Summaries

Synopsis

Hope for the Holidays is an inspirational Christmas story of how one young man's love for his dying mother leads him to commit the biggest mistake of his life, and how with the help of faith and the kindness of others, he finds redemption on Christmas day.

Danny Petros never meant to be a criminal. But when his mother is diagnosed with cancer, her only fighting chance lies in drugs neither she nor Danny can afford.Willing to do anything for his mother, Danny holds up a bank, only to be caught and sent to prison.

In prison, Danny commits to being a better man and earning early release so that he can see his mother before she dies. But protecting another inmate from a savage beating in the yard gets him sent to solitary confinement. There he meets Mike "Mouse" Sanchez.

Mouse is a kindred spirit who shares with Danny a belief in faith and the power of second chances. An Iraq War veteran, Mouse helps Danny endure the psychological strain of life in solitary confinement, and the particularly inhumane treatment of malicious prison guard John White.

As Georgia Petros lies dying in a hospice, fighting to hang on so that she might see her son one last time, she is championed by a local couple, Scott Sullivan and Cassie Jensen. Young volunteers from the local church outreach program, they agree to deliver a message from Georgia to her son. Georgia wants Danny to know that the "Talking Christmas Tree" has told her he will be released so that they can be together. Nurse Sandy Caplan and Doctor Phil Workman both assume.that Georgia's obsession with the small decorative Christmas tree in her room is simply dementia, a product of her illness and intense pain. But they, too, hope beyond hope that Georgia's Christmas wish to see her son one last time comes true.