Cassie flies home for Christmas and Dad tells her they are not doing the Winter Festival this year. Lots of work and now that Cassie’s mom has passed, it’s just so much harder. Cassie insists they pull it together anyway and make it a fundraiser to save the cash-strapped library from closing.

Half-way around the world, Prince Nicolas (Marcus Rosner) is tired of being stifled with royal duties and when he finds letters written to his mother, Queen Mary (Teryl Rothery), from Eleanor, an old best school friend about the Christmas Festival she organizes each year, he travels to Wintervale, USA, to experience a real Christmas with sentiment and feeling. There he literally bumps into Cassie, Eleanor’s daughter, as she helps out at the library and her books are scattered everywhere. He takes no responsibility and blames her, but later at a town gathering, offers to help with the Festival. Cassie is still annoyed with him over the library incident but when she is forced to accept his help, he is delighted but withholds his identity from her.

When Cassie discovers old letters that her mother wrote in Nicolas’ possession and he tells her they were in some old books at his mother’s house, and that’s what brought Nicolas to experience the Winter Festival, they are both mystified at the coincidence. As the story unfolds, and Cassie and Nicolas are falling for each other, Cassie wonders, did her mom create another Christmas miracle in bringing Nicolas to her? But when Dad reveals he knows who Nicolas is, Cassie overhears and is devastated by the deceit. Nicolas must figure out a way to ask for forgiveness or risk losing the very life he’s been searching for, while not shirking his responsibilities to the Queen and his kingdom.

The Dove Take:

This is a beautiful Christmas-themed movie for the entire family, with a little unexpected twist at the end that ties it all together and is a strong reminder that sentiment, tradition, and making the most of those special moments with those we care about creates that true Christmas spirit. Dove approved for all ages.