A newlywed couple prepare for their perfect first Christmas, in their perfect new home, when their not so perfect families crash the festivities.

SYNOPSIS:

Growing up in a meager, low-income neighborhood of Baltimore, little Michael Hickey’s Christmases were always the same… boring, bleak and fatherless. Michael’s desire to know his real father, who abandoned him at birth, left him longing to celebrate Christmas surrounded by a big, loving family. Despite the efforts of his eccentric mom, Mary, with her Baby Jesus-shaped eggs and turkey slice mangers… and his tyrannical older brother, Lenny, who never fails to deflate Michael’s smidgen of joy, Michael dreams of a day when he’ll be old enough to start his own family traditions - even grander than those happy neighbors across the street.

Meanwhile, 200 miles away, in Brooklyn, NY, the complete antithesis to Michael’s sparse Christmas celebration is raging on. Little Angeliki Papadoulopoulus, ‘Liki’ for short, is fed up with her big Greek family holidays. From the endless borage of food, cigarette smoke and Greek music, to wrapping paper shrapnel and drunk aunts, with their Baklava encrusted fingers throwing plates out windows - “OPA!”, the whole holiday disgusts 8-year old Liki. Her only saving grace, the love of her life, her Papa, who tries to impart wisdom into his stubborn, headstrong little girl… but to no avail. Liki can’t see beyond the chaos. Escaping to her bedroom, Liki dreams of a time when she too will be old enough to start her own tradition of an intimate, refined Christmas, absent all the bourgeois, tacky family customs.

Both little Michael and Liki make a promise to themselves that one day… when they’re old enough, they'll have the most perfect Christmas ever.

Fast forward 25 years later, Michael’s now a successful hedge fund manager and married to the equally successful, interior designer Angeliki. And it’s their first Christmas as a married couple. They’re living their most perfect lives, with their perfect jobs, in their perfect new home. The air is filled with excitement as Michael and Liki scurry off planning their respective surprises - with Michael secretly arranging the largest gathering imaginable, including their extended families, his estranged father and even any lonesome sole from the town to drop in. While Liki has planned the complete opposite, a romantic, pristine party for two. Calamity and madness ensue when the entire family descends on the house. Michael slowly loses hope, as well as his mind with each passing second his biological father is a no-show, and the clash of the contrasting holiday visions, leaves a wake of chaos, from the diaper-splatted white rug and vomit inducing rib roast, to the misdirected couples massage and the explosive sibling rivalry. Liki is devastated - it’s all her nightmares at once - as Michael abandons all hope of his biological father showing and witnessing his successes. Just as every shred of sanity and decorum of their first Christmas slips away, both Michael and Liki are reminded of the true meaning of family and Christmas.

**Slapstick - Comparable to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" and "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"