This is more of a play than a movie. Would probably be great for young kids who are not sophisticated enough to notice the many inconsistencies.
For one, there is a lot of plastic and man-made materials. I'm pretty sure they didn't have artificial Christmas trees back then. Some lanterns are obviously battery operated. The boarding school itself doesn't hold up well. Girls just basically wander around and no classes are taught. We do get to see some new (reprint) McGuffey's readers. The kids obviously don't know how to use a sad iron or any of the other things they pretend to be using, though young kids won't notice. Other inconsistencies: Someone making a pot of stew in the kitchen that might feed a family of four, but not a whole school. I guess it's the biggest cast iron pot they could find. Also, the referral to the "Civil War" so close after the event. It would have been called The War Of The Rebellion or The war Between The States. But then kids viewing wouldn't have known what they were talking about. There are more of these little things but I'll leave it at that.
On the other hand, there are horses, miniature ponies pulling a sleigh, a really cool old house they found to film in, and the really terrific Uncle Ned, a Native American man.
The storyline doesn't hold up so great, and you'll wonder about certain things, like why you'd need to know "the right kind of people" to write an acceptable ending to a play. Yet, on the other hand, I'm sure I would have liked it when I was a kid. It has a sense of pretend that young kids like. Just be prepared to resist pointing out obvious mistakes to your kids when you watch it.
