CHRISTMAS ON THE BAYOU: Going Home Ain’t So Bad

The all new Lifetime original movie Christmas on the Bayou will debut tonight (December 14) at 8 PM and I was fortunate enough to see an early screener of the movie before Thanksgiving.

This holiday-themed film stars One Tree Hill and White Collar alum Hilarie Burton as Katherine Phillips, a successful New York marketing executive, who quickly discovers that her being a workaholic is not having a good affect on her third-grade son Zack (Brody Rose).

She keeps missing his soccer games and is never even around just to play with him so he can get better at the sport. To make matters worse, the one Christmas gift that she wants to get him for the holiday has been sold out for months.

After missing yet another soccer game, and having her son’s recorded message appear on her laptop during an important presentation meeting at work, Katherine realizes that she really needs to focus on Zack’s needs.

To make up for her not being around, Katherine is able to get some much needed time off from her high-pressure job, taking Zack to her hometown of St. Martin in Louisiana where her mother Lilly (Markie Post of Night Court fame) still lives in their family home.

Once there, Katy (as she is known there) not only runs into her childhood sweetheart Caleb (Tyler Hilton, also of One Tree Hill fame), who is now a park ranger, but also her old boss, local shop owner Mr. Greenhall (country singer-actor Randy Travis). In no time at all, her mother is trying her hand at matchmaking between her feisty daughter and Caleb; and young Zack has made a friend in neighbor girl Sienna (Ariana Neal) and the stranger old man who lives on the bayou named Nick (legendary actor Ed Asner), who just might be Papa Noel himself: the bayou’s very own Santa Claus, who, instead of a sleigh and reindeer, rides on a boat pulled by alligators in order to deliver the presents to all the children along the bayou.

Since they have plenty of time to spend in the bayou, Katherine convinces Zack to audition for the upcoming Christmas pageant (which doesn’t go exactly how either of them had hoped) and she starts helping Mr. Greenhall to improve business at his shop.

As you can imagine, Katherine is soon torn between their home in New York and the much more gentler ways of her Southern home. Will she decide to take Zack back to the fast pace life in New York or open her heart to love one more time and stay in St. Martin with Caleb?

It should be noted that this film was directed by actress Leslie Hope, who TV viewers will remember as Teri Bauer on 24 and, more recently, as President Kelly Foster on the first season of Revolution. The movie is based on a screenplay by Brian Young and Marcy Holland and a story by Pam Wallace.

You will have to tune in to the premiere of Christmas on the Bayou tonight on Lifetime at 8/7c to find out what Katherine decides and whether good ole Nick on the bayou is actually the famous Papa Noel. I know I enjoyed this film and I think our readers will too.