Plot

A newlywed couple prepare to host their first family Christmas together, but things don't go according to plan.

Steve and Cynthia are a newlywed couple celebrating their first Christmas together. They invite their families to join them for the holidays, but when Steve is laid off just before Christmas and Cynthia discovers she's pregnant, they both keep their news secret in hopes that the celebration runs smoothly.—Happy_Evil_Dude

Newlyweds Steve and Cynthia Faber, having known each other for fourteen months, are spending their first Christmas together as husband and wife. Before they married, they created a life plan which included moving to this town for Steve to accept a job with a prestigious law firm where he will eventually make partner by year ten and where Cynthia would start her own event planning company, her first contract to organize the town's annual Christmas Day outdoor concert, and baby number one to arrive on year four. A short term goal in the plan is to host the perfect Christmas this year for their combined immediate families - Cynthia's father Jerry, Steve's mother Patricia, and Steve's brother Owen and his family of wife Lynn and offspring Elizabeth and Brian - with the only person not scheduled to attend this year being Cynthia's younger college student sister Robin, a proud Philosophy major, who is spending the holidays with her boyfriend Joe and his family. The Christmas is planned to adhere to the family traditions, which may be a challenge as Steve and Cynthia grew up in vastly different households, Steve who comes from a monied Manhattan life where they could buy whatever they needed, whereas Cynthia grew up poor with they having to make substitutions for what they could not afford, such as the small evergreen tree on their property being the only decorated tree they ever had. Added to these challenges is the strain that exists with each and his/her in-law in the belief, regardless of it being real or merely perceived, of the dislike stemming from their different backgrounds. As family members arrive one by one, what could go wrong does. Added to the stress, both Cynthia and Steve are given news on December 22nd that drastically alters their life plan, news which both are having trouble trying to tell the other. The question then becomes whether this collective can make lemonade with the lemons they have been provided this Christmas.—Huggo