The Christmas Edition is a holiday romance about a newspaper woman who finds her community in a small town very close to the North Pole. It is a Lifetime original, also on Prime Video.
When The Christmas Edition begins, Jackie (Carly Hughes) is a reporter for a San Diego newspaper. She’s up for the job of Editor-in-Chief, her long held career goal.
A digital news empire, headed by Melanie (Marie Osmond), buys Jackie’s paper. In the shakeup after that purchase, jobs are up for grabs. They don’t give Jackie the job she wanted, but instead offer her a demotion. She quits.
Jackie sees a newspaper from Juneau, Alaska. It mentions a small town newspaper that needs a new editor to revive it. Without intervention, it’s going under. After consulting with her dad, a newsman himself, she decides to give the job a try. After all, it will put “editor-in-chief” on her resume.
In Alaska, she meets Finn (Rob Mayes). The newspaper was his father’s, but Finn is a glassblower and is ready to give up on the paper if Jackie can’t revive it.
Finn is the potential romance, obviously, but the growth of said romance is slow and steady and not really certain until the final moments. Rob Mayes and Carly Hughes do have lovely chemistry.
The paper comes with two employees. Edna (Aloma Wright) runs the press and does other operational tasks. Dolores (Emily Alabi) is a photographer. All the equipment is outdated. There’s zero budget.
Jackie discovers the town is obsessed with Christmas, so she decides to publish Christmas material in the paper. She writes about local holiday events, about personal ornaments folks put on a community tree, and publishes favorite Christmas memories from residents. It’s a big hit.
The little print newspaper becomes such a phenomenon that Melanie shows up in Alaska wanting to buy it and put it online. She offers Jackie a good job back in a warmer place.
Will Jackie go back to her dream job or stay in Alaska in the town she’s learned to love and with a man who only wants what’s best for her? It’s so hard to predict how a romantic comedy will end, isn’t it?
When Carly Hughes isn’t making movies, she sings on Broadway. She belts out a few bars of a Christmas song in the film, and wow, what a voice. It’s almost worth watching the whole movie for those few moments.
The Christmas Edition was written by Anna White, who has a resume full of Christmas stories. It’s her specialty. I imagine this one will join the ranks of holiday favorites we see year after year on channels like Lifetime.
The air dates and times mentioned in this trailer are from 2020.
Have you seen season 1 and 2 of Why women kill? Excellent! Love to see your review on it.
No, I haven’t seen that one. Is it a Christmas series?
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