Sunday, July 7, 2019
It's Raining Cats and Dogs: The Story of Felines and Canines Falling from the Sky
THE CHRISTMAS LANTERN FESTIVAL synopsis
Holding hands, 10-year-old Jule Schmidt and her 7-year-old brother Killian admire glowing Christmas lanterns on the Rhine River. Since birth, Killian has been blind. So, Jule is his eyes and always tries to see for him. She points out all the wonderful sights in the world. On this special night, Jule and Killian wander from their parents and sit on the old rickety bridge that crosses a narrow part of the river. Jule likes to make prayers to the angels and insists that she has met a large angel by the bridge. She tells Killian that the angel told her that he would be healed of blindness.
As Killian sits down on the corner of the creaking bridge, Jule sits beside him. She hopes that the angel appears. When Jule spoke to the angel, she said the angel told her that in certain seasons she descends into the river and stirs up the water. Then, after she stirs up the water, whoever first steps into the river is made well from whatever disease is in their body. Killian says he thinks that he shouldn’t get into the river because he cannot swim, and he might drown. With that, a mighty wind blows the lanterns across the river in a squall, and the side of the bridge where Killian and Jule are sitting breaks. The brother and sister fall into the raging current of the river. Jule kicks as hard as she can to keep her and her brother afloat.
As Jule looks at her brother with fear, a bright light shines on them from above the river. Then, a loud voice booms throughout the rippling water: “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened.” Suddenly, the angel with long golden hair and a pink dress with a blue flowing jacket stands before them. Before they drown in the water, their father grabs both children by the arms and swims with them to the surface. Both children feel a second pair of large hands on their forearms from the angel in the pink dress. The crowd of people on the riverbank throw a scarf into the river, which Christoph grabs. The father and his two children are pulled to shore as the angel did more than her share of towing the family to the bank. Killian covers his eyes from the shining lights from the Christmas lanterns. He buries his head in his father’s shoulder. Killian realizes that he can see for the first time because of the Angel that Troubled the Waters. Jule got her prayers answered for her brother, and all the trouble had somehow been turned to good because her brother could finally see.
TOY TRAINS synopsis
CHRISTMAS BOXING DAY synopsis
THE MISTLETOES synopsis
Twelve-year-old Daniëlle Kappel is so sad that her mother died that she is desperately trying to get along with her stepmother. She tries to please her father by running an errand for her stepmother on Christmas Day. Her stepmother wants her to deliver a basket of baked goods to her deceased mother’s sister on the coast. Her jealous stepmother also leaves for Christmas Day and says she is running her own errand. Mr. Kappel agrees, and he expects them back for Christmas dinner. However, the stepmother is actually a witch and kills Daniëlle’s aunt and almost does the same to Daniëlle and her father except a magical group of Sinterklaas’ elves named the Mistletoes help save them with their songs. The heroine and her father celebrate Christmas in peace and find true love!
A twelve-year-old Dutch girl named Daniëlle Kappel lives in a castle on the Holland coast with the windmills. She places her wooden shoes next to the fireplace for Sinterklaas and kisses her father on the cheek. Then, she displays her large Christmas bouquet of mistletoe from her friend Niels on the fireplace mantle. Her stepmother is jealous of the gift she has received from her friend Niels. Not sure what to say, the little Dutch girl seeks compassion from her father. She asks him what he is getting her for Christmas. She flips open her father’s pocket watch and looks at the late hour. After all, her father is a very rich merchant who sends ships all over the world and trades rare goods in foreign lands. When she was young, she and her mother would spend hours in the fields by the ocean and frolicked by the windmills.
When Daniëlle awakes on Christmas morning, she finds her shoes filled with candies, coins, and her father’s pocket watch. More jealous of Daniëlle than before, the stepmother manipulates her to run an errand on Christmas Day to her deceased mother’s sister, who lives in a cottage on the coast. She asks her to deliver a basket of baked goods and fruit. The stepmother says that she has an errand to run as well. Mr. Kappel anticipates his step wife and daughter to return for Christmas dinner. However, Daniëlle’s stepmother, dressed as a witch, locks her in a windmill and leaves her for dead. Daniëlle dreams about her mother and wakes up to find the singing Mistletoes at her side, seven musical elves from Sinterklaas’ blistering cold North Pole: Joyful, Cheerful, Merry, Peaceful, Carol, Nightfall, and Claus. Apparently, the elves had been living with her aunt. When the elves found her aunt dead, they followed footsteps in the snow to Daniëlle. The elves explain to Daniëlle that her aunt always thought a witch killed her mother, and the witch was her stepmother.
At once, the Christmas Dutch Girl and the seven musical elves set out to save Daniëlle’s father from the witchy stepmother. When Daniëlle and the elves reach her father’s home, Daniëlle bursts through the castle with the Mistletoes who sing in full voice. The witch—who grew as big as the ceiling—holds a large knife at Daniëlle’s father’s throat. The Mistletoes sing in harmony and shrink the witch back to normal size. Before the witch can regain her large stature, Sinterklaas lands in the front yard with Rudolph and his sleigh of reindeer. Daniëlle wrestles with the witch until she drops the knife on the kitchen floor. Sinterklaas takes the witch to the North Pole to work for him as punishment. As the years go by, Sinterklaas brings both Daniëlle and Meneer Kappel true love. The wicked witch never bothers anyone in Holland again, and Christmas lives on in peace.