Bud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company, until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. Although he often has to deal with the aftermath of their visits, one night he's left with a major problem to solve.
Eight very different couples deal with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London.
After losing her job, making out with her soon-to-be former boss, and finding out that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Claudia Larson faces spending the holiday with her unhinged family.
As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.
Jack's lavish, fast-paced lifestyle changes one Christmas night when he stumbles into a grocery store holdup and disarms the gunman. The next morning he wakes up in bed lying next to Kate, his college sweetheart he left in order to pursue his career, and to the horrifying discovery that his former life no longer exists. As he stumbles through this alternate suburban universe, Jack finds himself at a crossroad where he must choose between his high-power career and the woman he loves.
Robert Lahnstein, feared TV commentator, doesn't like people, not even at Christmas. He wants to be alone - even on Christmas Eve. He thinks Christmas is just as hypocritical as politics. That's why he packs his SUV with a frozen goose and a Christmas tree to retreat to his lonely cabin in the mountains. But the plan ends for him in a tree. With the last of his strength he reaches a barn. But he is not allowed to be alone even in the deepest wilderness, because other people have also sought shelter from the snowstorm in this barn and Robert Lahnstein has to gradually put aside his rudeness and his prejudices.
Daphné, her dog and the whole family are gathered together to spend Christmas in the countryside.
Erik, a loner, finds a friend in Dexter, an eleven-year-old boy with AIDS. They vow to find a cure for AIDS together and save Dexter's life in an eventful summer.
Sue Parker is thrust into a desperate struggle to rescue her family's failing business, teetering on the edge of ruin due to her father's negligence. With the arrival of a charming wanderer, she sees him as their sole hope to help prevent their bar from being seized by the merciless local tycoon.
After leaving her Amish community in her youth, a New York book editor finds herself in desperate need of a new cookbook to save her job. With Christmas on the horizon Sarah heads back to her family farm to reconnect. But with the presence of a handsome local—an outsider, but one that is friendly with the Amish community—he and Sarah sense chemistry and work together to save her family’s Amish bakery (developing an Amish Christmas Cookbook in the process).
It's Christmas, and a young woman is on her way to celebrate the holidays with her parents. A group of drunk cowboys startle her horses making her wagon, with the woman on it, speed off. By chance Broncho Billy saves her life and the grateful girl invites him over for Christmas dinner. Little does he know that the young lady is the Sheriff's daughter…
Gina and Seth have been pen pals for 13 years and now will have the chance to meet. Both used their best friends pictures to send to each other and now will let their friends meet. True love is found in the end for all.
A troubled teen and her single dad head to Georgia to reunite with family members they hardly know at Christmas time.
David is an American architect who relocates across the pond to take up a job at a prestigious London firm. As the clock counts down to Christmas Day, David is running out of time to buy his girlfriend – who also happens to be his boss’s daughter – a thoughtful present so he resorts to buying her a somewhat uninspired gift card.
Six romantic stories unfold in a New York hotel during the week leading up to Christmas.
During the holiday season, Ethan, a meteorologist, and his wife Addison, a TV news reporter, must put aside their differences and band together to help save others and rescue their missing children from a massive F6 twister that has unexpectedly descended upon their small Texas town.
A shady lawyer attempts a Christmas Eve crime, hoping to swindle the local mob out of some money. But his partner, a strip club owner, might have different plans for the cash.
An uptight, conservative businesswoman accompanies her boyfriend to his eccentric and outgoing family's annual Christmas celebration and finds that she's a fish out of water in their free-spirited way of life.
When their regal matriarch falls ill, the troubled Vuillard family come together for a hesitant Christmastime reunion. Among them is rebellious ne'er-do-well Henri and the uptight Elizabeth. Together under the same roof for the first time in many years, their intricate, long denied resentments and yearnings emerge again.
Fred Claus and Santa Claus have been estranged brothers for many years. Now Fred must reconcile his differences with his brother whom he believes overshadows him. When an efficiency expert assesses the workings at the North Pole and threatens to shut Santa down, Fred must help his brother to save Christmas.