In the spirit of the upcoming holiday season, Netflix has begun to release a new batch of Christmas movies.

Fortunately for us, “The Holiday Calendar” brought all the warm feelings in anticipation for Christmas as well as important messages.

Kat Graham portrays Abby Sutton, a photographer struggling to reach her true dreams. Sutton’s best friend Josh Barton, portrayed by Quincy Brown, is a traveling photographer. Barton surprises Sutton by coming back to town in time for Christmas.

Sutton later gets a gift from her grandfather, an antique advent calendar that her late grandmother got in France. Throughout the movie, Sutton gets a new figurine from the calendar every day and eventually realizes that the calendar predicts the near future which leaves the viewer in suspense for the events that will occur later in the movie, making it very exciting to watch.

The advent calendar doesn’t just present Sutton with presents such as boots and a short relationship with Doctor Ty Walker, who is portrayed by Ethan Peck, but it also brings her important things such as life lessons and eventually real true love that had been there all along.

The key point of the story is how relationship bonds come and go and find their way back. When Sutton lets her friends down, she gets advice from two new strangers she met who reminded her that “what matters is how you make people feel and how you feel about people” which followed her throughout the movie. As the viewer, I also resonated with this because I know that I will be leaving my friends when I go to college, but this theme reminded me that true friendships never end and will always come back.

Senior Katelyn Kinczel also watched “The Holiday Calendar” and enjoyed it. She said, “I loved the movie! I think the best lesson that is given throughout the movie is that when it comes to love, it’s not about what looks perfect on paper. Life is really about real connections which was shown with the differences in Abby’s relationship with Ty versus her relationship with Josh.”

While “The Holiday Calendar” is a cute, fun Christmas movie, it also gave important life lessons that made it even more enjoyable, realistic and helpful to viewers. When Sutton gets into a rather large argument with Barton, her grandfather gives her a piece of advice, saying that it “wouldn’t be much of a friendship if you gave up now.” Which Sutton later realizes to be very true when she reminisces on the old times with Barton.

This film was quite eye-opening while still being very entertaining. There were themes of love, relationships and the Christmas spirit, but there were also many themes dealing with work struggles, loss and finding and losing one’s true self as Sutton’s story progresses.

As for the acting, the chemistry between characters such as Sutton and Barton as well as Sutton and her grandfather really showed what true relationships are like. It spreads the message that every relationship has its ups and downs, but in the end, true love always finds its way back.

I personally would give “The Holiday Calendar” 9/10 candy canes because it brought me joy while watching it, and it also made me think about life and all that it offers over a course of time. This film really opened my eyes to the reality of the importance of the bonds we make in life while still filling my heart with anticipation for Christmas spirit. The only thing I believe could have been improved was the ending because while it was very happy, it could have been more exciting.