Familie Bundschuh im Weihnachtschaos (2020)

Christmas is approaching. A week before Christmas Eve, mother and homemaker Gundula Bundschuh feels well prepared enough, despite the holiday bustle building around her family. The only complication is her sister-in-law Rose, who has settled into the Bundschuhs’ house after Gundula’s daughter Ricarda moved out with her baby, Eddie Barack, and is struggling with her fate as a single mother. Rose’s husband, Hadi, who feels unable to raise another man’s child with her, is meanwhile camping in a caravan on the neighboring property—much to the displeasure of his mother, Ilse, who no longer wants him in her front garden and promptly sends him to therapist Mussorkski for behavioral coaching. When Gundula’s mother-in-law suffers an ankle fracture, Gundula is forced to make room in the house once again: Susanne needs family care shortly after falling at the Christmas market. Meanwhile, Gerald discovers that his mother is heavily in debt and cannot keep up with her medical expenses. Desperate, he plans to secretly pay off the outstanding bills using the education savings set aside for Ricarda and Matz. But when student Ricarda announces during the family’s fondue dinner on the fourth Sunday of Advent that she wants to spend a semester abroad in Helsinki and asks her parents for financial support, the plan comes to light, and the evening ends in a full-blown argument among everyone involved. The next morning, Hadi’s camper van is gone—along with Ilse and Susanne, who, after falling out with their children, have put their own quarrels aside and checked into a luxury country hotel at Ilse’s expense after a vehicle breakdown. Ilse demands an apology and asks Mussorkski to bring the family to them on Christmas Eve. Accompanied by Eddie Barack’s father, Reginald Shoemaker, who has turned up at the Bundschuhs’ at Rose’s request and manages to help reconcile her and Hadi, the family sets off for the surrounding countryside. After a stop at a rest area, they accidentally get into the wrong minibus, after their rented minibus has been electronically broken into and stolen. Since they had also electronically broken into the wrong minibus, the police arrest them shortly afterward for (alleged) theft. The police station then contacts Ilse and Susanne, who rush to help their relatives and clear up the misunderstanding. Stranded in the countryside, the hungry family finds shelter in a church, where, in return for dinner, they promptly step in for the Nativity-play group at Midnight Mass, which could not make it because its minibus had been stolen.