A Boyfriend for Christmas

Our Christmas celebration continues with another Hallmark gem. Santa makes a promise and, though it takes some time, he keeps it. But will romance really blossom or is it doomed?

All I want for Christmas is SPOILERS!


In the 1980s, young Holly Grant (Kelli King) walks the mall with her friends, who both have boyfriends while she doesn’t. She isn’t sure if she wants one either and avoids her friends’ questions by offering to help a scared young girl go see Santa Claus (Charles Durning). When the girl, Darcy, is done, Santa then asks Holly what she wants. She hesitates before asking for a boyfriend. He asks her if she’s ready for a boyfriend, almost like one asks if a child is ready for the responsibility of a dog. Holly is honest and admits she doesn’t know. Santa tells her he knows what to put under tree. Holly thanks him and after sharing a smile with Darcy’s older brother, she returns to her friends.

Come Christmas, Holly finds a snow globe under her tree that says that Santa will bring her a boyfriend within twenty years—when two hearts are ready.

Holly is a bit bummed.

Fast forward almost twenty years…

Holly (Kelli Williams) now works as a social worker. It is Christmas Eve and she is waiting for the lawyer for the mother of her two charges. The woman has gotten her life back on track and is petitioning the court for custody again. Holly hopes to have the children spend Christmas with their mother. But when the lawyer fails to show and with the courts due to close early for the holiday, the judge has no choice but to adjourn the case until the New Year.

The lawyer, Ryan Hughes (Patrick Muldoon), is late because he’s at a meeting where his firm is handling the eviction of tenants of an apartment building. He’s gotten the new owners to agree to turn it into affordable housing and to let the tenants move in once the renovations are complete. Pleased with his work, Ryan is also excited when he’s told he could end up being made partner in the firm soon.

At her office, Holly rages against Ryan. She wants to tell him off, but her partner Beth (Erica Gimpel) distracts her with an envelope that arrived while Holly was at court. She opens it and celebrates that she got a grant she applied for, saying they can afford to hire a lawyer for their organization rather than relying on pro bono ones. Beth then reminds her they have a lunch date and they go off.

Ryan shows up at court and meets up with his client. She tearfully tells him that she hopes whatever kept it was important because now she can’t spend Christmas with her children. As she walks off, it’s clear Ryan feels awful.

Holly and Beth go to lunch with Holly’s mother Joanna Grant (Shannon Wilcox), her sister-in-law Carol Grant (Bridget White), and her other friend Diane (Maeve Quinlan). Holly is proud of her grant but everyone else is focused on her single status. Carol mentions that her ex, Ted, is back in town and is an editor at the newspaper her husband—Holly’s brother—works for as a writer. Maybe they can get together? And maybe Holly then could put in a good word about Ian? But Holly nixes the idea, reminding her that Ted cheated. They then move on to another topic.

Meanwhile, Ryan shows up at his client’s house with an early Christmas present—her children! He explains he appealed to the judge and was able to get them returned to her. She thanks him and he tells her to spend the day with her children. But she promised to volunteer at a local center. Ryan offers to go cover for her instead.

After lunch, Holly and Beth say goodbye to Diane. She is going to Aspen with her fiancé but she tells Holly she ordered something for her holiday. After Diane leaves, Beth convinces Holly to come with her to pick up a tree at the center.

Ryan tells Santa that his client can’t come so he agrees to help out instead. It’s there he spies Holly and is instantly smitten with her. But when he realizes she was the social worker and that she’s mad he didn’t show up at court, he hides from her. Meanwhile, she dictates a rather scathing letter to her secretary to send to him.

Once Holly and Beth leave, Santa approaches Ryan and asks him for a favor. He agrees.

The next morning, Holly wakes up on her couch as someone knocks on her door. She opens it, surprised when a giant Christmas tree is brought in by Ryan. Except she doesn’t know it’s him and he uses a fake name—Doug Firwood. He gives her a card from Santa, saying he is her Christmas present. Holly is confused until she figures he was the surprise Diane was talking about. She guesses it wouldn’t be too bad to have a boyfriend for a day. It would get her parents off her back, she figures.

Yet as she spends the morning with “Doug,” she finds herself having fun and enjoying Christmas for the first time in a long time. They decorate her tree and have some breakfast before heading out to her parents’ house for Christmas dinner.

There, Ryan meets the rest of Holly’s family. Her mother, Joanna, is busy in the kitchen while her father, Martin (Martin Mull), is trying to watch football. Ian (David Starzyk), her brother, isn’t into the game and is trying to keep his twin sons under control. And Carol is trying to get Holly back together with her ex to advance his career, to the point she actually invites Ted (Bruce Thomas) to Christmas dinner.

I’m sure it’s clear that at this point, I’m not a Carol fan.

Ryan charms Holly’s family immediately, though they some trouble keeping their stories straight. Holly tells everyone he is a firefighter but he is honest about being a lawyer. So they combine them—he’s a lawyer who is also a volunteer firefighter. Only Ted is suspicious. And he and Ryan have it out during the family game of football.

During dinner, Ryan continues to charm the Grants and he learns more about Holly. Namely, that she was a talented ice skater and could’ve gone pro. She just chose not to.

After dinner, Ryan and Holly head up to her room where he sees her old skating trophies. They talk about it a bit before Holly shows him the gift Santa gave her almost twenty years prior. He’s a bit puzzled by the message and they discuss her love life. Here, the reason why she and Ted broke up changes a bit—she doesn’t talk about the cheating, but that he lied and took a job without discussing it with her. However, she does say that she doesn’t stand betrayal, so the cheating could still be true. It just seems like the writer couldn’t make up their mind.

Though Ryan feels guilty, he doesn’t come clean at that point. Instead, he goes home with her and they fall asleep on Holly’s couch after she admits it was the best Christmas in a long time.

In the morning, though, he is gone. She wonders if he really was just a gift from Santa as the doorbell rings. Ted’s on the other side and he wants to talk. Holly lets him in and he says he wants her back. She’s not having it. Ryan walks in with breakfast, catching them in a compromising position. Holly tries to explain but Ryan just shoves the breakfast at a smug Ted before leaving. She then throws Ted out.

Holly calls Diane, looking for Ryan’s number. But Diane reveals that she didn’t send a tree along with a hunky guy for Christmas. She sent the wine. So she can’t help Holly. All she can do is go back to her snowless Aspen vacation and a fiancé that refuses to do anything fun.

So Holly then goes down to Santa to try and find her client. He informs her that Ryan was able to get her children returned to her and Holly is slight impressed. They have a conversation where Santa encourages her to open herself up to “Doug” and she considers it.

Holly heads to her parents to help her mother set up for her big New Year’s Eve ball. Ryan shows up and Holly explains that she’s not interested in Ted. They hide from Joanna in his car before Holly gives him a place where to meet her later. He takes it and leaves her to party preparations.

Meanwhile, on advice from Carol, Ted starts looking into “Doug Firwood.”

Ryan goes to work and is given a shock—the low income affordable housing he worked hard to secure has gone up in smoke. Instead, it will become luxury offices. He is livid and asks why they back tracked on the promise. Of course, it’s all about greed. While his coworkers try to convince him this is a good thing for his career, Ryan knows it isn’t what he wants and quits.

Holly meanwhile is at an ice skating rink. She spots a young girl who is struggling and skates up to her. Instead of asking the girl if she wants help, she spins it that she needs help and the girl is willing to give it. Holly gently guides her until she’s confident enough to skate on her own. At that point, Holly heads to the middle of the rink where she can execute some elaborate tricks.

Ryan has shown up at this point and watches her with amazement. She gets him out on the ice and they continue to flirt. He reveals more about himself, including the fact he has a sister named Darcy who is off pursuing her own career. Holly is fascinated and wants to know more about him…but she has to get ready for the party. He promises to be there that night.

Ted surprises Holly and proposes, saying he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. She is caught off guard and he doesn’t require her to answer right away. He can wait so she can think it over.
Ryan goes to have a heart-to-heart with Santa. Jolly Old St. Nick tells him to come clean with Holly and encourages him to try to make it work with her. Ryan agrees.

At her parents’ house, everyone is busy getting ready. The boys are running around and in the process, they ruin their mother’s dress. She has a near breakdown but Holly comes to the rescue. She says that since she and Carol are close in size, she can wear the dress Holly had planned on wearing. She says that she can find something else, maybe borrow something from her mother. Carol hugs her and apologizes for trying to push Ted on her, focusing only on Ian’s career and not Holly’s feelings.

And thus Carol is redeemed.

Down at the party, Diane is back from Aspen. She explains that she nearly went nuts and had a big fight with her fiancé…and now they have broken up. Beth and Holly try to comfort her but she’s okay. She wants to hear more about Holly’s mysterious man.

Just then, Ryan shows up. He asks if he can speak to Holly alone and she agrees. But as he starts to come clean, Ted shows up and gathers the family around in order to unmask “Doug Firwood” as “Ryan Hughes.” He brings up that Ryan got fired even though he was responsible for evicting several low income tenants to make way for luxury offices. Ryan apologizes for lying but explains he quit because he didn’t work out the agreement for the space to become luxury offices. Holly, though, feels betrayed and he leaves.

Ted feels vindicated and he proposes to Holly again. She turns him down and gives him the ring back.
Ryan drives through town and ends up in a park. Holly shows up and asks if he wants some company. She says she’s upset that he lied but hey, he’s not Ted. And she remembers that she helped his sister when they were younger. Ryan is surprised she remembers. Holly says she asked Santa for a boyfriend that Christmas and he told her he would bring her one when she was ready. She’s ready.
And she’s ready to date Ryan. She’s still a bit miffed about the lying but she can’t deny that she’s had such a great time with him. They share a kiss as the New Year starts.

I think.

They kinda played with time here.

Anyway, how was the movie? Not bad, honestly. The acting was great and there was some good chemistry between the leads. I wasn’t too sure why the sister-in-law would be so intent on pushing the cheating ex on Holly even to further her own husband’s career, but otherwise it was fine. Just some great Christmas magic and Holiday romance.