Magical Christmas Shoes (2019 Lifetime)
Cast: Erin Karpluk & Damon Runyan
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
A pair of magical shoes step into Kayla Hummel’s (Karpluk) holiday season, allowing her to rediscover her Christmas spirit and find love too.
Thoughts
The movie starts with shots of shoes in an office. Noelle gets a package from her Grandma with Christmas presents. Including a pair of high heels filled with candy, it is a Dutch tradition that her grandma honors every year. The pair of heels was previously owned by her grandma when she met her grandfather and took her first steps into the future. The shoes have Christmas magic, but Noelle doesn’t believe in silly superstitions.
Noelle and her co-worker go shopping for Christmas presents. Noelle stops in her favorite candy store, and she steps in a massive wad of gum. A handsome stranger offers to help her, takes off her shoe, and cleans it. His name is John Reid, and he is the owner of the candy store. He will be closing the store because it isn’t profitable. Noelle offers her expertise and sets up a meeting to talk about business. Co-Worker hears the story and is convinced the magical Christmas shoes are responsible!
The business meeting is in Noelle’s office, and she recommends doing window displays in the store. Even though she is an accountant, Noelle volunteers to do the holiday window display. A co-worker is very impressed with Noelle’s work, and so are the townspeople. (Noelle stands across the street jumping for joy every time someone stops and looks.) The window is such a huge success that he hires Noelle to do more stores. John pitches the windows to his father. (The actors are practically the same age. Who are you fooling, Lifetime?)
John and Noelle decorate the next window together, and she wears some tap shoes. John wants to know the story, like, why is she wearing tap shoes in public when she’s not dancing? She tells him her Grandma gave her the shoes when she auditioned for a show and didn’t make it. She says the Christmas magic didn’t happen then either. John disagrees, saying the shoes may have helped her find her passion for design. (She did scene painting instead of dance.) Noelle has a story for every shoe and a shoe for every story in her bedroom. John asks to see her bedroom, and if I were her, he would! Immediately.
Noelle does get him into her bedroom, but not in a sexy way. She shows him her budget closet for Christmas shoes. They are in shoeboxes wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper. This is all starting to get weird and NOT cute. Her favorite shoes are thigh-high velour boots, which John says “Santa Baby!” to. After looking at mediocre shoes, they decorate the Christmas tree, and John gifts her a windmill ornament because she is Dutch. Noelle ruins the mood by talking about her Ex-Boyfriend Mark and how he stole her design ideas and got an internship instead of her, derailing her design career.
Mark is back in town for the holidays and seeks out Noelle to compliment her on her window design. He wants to hire her for his company, which needs a designer. Instead, she goes ice skating with John and then visits some kids who are painting. (John is also an artist and likes to teach.) Next, they make candy canes, and it is the scene I needed in Merry and Bright. (I truly loved this!)
John wants to hire Noelle as the lead designer at his company. They are a successful pair, and the store is outselling the Times Square location. Noelle loves designing but doesn’t want to throw away her current job for an idea. He asks her to listen to her heart. Mark also keeps pressuring her to do the same thing for his company.
At a Christmas party, Noelle wears her sluty boots. The party looks lame; it is in an overly decorated loft. John is her date, but Mark is also there. Noelle has been keeping the news of the job offer from Mark, and John seems excited about a little competition. The actor is so confident here, and it is really sexy.
John makes a pitch to his father and the board. They go for it but want to hire a professional marketing firm to do the window, not Noelle. An assistant grabs the wrong design binder, and Noelle’s designs get used without giving her credit. John quits and becomes the art executive director.
Noelle sees the betrayal and throws out all her Christmas shoes in frustration. Except for one pair, a silver pair. (A silver lining, if you will.) She marches over to John and gives him a piece of her mind. He wants to tell her about his new job. They are on different pages and talk past each other.
Realizing the magic is inside, not in shoes, Noelle has confidence. She turns down Mark’s offer and tells him that she doesn’t hate him. (She is a bigger woman than I am.) Then she goes to John’s father and tells him about his son following his passion. She invites him to an art show she is throwing together for John.
The art show happens, and all the paintings are of shoes. Noelle wears her red shoes for a bit of extra Christmas magic. When John arrives, Noelle greets him outside the show. She apologizes, and John does too. They almost kiss but are interrupted by an annoying kid. John’s father shows up and finally gets his son’s passion. (Painting isn’t just a hobby!)
Santa shows up, distracting the kids long enough for John to give Noelle a peppermint ring and kiss as the music swells.
Side Note
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Overall rating
🎄🎄 (2 Christmas Trees, added one tree because I was waiting for Damon Runyan to turn Evil.)
🍷🍷 (2 glasses of wine required)
*Photo Credit: © 2019 Lifetime
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