‘Different Kind’ Offers a Rush of Sweetness

Even jolly old St. Nick might choke on the sugary sentiment in Lifetime’s nod to the season, “A Different Kind of Christmas,” starring Shelley Long.

Long plays Elizabeth, a single mom/city attorney/mayoral candidate, trying to fend off nasty land developers, save a historic train station, establish a community center and win an election, while suffering guilt over time not spent with her 10-year-old son Tommy (Nathan Lawrence).

Things get really dicey for Candidate Mom with the arrival of the town’s new resident, a sincere eccentric who calls himself Santa Claus and dresses the part, charms children, stops traffic and enrages neighbors with his garish yard decor, complete with live reindeer and snow machine.

*

It doesn’t take much for “Santa” (Bruce Kirby) to convince Tommy and his friends that he’s the real thing. Mom, however, declares Santa a public nuisance and signs a restraining order to shut down his one-man, do-good operation.

What makes Elizabeth such a Grinch? Suffice it to say that in this forced teleplay by Bart Baker, aided and abetted by director Tom McLoughlin, painful childhood memories are involved.

Enter the redemption-through-imperiled child device: Tommy is hit by a truck. A quick recovery follows Elizabeth’s avowal that she now believes in Santa and, in case we miss the connection, a doctor sets us straight: “You know, I don’t think medicine had much to do with this.”

Meanwhile, Elizabeth’s love interest is a reporter (Barry Bostwick) whose beat is city government. No conflict of interest here. Does he lose his job when he delays writing the hottest story of the year because it involves her secret? Is Rudolph’s nose blue?

The cloying ending, complete with snow in July, is almost comical in its kitchen-sink excess. The only saving grace is that the wisely understated performances by Long, Bostwick and Kirby don’t contribute to the stickiness.

* “A Different Kind of Christmas” airs at 8 tonight on Lifetime.