Normally, I will avoid Christmas movies that replace the name of the holiday with “X-Mas.”  You can call it Catholic snobbery.  I would not fight you on such a designation, though I like to think it has more to do with preferring proper English.  What swayed me with A Merry Little Ex-Mas was Alicia Silverstone.  I have been charmed by her since Clueless (1995), and A Merry Little Ex-Mas has some of that flavor in her acting.  At the same time, there is a big difference between the ditzy Cher Horowitz of the former and the local handywoman Kate Holden of the latter, but their cheery dispositions are roughly similar.  In any case, despite being another romantic comedy with a Yuletide backdrop, it was a welcome addition to the usual material we get this time of year.

It has been many years since Kate came to Winterlight, Vermont, as she narrates for us at the beginning of A Merry Little Ex-Mas.  She had been a budding architect with a bright future ahead of her at a firm in Boston.  What took her farther north in New England was meeting and falling in love with Everett Holden (Oliver Hudson).  The doctor had desired to return to his small hometown in Vermont and open a private practice.  She dutifully followed, which is how she became the local handywoman while also raising two children.  As she continues with her background, she reveals that her and her husband eventually grew apart, and we first see them properly in front of Mayor Christina (Tymika Tafari) filing for a divorce.  Actually, they wish to call it “consciously uncoupling” as they hope to continue with their Christmas traditions due to the upcoming holiday.  With that, they go their separate ways.  Kate is home, which the family calls the “Mothership,” to meet her realtor friend April (Melissa Joan Hart) to discuss the sale of the beloved abode.  Kate wishes to keep this a secret until after December 25^th.  This is put to the test immediately as her daughter, Sienna Holden (Emily Hall), arrives from college in the United Kingdom at Oxford University with her English boyfriend and Harry Potter enthusiast, Nigel (Timothy Innes).  Everything is just about set for dinner when Everett’s two fathers, Daryl (Geoffrey Owens) and Mike (Derek McGrath), get to the Mothership.  The only person missing is Everett, but his absence is not the most significant revelation.  During conversation, Nigel lets it slip that Everett is dating someone, though the only one surprised by this information is Kate.  She tries, and fails, to conceal her anger, driving straight to his office to confront him.  Despite being able to smooth things over for the moment, it is the beginning of a disruption of Kate’s carefully planned Christmas activities.  She tries to act like everything is fine, but she is further disturbed when she encounters Tess (Jameela Jamil) in Daryl and Mike’s hardware store.  Everyone else is nervous, but Tess welcomes Everett’s ex-wife and invites them all to supper at Everett’s house.  Additionally, Everett and Tess begin taking up more of the offspring’s time, which leaves Kate feeling jealous.  This is when she meets Chet Moore (Pierson Fodé) while buying a Christmas tree.  He is a dolt, but he says the right things to get Kate to agree to see him.  Their interactions make Everett take more notice of Kate.  During a sledding outing, a mix-up puts Everett and Kate in the same toboggan.  They take a tumble at the bottom of the hill, and his attention to her is the clearest signal yet that he cares more for her that he is willing to admit.  In the aftermath, Kate and Tess, and Chet and Everett, get paired separately, but the newcomers have the same question for the recently divorced: how did they let the other get away?  It forces them to think about their individual responsibilities for the failure of the marriage.  Later, during a gingerbread house making contest, the two new couples try to make one another jealous with their public displays of affection.  Still, Everett and Kate remain committed to their new partners, and she allows Chet to take her to dinner at Everett’s house on Christmas Eve.  During the gift exchange, the biggest clue as to the remaining feelings between Everett and Kate comes when he gives her a thoughtful bottle of her favorite perfume, while Tess gets a replacement set of air pods for the ones she lost while sledding.  As the tension is building, Chet accidentally sets off a fire that engulfs the tree.  As everyone is recovering, it comes out that Kate is planning to move away once her son, Gabriel Holden (Wilder Hudson), graduates high school.  Everyone is shocked for a variety of reasons, and the party soon breaks up.  In the morning, Kate is trying to apologize for not telling them sooner, but she is only partially successful.  They next walk over to Everett’s in time to see an angry Tess leave with the clueless Chet.  That night, Everett turns up to renew one of their traditions: reading the story of his and Kate’s relationship.  As he is about to leave, she tells him that she has changed her mind about leaving, and they throw away their divorce papers.  The final scene is of them a year later, her a successful businesswoman and him cooking on the indoor grill she had given him the previous Christmas.

It is nice to see a couple work out their differences like we see in A Merry Little Ex-Mas, and Christmas is as good a time as any to see this happen.  Of course, the beginning of the film is not the happiest for this Catholic.  Divorce is a difficult topic, not just for practicing Catholics.  It does seem like modern society is far too accepting of the practice, and the euphemism Everett and Kate come up with for describing their arrangement, “consciously uncoupling,” is further proof of the kind of mental gymnastics that people use to justify dissolving what God had ordained.  Then again, there is nothing to suggest that these two consecrated their relationship before God.  At the same time, some grace should be given to Kate for her efforts.  Despite the fact that she is lying to her family about her future plans, her heart is in the right place.  The Bible is clear that any kind of temporal suffering we might endure is preferable to the eternal punishment that can come from sin.  That is putting it in the direst of terms.  After all, the Church does have the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  While we do have the ability to reconcile ourselves with God, that should not be a reason to commit sin.  At places in Scripture, Jesus tells His disciples that it would be preferable to have a millstone put around one’s neck and cast into the sea, or to pluck one’s eyes out if they lead one astray.  I bring these up only to underscore the warnings we have against wrongdoing, even small ones like a white lie to your family in Kate’s case.  Having said that, God can see the heart of the situation more so than we can.  I may be wrong, but I like to think that He knows that she had nothing but good intentions in not admitting her plans.  And while her family is understandably upset by the revelation, they give her the grace of forgiveness.  Such are better Christmas gifts than any material good.

Indeed, there are few material items exchanged in A Merry Little Ex-Mas, which is refreshing for such movies.  What is also refreshing, but less relevant to anything discussed above, is seeing real snow in an actual wintry landscape.  It also takes me out of these films when I see green trees in the background with people pretending to be in frigid temperatures.  This is nice, too, as I did not have to pretend to be at least slightly enjoying this one.