It's Christmas Eve, and a young newspaper reporter on the brink of being fired has been assigned a last-chance story about a typical family Christmas -- his family Christmas. He goes home to his recently widowed mother, his crazy uncle, his eccentric grandmother, and his battling siblings and their neurotic spouses, who provide no shortage of material.

One by one, we learn each family member's secrets, problems, and dysfunctions, and when they learn that he's writing an article with some very personal family information, the fruitcake hits the fan. The question is, will the magic of Christmas bring this family back together?