AllMovie

Bearing a marked resemblance to It's a Wonderful Life, The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story stars Lee Remick as a woman plagued by profound emotional and business problems. It's getting close to Christmas, but Remick is hardly in the mood to celebrate, feeling that her life has lost its purpose. She is revitalized by a dream in which she is reunited with her recently deceased mother (Angela Lansbury), who guides Remick through an inspiring replay of her Depression-era childhood. Earl Hamner, of Waltons fame, penned the determinedly lachrymose screenplay. Filmed on location in Vermont, the made-for-TV The Gift of Love was originally aired five days before Christmas in 1983.