The Holiday Stocking

This time the angel is part of a deceased brother and his targets are his sisters who have become bitterly estranged. The journey is a rocky one with a lot of anger which is expressed mostly in words and turning away from each other. Romance is not really a focus in this story, although one of the sisters develops a new relationship.

There is a strong emphasis on charity work which was a big family tradition when these siblings were children. Dani is a rich CEO and her motives are questioned by both her sister and potential beau. This rich snob softens considerably as the story progresses.

The acting is good and the script is decent. There were not any real highs or lows or surprises.

What a lovely Holiday film to remind us of giving, family, and forgiveness! The siblings are all fully-formed people with real-life issues, like marital problems, exhaustion from long work hours, money issues and loneliness. The sibling reunion 100% made me tear up, truly capturing how special family is.

The Holiday Stocking Summary The Holiday family with two sisters and one brother have a tradition of The Holiday Stocking: 5 searches with 5 riddles and 5 good deeds done as a family. Decades later, the siblings have drifted apart and Robert, the brother, has passed away. He returns to earth as an angel to reunite the sisters through their family holiday tradition, The Holiday Stocking.

Holiday Stocking Tradition The stocking contains five searches, five riddles and five good deeds done as a family as there are five family members in the Holiday family.

Whoever finds the holiday stocking first gets to read the Holiday Riddle. Whoever guesses the riddle gets to pick the good deed that the family does.

The riddle as young children we witness is buying coats and give them to the homeless.

Decades later, the brother, Robert passes away and disguises himself as an angel, RJ

His mission is to reunite estranged sisters to participate in The Holiday Stocking and serve Friends of Chicago.

'The Holiday Stocking' (2022)

Opening thoughts: The previous 2022 Hallmark Christmas films were pretty patchy. There were some good ones, 'Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas' in fact was great. There were some bad ones too, such as 'Christmas Bedtime Stories' and 'A Maple Valley Christmas'. It is always good to see non-Hallmark regulars in lead roles and here the leads were relatively unfamiliar names to me. Have no problems with many actors and actresses being featured regularly as there are Hallmark regulars who have consistently impressed, just that it is nice to have new actors to shine.

While not as great as 'Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas', 'The Holiday Stocking' was very well executed, well-meaning and poignant. As far as 2022 Hallmark Christmas films go, 'The Holiday Stocking' is one of the best ones. Also one of the best 2022 Christmas films in general, being one of the few to be close to great. It is another example of serious themes and drama being done well by Hallmark, one of the best from 2022 to me.

Bad things: It is not flawless, though there is little wrong with it. For my tastes, it could have been longer by about 10-15 minutes in order to flesh out some of the supporting characters more.

Particularly the male roles, here on the underwritten side.

Good things: However, 'The Holiday Stocking' is very well acted by the whole cast. BJ Britt in particular has some very powerful dramatic moments, particularly when opening up (very difficult to do and worthy of admiration whenever anybody does it). It was very easy to care for the characters, ones that will resonate for anybody who has had, or has, dysfunctional family relationships (speaking from experience).

Furthermore, 'The Holiday Stocking' is very sincere emotionally and true to life. It never feels melodramatic, a very easy trap in this type of film and fallen into a lot, or overly sappy. The ending did make me cry. The twistier parts of the story didn't come over as predictable, too simple or/and shoehorned, a surprise actually. The script flows well and is well meaning and honest with little fluff, filler or mawkishness. It is beautifully filmed, with lovely scenery, and appropriately scored.

Closing thoughts: Overall, very well done.

8/10.

I really debated on watching this because I thought I wasn't going to like it for some reason. Maybe the typical angel comes back and saves the day like a lot of other movies. Not that some of these haven't been really good, I just wanted different stories this year. But, even though this was still based around that concept, the movie dealt more with the sisters and their lives. It showed how families can grow apart without even realizing. It centered on forgiveness and love. Showing such an accurate description of what Christmas is all about. The scenes where the brother/angel admitted his part in the breakdown of his family were very emotional. The ending was beautiful and I found myself tearful several times. Really good movie.

A family of a mother, 2 daughters, and a son, are excited about their tradition of pulling out a Christmas riddle from their special Holiday stocking. Whoever solves it first gets to pick out the charity the family as a whole will participate in. 5 stockings, 5 charities. Even though they have their differences, working together for others at Christmas always brought them together. Thirty or so years later, the brother has died and is about to enter heaven. But first, he is allowed to try to correct his biggest regret, the estrangement of his sisters who have grown apart over the years. In fact, because of long nursed grievances and being too busy with their separate businesses, they are actively hostile and don't speak. Robert has 12 days (the boss has a thing for the number 12) to bring them back together. He is allowed to come back to earth to fix matters and decides to get them to participate in their old Christmas tradition. But nothing doing. Dani is too busy with being the owner of the biggest black-owned marketing firm in Chicago and Marlow is too busy trying to make her bakery a success. Charity work is not even a stray pen mark on the to-do list. That is until Dani is on the verge of losing a big business opportunity due to no community giving or participation, and Marlow realizes that her daughter Gia is becoming a mercenary self-involved little brat. They both agree to participate in the holiday tradition, led by the executor of the dead Robert's will, RJ Angel, who is really dead brother Robert in disguise.

The journey to the sisters becoming family again, Gia becoming a good kid, Marlow's marriage getting a kick in the pants, and a little romance entering all three ladies' lives, is very entertaining. It is well-paced, and full of humor, tender moments, and angst. The road to reconciliation is not always smooth, and of course, we have the climatic drama with about a half hour to go in the movie to get over, but all their lives are on the right path at the end. There is a shocker at the end involving CEO Dani that I didn't see coming, and even dead Robert has a personal revelation that needs some tending to. Penned by prolific black scriptwriter and sometime novelist Cass Sigers-Beedles and directed by Tyler Perry's first assistant director, Roger M. Bobb, this movie was in the best of hands and it showed on screen. I had never heard of any of the female actors but they were all fantastic, particularly Tamala Jones as Marlow.