One Magic Christmas (1985) on Netflix
Ginny Grainger has lost her Christmas spirit. Her husband Jack is out of work, the family must leave their company house, and Gideon, a Christmas angel, is sent to help her.
- Netflix2.8/5
- IMDb6.4/105,140 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes47%
Trailer
Plot summary
Money is short in the Grainger home. Jack has not worked in six months, and the family lives in a company house they have to leave by the new year. Ginny minds a grocery store register, and the season ahead holds no cheer for her. Jack tinkers with bicycles in his spare time and wants a shop of his own, but Ginny will not hear of it because the savings would be gone. Saint Nicholas gives the Christmas angel Gideon the job of bringing her Christmas spirit back. Abbie, Ginny's young daughter, meets Gideon while she is mailing her letter to Santa Claus, and he keeps her out of the path of a speeding car. Abbie hands the letter to her mother, who refuses to send it.
Cast
- Robbie Magwoodas Cal Grainger
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about One Magic Christmas (1985)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- An unseasonable thaw forced the Ontario shoot to truck in snow: five tons arrived from surrounding areas in more than 100 dump truck loads over four days, only for a blizzard to blow in days later and leave the crew removing the excess.
- The film was first announced as Father Christmas with Richard Farnsworth playing the angel Gideon and reuniting with director Phillip Borsos after their film The Grey Fox, but the following March Harry Dean Stanton was given the role instead.
- The North Pole workshop scene was dressed with 20,000 genuine letters to Santa Claus, all supplied by the Toronto post office.
- The shopping mall scene was filmed in February 1985 with 300 locals as background actors, and fifty shopkeepers agreed to swap their Valentine's Day decorations for Christmas ones for the scene.
- The story began as a one-page idea in 1976, and although the first draft by Phillip Borsos and Barry Healey was reportedly turned down by every Hollywood studio, it still secured commitments from actress Mary Steenburgen and producer Fred Roos.
