A Very 'Krank'-y Christmas
CBN.com GORMAN WOODFIN (reporting): What if one Christmas you just had enough, enough of all the materialism and hectic holiday festivities, and decided to skip Christmas? Well that is exactly what Luther and Nora Krank decide to do in the new holiday movie Christmas with the Kranks, based on the John Grisham book Skipping Christmas. Tim Allen plays Luther Krank and Jamie Lee Curtis is his wife, Nora. Jamie Lee Curtis explains the plot.
JAMIE LEE CURTIS (who plays Nora Krank): [It's about] a couple whose daughter has gone off to the Peace Corps who is facing their first Christmas alone without her, in a town where people love and celebrate Christmas, and the husband has an idea that if they don’t participate in Christmas at all, they give no donations, they don’t buy presents for anybody or accept them, they can save the money, go on a cruise, get a two week holiday, and not have to deal with the stress and not have to deal with missing their daughter.
GORMAN WOODFIN (reporting): Tim Allen talked about the true meaning of Christmas.
TIM ALLEN (who plays Luther Krank): This always comes up when we talk about Christmas movies. It’s really about the birth of Jesus—is what it was. I was a church kid and we had mangers everywhere. That’s what it was about. We were really excited about that whole story. And on top of that, you had this other ancillary character about Santa Clause. Eventually, as you get older, you combine the two. I still think that is a dangerous situation.
GORMAN WOODFIN: To me it deals with Christmas in such a way where you see the materialism of Christmas but it also teaches you the true value of Christmas. What is the true value to you?
JAMIE LEE CURTIS: It’s not about having the perfect ornament and all the other stuff that every big company would like you to think it is about. Yes, some decorations are nice. If you look back at the old fashioned decorations, they’re popcorn strung with a needle and a thread with the little cranberries. I mean, that to me really is where it began. And then it has become where everything is fake. I think that the good thing about the John Grisham book was that it pointed the finger at that, yet it really highlighted what was important, which is your family.
GORMAN WOODFIN (reporting): While this movie teaches some great lessons about the holidays, it is extremely funny. Ultimately, this PG holiday movie paints a warm picture of family togetherness at Christmas. And Tim Allen says the film’s theme is clear.
TIM ALLEN: The holiday does become about self absorption. You get so involved in what you aren’t and are doing -- You got to go to this. You got to go to that. And it really is about giving of yourself, doing something for somebody else like you would like them to do it for you.
