During the holidays, I am guilty of turning on Lifetime and the Hallmark channel to watch family Holiday movies.  The first one that I have seen this year is “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”  Jennifer Cullen (Brooke Burns) is a list making single mother, who works hard in her career and maintains stability for her son, Brian Cullen (Connor Levins) and does not enjoy the Christmas season.  In fact, she celebrates with the bare minimum.

Uncle Ralph (Henry Winkler), who is more of a father figure to Jennifer, comes to visit for the holidays.  Uncle Ralph meets Morgan Derby (Warren Christie) in the JFK airport and shares the trip to Chicago.  During normal “airplane talk,” Morgan learns who Uncle Ralph is visiting.  After arriving at the Chicago airport, Morgan learns that his final destination, Denver, is experiencing a snow storm.  Uncle Ralph convinces Jennifer for Morgan to stay at her home….but, for only 1 night…..So, she thought.

Uncle Ralph is not very fond of Jennifer’s boyfriend, Richard Windom (Woody Jeffreys) who later becomes her fiancé.  Richard displays the too-busy, always on the phone, stiff shirt character.  Morgan, on the other hand, is a care-free, and has been spreading his Christmas cheer and is always going above and beyond for Jennifer and her family.  My favorite part was when Uncle Ralph was reading his nephew a Christmas story at bedtime, and Morgan had gone on the rooftop to make Santa and reindeer noises.  It always warms my heart when people put children first and display priceless deeds to warm their heart and spirits.  Uncle Ralph tries everything he can to keep Morgan at the house.  He feels that Morgan is more of a match for Jennifer rather than Richard, which I truly agree.

After Morgan feels unwelcomed, he leaves on Christmas Day to the airport for his trip to Denver.  When Richard and his parents, Stephen (Serge Houde) and Winnie (Rebecca Toolan) Windom come to Jennifer’s home for the infamous turkey dinner, Jennifer breaks off the engagement with Richard and comes to the conclusion that she has fallen in love for the mysterious Morgan.  Uncle Ralph convinces her the inevitable, and tells her to go to the airport and find the man that she loves.  While at the airport, she pours her heart out with the airport employee, but doesn’t realize that her conversation is being played on the airport speaker system.  After Morgan recognizes who is on the intercom system, he runs to find her leaving, as she thought that she was too late.  But, she wasn’t.  Jennifer takes Morgan back to her home and celebrates Christmas.

If you are interested in putting this movie on your annual list to watch, you can either catch it on the Hallmark channel on Wednesday, November 25^th at 8:00 PM, or better yet, keep this movie on your shelf so you can enjoy on any cold winter day with a cup of Joe or white chocolate cocoa.