25 Days of Christmas Movies - Movie Seven - Mr. Christmas

Period Christmas films are quite possibly my favorite type.  So I had to record (yep DVR time) Mr. Christmas.  

Movie Seven:  
Mr. Christmas
Starring:  Jace McLean, Jen Celene Little, Ireland Rose Maddox, Abigail Knslow 

About the film (from Amazon):

A young father can't afford to buy his 5-year-old daughter what she's expecting Santa Claus to bring her for Christmas. 

My Review:  
Mr. Christmas is a sweet and tear jerking film about a young family celebrating Christmas in 1941.  Times are hard for the young Carter family and they only get harder as World War II has pulled into full swing.  They do all they can though, to share a wonderful Christmas with their children.  

Carol Lee the eldest child (who maybe was 5 on my guess) and her sister Babby are excited about the arrival of "Santa's Catalog" (I remember similar feelings about the Sear's catalog when I was a child).  Mom and dad are stunned by the cost of everything in the catalog and try desperately to steer Carol Lee away from her number one Christmas wish, a bicycle.  Dad also desperately tries to figure out how he can grant that one wish while mom tries to make it clear to dad that sometimes, you get what you can and be happy with it.

Mr. Christmas is a sweet and brief Christmas story.  It made us laugh and made us a little teary eyed as well.  

I would give it 3 1/2 stars.  It is definitely family friendly.

Here's the trailer:

30 Days of Christmas Movies - One Magic Christmas

I am loving all the Christmas movies that I have had the chance to enjoy.  I have found quite a few that I have never seen before.  This is one.  "One Magic Christmas" is a Disney film and I am actually surprised I have never seen it before.  

Movie number 5:  One Magic Christmas
Starring Harry Dean Stanton, Mary Steenburgen, Gary Basaraba, Arthur Hill, Sarah Polley, and Michelle Meyrink (plus Elias Koteas - had to mention that...I'm a big fan)

It is Christmas season and Christmas angels are getting their assignments to help others.   Gideon has been assigned to help Ginny Grainger discover the true meaning of Christmas and the joy that she had lost along the way which is likely to happen when life gets you down.  The Grainger family has had it rough.  Jack lost his job at the factory six months ago, and Ginny has been doing her best to make ends meet with her job as a cashier in a grocery store.  Needless to say, things are not working out well.  The Grainger kids have the Christmas spirit as does Jack who spends time working on a bike for a gift for a poor neighbor and doing a little dreaming of a shop of his own.  Ginny just doesn't have room in her busy schedule for more than taking care of business which also involves the family moving out of their home (that is owned by the company her husband no longer works for).  Gideon has his work cut out for him.

My review:  One Magic Christmas is a gem.  With an angel, children, parents, a struggling town and Santa, it has everything a movie needs to have in order to give a lift to the spirit during the holiday season.  There is a life change and a little magic sprinkled in the story.  It is sweet without being over the top.  It came out in 1985, and somehow I never saw it.  By the way, I'm glad I didn't because it was lovely coming across it this week.  It is available via streaming on Netflix.  Catch it, you'll like it.  I'd rate it 4 candy canes on a scale of 1 - 5.