Mary Christmas (film)

Mary Christmas is a 2002 American Christmas movie written by Stanley M. Brooks and Betty G. Birney. It was directed by and stars John Schneider. In the movie Joel Wallace, Schneider's character, is a widower raising a daughter, Felice (Jenna Boyd). In her Christmas letter to Santa Claus, Felice wishes for a new mother for Christmas. The letter is intercepted by a local news producer who cancels reporter Mary Maloney's vacation and sends her to investigate the Wallace family as a human interest story. Most of the movie deals with Joel's searching for a new wife that will be Felice's mother. The ending takes a bit of a twist, though, when it turns out that Mary is Felice's birth mother who had given her up for adoption. The movie incorporates a little extra magic with "governor" Les Turner whom Felice thinks is Santa Claus.