One of my favorite Christmas movies is “The 12 Dogs of Christmas” Set during the Great Depression, this Christmas movie is also the only dog movie that I can recall featuring a girl as the main protagonist. In fact, this movie features a lot of strong female characters. The story begins with 12-year-old Emma O’Conner being sent to live with her supposed Aunt in Doverville while her father leaves to search for work.

Doverville is a small town in Maine with an anti-dog policy; dogs have been banned altogether from the growing town. Emma did not receive a warm welcome when she arrived at Dolores’s home. A self-employed woman who manages her own hair salon, her supposed “Aunt Dolores” threatened to toss her out. At the last minute, Dolores relented and permitted Emma to stay if she paid rent. During her own search for a job, Emma rescued a stray puppy from the evil dogcatcher in a town that has banned dogs altogether.

As Emma learns about Doverville, she befriended Cathy Stevens who runs a dog orphanage right outside the Doverville city limits. The main conflict ensues when the town council agreed to expand the limit and include her orphanage. This meant her orphanage must abide by the ban against dogs. Cathy Stevens was then given a deadline for the removal of her dogs – December 25th. Desperate to save the dogs, Emma O’Conner found herself at war with the Dogcatcher and Doverville’s anti-dog policy. In the meantime, the school’s football coach was put in charge of directing the school Christmas pageant. After fumbling constantly, he discovered that he is a much better coach than director. He then hired Cathy Stevens to help him with the Christmas pageant in exchange for helping to feed the dogs.

Throughout the entire movie, Emma and the Dogcatcher strive to out-wit each other. The Dogcatcher seemed to have the upper hand until the very end when Emma realized that the best way to defeat him is to change Doverville’s anti-dog policy and to make Doverville a dog-friendly place. She decided to use the school pageant to reach out to the townspeople. However, right at the end, the Dogcatcher interfered and appeared to have ruined her plan. Fortunately, Emma’s quick-thinking and clever last-minute improvisation defeated the Dogcatcher and convinced the Doverville town council to accept dogs and become a dog-friendly community.

This is a great Christmas movie based partially after the carol “the 12 days of Christmas.” It is both a unique Christmas and dog movie in that it is set in the 1930s and features a girl as the main protagonist who must save the dogs. I have never seen these two genres placed together before, let alone in this time period or with a female protagonist. Two minor female characters whose names I forget are a lady with a Chihuahua who convinces Aunt Dolores to let Emma stay and a classmate whose great math skills help the coach figure out how much food the dogs need and also gives Emma the inspiration needed to change the town council’s policy. I recommend this movie for everyone to watch. It will be a great Christmas gift!

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