Yesterday Katie, Stephanie, Amy, and I got together for our Christmas celebration. We went to lunch at Mimi’s (which was a bit of a disappointment, as far as lunches go), then came back to our place for a little gift exchanging–my first of the season! 🙂 Amy had a Christmas concert in the evening, so between the gift exhange and the concert, we slipped in a little movie watching. Obviously a Christmas movie was pretty much required … but what to watch? Well, Katie and Steph suggested Christmas in Connecticut, a oldie that I’d never seen before, so we gave it a shot.

And let me tell you … what a hoot! I mean, it’s so old-school (circa 1945) and in black and white, but if you haven’t seen it, you should watch it at least once.

Christmas in Connecticut is the story of Elizabeth Lane, played by Barbara Stanwyck. Elizabeth writes a cooking and homemaking monthly column for Smart Homemaking. In this column she presents herself as a wife, mother, and homemaker who lives on a farm in Connecticut. All lies. She’s a single woman living in New York City. That is until the magazine publisher agrees to let a sailor returning from the war spend Christmas with Elizabeth and her family in Connecticut.

Reluctantly Elizabeth accepts her ardent suitor’s proposal of marriage, with the understanding that she does not love him. He tells her that she’ll learn to. But when she finds out that she has to host Jefferson Jones, the sailor who spent 18 days adrift in the ocean after his ship was torpedoed, Elizabeth decides to invite Jefferson and her publisher to her fiancee’s farm in the country for the holiday.

Wildness ensues. Jefferson believes Elizabeth is married, so fights his attraction to her. Elizabeth finds herself falling in love for the first time. Then there’s the babies (yes, that’s plural) and Felix, the chef who actually writes all of the recipes that Elizabeth takes credit for.

It’s quite a mess, but definitely has some laugh-out-loud moments. Like when Felix asks the judge, who’s there to marry Elizabeth and Mr. Sloan, to leave the house via the window.

I don’t know that I’d watch it again and again, but it’s definitely a sweet Christmas movie to put you in the mood for a little romance this Christmas.