Ebbie

Ebbie or Miracle at Christmas: Ebbie's Story is a 1995 TV movie directed by George Kaczender, written by Ed Redlich, and starring Susan Lucci in the title role.

Plot

The story follows a scrooge-like woman, Elizabeth "Ebbie" Scrooge. She has never appreciated Christmas, and has been very rotten to the holidays(similar to Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol). She doesn't give to the needy, doesn't care about her employees at Dobson's, the store she owns, and most of all, she works on Christmas. One night, the ghost of her partner, Jake Marley, (Jeffrey DeMunn), haunts her. She is soon brought to him and the ghosts of Christmas Past (Jennifer Clement and Nicole Parker) show her the Christmases she has celebrated. They take her to a very significant Christmas, the one her sister Francine (Molly Parker) died after nearly miscarrying her niece. It is also the Christmas she met her soon-to-be boyfriend Paul (Ron Lea). They show her many other Christmases, including a very grim one, where Paul leaves her, although she and Marley take over Dobson's.

Ebbie is transported to the Ghost of Christmas Present (Lorena Gale), who is also another coworker, Rita. It shows her the life of her co-worker Roberta Cratchet (Wendy Crewson), and her son, Tiny Tim (Taran Noah Smith). Then it shows her how the party that she is invited to every year, by her niece (also Molly Parker), but has always declined. (It show them toasting Ebbie, but her niece does not drink to her.) It shows her Paul, and his wife, and it shows her many other things, including homeless children she has shunned charity for (and the Present ghost shoving all of her bad words back on her).

Then the ghost of Christmas Future (a security guard who she had fired earlier that day) shows her many terrible futures, including one where Tiny Tim dies, how Dobson's is shut down, and one where she herself dies and nobody comes to see her.

After the experience, Ebbie becomes a better person. She is shown the next morning, where she bids good morning to the doorman, and he is surprised. She also orders a large turkey for the Cratchets, gives money for the poor children, buys a coat for a homeless woman (Elan Ross Gibson) and offers her a job, gives Rita a raise, gives a better job to Roberta, and finally attends the party her niece has been inviting her to. The movie ends with Ebbie at the Cratchets house, eating dinner with them.

ources

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112929/ Entry on the Internet Movie Database]