Candace Cameron Bure Talks Honoring the Military and Raising Kids Well
By Movieguide® Staff
Candace Cameron Bure shared with Movieguide® how she honored the military through her latest Great American Family Christmas movie, MY CHRISTMAS HERO, and why she started the Generous Kids Book Club.
“Out of like the 13 Christmas movies I’ve done, I’ve never done one that honored the military. And that was what my intentional focus was,” Bure told Movieguide®.
“In MY CHRISTMAS HERO, US Army reservist and orthopedic physician, Nicole Ramsey (Bure) is dedicated to serving military service members and their families at the Joint Military Base in Lacey, Washington, home of I Corps and the 62nd Airlift Wing. This Christmas, with the help of many dedicated heroes, Dr. Ramsey is on a mission to honor a special fallen soldier and bring much needed healing to her own family,” Great American Family summarized.
While there is some romance, Bure emphasized that the movie focuses on family and honoring service members.
“It’s really focusing on family relationships and the servicemen and women of our country who, you know, spend their time defending us,” she explained.
“We just wanted to honor them—both past and present—current people in the service and veterans.”
MY CHRISTMAS HERO earned a +4 content rating from Movieguide®. Part of the review reads:
MY CHRISTMAS HERO is a powerful Christmas drama laced with many lighthearted moments. There are many great scenes honoring sacrifice, heroism, helping others, hope, and love. There are a few scenes referring to the Nativity Story, including mentioning the importance of Christ’s birth and sacrifice for human beings. Several heartrending scenes show the sacrifices and heroism that American servicemen have made for the country and the people in it. In addition, MY CHRISTMAS HERO extols the power that successful American businesses have to make life better for the community and people around them.
The actress added that the movie also let her honor her grandfather, who served in World War II.
“If you have a chance to watch the film, you’ll see a picture of my grandfather and my grandmother. And in the picture I use in the film is really my real grandparents,” she revealed.
“And there’s a little box, a keepsake box, that has all the letters that my grandfather had written to my grandmother during the war, and all kinds of other little interesting things,” Bure added. “And those were my real grandfather and grandmothers personal items, even the box.”
MY CHRISTMAS HERO premiered on Nov. 24 and is available on Great American Pure Flix.
In addition to her Christmas movie, Bure recently launched her Generous Kids Book Club.
“I just love the mission and the purpose behind the Generous Kids Book Club,” she told Movieguide®.
The club’s goal? To teach kids values like “giving and compassion and empathy and thoughtfulness…through fun characters and entertaining ways.”
“I learned that our children’s worldview is developed by the time they’re 10 years old. These are the types of values that we need to be instilling into our children and teaching them when they’re young,” the actress explained.
“The first book is all about Jasper the Giraffe, and he’s the generosity giraffe. But he doesn’t start out that way. He’s actually quite selfish,” Bure said. “And so you’ll see these characters like Jasper the Giraffe and Ellie the Elephant and Polly the Parrot, and they all have a lesson to learn.”
The books help children understand biblical principles like loving your neighbor as yourself.
“When God says, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself…’ your neighbor doesn’t have to be your next-door neighbor,” Bure explained. “Your neighbor is truly anyone that you may or may not know. It doesn’t have to be someone that you’re friends with. And that’s…a whole teaching in itself of who your neighbor is.”
“These are…the types of lessons that we’re trying to instill and teach with our kids,” she emphasized. “So I, again, love the messages of these books. And it really gets to the core of what we need to be teaching our children.”
