Plot summary

It's one week before Christmas. Hailee Anderson is the popular on-air entertainment reporter for a local New York City television station's morning program, Sunrise Brew. She is hosting live the program's Christmas Eve special entitled "Christmas in Manhattan" despite she long ago having lost the Christmas spirit. On one of her regular broadcasts, she is figuratively sideswiped when rumored reports surface that her businessman fiancé, Jason Keppler, is cheating on her with a reality television star. Letting her emotions take over, Hailee feels the need to get away from both the spotlight of work and Jason by taking a long drive to "anywhere but here", and in the process is the cause of a car accident in the small town of Carver Bend, Connecticut. For her driving infractions, she is sentenced to twenty-five hours of community service in Carver Bend to be completed prior to Christmas, which threatens her ability to do her regular work and prepare for the special. That community service, under the direction of the Middlesworth Children's Art Center's head volunteer Beck Thomas, a former artist who lost his inspiration to paint, is to help the kids of the Center prepare its float for the upcoming Christmas parade to be held on Christmas Eve. From Beck, Hailee learns of the plight of the Center: it, a non-profit, is threatened for closure as the building they are leasing is for sale; the non-profit has half the $30,000 down payment to buy the property, hoping that they win the $15,000 first prize for the best float in the parade to make up the other half. In the process, Hailee may come to a true understanding of what the Christmas spirit is, while coming to the realization if the publicity machine's fairytale ending of her reconciling with an innocent Jason is what she wants. These realizations may come along with the price of the Center at the hands of a few Scrooges who want to line their pockets at the expense of the kids.

It's one week before Christmas. Hailee Anderson is the popular on-air entertainment reporter for a local New York City television station's morning program, Sunrise Brew. She is hosting live the program's Christmas Eve special entitled "Christmas in Manhattan" despite she long ago having lost the Christmas spirit. On one of her regular broadcasts, she is figuratively sideswiped when rumored reports surface that her businessman fiancé, Jason Keppler, is cheating on her with a reality television star. Letting her emotions take over, Hailee feels the need to get away from both the spotlight of work and Jason by taking a long drive to "anywhere but here", and in the process is the cause of a car accident in the small town of Carver Bend, Connecticut. For her driving infractions, she is sentenced to twenty-five hours of community service in Carver Bend to be completed prior to Christmas, which threatens her ability to do her regular work and prepare for the special. That community service, under the direction of the Middlesworth Children's Art Center's head volunteer Beck Thomas, a former artist who lost his inspiration to paint, is to help the kids of the Center prepare its float for the upcoming Christmas parade to be held on Christmas Eve. From Beck, Hailee learns of the plight of the Center: it, a non-profit, is threatened for closure as the building they are leasing is for sale; the non-profit has half the $30,000 down payment to buy the property, hoping that they win the $15,000 first prize for the best float in the parade to make up the other half. In the process, Hailee may come to a true understanding of what the Christmas spirit is, while coming to the realization if the publicity machine's fairytale ending of her reconciling with an innocent Jason is what she wants. These realizations may come along with the price of the Center at the hands of a few Scrooges who want to line their pockets at the expense of the kids.

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