Christmas Inheritance

CHRISTMAS INHERITANCE follows Ellie (Eliza Taylor), whose dad, Jim Langford (Neil Crone), founded the multimillion-dollar gift company Home & Hearth. His best friend and co-founder, Zeke, has stayed in the northern small town of their youth while Jim has run the company from its New York headquarters. Company tradition requires that Jim and Zeke write each other all-important "Christmas letters" describing everything they do to make the company better. As the action begins, Ellie works for the company and helps with a Christmas gala fundraiser the company sponsors. A donor at the party agrees to quadruple his donation if she shows off her gymnastics talent and vaults over a display at the party. In a strapless red party dress, she successfully makes the leap but knocks over a Christmas tree and for some reason a picture of her and the toppled tree ends up on the front page of a New York newspaper. Rather than praise her for going the extra mile to raise donations, her father is disappointed and feels the need to send her to deliver the Christmas letter up north to Zeke. He pays for her stay at Zeke's inn and allows her to take only a hundred dollars, a bus ticket, and her wits. She can't use credit cards and she can't reveal that she is the company heiress to anyone in the town. There she meets the inn manager, Jake (Jake Lacey), who was left by his two-timing wife during a brief life in New York and is now sulking back in his hometown. His Aunt Debbie (Andie MacDowell) owns the local restaurant. She's a salt-of-the-earth type who sees Ellie's potential as the cure for Jake's woes. When Ellie runs through her hundred, Jake puts her to work cleaning the inn, and this seemingly triggers Ellie's instincts to be helpful. Debbie teaches Ellie how to bake cookies, and this seems to motivate Ellie to help raise money for the town's annual charitable Christmas fete. Ellie's slick New York boyfriend, Gray (Michael Xavier), arrives unannounced to discover the chemistry between Ellie and Jake, and he shows his disdain for the "hicks" Ellie has come to care about. Ellie sees the light, dumps Gray, and persuades Jake that he's the one.