A Christmas Without Snow (1980)

Pretty Good

Good movie but grossly overrated

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Blistering performances.

Had this been a movie just about a church choir coming together to produce Handel's Messiah, it could have been something notable and watchable. But "A Christmas Without Snow" has so many mini-plots and diversions that they detract even from the music. This film is a hodgepodge. It's slow moving, and we get just snapshots of the myriad characters – all of whom seem to have problems, if not pathos in their past. The dull, aimless plot kills this movie. It tries to include everything, and thus does little justice to anything. So, while the acting is OK, the story seems forced. Was CBS trying to make a politically correct – for the time – Christmas story? By putting too much in and trying to be all- inclusive, CBS wound up with a film that gives so little. But for the music – the singing that the film does have, it wouldn't earn even the four stars I give it. I fell asleep three times watching this on DVD. I can't imagine it holding the interest of children at all. While there aren't that many great Christmas films, many good ones have been made over the years. "A Christmas Without Snow" is a film best forgotten.

I saw this movie when it first premiered, and missed it ever since. I only recently found it on a DVD, packaged with a collection of other Xmas specials. It was wonderful seeing it again, despite the fact that no attempt was made to restore the now seriously degraded film before digital transfer.I remember two great TV Christmas films from my childhood and youth. One was The Gathering, which starred Ed Asner. The other was A Christmas without Snow. Both movies captured the spirit of Christmas from a time when the season was about faith, community and family, and reflection, rather than shopping, decorating and gluttony.A Christmas without Snow is a charming film about the true meaning of Christmas, and the fact that keeping that meaning is rarely easy, but always rewarding. And the reward is, or should be, a sense of quiet satisfaction and contentment.

We watched this movie two nights ago and found it quite different. The main character is a newly divorced woman who moves to San Francisco from Nebraska, leaving her pre-teen son with his grandparents until she can make enough money to send for him. Frustrated by the lack of available teaching positions, she works as a "floating" office temp. To have some consistency in her life she joins the church choir as it is beginning to rehearse Handel's Messiah. The movie is about this woman's interaction with the other choir members and challenges the choir faces leading up to the performance of this music. Watch for Ruth Nelson (Inez) as a sweet, older realist who is quite an encourager. She also played the encouraging teacher in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn from the 1940's.

I just watched this movie again, must be my fourth viewing, and it really holds up. It just never fails to get to me emotionally.The story is simple, but it is the characters and their backgrounds that engage the viewer. There are no simple solutions to the problems presented, unlike the emotionally manipulative movies of today.A young widow grieves for her dead husband, someone suffers a stroke, a father and son resolve a tremendous difficulty with a very slow smile at each other and no words are spoken.Each story stands on its own. A microcosm of life. One does suffer, there is sometimes no magic solution, just a choir and an ambitious undertaking of "The Messiah" to get your mind off the same old, same old.Michael Learned, what has ever happened to her, a great performance. Also John Houseman being John Houseman, a delight. Not one jarring note from the large cast.An 8 out of 10. Catch this one if you can.