wes-connors Middle-aged housewife Linda Hamilton (as Julie) is left by her husband for a much younger blonde. A series of unfortunate events leads the divorced and deserted Ms. Hamilton to become homeless. She meets similarly down-on-her-luck, but still beautiful-looking Brenda M. Crichlow (as Selma James) and they become friends. Living in her car agrees with Hamilton as she begins to get her act together. She dates exceptionally good-looking doctor Rob Stewart (as Michael Stern), after becoming acquainted with his lovable father Campbell Lane (as Max). The older man's characterization lifts this implausible TV Movie up a notch. Hamilton, who looks better homeless than she does in the early scenes, is unable to pull her part off; for one thing, she is made to play a seemingly intelligent woman who handles circumstances like she has no life experiences. Of course, there may be some divine intervention at work – like the Spirit of Christmas...**** Home by Christmas (12/25/06) Gail Harvey ~ Linda Hamilton, Rob Stewart, Brenda M. Crichlow, Campbell Lane

hwrightny This movie is your typical bad times during the holidays and everything magically works out just fine! Not my cup of tea but might be good for others....The part I cannot get over is Linda Hamiltons acting (if you want to call it that). Her performance is like that of a first timer. Really shocking that her level of acting skill is so low. The other thing is that her character is written like this completely inept female. Doesn't know anything going on in her world..no skills...and she just rolls over and takes all these "lashings" that life has to deal her. Her "woah is me" character just makes you want to scream. I watched this twice to make sure....yep. Its that awful!

robingalem The comments above do a good job of explaining what this movie is about, so I want to focus on another aspect of this film.This movie is about the type of situation most are terrified of even thinking of --facing an economic landslide out of our usual socio-economic level and being completely alone. This is one of the loneliest of personal disasters since others from our old life don't want to talk to us since they are so terrified of this happening to them that they don't want anything to even remind them of it. Watching this is a chance for us to even imagine what it's actually like to live our worst nightmare and know that we would survive. I'm pleased the network aired this film since I think it is a very useful self-empowerment tool.

TruPretender I never pay too much attention to television films, especially when they intend to show for a certain audience, such as the way Lifetime Network targets their films for housewives and little girls. The "however", however, comes with the star of "Home By Christmas", Linda Hamilton. I could watch anything this elegant lady does, and thus so, I took a chance on this film. "Home By Christmas" is a quite depressing story of a woman, whom divorces her cheating husband, only to meet even more humiliation by loosing her home in the post-mordam madness, and living in her car. Despite this, she keeps her hopes up, and clings to every opportunity she can, in attempt to build a plan for getting her life back. Her desperation accelerates when her young daughter is returning home for X-Mas, and she needs a quick way to hide the disastrous situation that has befallen her. Not only that, but she has fallen in love, and cannot bring herself to admit her situation to the man she is interested in. Still, she manages to prevail in all her hope and glory, and just as the yuletide season is coming to it's heights.The story of this is actually depressing, and very sad to think about, but there is humor therein. Linda Hamilton is serious about this role, but she plays it out very well. The hope and humorous ambitions of her character are well represented, and we find ourselves smiling throughout the film, despite the lousy conflicts our leading actress is faced with. The fact is, we are given hope with every scene, as the writing is pretty sharp (a rarity for television films). it's no wonder why Hamilton choose this role. There is something to learn from the film, about giving and receiving. It's quite touching, and in the end, we see the miraculous life lessons of what good comes from hope and faith, and the power of the yuletide season.9/10