It stars an endearing young man with special needs, Todd played wonderfully by Noel Fisher (Final Destination 2), he has a thing for helping injured animals, and we join the movie as Todd helps a wounded mammal, while being looked upon by a certain dog, who we shall soon get to know a little bit about later on.
Todd goes home to his farm, run by his parents George and Mary Ann McCray, played by the stalwart Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek 2009), and Linda Emond (Law and Order: Special Victims Unit) respectively. They run a farm, where George tends to the cows, and Mary tends to the horses, all their children except Todd have left home, but since Todd is special in more ways than one, the parents are extremely protective of Todd.
Todd happens to find out about a local dog shelter that is offering their dogs to a home till Christmas, where upon they can return the dog, Todd excitedly tells his parents about it, only for George to dismiss it, despite Todd’s protests. It turns out George has some issues he hasn’t quite got round to dealing with yet. He is a veteran of the Vietnam War, and he is still heart broken over losing his beloved dog; he found and took a liking too while in Vietnam. He is aware that the dog shelter run by Hailey, played by the lovely Carrie Ruscheinsky, really would like the adopters, to not just have the dog over Christmas but permanently adopt them too, he want to show Todd that the world isn’t as easy going as the warm and affectionate manner the family treats him and he is used to at home (and you can tell the family is affectionate when they all get together for a Christmas meal, and delivering of presents), and he tells Mary that it is about time he starts to learn this.
Eventually after much persuading by Mary he gives in, but is adamant that Todd returns the dog on December the 26th, which he constantly reminds him of, a lesson he hopes to teach Todd about sticking to his word. Todd goes to the dog shelter and after browsing through most of the dogs, he settles on a dog that has just been brought in the previous day, as luck would have it, it turns out it was the same dog watching him while he looked after the injured mammal, Hailey tells him the dog hasn’t been named yet, so Todd names him Christmas. Christmas is already trained and Todd can’t wait to show the rest of his family the interesting tricks it can do. However there is the inevitable confrontation that faces Todd on having to let go of Christmas after December 25th, or can he possibly convince his immovable father otherwise?
A Dog named Christmas is a lovely family movie, that is endearing and charming at all angles, not just for dog lovers.
