Christmas at Mistletoe Farm Plot Summary
Christmas on Mistletoe Farm is the latest film from Nativity director Debbie Isitt. It centers around Matt Cunnigham (Scott Garnham), a widower with five children who discovers that he has inherited the title farm from his estranged father.
As Matt must complete an important piece of work to please his boss – the Scrooge-like Miss Fletcher (Ashley Jensen) – he decides to visit the farm with his family to get the peace and quiet he needs to get his work done.
Unfortunately, Mistletoe Farm is not an ideal place to work. There’s no WiFi, water leaking from the roof, and a farm full of animals that need looking after. Matt’s chances of getting his pitch done in time are further spoiled by the presence of Beano, the farmhand who proves to be somewhat of an obstacle.
The local villagers aren’t too happy about it and neither are Matt’s kids who want to live on the farm forever! Beano isn’t too pleased either, and along with Matt’s children and the villagers, tries to change Matt’s mind.
So is Matt selling the farm? Or does he decide to keep it and become part of the village? Here’s a look at Netflix’s latest Christmas movie.
How do the villagers respond to Matt?
The villagers are overjoyed to see Matt, not only because they are close to his father, but because they think he has come to save the farm from being taken over by outsiders. They make her and her children very hospitable and go out of their way to help everyone settle in.
These villagers include the local vet, Miss Ashley (Kathryn Drysdale), whom Matt has trouble getting to know at first, but later grows to love.
But while the villagers welcome Matt, he’s not sure if he’ll stay. His father abandoned him and his mother many years ago when he preferred the villagers who needed his help. So Matt has a few painful memories to deal with while living on the farm.
Matt eventually decides that farm life isn’t for him, much to the dismay of his children and the people in the village. Beano and the other villagers try to find ways to change Matt’s mind, but he still insists on leaving. When he finds a brochure with the contact information of a real estate company, he decides to contact them to arrange the sale of the farm.
Is Matt selling the farm?
Real estate developers visit the farm to get estimates, but their first impressions are not good. Like animals, they are disturbed by the smell of the farm. They are also distracted by Beano and the other villagers who try their best to leave the farm. The developers then make a quick exit, much to Matt’s annoyance, but he’s even more worried when his boss comes in from town. After falling into the mud, he angrily fires Matt for not completing his pitch.
Feeling guilty for his part in Matt’s firing, Beano decides to go to town to convince Matt’s boss to give him his job back. He also meets with property developers and convinces them to return to the farm.
But when developers came to the farm to finalize the sale, Matt changed his mind. After realizing the warmth and joy the villagers offer him and his family (and now that he’s in love with Miss Ashley), he decides to stay.
However, there is a problem.
Matt previously signed his name to the developer’s contract, so there’s a chance the sale could still go through. But then Grumpy arrives (not one of Snow White’s dwarves, but a villager) and reveals that he’s a lawyer to save the farm. He has a copy of the probate deed from Matt’s father, which prohibits Matt from selling the property. As a result, after Matt changes his mind, he is unable to sell the farm, which he hadn’t planned on anyway.
How does the movie end?
Like all good Christmas movies, Christmas at Mistletoe Farm ends happily ever after. Not only does Matt and his family decide to live in the countryside with his potential new wife and mother in the form of Miss Ashley, but Matt also manages to reunite with his father! It turns out that the local town crier is Matt’s long-lost father, and he’s not dead at all! She pretended to be dead to lure Matt to the village so the two could get back together. This is no surprise to the villagers, who were planning from the beginning.
Admittedly, this final twist is pretty unbelievable and a little traumatic, because it was pretty cruel to have the father pretend to be dead when Matt already lost his wife. Again, this paved the way for a family reunion with happy results for Matt, his children, and the villagers.
