Plot summary

Thirty-two year olds Sam Reed and Kat Patton have known each other most of their lives, having grown up in the same small Illinois town. They were four the year that Kat's mom died, their fathers, Bobby Reed and Tom Patton, started their own custom furniture business, Reed & Patton, and family friend Elissa Beth Dixon - E.B. - began what would become the tradition of hosting a Christmas Eve dinner and party at her house. Bobby and Tom built Sam and Kat a small children's sized table that year that serves as their Christmas Eve dinner table to this day, with other children joining them as the years went on. E.B.'s tradition seemed natural as she keeps her Christmas lights up on her house year 'round, and as she amasses more decorations every year. Through the years, Sam and Kat's relationship is not always cordial, especially in their teenaged years. Sam left town to go away to school at age eighteen, eventually settling in New York City as a journalist. He returns to town most Christmases for the Christmas Eve dinner, while Kat has remained in town, she eventually getting a job in the family business. Thus, Sam and Kat only see each other at most once a year during the holidays, however being there in spirit for the other year 'round without really knowing what is truly going on in the other's life. On Christmas Eve, they are there as the other goes through romance and heartache with others. Through it all, there is generally an unspoken knowledge that despite their distance most of the year their friendship is more than that, which is often hindered by one or the other being in what looks to be a serious relationship with someone else. But underlying issues may place walls between them ever coming together romantically, specifically why Sam stays away except at Christmas, and why Kat has stayed in town leading what on the surface seems to be a stagnating life.—Huggo