediately gave each other were as if no one else was in the store. Immediately I clapped – I love a movie where immediately you are rooting for the characters to fall in love.

I will say that the only thing that distracted me from that was a clothing choice. They put Tina is a white coat (it’s winter after all) and all I could think was that thing is so white, it was like over bleached teeth. But that, I know, is neither here nor there.

You know that we’re going to need a road block – some sort of drama – to get us to our happy. For Tina, it’s something that she didn’t see coming. The venue where the gala has been held for 80 years has been sold and the new owner will not allow the gala to be held. Tina wants to solve the issue and finds that the person that sold it – is Michael Alonso.

Now, she had just turned Michael down for a date and I was disappointed. But I was also disappointed that immediately Tina assumed the worst. Granted the head of the historical society had helped that along.

Rather than immediately ask Michael for help, Tina becomes withdrawn and cold to him. Michael is confused as to what happened, because he felt something, and he thought she did too. However, she’s making him think that he was wrong about that. There were no feelings to be had there?

But here’s the thing – even in anger there are feelings to be felt. She knows that the gala is important to her, but is confused by her feelings for Michael. The internet may have a lot of information on him – but it only tells half the story. She doesn’t seem to realize that.

Tina has been hurt before and finding herself attracted to Michael scares her. She is shocked when she finally tells him about the gala and he immediately wants to help. Everything that she thought about him was wrong. When she’s trying to draw the lines between friendship and love, she finds herself falling hard – even if she doesn’t want to admit it.

Here’s the thing about trying to deny falling – it’s a painful way to move forward. It’s also a painful way to stand still. Tina may not see what she’s doing to herself, but from the moment it starts – I am looking through my fingers, hoping that there is a moment she sees that love isn’t always pain and sometimes it can be what sets you free.

When Michael and Tina work together to find a way to save the gala – I admit that I started crying. It’s about the way that we can have the wrong impression of someone and when we really start listening and stop judging, we can find that we may have missed out on something all along.

I think that in life – if we’re open to it – we’re given what we needed. And hey, what is needed may not be what we think we need. Tina thought that being alone and guarded would keep her safe, but the great thing in life is love. Figuring out what love is – that’s a great gift in life.

Things work out for Tina and Michael and the gala – the journey and both of them figuring out who they are along the way is the best part. Seeing them figure out the pieces of the past and how it leads to a future – well that was a beautiful thing. A reminder that we’ll never know the whole story unless we ask and look into it.

It was the evolution of their relationship and the story was a great escape and a reminder of the magic that hope and Christmas bring. It may be just what we all need right now.