Now, if you ever needed a poster child for being alone at Christmas, that would be me. I tell everybody in the world that I don’t like Christmas and the truth is – I don’t. But maybe just maybe it’s because of the memories that it brings. Maybe it’s because I am not in a relationship. Single on the 25th examines what it is like to be alone during the holiday season.
This movie hit close to home and it could be that Christmas is meant to be spent with people. Maybe it’s a day of joy and solace for you and so as you read this, you may think that people just want to be alone so they don’t have to answer questions. That may be it, who knows.
For many of us it’s a day that just passes. It’s nothing that we want to celebrate, but nothing that we want to forget either. I think I’ve grown to know how to be alone on Christmas, but it doesn’t mean it still doesn’t hurt. It just means it is what it is. I’ve learned how to be alone a lot in life. I guess that’s why alone on Christmas really got to me and why it really struck a nerve.
I’m the queen of being able to teach people how to be alone. I can make you understand the advantages of being alone. Alone in your thoughts and your own world. Maybe you can justify and explain to yourself while you don’t need a relationship because love is for people that aren’t you.
STARTS SIMPLE
Maybe you’ve convinced yourself that you aren’t meant for a romantic kind of love. Single on the 25th, explores what it’s like to learn to be alone, by telling the story of two neighbors who awkwardly interact, but find that changing over the Christmas season.
It starts simply. Nell orders takeout goes downstairs to get the food. She forgets her keys, locking herself out and has to get Cooper to let her in. The two may be neighbors, but that doesn’t mean the interact on the regular. When he lets her back in, she’s also locked herself out of her apartment, so again, she has to ask him for help. The super is out of town, she’s left a message for a friend, and is going to wait in the hallway for her friend. Nell and Coopers initials interactions are painful to watch.
She is anxious. Cooper is supposed to go on an Aspen ski trip for the holidays, avoiding Christmas with his family altogether. Nell, well her family was supposed to come to Chicago, but unfortunately one family member gets injured and then babies come early and suddenly no one can come. Nell is worried about all the money she’s going to lose, because she’s going to need to cancel things. Cooper asks why.
Cooper is the hot neighbor that one of us would fall for (I swear I wish they would let him use his Australian accent), but he’s saying dumb things here. He has a whole speech planned basically on how learning to be alone and somehow makes that seems exciting. She’ll avoid questions.
QUESTIONS SUCK
When you are an adult and you are not married, everybody thinks you should be married with kids. Life isn’t that easy. It’s not always about finding somebody. But maybe what life is about is finding yourself first (and they both seem lost). And before you know it, he has talked her into staying in Chicago for Christmas to experience things alone.
What is hard for Nell is she realizes that Christmas; a big part of it is romance. I think that was the hardest part for her to experience. She’s somebody who wants to be loved and I think Cooper is too I just think that for this moment in time he thinks that being alone is better. For him it’s safe and comfortable and he doesn’t seem like the person that is ever going to think or journey out of his comfort zone.
Teaching her how to be alone is what makes him comfortable. But also, it i frustrating as a viewers, as every look they exchange , every glance, every lesson, every joke – you know they want to be together. It’s the kind of moments in life that we all want. We all want somebody to see us for who we are and to love us unconditionally. None of us want to be judged us for the mistakes that we’ve made or the ways that we don’t fit in, but want to be seen for who we are now.
PARTY HARD
She agrees to help him party plan for his companies Christmas party, which they only have five days to plan. In exchange, he’ll give her lessons on how to be alone. Cooper and Nell make the most dynamic team and watching them do this is fun. They’re gonna do things differently than the boring party that his company normally does. At first he’s apprehensive, but he grows to love it. He grows to get excited and have contributing ideas. It’s kind of scary to him, especially when his colleague sits there over and over again and tells him he’s gonna get fired. His colleague says people won’t like this blah blah blah.
His colleague is a moron.
What Nell and Cooper create together and what they act like together draws you further in. It is that kind of can’t eat, can’t sleep kind of love. It may not be there yet, but you just watch them and you know that’s the road they’re on. Well that is until his colleague tells somebody at the Christmas party that Cooper was just being nice to her because he felt bad for her she was lonely and alone on Christmas. Nell overhears and seeing her broken – well, I teared up for her.
HE SAID IT
Cooper did say that and admitted it to her. He said it at a point in life where he really didn’t know her. He was out of line when he said that and I think it was kind of toxic masculinity that made him say it. I think that for him it was a safe way to put up walls and to not let her in. He’s not good at allowing somebody in or believing that he’s worthy of love.
She’s hurt and I can’t blame her. I would tell him off, embarrass him at work, punch him, and storm out. She didn’t do that. She left. I think what she realized at that moment was that she was in love.
I think it also took that for him to realize that he was too.
Christmas Eve comes around and he’s at his parents, talking to his Mom. There is nothing like a Mom to give you the truth – bluntly. When he tells her stuff has gone wrong with Nell, she isn’t afraid to tell him that he needs to rethink his actions. When he remembers the Christmas card in his bag and sees the card she sent, he knows what he needs to do.
After all she’d rather be alone together with him than anyone.
ADMIT THOSE FEELINGS
He left his parents and went to the restaurant that he knew she was going to. He’s making apologies and she’s trying to explain to him that she’s OK. He gets that she is, but he admits that he is not. Cooper doesn’t like knowing he’s hurt her. He gives her a gift – the gift being knowing she’s always meant something to him. In the box is the first fortune he got when they are Chinese food together. And in the other fortune cookie is the one for her. She had gotten a blank fortune, and he filled it in. The love that you sink is closer than you think – well sir, that’s suave.
These two realizing that they love each other is something I had been waiting for since act one.
Now, I may still be alone on Christmas and I may not go out and show that I’m alone. Maybe I am not that comfortable with it. But maybe, just maybe, this season of Countdown to Christmas is showing me that I need to move forward and realize it’s also OK to enjoy the holidays – alone or with someone. Well played Hallmark.
