Christmastime at the Plaza with Eloise

Over the years, Mom had read many books to my siblings and me, when we were young. One of our favorite Christmas stories was ‘Eloise at Christmastime’ by Kay Thompson. It was a children’s story with black, white, and red pictures, and we loved how Mom used certain voices for the different characters.

In 2004, Disney brought out the live action movie of it, rather than a cartoon version to match the original hand drawn pictures in the book.

Eloise (Sofia Vassilieva) is a six-year-old girl who lives in the New York Plaza Hotel with her nanny (Julie Andrews). Her mother travels a lot, so she isn’t at the hotel much. Eloise is a precocious girl who has her own interesting way of looking at things. She has a private tutor come to the hotel for her lessons. She can eat in the dining room or have her meal sent up to her room. To her, the hotel is not only her home, but contains a chief, maintenance personal, a Laundromat, people to clean for her, a gift shop, a barbershop, ect. The hotel is like a cross between living in a castle and living in a mini town. There are always new people around, new things to see and do (and to spy on or overhear). She brings smiles, laughs, and aggravation to all the people at the hotel, employee and guest alike.

It’s Christmastime at the Plaza, and Eloise is excited about Christmas. There is so much to do: go shopping, find out what all of her presents are before Christmas, help out her neighbors, and keep an eye on a man that she doesn’t like. When she finds out about a wedding that is supposed to take place at the hotel on Christmas Eve, then she just has to help out with that too!

Note of warning: if she was my child, she would not have been allowed to wander freely about the hotel. Most of the people in the story just smiled at her or tried to ignore her. No one tried to stop her and return her to her suite for the most part. There was a part when she went to the dining room and charged a meal to her suite, without an adult. Why wasn’t her nanny being notified of the fact that she was in the dining room? And the money she spends is over the top. Clearly she doesn’t understand the true value of money. If you look at the story as a fun movie to watch, that’s great! But if you are showing this to your kids, you might want to make sure that they understand that they should never try many of the things that Eloise did in the movie. But’s that just my opinion! I will note that she was a big-hearted child that loved life and people, treating all of the employees as family. And every employee knew who she was and kept their eye on her, so she didn’t get into too much trouble.

Over all, this is a fun family movie and enjoyable for all ages. Thank you Disney for bringing a wonderful story book to life! I thought Sofia, who plays Eloise, did a splendid job. If you wish to get this wonderful, hilarious, crazy movie or get the original book.