*The Christmas Shoes* - A Beautiful Christmas Film & Song
~....The Christmas Shoes is my very favorite Christmas Film. I watch it every Christmas, ever since I heard the song by the same title, sung by Newsong, on the radio.
What can I say? I challenge you to listen to the song - which is the song playing in the background of my blog - and not feel a lump in your throat, feel tears well up in your eyes, or just all-out start bawling! *teehee*.....It's a beautiful song, and the film is just as beautiful. Kimberly Williams (who also starred in "Father of the Bride" 1 and 2, as *Annie*), plays the part of little Nathan's angelic, and sadly dying, mother....Kimberly's portrayal just breaks my heart, as I'm sure she does everyone who watches this film...
Rob Lowe's role is that of a workaholic, undependable-albeit-well-intentioned husband and father, who is losing his wife with every selfish action......Until....as fate would have it....he meets young Nathan who is desperately trying to buy his last gift for his dying mother....A pair of red, shiny shoes, that he had found and had become so important to him, that he give them to her, as he recalled she had once shed a few tears while Nathan had been reading a story about a little girl who had little red dancing shoes in which she would fall asleep and dreeam that she danced in everynight.....
Nathan wanted to make sure that his mother would have the pair of fancy red shoes, so that she would be happy and look beautiful when she met Jesus in heaven....
Back to Rob Lowe's character....He saw Nathan rushing to pay for the pair of red shoes, and saw how distraught the little boy was when the store clerk told him he did not have enough money to buy the shoes.
Rob Lowe asks Nathan what was wrong, and as he begins to understand the reason behind Nathan's distress, he offers to pay the difference so that Nathan would be able to buy the shoes....
That act of kindness and the story of Nathan and his mother, changes Robert (Rob Lowe's character).
He rushes to meet his estranged wife and daughter, who are caroling softly in front of Nathan's mother's home.....Inside, Nathan is giving his mother the pair of red shoes "to wear in heaven"....She is so touched by her son's gift...and they have a poignant *good-bye*...
Outside....Robert and his family sadly see the lights go out in Nathan's home....But he expresses how much he loves both his wife and his daughter, and there is new light for them....
I know it may sound sappy to some....my former friend would never even watch it in all the years I've known her (I guess I shouldn't be surprised as it's not a cheesy reality show such as the Bachelor)....(oopsy - did that sound catty? teehee- I really did not mean it too....I guess it should have told me something when one's so called *best friend* won't even take 95 minutes to watch her supposed best friends all-time favorite Christmas film....I mean, after all, at her request I watched all of her favorite Christmas films -which have more to do with people *receiving* than *Giving*....just between you and I, one of them was soo whiny and had absolutely nothing to do with the Christmas spirit that it took me nearly 4 viewings, for me to see it in entirety because I kept falling asleep - and I am an insmoniac! haha...that's saying something, huh?)
Back to "The Christmas Shoes"....I highly recommend this film if you enjoy good films with a Christmas theme....In fact, this is the first year, it has been released on DVD in the United States....
It's a wonderful DVD and includes extras, such as the music video to the song "Christmas Shoes" and interviews with the cast and the singer of the song.....
The following is some background on just how this amazing story started from an email on the internet, to a chart topping song, to a beloved Chrismas film and book.....Read on if you fancy....
In 1999, The Christmas Shoes story began circulating on the internet. The touching story about a little boy whose mother was dying at Christmas, and his quest to find the perfect pair of shoes for her to wear in heaven, came to the attention of Eddie Carswell of NewSong. Eddie began writing a song inspired by the story. NewSong, a Christian musical group, sent its record "The Christmas Shoes" to a top DJ in St. Louis in November 2000. When he played it, the station literally shut down: the switchboard was inundated with calls and the computers crashed from the barrage of emails. With virtually no promotion, the record had 3500 spins around the country in just one week, and shot to #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Charts in a record-setting three weeks.
The news media caught on to the phenomenon, and so did St. Martin's Press. It commissioned Donna VanLiere to write a novel based on the song. The book was released in October 2001 with a 300,000 first printing. St. Martin's released eight additional printings, but could not keep up with the demand. The book was entirely sold out two weeks before Christmas in 2001.
In the meanwhile, Jive Records (the label for Britney Spears, *Nsync and The Backstreet Boys) signed NewSong with the intention of bringing the group into the mainstream. The same has been done for Faith Hill, Amy Grant and Creed, all of whom started out as Christian musicians. "The Christmas Shoes" was re-released on a new album by NewSong last holiday season.
This is a link to Amazon, which is one of the places, "The Christmas Shoes" can be purchased at....
Amazon's Listing for "The Christmas Shoes" DVD
I would also like to say *Thank You* to the kind souls who have sent me very thoughtful messages, lovely cards & generous gifts...
I truly appreciate and am touched by each and every one of them....Bless your hearts....
P.S.... After much too much mistakes, drama, and overall horrible customer representatives, I cancelled the dell and instead went with my daughter and mother to shop locally, for a notebook, last night....We returned home around 2 am (Bless Comp USA for being open until midnight - then Aurey and my mother had an early Christmas Eve breakfast at Anna Miller's-I was too exhausted to eat....but very happy with my purchase.)...
.I brought home a shiny new HP dv6150us....It's still in the box....I'm recuperating from our long outing, and hope to open it and set it up tomorrow or late this evening.....I hope it is all that I heard it should be....*s*....I loved the white Sony Vaio but it only had 1GB RAM and 80GB Hard drive, I believe....and I really had settled my mind on purchasing a 2GB, 120GB Hard Drive so I chose the HP....It's not the white color I wanted but it's still very pretty....lovely shiny cover and silvery keyboard area.....quite nice...and I'm just happy to have my notebook at last....