Sensations of Christmas

How do you choose a favorite Christmas movie? For humor, A CHRISTMAS STORY has to win. For nostalgia, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE takes top honors. After that, making the list becomes more complicated and dependent on personal beliefs, but yesterday I discovered a film I’m adding to my list. The British romantic comedy THIS IS CHRISTMAS came out in 2022. (We found it on Amazon Prime.) The story doesn’t fall so very far from the realm of the myriad Hallmark movies, but for me the theme, charm, and acting excellence push it way out in front.

Adam is a sincere ad executive in a small firm he runs with his friend. Each day, without fail, he climbs aboard a commuter train that takes him to and from London to a small town where he lives with his self-absorbed girlfriend. Each day the same people fill the seats of the train, coming and going from the same locations, enduring the same delays. Each day, he looks around him, wondering about the stories behind the faces. One day a young male passenger becomes the center of attention when the conductor demands his ticket and the young man doesn’t have it with him. He’s a regular rider with a season ticket that he presents time after time, but this day he has forgotten it in his other jacket. The conductor demands cash payment the young man doesn’t have. The other passengers recognize him and take his side.

Adam is impressed. Strangers who are normally suspicious and aloof have banded together for one empathetic moment. At last he stands, remarking on how the same people sit near one another day after day without speaking and without bothering to learn about one another. He’s sure the trip would be far more pleasant if people chatted, if they took a moment to see each other, to care. His solution is to propose creating a Christmas party for the diverse train riders, a chance for them to connect. They think he’s a nut. The course of change never runs smoothly, and it often leads around corners.

Simply sharing thoughts and concerns with strangers is as unusual in the U.S. as it is in the U.K. People bend over their cell phones, rarely discussing emotions that matter. Communication is fast and cool. Perhaps, as some claim, people once did spend more effort getting to know each other. In smaller towns or stable neighborhoods interaction might have been almost inevitable. I remember when shootings in a school were almost unheard of because the institution felt like family—for good or ill. And why would anyone kill a stranger—unless for money? Prejudice flourished, as always, of course, but hate is easier to cultivate when we divide groups and don’t encounter the human-ness we share—when we can imagine the people we hurt as objects, not moms and dads and somebody’s family. When we take time to help each other out, we feel safer, warmer. We learn perspectives we didn’t realize were there. We recognize that we’re traveling this road of life together, like it or not, and cooperation makes the journey more intimate, more satisfying, more colorful. We experience a sensation we might describe as Christmas.