“Christmas with the Kranks” is a heart-warming Christmas comedy movie released in 2004.
The movie’s plot revolves around the Krank family, in particular, the parents Luther (Tim Allen) and Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis). Just after Thanksgiving, their daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo) leaves home in order to work for the Peace Corps in Peru. On the way back from taking her to the airport, when Luther manages to get himself soaking wet from the rain, he sees a poster advertising a luxury cruise in the sun. After seeing this tempting poster and seeing how sad his wife Nora is about spending Christmas without their daughter, he decides to secretly calculate what they spent on Christmas the previous year. The total he comes up with is $6,132! He then surprises Nora with a brochure of the cruise. After she gets all excited, she realises that there must be a catch. He then reveals his idea of “skipping Christmas” this year and using the money they would have spent on Christmas on the cruise instead. She eventually comes round to the idea, but only when he agrees that they can still make their annual donations to charity.
So they are all set to skip Christmas. They won’t give gifts or cards and they won’t host their annual Christmas party for family and friends. They won’t buy a Christmas tree and they won’t put up decorations, much to the anger of their neighbours! In fact, all of their acquaintances are confused and upset by their “selfish” decision. Despite this, Luther and Nora continue to stand their ground.
However, when they are busy packing on Christmas Eve, everything is thrown up in the air when Blair calls from Miami airport to tell them she is on her way home for Christmas. Another surprise is that she is engaged to Enrique (René Lavan), whom she is bringing home with her! Nora and Luther quickly have to forget the cruise and get the house ready for a proper family Christmas. While Nora is ecstatic, Luther is clearly disappointed about missing the cruise. Nevertheless, together, they frantically start to organise everything as they do every year, this time in just a matter of hours, so that Blair won’t find out about their Christmas-skipping idea! Getting food and decorations at the last minute proves to be hectic and difficult…
Do they pull it off, and what happens to their expensive cruise tickets? Watch the movie if you want to know!
I recently finished the book, “Skipping Christmas,” by John Grisham. Hilarious, but heartwarming in the end. I haven’t seen the movie , yet. This should be fun.