Angel of Christmas is a 2015 Hallmark Channel Christmas romance movie. Based on the book The Christmas Angel by Jane Maas, the teleplay was written by Gary Goldstein, and the film was directed by Ron Oliver. The movie stars Jennifer Finnigan as aspiring journalist Susan Nicholas, Jonathan Scarfe as Brady Howe, Tahmoh Penikett as Derek Hamilton, Holly Robinson Peete as Yvette Collins, Marc Bendavid as Susan's great-grandfather Owen Thomas, and Chloe Mc Clay as Jessica Rose. The movie was filmed in Canada.
Susan is a copy editor that aspires to be a journalist, but since her past proposals to cover topics like dog weddings haven't been hits, she's given one last chance to fulfill her dream by writing something Christmas-based for the upcoming holidays. She's encouraged by her parents to write about an antique wooden angel they have, originally hand-sculpted by her own great-grandfather for his first love, and Susan's boss is intrigued enough by the premise to let her write her article on it. However, Susan's attempts to research her family history are constantly interrupted by two handsome men that are attracted to her: an advertising executive at her job, and an optimistic artist at a gallery she frequents. With the help of the wooden angel, will Susan be able to find true love, uncover the mystery of her great-grandfather's love life, and write a satisfying ending to her article, all before a Christmas Day deadline?
This movie is not to be confused with the animated film An Angel for Christmas.
This work utilizes the following Tropes:
- Book Ends: Someone creating art about the blonde woman they love in the form of an angel occurs both in the beginning and in the end.
- Career Versus Man: Towards the climax, Brady is offered a chance to go to Los Angeles and operate his own art gallery. He ends up refusing in order to be with Susan, which upsets her, since they've only known each other for a couple of weeks at this point and Susan feels bad that he'd turn down a huge opportunity when the relationship might not work out in the end.
- Compliment Backfire: When Susan's initial pitches for an article she can write are all turned down, her boss tells her "Maybe you were just meant to edit other writers' work. It's a compliment!" This, of course, does not encourage the aspiring journalist Susan.
- Connected All Along: Susan's main goal in the story is to write an article about the history of an antique wooden angel Christmas tree topper her family owns, while getting distracted by falling in love with Brady the artist. In the end, it turns out that Jessica, the actress her great-grandfather originally intended to gift the angel to, was Brady's great-grandmother. Additionally, the cabin that Brady's family owns where he was staying in for the holidays was built by a member of Susan's family.
- Crappy Holidays: At the start of the film, Susan doesn't have any Christmas spirit. This is partially because she's struggling to be a journalist, but the main reason (as she tells Brady later) is that the only serious relationship she's been in before ended with her boyfriend dumping her on Christmas in favor of their Yoga instructor.
- Doomed New Clothes: At one point, Susan accidentally spills coffee on Derek while attempting to remove the wooden angel from her bag; Derek complains that it's ruined his tie, as it's impossible to wash one and have it come out right.
- Embarrassing Last Name: Upon finding some old letters addressed to Brady's great-grandmother Jessica, Susan asks if her real name really was "Mabel McNutt".
- Grand Romantic Gesture: Susan's great-grandfather Owen believed that crafting an angel in the image of the actress he fancied would be one of these, but she turned him down. In the present, Brady decides to return the gesture by painting a portrait of Susan as an angel.
- How Dad Met Mom: There are a few flashbacks throughout the film depicting how Susan's great-grandfather Owen Thomas originally tried and failed to court Jessica Rose, and then met and gained the affections of Susan's actual great-grandmother.
- I Want Grandkids: Susan's parents are the ones to first propose that she write about the history of the wooden angel they have and to carry it around with her, her mother not actually thinking it will make a good story but outright stating that its love magic will hopefully get her a date before the holidays.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The titular angel is supposed to help bring lovers together, despite it never being given to its intended recipient, as it's helped at least every past generation of Susan's family since its creation meet their true loves. And Susan ends up believing it, due to weird occurrences such as her television spontaneously turning on when it's around and the lights suddenly going out during an office party right before she's about to kiss Derek while the angel is nearby.
- Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Susan's two love interests are Derek, a boorish coworker at her workplace, and Brady, an eccentric artist that ends up turning down a gallery exhibition to spend more time with her. With that said, the plot is mainly focused on Brady, with the occasional times Derek flirts with Susan leading to the "angel" causing some kind of interference that helps convince Susan they're not meant to be together.
- Second Love:
- Owen Thomas failed to win the heart of Jessica Rose even after carving an angel in her image, but upon returning to his hometown afterwards, fell in love with a woman at the church where he tried to donate the angel.
- Brady had a past girlfriend that told him she preferred being alone than with him, and he becomes a second love for Susan in the end, promising he won't abandon her like the past boyfriend that dumped her on Christmas.
- Snow Means Love: Every single outdoors scene between Susan and her love interests takes place while it's snowing.
- Stage Names: In the climax, it turns out that "Jessica Rose" was one of these, with her true name being Mabel McNutt.
- Token Black Friend: The only person of color in the cast is Yvette, Susan's boss at the newspaper office that she's on good terms with.
- Unkempt Beauty: Brady, one of the love interests, sees absolutely nothing wrong with being out in public with paint still on his unwashed face after working on his art.
