BEWARE OF BOGUS REVIEWS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THAT PRODUCTION. NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 Christmas MOVIES. I HAVE NO AGENDA. I AM FARE ABOUT THESE FILMS.This film is not a ripoff of "It's a Wonderful Life". That is a topic that someone started on IMDb message board. I can assure that it may of drawn inspiration from that film but it has more in common with "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore". In this film a woman finds herself suddenly single after she wakes up one day and finds out her husband has just ran off with another woman. She takes off to in a car and end ups in a small town where she ends up living a motel and becomes an overnight waitress at a local restaurant.You can check off all the boxes on the Christmas movie check off list with this film but that doesn't mean this isn't a good film it really is a nice film to see. The on camera talent is above average. It is enjoyable. Most of all it shows that it is better to give than to receive. To many people the plot may seem "Unbelievable" but trust me in small towns people really do help each other. They know how to be good neighbors. I am a liberal but trust me "The South" has many good decent hard working and caring people.

A Christmas Wish is an above average Hallmark movie, because a little girl, Mel Evans, (Kirstin Dorn), tells the story of the first Christmas to her little sister and step brother. The movie centers around their mom and them after the unfaithful, mean father abandons them just a short time before Christmas. He runs off with most of their money and leaves the mother in a very poor financial and emotional state.The mom, Martha Evans, (Kristy Swanson), packs their old car and takes the children on the road to find a new place to live, while she also looks for employment to keep them fed.Martha begs a restaurant owner for work. The lady owner, Trudy Willis, (Tess Harper), has a struggling business, but she has compassion for the hurting family and gives Martha employment. The mom and three children have to stay in a budget motel, until money can be earned for a permanent place to live. (All kinds of crazy things happen after this!) This is a sweet movie and the other two children, little Lilee Evans, (Lilee Clyde) and Miles Evans, (Kevin Herring III), a stuttering boy, play their roles very well. A handsome policeman, Joe Hopkins, (KC Wilson Clyde), rescues them, more then once! I won't tell you all of this story....There are some very scary, tearful moments, but Martha prays to God, and the Lord blesses them beyond her expectations! God uses the loving, generous townspeople and sweet Joe Hopkins! This is definitely a wonderful Christmas movie for all ages and I hope that you buy this DVD.The reason that I did not give it a "10" rating is because I like to see someone pray to receive and know Jesus, as his, or her Lord and Savior in a movie! In closing, I want to ask Craig Clyde to make future Christian themed movies that show this. Also, please make more movies that can are non-rated or G ones. "G" means "general audience", not for just children! I am 65 years old and my sons are 36 and 39 year old men. We value and only watch movies that are wholesome and moral. Merry Christmas, and may God bless us, everyone!

I really enjoyed the idea that "It takes a Village.." In this case a family is watched over. Kinda like when the new kid is at their first day of school and everyone puts out the welcome mat. Even though the boy is tormented, we hope a community will always commune in triumph and tragedy. A wish becomes simple humanity.Also, so excited the fact that two of the actors in the film had similar dagger roles. Buffy a vampire slayer (Kristy Swanson) and a "Max" a head vampire of the Lost Boys(Edward Herrmann) stood nose to nose, in a cafe serving coffee and slingin the hash! Well at least this was a better turnout.

I'll give it a 4, because I DID cry and the little boy was an excellent actor (his stammering just broke my heart). That said, it's A) completely derivative and B) ignores a whole bunch of options open to the destitute mom.First the unoriginal part: Hallmark Hall of Fame themselves already basically did the same movie 12 years ago starring Carla Guigino called "A Season of Miracles". Single, impoverished caretaker of sweet, scraggly moppets? Check. Wonderful small town full of warm hearted people who only want to help? Check. Car problems she can't afford/have her stranded? Check. Perfect hawt lawman love interest? Check. Minimum wage job that she's grateful for and somehow provides for them all? Check. Christmas/Jesus last minute miracle? Check.Except at least in "A Season", Carla's on the run from DHS with her niece and nephew, so you understand why she's hiding in a tiny town and not looking for any assistance. In Martha's case, it just makes zero sense.As an abandoned mom, she has an entire litany of services available to her. She is precisely WHY there are programs like TANF, WIC and Food Stamps. While I admire her independence, I'd have swallowed my pride really fast to keep my kids fed and housed. It's always meant to be a hand up, not a hand out--and clearly she was in dire straights.Instead of wasting precious gas and subjecting my kids to such uncertainty, I would've sucked it up and visited my local DHS office. Where they also would've been able to offer me job training or placement assistance. And provided Early Head Start Care for the youngest (who acted like she was about 18 months, NOT 3). With three kids, she would've been placed at the top of the list for housing, as well.My next visit would've been to the courts (which any DHS social worker, also could've helped me with). Sorry, but fathers don't get to just run out on their kids and then get divorces within a week---totally free of responsibilities. She should've been receiving child support from her first husband for her older daughter, as well.Even if this hadn't been the case, once her kids were enrolled at school again, they would've automatically qualified for free breakfast and lunch---and school officials would've directed her to social services, as well.Instead we saw this silly, Republican fantasy in which the government is evil ("sorry, I had to take out taxes" says Tess Harper. Except with three dependents, earning minimum wage and taxes being so low now, anyway that wouldn't have been much at ALL), but the church and others will provide for you. Except in real life, she'd just work at the local Walmart and watch her life slip away.Also, Kristy Swanson, at 42, was waaaaay too old to portray someone who should've been 30 or younger.And lastly, since everyone so wanted to help her, when she was gonna be tossed out, why didn't someone just say, "hey you can stay with me for awhile"???