Some movies feel like Christmas—warm, magical, and timeless like snowflakes dancing and lights twinkling all over. They feel like a part of you. When nothing else makes sense, the reason why you adore them doesn’t require an explanation. Movies like It’s a Wonderful Life, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Home Alone, The Holiday, and While You Were Sleeping—movies like Eloise at Christmastime.
It’s up there with the greats as something that’s both fun and achingly romantic, delivering the kind of joy that sparkles in every frame. I adore Eloise at the Plaza, but everything about Eloise at Christmastime is elevated and softer. The friendship between Eloise and the late Gavin Creel’s Bill has always been the heart of the stories, so the fact that this movie focuses even more carefully on them makes it everything. It also hurts ten times more when you can see just what a force Creel was, and the loss feels even harder because his legacy is so vast.
Part of the magic of Christmas is about spending it with those you love—the understanding of just how fortunate we are to exist in a space where we can be with others. You can deem it as too cheesy or saccharine or whatever, but we’re all fundamentally broken human beings, trying to find our place in the world, and the holidays bring out an innate loneliness that’s inside us all. It’s why these movies hit as hard as they do because they reach into that place and swap it with stardust instead. For a few minutes after the movie ends, everything feels okay.
Most of us who watched these movies when we were kids get to be transported for a while. I’m twelve again, and the world isn’t a literal burning cesspool. There’s hope. There’s wonder. There’s something so genuinely indescribable that everything feels lovely. And Eloise at Christmastime is especially comforting if you were the type of kid who grew up to love the magic in stories—the people and the places you’ve been to. It feels even more tethered to us in that way. Bring the romance into the equation, and it’s literal perfection because what we didn’t hyperfocus on when we were younger, sparkles even more now.
As someone whose favorite trope is the second chance romance, it’s so enthralling to see how it transpires between Bill and Rachel Peabody (Sara Topham). How Eloise clocks it the instant she sees them bump into each other. How their gazes linger, and their performance at the piano hits. It’s a Broadway girl’s dream, but more than that, it’s so well done that more people should be talking about it when it comes to discussing holiday romances. Bill and Rachel’s second chance romance doesn’t just feel earned, but every step we take toward his arrival at the altar is made even better by the fact that she can’t say “I do” seconds before he bursts in. Because you can see it at every turn, you can feel it—it was Bill. It was always Bill. The forbidden romance of it all, the yearning, the tenderness between them, it’s all so perfect, I could write pages on just the two of them.
And it hits so effectively from start to finish that, despite the short runtime, we feel every ounce of their love for one another. We get it. Beyond this, every key player from the legendary Julie Andrews to Christine Baranski, Jeffrey Tambor, Corinne Conley, and the whole cast brings their A-game in roles that are made better because of their presence. Like Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, it makes the Plaza feel cozy. It paints New York in such a breathtaking light that for a beat, it feels like you’re there. Every frame, every shot, and every song—Sofia Vassilieva carries the movie perfectly.
Eloise at Christmastime is one of the rare gems that has everything: a unique premise, an incredible cast of characters, great performances, deeply memorable friendships, and a stunning love story. It’s a near-perfect book-to-screen adaptation that ages brilliantly with time, proving to everyone that a little whimsy is what we all need to make our days brighter—easier and lovelier amid the chaos. It’s what we need to feel the magic of Christmas, even when we’re not exactly in the holiday spirit. And really, if I loved this movie less, I might be able to talk about it more.
Eloise at Christmastime is currently streaming on Prime Video.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment