A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH

Name: A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH
Item: A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH
Author: Gaby Gaduh

"Family Friendly, but Flat and Non-Religious"

Family Content: +1 Moderately questionable elements. (Discernment required for young children.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH follows advertising executive Janie Collins from New York City to her childhood home, Woodland Falls. Upon her return, Janie discovers that her uncle left her his farm. In a letter, he asks her to put on Winter Wonderland, the town’s annual Christmas festival, one last time before selling the farm. With help from Nichole, her childhood best friend, now a mother and deputy, and Nichole’s charming brother, the farm’s sole employee, Janie strives to put on the best Winter Wonderland the town has ever seen.

A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH is a quaint, family-friendly Christmas movie, but it’s not high quality. The story is predictable and lacks a substantial plotline, meaning it drags, especially for older viewers. A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH promotes love, family, helping others, and small town values. However, it’s marred by Romantic, materialistic, secular values focusing on seeking self-fulfillment and happiness from one’s job, romantic relationships and even where one lives. Also, A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH depicts Christmas from a secular perspective with no mention or reference Jesus or the biblical significance of his birth.

Content:

(BB, PP, Cap, Ro, H, FR, L, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong moral worldview promotes loving your family, helping others and small town American values that overcome Romantic, materialistic values that revolve around the idea of seeking self-fulfillment and happiness from one’s job, romantic relationships, and fancy lives, jobs and vacations, and even where one lives (some characters value these things so highly that they neglect to spend time with their loved ones), but movie takes a very secular approach to Christmas where Christmas isn’t about Christ, but about tradition, Christmas cheer and the profit that certain elements of Christmas bring to businesses

Foul Language:

No obscenities but about seven light profanities (such as OMG)

Violence:

No violence

Sex:

No sex scenes, but lead female’s long-time boyfriend has a key to her apartment, and there’s one brief kissing scene

Nudity:

No nudity

Alcohol Use:

No alcohol use;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Lead female’s boyfriend of three years has a key to her apartment and regularly uses it to enter her home, plus they’re a week-long vacation together in Los Angeles.

More Detail:

A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH is a family friendly, romantic Christmas movie on the Great American Family Channel, which follows an advertising executive from New York City to her childhood home of Woodland Falls where she discovers her recently deceased uncle left her the family farm and one final request, to put on the annual Christmas celebration one last time. The story in A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH sounds charming, but the writing and production development fall short of delivering a truly captivating movie and the movie has some Romantic, materialistic, secular content that dilute the movie’s moral content supporting love, family, helping others, and small town American values.

A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH begins with Janie Collins, an employee at an advertising firm in New York City, being placed in charge of a new multi-million-dollar contract. Later, she meets up with her boyfriend of three-years, Charles. The two are planning on spending Christmas in Los Angeles, but Janie must first return to her childhood home in upstate New York because her uncle has recently died.

On returning to Woodland Falls, Janie discovers her uncle has left her his farm. In a letter, he asks her to do one final thing for him, to put on Winter Wonderland, the town’s annual Christmas festival held on his property, one last time before she sells the farm. After cancelling her vacation with Charles, Janie, with the help of Nichole, her childhood best friend, now a mother and deputy, and Nichole’s charming brother, Dylan, (the farm’s sole employee), Janie strives to put on the best Winter Wonderland the town has ever seen.

During Janie’s stay in Woodland Falls, she becomes more connected to life outside of the hustle and bustle of New York City. She reconnects with her old friends, grows closer to Dylan, and connects to her old farming roots. Midway through the festival, however, Charles shows up with an offer to sell the farm.

Will Janie sell the farm and return to New York City with Charles? Or, stay and build a new life in Woodland Falls?

A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH is a quaint, family-friendly Christmas movie, but it lacks overall quality both in production and content. The writing is very predictable. Also, though this is typical of television Christmas movies, A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH lacks a dynamic or captivating plotline, making it at times uninteresting or long. Also, the characters are very one-dimensional, resulting in flat acting which again causes the movie to seem long at times. Despite these flaws, the movie’s overall camerawork exceeds expectations.

Characters in A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH follow two distinct paths. First, those living in New York City value money, career and social status. Those living in Woodland Falls value small town life, comfort and local business. Some of these values aren’t inherently bad, but the fact that they’re being chased after for the purpose of personal gain or comfort devalues them. Also, while the movie never denies the existence of God or Jesus, it never talks about God or Jesus. Thus, it takes a very secular approach to Christmas. In this movie, Christmas is not about Christ, but about tradition, Christmas cheer, and the profit that certain elements of Christmas bring businesses. However, A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH does promote love, family, helping others, and small town American values.

MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for A MERRY CHRISTMAS WISH.