Preteen Rowena "Ro" Clybourne (played by Scarlett Estevez) is a high-spirited 12-year-old who is determined to have the best Christmas ever at all costs, in an attempt to help her divorced parents reconcile. When her holiday does not go as planned, she makes a wish to a visiting mall Santa that she could have Christmas again. This results in Ro experiencing Christmas Day over and over, and she must learn to accept her family the way it is and learn the true meaning of Christmas should this wish ever come to an end.
Not to be confused with the 2015 indie drama Christmas, Again.
This movie provides examples of:
- Amicably Divorced: Ro's parents, much to her displeasure. Her mom and dad have been divorced for a while, but they're both capable of spending the holidays together to the point her dad even brought along his girlfriend and her son.
- An Aesop:
- Christmas shouldn't just be about you. It's about being with everyone else, including yourself.
- Things change and you can't bring back the past, and that's okay.
- Bait-and-Switch: The trailers initially present Ro's dilemma as her typically getting sick of Christmas after repeating it for weeks, if not months. What actually causes her to grow sick of the loop and of Christmas is the discovery her dad's marrying his girlfriend, and her parents are never getting back together.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Ro wishes she could have Christmas again. She at first has fun with the "Groundhog Day" Loop, but eventually hates it and wishes it to stop.
- Christmas Every Day: As mentioned above and below, Ro wishes to celebrate Christmas again and ends up in a loop of the exact same one. Unlike most example of this trope, it's not the holiday itself that wears Ro out, it's finding out her dad's marrying his girlfriend which shatters her belief in Christmas.
- Despair Event Horizon: Ro eventually reaches it in the loops when informed her dad's going to remarry after she worked so hard trying to recreate her mom and dad's favorite Christmas. Ro spends the next several dozen loops deciding Christmas doesn't matter anymore.
- Divorce Is Temporary: Defied. Ro wants to invoke this trope by exploiting the loop to get her parents back together. She crosses the Despair Event Horizon when she learns her dad's planning to marry his girlfriend.
- The Gadfly: Ro messes with her family by asking them random questions in one loop, then in next she pretends to be psychic by rattling off things they never told her and stuff they were currently thinking.
- Golden Ending: Ro's final Christmas loop is spent helping out everyone she's encountered throughout the various other loops to ensure they have an amazing Christmas. She averts multiple incidents, aids two kids in raising money for charity, indirectly gets the local bully to have a Heel–Face Turn, and potentially introduces her mom to a new boyfriend. By the end of the day, every person Ro's helped shows up at her house to say thanks, and it turns into a major, impromptu Christmas party.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: A wish to have Christmas again places Ro in a time loop where she experiences Christmas Day over and over.
- It's All About Me: Ro, naturally for this story, is only concerned with how her Christmas is going and exploits the looping Christmas to do whatever she wants. Several moments show her basically usurping or ruining special moments for other people, figuring it won't matter since the day repeats.
- Shout-Out:
- Rowena wakes up to her alarm clock playing an obnoxious song followed by a radio announcement, just like how Phil Connors does in Groundhog Day. Like Phil, she gets fed up with her radio and goes to elaborate measures to get rid of it, failing each time as the day resets.
- Rowena reads A Christmas Carol, which helps her understand the meaning of Christmas.
- Spoiled Brat: Ro's behavior during the first Christmas has shades of this, as she pitches hissy fit after hissy fit because things aren't going like she expected until she finally screams at everyone that they ruined Christmas.
- Three-Month-Old Newborn: Cupcake's newborn kittens are very obviously played by several-week-old cats.
- Trailers Always Lie: The Disney Channel commercials for the movie feature Ro telling her family she doesn't believe in Christmas anymore, followed by Santa granting her wish for a do over. The specific scene of Ro announcing her lack of faith in the holiday happens halfway in and long after she starts repeating Christmas, and thus is not the reason why Santa grants her wish to keep repeating the same day.
