City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in SPOILERS!
Princess Katherine (Briana Evigan) of Montsaurai is visiting New York City for a few days ahead of Christmas. She wants to spend some time exploring the city, particularly a photography exhibit at a nearby gallery, and just recapture the magic she experienced when her beloved mother was still alive. But her Aunt Margaret (Jacqueline Samuda) has every minute of her time in New York planned.
Katherine or Katie, as she goes by, confides in her mother’s old friend and lawyer, George (Greg Evigan). She knows her role as princess is important but she still wants to do things for herself. That it is sad she can’t even get an hour to herself. He tells her to hang in there.
When Margaret is preoccupied, Katie sees her chance and makes a break for it. She takes the camera her mother gave her as a child and starts taking pictures of New York at Christmas.
Meanwhile, Jack (Paul Campbell) works as an electrician and carpenter to fix up an apartment. He gets called from his job site to help out a friend. Namely Harry (Jay Brazeau), a retired magician who runs a magic shop and does Santa duty during the holidays. Jack gets the electricity in his shop running again and promises to do some work for him so it doesn’t happen again.
A man asks Katie to take a picture for him to send to his grandfather. She agrees and sets down her purse, which every woman would know not to do. You never let your purse out of your sight unless you are in a safe, secure location! Like a friend’s house! The man is a decoy, distracting her as his friend robs her. She is oblivious but Jack, coming out of Harry’s shop, notices. When the men leave, he pursues them.
Katie is really clueless about what has happened when Jack returns. He tells her to call the police but she doesn’t know why. So he finally spells it out for her, making her realize that she was robbed. She’s more upset about the loss of her camera than anything else. Jack continues to encourage her to call the police and she says she will, saying she’ll do so once she gets back to her hotel. He gives her some money, not wanting her to wander New York penniless, and sends her on her way.
Meanwhile, Margaret and George have discovered that Katie is missing. She calls in a security expert, Simon (Tony Alcantar), to find her. In the meantime, she has to cover for Katie’s missed appointments while worried for her niece.
Jack goes to visit his sister, Emily (Tara Wilson), for dinner. He’s less than thrilled that she’s invited her boyfriend, up and coming TV journalist Ross (Casey Manderson). She asks her brother to be nice to Ross and to give him a chance because he wants to be friends with Jack. Ross, meanwhile, shows off his latest story—about a man who dresses up and dances outside a store every Christmas. The man refuses to answer any of Ross’ questions but Ross is proud of his piece. He hopes to get more stories like that and graduate to the big leagues—a national news channel. While he admires himself and imagines his future, Jack slips out—despite Emily’s protests.
Katie is lost in New York City and doesn’t have the life skills or enough money to get herself back to her hotel. (She could take the subway or bus, but what royalty does that?) As night falls, she is in serious trouble but doesn’t seem to realize it. Thankfully, she runs into Jack again and he invites her to dinner.
Dinner is at Harry’s, where he is hosting a potluck for all the Santas he knows. Jack introduces Katie to him as well as Dixie (Beverley Elliot), Harry’s longtime assistant. She now plays his Mrs. Claus at events. Jack excuses himself and they talk to Katie, revealing that Jack used to have a really high-powered job but he wasn’t happy. So he quit and started up his home improvement business, which caused his girlfriend to leave him. Katie is clearly surprised and wonders who would leave Jack like that. She comes to really like Jack and the others comes to really like her as Jack feels drawn to her.
As Margaret and George continue to worry, Simon and his team try to track down Katie. The new day comes and Margaret has to keep trying to pretend that her niece is just sick, not missing. Ross, though, realizes something is up at a press conference and is determined to get to the bottom of the story.
Meanwhile, Katie and Jack continue to spend more time together. She tries to go to the art exhibit as well but when she spots Simon and his team, she changes her mind. Jack grows suspicious as well as concerned, wondering if she’s running from some serious trouble. Katie assures him it is nothing of the sort.
After showing Katie around the city more, he then takes her to the apartment he is renovating. Emily shows up with some clothes for Katie to wear, straight from the shop she works at. The two women bond immediately and Emily encourages her brother to go for it. He denies that there’s something there between them.
Ross manages to sneak into the hotel where Katie is supposed to be staying. He also then manages to get up to the royal suite and overhears that Katie is missing. Ross is able to get a scoop and Margaret bribes him to go away by giving him tickets to the ballet that night.
Katie and Jack go to get Emily’s Christmas tree for her before heading back to Harry’s for some more quality time with the older man and Dixie. Before that, Jack gives Katie a new camera so she can continue to take her pictures. It’s all really sweet…but Katie realizes that she’s going to have to come clean about who she really is soon, since she’ll need to go back home for Christmas.
Except at the ballet, Ross starts to figure a few things out. Namely, that Katie might be the missing princess. He bails, leaving Emily behind to be embarrassed and to make apologies.
Ross goes to Harry’s and demands to know where Katie is. They are confused and she hides as Ross reveals that she’s the princess of Montsaurai. He tells them that she’s been missing for a couple days and that this will be the scoop that puts him on the map. Emily comes in as he goes on, continuing his demands for Katie.
With the camera rolling, Ross goes to open the door to the wardrobe he’s certain Katie’s hiding. Except there’s no one in there. He grows frantic trying to find her and Emily asks him to leave her alone for her sake. But he tells her this is for his career and he needs to put it first. So Emily pushes him into the wardrobe and Harry makes him disappear. The camerawoman is all too happy to leave Ross there and heads home for the holidays.
Harry brings Katie back and she apologizes for not telling them sooner about who she was. Jack realizes the men she’s been running from all day were her guards, not men trying to hurt her. She explains that she has no free time and just wanted to see an art exhibit, just wanted to experience the city like she did when she was younger and her mother was still alive. Harry, Dixie and Emily understand but Jack feels betrayed. He storms out and gets in his truck.
Out there, though, he discovers the camera he gave Katie. He goes through the pictures. While there are some of the city, he realizes most of them are of him. It gives him something to think about.
Katie calls George to assure him that she’s fine. She just wants some time to herself but he tells her to come home. Simon figures out who he’s talking to and they then get security footage showing Katie with Jack. They figure if they find him, they can find her.
Jack returns for Katie, deciding he can get past the fact that she hid who she was. He can figure out why she did it and realizes that he still saw her true self. And he wants to help her go see that exhibit at last. He just needs Harry’s help…
Simon and his guards arrive at the exhibit and approach Jack. They demand to know where Katie is and Jack reveals that she’s dressed as Santa. But Harry has recruited all his Santa friends and they stand all around the museum. Simon and his goons are going to have to unmask everyone to find Katie. By the time they get to the last one, she emerges from the exhibit she wanted to see and says she’s ready to go back. She thanks Jack and they part ways, certain they’ll never see each other again.
On Christmas, Margaret and Katie head to Montsaurai’s Christmas Festival. Her people are excited to see her but Katie isn’t feeling very festive. Margaret understands and tries to assure her niece that Christmas miracles can happen. The door opens and someone helps Katie out of the car. She is surprised and happy to see it is Jack, who has come to be with her. They embrace as the people cheer around them.
So that’s “Once Upon a Holiday.” And it’s a bit of a nice change of pace to see the genders swapped for the “Royal meets regular person” plots Hallmark is fond of at Christmas. My only quibble was Katie. I get that she was so sheltered that she had no street smarts, but it seemed her naiveté almost bordered on stupidity. Yet Evigan managed to embue her with charm and make her personable.
In conclusion: more gender swaps of this trope, Hallmark! But with a smart, capable princess next time please.
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