This special is a wonderful retelling of the Nativity story from the point of view of the Innkeeper's wife, her husband, and their servants.
Social & External
Narrator
Wife
Milan, a Slovak working in Germany as a bricklayer, returns home to celebrate Christmas with his wife and three children, one of whom appears to be involved in suspicious activities related to an extremist organization.
You'd better watch out - Willie T. Soke is coming to town, and he doesn't care if you've been naughty or nice. Willie's favorite holiday tradition is to fill his sacks with loot lifted from shopping malls across the country. But this year his plot gets derailed by a wisecracking store detective, a sexy bartender, and a kid who's convinced Willie is the real Santa Claus.
Plumber Martin and his younger colleague Frank are on call on Christmas Eve of all days. Frank's girlfriend Regina, who is expecting her first baby at any moment, is anything but thrilled. But it doesn't help, duty is duty. One emergency call follows another, but this evening it's not just broken water pipes that are waiting for the two plumbers...
Fred Claus and Santa Claus have been estranged brothers for many years. Now Fred must reconcile his differences with his brother whom he believes overshadows him. When an efficiency expert assesses the workings at the North Pole and threatens to shut Santa down, Fred must help his brother to save Christmas.
Robert Lahnstein, feared TV commentator, doesn't like people, not even at Christmas. He wants to be alone - even on Christmas Eve. He thinks Christmas is just as hypocritical as politics. That's why he packs his SUV with a frozen goose and a Christmas tree to retreat to his lonely cabin in the mountains. But the plan ends for him in a tree. With the last of his strength he reaches a barn. But he is not allowed to be alone even in the deepest wilderness, because other people have also sought shelter from the snowstorm in this barn and Robert Lahnstein has to gradually put aside his rudeness and his prejudices.
As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.
Jack's lavish, fast-paced lifestyle changes one Christmas night when he stumbles into a grocery store holdup and disarms the gunman. The next morning he wakes up in bed lying next to Kate, his college sweetheart he left in order to pursue his career, and to the horrifying discovery that his former life no longer exists. As he stumbles through this alternate suburban universe, Jack finds himself at a crossroad where he must choose between his high-power career and the woman he loves.
In the Australian outback a family struggles to keep its farm from foreclosure. Their only hope is that their horse, Prince, will win money in a New Year's race. But when Prince is stolen the children embark on a dangerous and exciting adventure to get him back.
On Christmas Eve, Léa and Juliette, a couple, want to rob a supermarket that Juliette knows is empty of surveillance on this festive evening. But, as much for each of them as for Eric, the vigil who is there after all, nothing will happen as planned. Besides, shortly before leaving him alone, the store manager gave Eric a gun, just in case.
Gina and Seth have been pen pals for 13 years and now will have the chance to meet. Both used their best friends pictures to send to each other and now will let their friends meet. True love is found in the end for all.
A small suburban town receives a visit from a castaway unfinished science experiment named Edward.
Corey Calvin lives in a ski village where she works at her late father's local antique shop, having sidelined her her big city dreams of becoming a theater director. When Los Angeles hunk Ryder Donnelly comes into her shop, sparks fly and she starts to wonder what could be.
Will Freeman is a good-looking, smooth-talking bachelor whose primary goal in life is avoiding any kind of responsibility. But when he invents an imaginary son in order to meet attractive single moms, Will gets a hilarious lesson about life from a bright, but hopelessly geeky 12-year-old named Marcus. Now, as Will struggles to teach Marcus the art of being cool, Marcus teaches Will that you're never too old to grow up.
Rival toy store owners compete over several Christmas seasons, and God's grace goes to work in their lives.
Bud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company, until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. Although he often has to deal with the aftermath of their visits, one night he's left with a major problem to solve.
Ray and Ken, two hit men, are in Bruges, Belgium, waiting for their next mission. While they are there they have time to think and discuss their previous assignment. When the mission is revealed to Ken, it is not what he expected.
Frank Cross is a wildly successful television executive whose cold ambition and curmudgeonly nature has driven away the love of his life. But after firing a staff member on Christmas Eve, Frank is visited by a series of ghosts who give him a chance to re-evaluate his actions and right the wrongs of his past.
A father who can't keep his promises dies in a car accident. One year later, he returns as a snowman, who has one final chance to put things right with his son before he is gone forever.
On Christmas Eve, Arthur and his young daughter, Paige, are struggling after the death of their loving partner and mother, Emily. However, they get a surprise visitor, who helps them to see that there is always hope for the future and scope to live.
Craig and his cousin Day-Day have finally moved out of their parents' houses and into their own crib, working nights at a local mall as security guards. When their house is robbed on Christmas Eve they set out to track down the culprit.
Captain Grace Garland, a decorated U.S. veteran, returns home after two tours of Search and Rescue in Afghanistan. After being separated from her beloved K9 partner, Grace must rediscover the magic of Christmas. When she finds herself stranded in the town of River’s Crossing a couple weeks before Christmas, the local judge, Joe Peterson, offers her a place to stay on his property and takes it upon himself to show Grace everything she has been missing; Christmas, family, community, and love.
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.
Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
The sweeping tale of Molly Callens and Ryan Kelly, two young students who share a profound friendship their first semester in college, a time that becomes the defining moment of their lives.
A young woman discovers a Christmas-themed dreamworld inside a magical snowglobe. Angela loves Christmas more than anything. However, her family does not share her love for the holiday at all. When she is about to breakdown because of her family, she receives a snowglobe in the mail. When she opens up the snowglobe, she is transported into the world inside, where Christmas is the heart and soul for everyone who lives there. She discovers she can return to her world by going down a small path in the small forest at the edge of the village, and can return whenever she winds up the snowglobe. After a long set of visits to the globe, she accidentally gets trapped inside.
A miraculous conception. A merciless king. A murderous pursuit. Mary's journey to give birth to Jesus unfolds in this biblical coming-of-age epic.
When Santa crash-lands in the junkyard on Christmas Eve, Hank, Trash Truck and their animal friends all have a hand in rescuing the holiday for everyone.
While settling his father’s estate, Finn Conrad becomes suspicious as to why the man left a nurse $100,000. His dad knew her for less than two months before he died. Just before Christmas, Finn wants what to reclaim what he considers his family’s money, going undercover to investigate the bed and breakfast the nurse has recently taken over. When Finn meets Willa, he discovers she’s not a conniving gold digger at all, but a woman in need who put the money to good use. When she discovers his true identity, will it keep Willa from ever trusting him again?
Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart.
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
A young widow finds a tattered old Christmas stocking at a Holiday craft sale, but is skeptical of its magic when it seems to create small trinkets on its own.
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
In 1917, outside the parish of Fátima, Portugal, a 10-year-old girl and her two younger cousins witness multiple visitations of the Virgin Mary, who tells them that only prayer and suffering will bring an end to World War I. As secularist government officials and Church leaders try to force the children to recant their story, word of the sighting spreads across the country, inspiring religious pilgrims to flock to the site in hopes of witnessing a miracle..
When the mysterious Toy Taker grabs all of Santa's toys, it looks like the children will miss out on Christmas. But everyone's favorite reindeer, Rudolph, comes to the rescue with his lovable friends: Hermey the elf, Yukon Cornelius the grizzly prospector, the abominable snow monster Bumbles and Rudolph's very special friend Clarice. Together, they promise Santa they'll track down Toy Taker and rescue Santa's toy. Their incredible quest takes them on a wild adventure with Rudolph's red nose leading the way!
A woman embarks on a journey alone across the United States after fleeing from her violent husband.
Christmas Eve takes a twisty turn when the Boss Baby accidentally swaps places with one of Santa's elves and gets stranded at the North Pole.
Having just moved back to her hometown without her serviceman husband but with her young son, Gretchen Daniels finds her life in disarray as Christmas approaches. But she discovers new purpose when she helps to deliver a message to her neighbor, Melissa, which makes her an ally in the quest to find the neighbor's sibling she never knew she had. The women become bonded not only by the search, but by the understanding that being there for each other means they're no longer alone. This friendship becomes the greatest Christmas gift of their lives. Based on a bestselling novel by Donna VanLiere.
Good Samaritan Sarah Fitzpatrick has a fatal accident just before Christmas, and finds herself in the lobby before the gates of Heaven. Certain that she will be let in, she is shocked to find that her name is not on the reservation list. However, she is granted the chance to return to Earth as an "angel in training" with the requirement to help a soul in need. Sarah has the 12 days before Christmas to secure her place on the list leaving her in the race for her after-life.
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.