I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998)

I'll Be Home for Christmas is a 1998 Christmas-themed film. Jonathan Taylor Thomas stars as a college student Jake Wilkinson attending school in California, Palisades College, who has hardly ever been home for Christmas.

Plot
A few days before Christmas Eve, his father offers to give him a vintage 1957 Porsche if Jake Wilkinson (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) is home in by 6:00 p.m. Christmas Eve (when the family has dinner) in New York. Jake prepares to go; however, a group of bullies leave him in the middle of the desert dressed as Santa Claus. The bullies do this as punishment for not getting an exam cheat sheet from Jake, not knowing that it was their leader Eddie Taffet (Adam LaVorgna) who prevented it, to get Jake out of the way and claim Jake's girlfriend Allie (Jessica Biel) for himself. While Jake is stuck in the California desert, Eddie is giving Allie a ride to New York. Now, Jake has only three days to make it to Larchmont, New York if he wants the car and Allie.

He stumbles upon a few obstacles such as a thief who is driving kitchen goods to his dealer near New York so Jake hitches a ride with him, unbeknown to him that the man is a thief. A police officer pulls them over for speeding and becomes suspicious of them, so Jake lies and says that the man is his elf and they are donating the goods to the children's hospital. The police officer offers for them to follow him since he is heading in the same direction. At the hospital the children remind Jake, the thief and the police officer about the importance of family, and the thief decides to win back his girlfriend who is headed in the opposite direction. The police officer buys Jake a bus ticket to New York.

Meanwhile Allie and Eddie are heading for New York and decide to stay at a pretend village hotel and are caught kissing under a mistletoe on camera by Jake. Hesitant to speed the bus up, he uses a cooler and a week-old meat sandwich saying that it is a liver which is for a little girl at the hospital. He finds the village and Allie and Eddie's room; he sees Eddie walk out of the shower in a towel and assumes that he had slept with Allie (he didn't, Allie made him sleep in a sleeping bag). Jake and Allie eventually make up but Jake blurts out that Eddie prevented him from getting his dad's car. Upset that Jake had come there to get the car and not herself (which he actually did), she replaces his seat on the bus and leaves.

Jake and Eddie drive off. Jake tells Eddie that he will go home, win back Allie, and get the car. Eddie, jealous that Jake will get Allie, throws Jake out but is soon arrested. Jake decides to enter a Santa Claus race to win a $1000 prize so he can buy a plane ticket to New York. He meets a nice man whom he beats and wins the prize, but on his way to the airport he learns that the man is actually the mayor who uses the prize money to buy turkeys for the needy. Jake reluctantly gives the money to the mayor and calls home. Jake's sister arranges for a plane ticket for Jake but he is not granted the ticket since he has no photograph identification, so he decides to stow away in a dog kennel in a cargo plane. When he reaches New York he apologies to Allie, purposely waits in front of his father's house so he'll be a minute late for the car deal, and even refuses to take the car when his dad says he's only a few minutes late.

Cast

 * Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Jake Wilkinson
 * Jessica Biel as Allie Henderson
 * Adam LaVorgna as Eddie
 * Gary Cole as Jake's dad
 * Eve Gordon as Carolyn Wilkinson
 * Lauren Maltby as Tracey Wilkinson
 * Andrew Lauer as Nolan
 * Sean O'Bryan as Officer Max
 * Lesley Boone as Marjorie

U.S. TV Airings
I'll Be Home for Christmas aired on ABC a few times, before and after it aired on the Starz/Encore premium channels. Disney Channel originally aired it in 2002, but due to unresolved conflicts, as of 2007, it hasn't shown on that station. In 2009, the movie premiered on Hallmark Channel.

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