We watched “A Heavenly Christmas” this evening as we relaxed by the fire. It’s a Hallmark Christmas movie, so there is no bad language, no mocking or satire, and no unhappy endings. It was not bad, even though I must admit that the actors were working with a somewhat unrealistic plot: a too-busy-for-family career woman falls a week before Christmas, hits her head, and suddenly finds herself in heaven with Shirley McClain, her angel guide, and discovers that she must “save” another family from the tragedies in life by intervening w/o interfering, and…
Well, you’ll just have to rent or buy the movie. (Rent is my advice.)
Afterwards we talked about it, about how it is yet another movie that is about the about of Christmas. It is not about Christmas itself—the Christian theologized story of God become Human as a tiny baby, born of a virgin mother in faraway Palestine, a promised Savior and Liberator exposed as a squalling infant who needed his swaddling cloths changed whenever he pooped or peed. (Yes, Jesus as a baby needed to be Pampered.)
It wasn’t about the Christmas season of good will and Santa Claus and presents under the tree, where it’s a jolly holly Christmas, the best time of the year.
It was about the about of that. It was two steps removed from Christmas. No one experienced Christmas. They did all the work leading up to Christmas, but they never were actually in Christmas. Even the angel (the woman in question) wasn’t even learning about Christmas and Christmas values, but about all the skipping she had done in life, and …
You’ll just have to see the movie. (Again, rent this one.)
Not terrible, not at all. Just…missing something.
But it was miles ahead of last night’s movie, which was about a Christmas thing where people were gathering together to celebrate the time of Christmas, which turned out to be the last two or three minutes of the film, and …
You’ll just have to skip that movie.