Today I feel the icky warning signs that signal the start of a nasty cold. We’re Covid-free, but that doesn’t stop me feeling flat as a pancake today. Cheer me up, Christmas movies!
Today’s offering is just about up to the task. Mandie and the Forgotten Christmas (2011) feels like a quaint fusion of Nancy Drew-style mystery and Little Women-esque old-timey coming of age drama. The story follows young sleuth Mandie (Kelly Lynn Washington) as she’s sent to a strict boarding school in the early 1900s where the stubborn, single-minded lass struggles to fit in. While up in the attic digging out old Christmas decorations, Mandie stumbles on an old secret that puts her detective skills to the test.
The film from director Joy Chapman has a beautiful location and excellent period detail, giving this an air of prestige often absent from children’s fare. It’s also interesting to see how teens busied themselves in the days before TVs and phones, with the girls doing wild stuff like embroidery, writing plays and getting to bed by 8:30pm.
The mystery involves an old unfinished play the girls discover, which links to spooky goings on in the attic. It’s not exactly gripping, with the girls’ biggest obstacle being getting to bed before curfew, but it is all quite moody and mysterious, with some ominous versions of classic Christmas carols humming away in the background adding a bit of atmosphere.
It's quite slow, meaning young viewers might get fed up, but I admire that it takes its time to build things up before the big reveal (SPOILER!) that there’s a poor little girl named Celia (Glennellen Anderson) living in the attic who secretly just wants a proper education too.
So, it’s a nice story about inclusion and struggling to fit into a class-based system when you’re a bit different, while Mandie learns it’s hard to be a ‘lady’ when you’re just trying your best to be a teenage girl. Mandie’s a cool teen role model, determined to do the right thing and make the world a better place.
Everything comes together in a clever, satisfying conclusion that teaches us that there’s nothing wrong with dreaming at Christmas and that women shouldn’t have to be oppressed for daring to try and be better. Though it's a little starchy and dull in places, Mandie and co succeed in perking me up by the end. I’m feeling bunged up, but some cheery festive schmaltz has eased my aches and pains like a lovely Lemsip.
I’m more than 10 percent of my way into this quest now and even though the weather has been perpetually grey, dark and sleety for weeks, I feel that my daily festive fix is definitely making me feel happier inside. Though I’m largely trapped in the house day after day, these films give me something to look forward to. I’m positive most people would think I was bonkers for doing this, but it feels great to be doing something unique. I’m positive nobody else in the world is weird enough to be doing this and that gives me a strange sense of pride. This has added a little Christmas spice to my life and the films have turned out to be more varied than I could have imagined, so it feels good to be broadening my horizons. In these grim, oh-so-samey times these movies have helped make every day just a tiny bit different.
I still haven’t told anyone what I’m up to yet and it’s starting to feel like I’m not going to. It's like it’s part of the challenge now, to do this while keeping it all a secret - a crazy bet with myself. I wonder if I can possibly keep this up?
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