'A Christmas Winter Song': Ashanti's Lifetime Christmas movie is just the right recipe to revive the festive spirit
With a few days to go for Christmas, there might still be those who have not awakened their Christmas spirit yet -- and Lifetime has just the perfect movie for them. Produced by and starring Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Ashanti, 'A Christmas Winter Song' also stars Stan Shaw and Sashani Nicole.
Ashanti's character, Clio, is spending her first Christmas without her father, who passed away during the year before. So, Clio is not feeling the Christmas spirit as usual. Clio used to sing at the local Christmas show with her father every year, and though everyone tries to convince her to do it again this year, Clio does not feel like singing at the show without her father.
Unfortunately, at the beginning of the film, she also loses a gold locket -- a Christmas present from her father when she was a child -- making her feel the loss more.
It is then that Clio meets Fred, a homeless man. She offers him a job singing at her shop and even gives him space to stay at the shop and some clothes to wear. When she and Fred talk more, she learns that he is estranged from his daughter, Mia.
Mia, who is now the mother to two daughters, sees Fred and confronts him. Fred tries to reconcile and tries to explain why he left -- he did not want his daughter to see him as a failure. We also learn that Fred is suffering from throat cancer -- but this is something he keeps from Mia.
Eventually, Fred and Clio start singing together and Clio confides in him about the loss she felt over her father's death -- her father had insisted on keeping his cancer diagnosis from her and she regrets not being able to help him more when he was alive and this has left her angry at her mother as well. Clio, after spending time with Fred, decides to join him to sing in the Christmas show.
Unfortunately, the night of the Christmas show, Fred faints in the shop just before Clio's mother could pick him up. When Fred fails to show up at the Christmas show, Mia is convinced that he has abandoned her again, but Clio has faith that there is a good reason.
When Clio finds out that he is at the hospital, she rushes with her husband, Jack to see Fred. Together, Clio and Fred perform a song and Jack helps broadcast the performance to the Christmas show venue.
When Mia sees this, she rushes to the hospital with her daughters, leading to a very tearful reunion where Fred confesses that he did not want his daughter to forgive him by dangling his diagnosis over her head.
Fred had also found Clio's locket just before he passed out and returns it to her. Meanwhile, Fred's doctor recommends a new treatment that would help him live longer without the surgery that would take his voice away.
Through Clio, Fred was able to get his family back and the same can be said for Clio as well. The movie featues your favorite Christmas songs, and Ashanti and Stan Shaw sings them with so much heart and the movie ends with the reassurance of a happy ending.
'A Christmas Winter Song' airs on Lifetime on December 14.