A Song for Christmas
Listen to the Podcast Episode about this movie!
Stars: Becca Tobin, Kevin McGarry
Synopsis (via Hallmark)
Pop superstar Adelaide Kay is so fed up with her controlling manager that she sneaks off the tour bus after their latest squabble. Though exhilarated to be free, she finds herself stranded in the freezing cold of a Pennsylvania winter, with no money and no plan. A local family, the Lapps, take her in. They know the true meaning of the season, even if they’re close to losing their dairy farm. No one in the family recognizes Adelaide except Dillon, the oldest son. He figures she’s the ticket to fast cash and plots to snap photos of Adelaide around the farm and sell them to the tabs. What he doesn’t plan, however, is their mutual attraction. As they get to know each other, Dillon has two realizations: profiteering from invading Adelaide’s privacy is wrong and his uptight girlfriend is not the one for him. When Adelaide performs a song, which Dillon’s kid sister wrote, a lot of money is earned which aids the Lapps and other strapped farmers.
Thoughts
Adelaide Kay is a country-music superstar. Her hit single is called “Rock Star” (Because it is ironic?) and she is on a publicity tour for her new upcoming album. Russell, her overbearing manager is a task master; he plans her travel, meals, and even who she fake dates. She is 28 years old (25 on paper) and wants to get control of her career, write a few songs, and, maybe, see her family back in Atlanta for the first time in over a year.
In Preston, Virginia, Russell arranges to stop at a B&B to rest up before the show in Philadelphia. Late at night, Adelaide sees a handsome man with large ears strumming on a guitar by a random gas station across the street. The two make brief small talk. When she wakes up the next morning, to her personal assistant, Sandra, handing her a muffin (don’t tell Russell!), she is back to the grind: pilates, meeting, and more tour dates. (Except she forgets to get on the tour bus?) When the tour bus leaves Adelaide Kay without her phone, money, but apparently with a full wardrobe, she is forced to take a ride from a stranger townie, Hailey. Hailey is 16 and loves Adelaide Kay’s new song, but doesn’t seem to realize her passenger named “Addy” A VERY SIMILAR NAME is the country superstar. They head to Hailey’s family’s Christmas tree farm (our 2nd of the year!). Of course, the handsome stranger is also on the farm! Hailey’s brother, Dillon, is the handsome, guitar-strumming stranger. He is onto Adelaide/Addy and the fact that she is a country music superstar!
Russell gets ahold of Adelaide to inform her he can’t back to pick her up to a snowstorm (that isn’t effecting the town of Preston, Virginia at all). Instead of heading back to the B&B, the family invites her to stay with them instead! While shopping for groceries, Hailey admits that the Christmas tree farm is in danger of foreclosure because the family is behind on their mortgage and things aren’t looking good.
Back downtown, Addy, Haylie, and Dillion deliver Christmas trees. They conspire to round up help from their neighbors to save the Lapp family’s farm. They spend all day and night creating a spectacle to save the farm (and it’s better than a pot of coffee!). Hailey pitches to create a seasonal destination out of the Christmas tree farm! Fall harvest, 4th of July, sleigh rides at Christmas! The Lapp family agrees but, you know, it probably won’t save the farm.
Dillion is reluctant to leave the failing farm and his family to pursue his musical dreams. Addy eventually convinces him to work on a song for the Christmas-tree lighting and possibly collaborate on a Christmas song. Finally, after an HOUR INTO THE MOVIE, we have some light guitar strumming and Addy hums a little bit. I’m not convinced that Becca Tobin can actually sing… (Like Audrey Hepburn in any musical in which she ever appeared.)
Russell calls AGAIN. After Adelaide tells him she is staying with the Lapp family and writing a song, she comes downstairs to learn they have until December 23rd to make the payment on their foreclosed mortgage. Addy steps it up, she carries trees on her own (after cutting them down by hand), printing out flyers to save the farm, and giving Hailey a pep talk! She does EVERYTHING she can, except using her star power and $$$ to save the farm.
After the festival, where they light the ugliest Christmas tree I’ve ever seen, (color blocks of lights), Hailey discovers that Addy is actually Adelaide Kay! Just then, the tour bus pulls up and Russell tells her The Morning Show has booked her, and it’s an offer she can’t pass up—but not before leaving a Christmas wreath under the tree encouraging Dillon to follow his dreams. “If I can do this, you can do anything! XOXO, Addy.”
On The Morning Show Adelaide realizes that she is doing music her way, which is singing a few words before humming unintelligibly. Addy and Dillion team up to do a Christmas concert to raise money for the farm. Then in the last three minutes we finally get our song we’ve been waiting two hours for, it is not a banger. However it does manage to inspire all the white town’s people (and Sandra) to stand and nod along. (So, Taylor Swift’s next single?)
Side Note
For a movie called “A Song for Christmas” this movie was lacking in the music department….
The actors who played the Lapp parents were SUPER AWKWARD!!!
For someone being left behind, Addy has A LOT of outfit changes in this movie (and even cute PJ’s).
Minority Report: Sandra the personal assistant and Bev the shop worker.
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Overall rating
🎄🎄 (2 Christmas Trees)
🍷🍷🍷🍷(4 glasses of wine required)
*Photo Credit: © 2017 Crown Media United States, LLC
Loved this podcast!!! Really enjoyed your special guest, Sarah Reed! You should have her on again! Loving the breakdowns of all my favorite Hallmark Christmas movies! Keep up the great work Patrick!