The Holiday Stocking

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.

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.

Yes, this is another movie where an angel goes back to earth to resolve a problem from the angel's past life - this time, it's reuniting his estranged sisters.

But, this really works because of the really fine writing by Cas Sigers-Beedles which is sharp, with realistic dialogue and enough twists and laughs to keep the story really interesting and fun to watch. It also works because the acting is excellent - the leads: Tamala Jones, Nadine Ellis, and a wonderful B. J Britt as the angel, are just terrific, and the rest of the cast supports them with nice performances as well. It's all here - humor, warmth, some spark, a little intrigue, and a little sadness, all played by the cast with sincerity, spirit, and genuine feeling.

A pleasure to watch all around.

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.

The Holiday Stocking (2022) -

It was a different story and one that I wasn't expecting to even get through. Based on the TV images and IMDB thumbnails, it looked over the top and cheesey, but I was soon engaged and enjoyed the way that the story went, not focussing on romances, although there were some, but rather concentrating on the idea of family at Christmas and reuniting estranged sisters.

Overall I felt that it was enjoyable, heartfelt and easy to connect with. In fact the whole production was well done and a new spin on the Heavenly intervention of a Guardian Angel at Christmas trope, whilst also being cheerful and festive.

Nobody gave a bad performance and while some of it was a bit of a stretch, nothing was so unbelievable that I couldn't get on board with it.

I might have liked handsome men to come in to the ladies lives more prominently, which they probably could have achieved with just another ten minutes, but I did appreciate that the focus was on the family relationship this time.

A film that was full of the importance of family and shared the joy of the season will always be alright by me and I would definitely look to watch this one again in the future.

7/10.