Christmas in Connecticut

"Everyone makes fun of Elizabeth Lane. Oh, she's so smart, knows all the answers, get's herself in a mess and doesn't have the moral courage to get herself out of it!" --Elizabeth Lane, mocking herself












The 1945 classic Christmas in Connecticut was the first to put comic relief into a Christmas movie. Barbara Stanwick plays Elizabeth Lane, a columnist for Smart Housekeeping magazine. She also plays what some folks in today's world would call "a poser".

Everyone that reads her column is under the impression that Ms. Lane is America's greatest cook, housewife, and mother living on a farm in Connecticut. In Ms. Lane's real world it's more like: can't cook, unmarried, and the view from the living room window of her apartment is clothes hanging from a clothes line tied to a chimney stack upon the rooftop.





Ms. Lane's Christmas charade begins when her publisher, who is unaware of her fraudulent cover, asks her to entertain a war hero at her Connecticut farm over the holidays. This soldier has spent 18 days at sea in a lifeboat, and the next 6 weeks in a hospital dreaming of eating the food he's read in Ms. Lane's columns. He also has memorized every little detail about her through the words she has written.





Ms. Lane begins to search for help in order to pull off the charade:

1.Her best friend John Sloan happens to have a Connecticut farm and Elizabeth gives in to his demand of them getting married first, even though she doesn't love him that way.
2. She requests her Uncle Felix, who has his own restaurant, to come along to do the cooking.

3.And as for the baby part, Sloan's housekeeper happens to babysit the neighbor's baby every day.

Game, set and match, right? Nope. Everything goes crazy soon as they get to the farm.

The soldier, Jefferson Jones, shows up 2 hours early, so the wedding that was planned to take place at the farm between Sloan and Ms. Lane never happens.

The publisher also has shown up and expects to eat a delicious meal made by, you guessed it, the great American cook herself.





One of the funniest moments is when Ms. Lane brags about the baby boy before giving him a bath, then when the soldier request's to watch, they both discover the boy is actually a girl instead.





Throughout the whole Christmas charade the truth from every fictional detail that Ms. Lane has written about herself becomes revealed. What's interesting is she continues on with the game even though every part of it is falling apart before her eyes. And of course, she falls in love with the soldier, who declares his love for her no matter what the truth may be.



The questions I now pose to you are:



"Do you consider yourself a Christmas Spirit poser? Are you only joyous at Christmas time because that's the way the world dictates we should be? Or are you in a Christmas Spirit all year around?"



I like to think the Christmas Spirit that we should be carrying with us all year around is the Fruit of the Spirit:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Gal.5:22,23)



When you ask Jesus into your heart you are a new creation in Christ, and your old life has passed away. Therefore the Fruit of the Spirit, which are the characteristics of your new life in Christ, should be manifested in your life daily and in essence, this makes your walk in the Lord more simpler.

Keep your Christmas Spirit all year around. Don't be a poser!