LOVE AT THE THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE Delivers Vintage Charm

The holidays start early this year as The Hallmark Channel launches their Countdown to Christmas special programming with an adorable new original movie, Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Set in Chicago in the month of November, Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade reminds me a lot of [easyazon-link asin=”B0046BHC6E”]You’ve Got Mail[/easyazon-link]. It has the same whimsical-with-a-bit-of-retro charm, sweet chemistry between the leads, and love for the city where the story takes place. Autumn Reeser is Chicago native Emily Jones, a bookworm and city Thanksgiving Day Parade planner who has a penchant for vintage clothing that goes deeper than style. Her boyfriend, Brian (Ben Cotton), is a marine biologist out at sea on a whaling trip. She’s excited for him to come back just in time for Thanksgiving, when she anticipates he’ll propose.

Meanwhile, Henry Williams (Antonio Cupo) is a handsome and driven executive developer of his own firm who arrives to Chicago, his hometown, on a business trip. He intends to knock down a famous independent bookstore to develop lucrative retail space. Emily is outraged to find the store being torn down, and confronts Henry on the spot. Still fuming, she heads into the office, where Paul, her boss, is holding a staff meeting to announce the implementation of an operations management consultant who is there to determine how to increase the parade’s revenue. Then, Paul introduces the new consultant, and Emily is shocked to see it is Henry.

Emily is not pleased with what she assumes Henry is going to suggest – changing the parade so that it produces revenue for the city. She embarks on a mission to reacquaint him with Chicago and all it’s charms as a way to remind him that the parade is worth more than money. Of course as they spend time together, more than the city’s charms are revealed. It’s such a sweet romance, neatly situated so that it has holiday flair without skipping over Thanksgiving completely. This tendency to move the start of the Christmas season up farther and farther in the year is frustrating to many, including myself, so I appreciate the effort made here.

But enough of that, the delights of this Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade are such that even a Scrooge would enjoy it in early November. Tune in tonight at 8/7c on The Hallmark Channel and start your countdown to Christmas.