The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2008)
Five-time Emmy nominee and Golden Globe winner Henry Winkler stars in The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, the story of what happens when you open your heart to the power of Christmas. Disenchanted single mom Jennifer Cullen (Brooke Burns) is a Scroogette when it comes to anything Christmas. In fact, even her six-year-old son, Brian, is having trouble believing in Santa Claus. But when her Uncle Ralph (Henry Winkler) visits and brings a fellow passenger from his flight named Morgan Derby (Warren Christie), Jennifer s dubious heart awakens to the possibility that perhaps Christmas really does hold miracles. It s uplifting and laugh-packed and a story that will inspire the whole family to believe.
rating 7/10 User rating 69 votes 64% ❄ Christmas Connection
The movie is set entirely during the Christmas season, with decorating, gift-giving, and holiday family gatherings forming the backbone of the plot. The central conflict, a single mom who has emotionally checked out of Christmas, is resolved through the arrival of her uncle and a snowbound stranger who rekindle her holiday spirit. Without Christmas, there is no story.
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Our Review
Hallmark Channel premiered The Most Wonderful Time of the Year on December 13, 2008, making it one of four original Christmas films the network produced that year alone. It stars Henry Winkler, Brooke Burns, and Warren Christie in a story about a single mother in Illinois who has quietly declared a one-woman war on Christmas, and the two men who arrive uninvited to make her lose that war. The setup sounds like every other cable holiday movie. What makes this one stick is Winkler, who plays Uncle Ralph with a level of genuine warmth that feels nothing like television work.
What the Story Actually Is
Jennifer Cullen, played by Brooke Burns, is a corporate analyst and single mother raising her six-year-old son Brian on her own. She has optimized Christmas into a logistical operation. She has a spreadsheet. She has a schedule. She has not, by any definition, got the Christmas spirit. When her uncle Ralph, a retired New York police officer, shows up for the holidays, he brings along a stranger named Morgan Derby, played by Warren Christie, a nomadic jack-of-all-trades he met on a plane from Denver after a snowstorm grounded all flights.
Morgan ends up sleeping in Jennifer's basement. He fixes things around the house. He wins over Brian immediately. Jennifer resists him for a reasonable amount of time before doing exactly what anyone watching the movie expects her to do. None of this is a spoiler, because the film never pretends to be a mystery. The whole point is watching how it gets there.
Christie was born in Belfast and grew up in London, Ontario, which gives Morgan an air of someone who genuinely does not belong anywhere in particular, which suits the character. He went on to play the lead in the 2011 science-fiction film Apollo 18, but this Hallmark film came earlier, when he was still doing Canadian television work between bigger jobs.
Why Henry Winkler Makes This Work
Uncle Ralph is the movie's engine. Winkler brings two Golden Globe Awards and decades of comic timing to a role that could easily be played as broad holiday mugging. He does not do that. Ralph is affectionate without being cloying, funny without stepping on the emotional beats. Winkler has been a five-time Emmy nominee and won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his ten seasons as Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli on Happy Days from 1974 to 1984. His instincts for when to dial back and when to lean in are precise.
There is a scene where Ralph explains why he brought Morgan along that could play as awkward exposition. Winkler makes it feel like something a real person would actually say. That is the whole trick of this kind of movie, and he executes it without visible effort.
Off-screen, Winkler has been a prolific children's book author since 2003, co-writing the Hank Zipzer series about a dyslexic child with Lin Oliver. The series has sold over four million copies. He did not know he had dyslexia himself until age 31, when he got his stepson tested. The same emotional intelligence that makes him effective with kids on the page shows up in his screen work here.
The Brooke Burns Problem (and How She Solves It)
Jennifer Cullen is written as resistant to Christmas in a way that risks becoming cartoonish. Burns, who came to prominence on Baywatch from 1998 to 2001, keeps Jennifer believable by playing the stress as real rather than comic. She makes clear that the Christmas avoidance comes from exhaustion, not cynicism. That is a harder reading of the character and a more honest one.
Burns worked extensively in game show hosting after her acting roles, including hosting The Chase on Game Show Network. Her range here is narrower than her best work, but she anchors the domestic scenes with enough credibility that Morgan and Ralph's interference feels meaningful rather than intrusive.
The Screenplay and Production
Bruce Graham wrote the screenplay. Graham is primarily a stage playwright who has won consecutive Barrymore Awards for Best New Play for Something Intangible and Any Given Monday, along with the Joseph Jefferson Award for The Outgoing Tide. His television work includes Cedar Cove and the Hallmark movie Trading Christmas. A playwright's instincts show in the dialogue, which is cleaner and more specific than the average cable Christmas script.
Director Michael M. Scott and producer Harvey Kahn filmed the production in British Columbia, primarily in Langley, Burnaby, Richmond, and Vancouver. The production design sets the action in Naperville, Illinois, and even dressed the police vehicles with accurate Naperville police markings to sell the location. The Fort Toy Box in Langley appears in the film.
The film holds a 7.3 on IMDb, which places it comfortably in the upper range of Hallmark Christmas movies from that era. The rating is fair. This is a competent, warm, well-acted version of a reliable formula, not a reinvention of it.
Is It Worth Watching?
The honest answer is yes, with appropriate expectations. The movie does not pretend to be something it is not. It is a 90-minute Hallmark Christmas film built around the premise that a retired cop with good instincts and a stranded stranger can fix a woman's broken relationship with the holidays. If that premise irritates you, no amount of Henry Winkler will help. If it sounds appealing, you will get a better-than-average execution of it.
The film's title borrows from "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," the Christmas standard written by Edward Pola and George Wyle in 1963 and first recorded by Andy Williams for his debut Christmas album that same year. The song's reputation for warmth is exactly the register this movie aims for. It gets there more often than not.
Fun Facts
The film premiered on Hallmark Channel on December 13, 2008, and was one of four original Christmas films the network produced and broadcast that year during its seasonal programming block.
Henry Winkler did not learn he had dyslexia until age 31, when he arranged testing for his stepson and was diagnosed himself. He co-wrote the first Hank Zipzer children's book in 2003, and the series eventually sold over four million copies across 18 volumes.
Warren Christie, who plays the snowbound stranger Morgan Derby, was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and grew up in London, Ontario, after moving to Canada. He played college football at the University of Windsor before moving to Vancouver to pursue acting.
Although the film is set in Naperville, Illinois, the entire production was shot in British Columbia, Canada, across locations in Langley, Burnaby, Richmond, and Vancouver. The prop department added authentic Naperville Police Department markings to vehicles used in the shoot.
Screenwriter Bruce Graham is a decorated stage playwright who won back-to-back Barrymore Awards for Best New Play in Philadelphia before transitioning to television work, including multiple Hallmark Channel movies and the long-running series Cedar Cove.
Brooke Burns, who plays the Christmas-resistant Jennifer Cullen, appeared in 33 episodes of Baywatch and its sequel Baywatch: Hawaii between 1998 and 2001, before shifting her career toward hosting, including The Chase on Game Show Network.
Henry Winkler won two consecutive Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor in a Television Comedy Series for his role as Fonzie on Happy Days, which ran from 1974 to 1984. He holds three Emmy Awards total across his career.
The title of the film refers directly to Andy Williams' recording of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," written by Edward Pola and George Wyle in 1963. Williams recorded it for his very first Christmas album that year, and it has been covered by dozens of artists in the six decades since.
Cast
