A cynical journalist decides to take a train from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles for Christmas to get inspiration for a story in honor of his late father. He gets to know the other passengers and runs into an old flame while aboard.
A writer takes a four day trip on a train hoping to get ideas for a book he's writing in memory of his father. His true love happens to be on the train writing a script. They bond with different people along the way. It's obvious the two are still in love.
The nicknamed Christmas Train is a four day cross country train trip from Washington, DC to Los Angeles, arriving on the morning of Christmas Day. Among this year's passengers are two people looking for a story. Freelance journalist Tom Langdon, who now writes primarily fluff pieces, is looking to write about the stories concerning the trip itself, it meant to be a homage to his deceased father who was a train aficionado. He is on his way to spend Christmas with his girlfriend, an actress named Lelia, who is not too happy that he would spend four days on a train, time which he could have used to spend with her instead. And Hollywood movie director Max Powers, in taking the train home to LA, has flown his longtime script doctor Eleanor Carter from LA to DC to accompany him on the trip, he hoping that the train ride will provide her with some inspiration to write her first ever screenplay, and perhaps for her to find some romance with another passenger along the way. In Tom meeting Max on the train, Tom and Eleanor meet, they who, unknown to others on the train including Max, have a long and deep history: they were once war correspondents together and were then romantically involved. They have not seen each other since they broke up, when she wanted to give up the correspondent life for a more stable life back in the States, he unwilling to follow her at the time. The wounds from their relationship are still just as deep, although they cannot hide the fact that they still have feelings for one another, the other who they once considered their one true love. What happens between Tom and Eleanor is affected by other passengers on the train, including some who seem to know everything that's going on for one reason or another: Agnes, the stereotypical busybody; Misty, who considers herself to be psychic; and Higgins, who laments that he was forced out of working for the train company due to his age. What happens between them is also affected by: Steve and Julie, a young couple eloping as his upper crust parents don't approve in she being a back woods Kentucky girl; someone who boards the train at the last minute in Chicago; a seeming unknown kleptomaniac on board; and a situation mirroring as close to Tom and Eleanor's war correspondent days as can be in peace time US. Overseeing all these goings-on may be a little Christmas magic, with a little Hollywood magic thrown in for good measure.—Huggo
