Netflix’s 2025 Christmas release, A Merry Little Ex-Mas, is centered around Kate and Everett, a couple who were struggling to hold their marriage together. Kate was an architect who thought she would change the world, but that was before she crossed paths with Everett, a med student, and they soon became obsessed with each other. They eventually got married, and when Everett decided to set up a practice in his hometown, Winterlight, Kate decided to accompany him. She described the small town as a magical place that she immediately fell in love with, but gradually the spark started to fade away, and Kate often caught herself wondering if she’d made a mistake by giving up on her career to support her husband.
Both Kate and Everett realized that they wanted different things from life, and they decided it was best for them to get a divorce. They had no intention of ending their relationship on a bitter note, and they preferred calling it ‘conscious uncoupling’ instead of a divorce. But then came Christmas, and Kate and Everett decided to spend it together with their children, because they wanted to stick to their Christmas traditions. But Kate didn’t share a secret with Everett and her children—she’d decided to move to Boston, so this was the last Christmas that they would probably spend together in their family house.
Spoiler Alert
Why did Tess leave?
Kate pretended to not care, but she was deeply affected when she learned about Everett’s girlfriend, Tess. She was everything that Kate wished she could’ve been. Tess was a successful entrepreneur who ran a global nonprofit, and she was famous in the right circles. She was in Winterlight for work when she sprained her ankle, and she took a liking to the doctor she consulted. Tess and Everett started dating after Thanksgiving, and it was a lot for Kate to process. As an environmentalist, Kate encouraged her children to not seek materialistic pleasure, and she’d designed the Christmas traditions in a way that didn’t affect the environment. She had always bought her children thrifted clothes, and they only exchanged handmade gifts. But after Tess met Everett and Kate’s children, Gabe and Sienna, she spoiled them with new clothes and expensive gifts. Kate had always wanted her children to be environmentally conscious, and she wondered if they would even remember all the lessons that she’d taught them. She feared that Tess would find a way to win over her children, and she wasn’t comfortable with the idea of Everett building a future with Tess.
To make her ex-husband jealous, Kate brought along Chet, a twenty-eight-year-old jack-of-all-trades she’d crossed paths with at the Christmas tree store. Chet wasn’t the brightest, but he sure was entertaining and attractive. Kate’s plan worked, and Everett was visibly jealous, and he realized that he felt uncomfortable imagining Kate with another man. Kate and Everett shared a romantic moment when they went on a sled ride together, and Tess noticed the chemistry between them. She later asked Kate why she chose to walk out of her marriage when clearly they were perfect for each other. Kate reasoned that Everett was always busy with his job, and he never took time for his family. Meanwhile, Everett confessed to Chet that he didn’t enjoy the restrictive life he’d had to live for the sake of Kate’s principles, and he often wondered if she cared more about her cause than his happiness. Eventually, Kate and Everett admitted that they both were responsible for the breakdown of their marriage.
Tess noticed how envious Everett felt every time Kate and Chet got slightly intimate, and the final nail in the coffin for her was when Everett gifted Kate a handmade perfume for Christmas while all she got was AirPods. She realized that Everett wasn’t ready for a new relationship, and she decided it was best for her to walk away. She didn’t think they could ever have a future together, and she admitted that she must have been a little delusional to assume that this could ever work. The roads were blocked after a night of heavy snowstorms, but Tess decided to head to New York anyway. She obviously wasn’t happy with how things turned out, but she refused to settle for anything less than an epic love story. As soon as she stepped out, Chet arrived in a snowplow truck; as it turned out, he was also an emergency-response-team volunteer, and he offered to safely get her out of town. During A Merry Little Ex-Mas’ ending, we discover that Chet and Tess had bought tickets to ‘The Lion King.’ It’s impossible to say if they ended up together, but they surely had a fun fling.
What brought Kate and Everett close?
Christmas brought Kate and Everett back together. They remembered all the good times that they’d spent together, and perhaps just the idea of them dating other people helped them realize how impossibly in love they were. Also, the family traditions helped bring them close. Everett knew how Kate cherished handmade presents, and he remembered that she intended on making the perfume that she always wore. He recreated the perfume from memory, and that just goes on to show how integral Kate was to him. It was only after they had decided to go their separate ways that they realized that separation was almost an impossible idea for them. They had always been a team, and they didn’t wish to spend the rest of their lives apart. Kate sympathized with Everett when he explained that the reason why he always worked hard and felt the need to prove himself was because he desperately wanted to make his fathers proud. Since they were the first gay couple in town to have a kid, people wondered if they would manage to raise their son right, and Everett internalized the challenge and it ultimately messed up his relationship with his family. Everett and Kate always read their family scrapbook to their children on Christmas, and just being together as a family reminded them of what they were about to miss out on. In the end, when Kate disclosed that she had decided to move to Boston to live her dream as a green architect, her family was disheartened. Gabe and Sienna couldn’t believe that she’d decided to sell their family house to fund her dream, and Everett was disappointed that she didn’t care to be transparent about her future goals. As the film progressed, Everett realized that it was unfair to expect Kate to stay, especially after she’d sacrificed her dream to raise their children. She wanted to be more than the local handywoman, and he decided to support her decision.
Did Kate stay back in Winterlight?
Kate had always been prepared for a storm. She had installed solar panels in her house and had enough energy stored in the batteries to sustain even without electricity. So, guess whose house everyone ended up in after a snowstorm? Kate’s house was brimming with people, and she didn’t complain. Although it wasn’t the power supply that lured them. The people Kate had started to call family had come together to bid her farewell. They’d heard about her decision to leave, and they wanted her to know how important she’d been to the community. Kate was praised for installing a living roof on top of City Hall, which encouraged local birds to return to the area. Some thanked her for recommending appliances that helped them save money; Kate had, in more ways than one, positively impacted the lives of those around her. She’d always dreamt of changing the world, and she assumed that she’d failed to live up to her dream, but in that moment, she realized that she’d unintentionally already fulfilled her goals. Yes, it wasn’t as grand as she’d imagined, but the small impact was equally encouraging for her.
Kate also realized that she’d been projecting her fears onto her children—she wasn’t happy about Sienna’s relationship with Nigel because he wasn’t academically brilliant; he planned on working at his parents’ pub in a small town, and she was afraid that Sienna would end up like her, stuck and with a constant sense of regret. But she gradually realized that Nigel was a good guy with positive intentions, and she thought it was unfair to not support their relationship, especially since Sienna was clearly happy with him. She figured out that she needed to let her children make their own choices. So, when Gabe read out his college essay, where he adoringly wrote about how he looked up to his mother and how she’d changed his worldview, Kate felt emotional. He mentioned that even though she thought that she had given up her dreams of changing the world, in reality she had been living her dream on a daily basis, and she’d also taught him how to make life better for other people. Although she was proud of the essay, she chose to burn it, because she didn’t want her son to enroll in a college just because she wanted him to. His dream had always been to be a firefighter and to stay in Winterlight, and she encouraged him to do what his heart desired. She thought Gabe should see the world before making any hasty decisions, but knowing how passionate he was about becoming a firefighter, she realized she would be making a mistake if she didn’t allow him to decide his own future. In the final scene, when Kate handed Everett the divorce paperwork, he made it very clear that he wasn’t ready to finalize their divorce. The last couple of days had taught him how deeply he cared about Kate, and he realized he would rather die than imagine his life without her. Everett was ready to move to Boston for Kate, and he didn’t mind shutting down his practice. Kate’s eyes welled up, and she added that she had decided to not leave Winterlight.
Did the couple overcome their differences?
Everett was taken by surprise when Kate announced that she had decided to stay in Winterlight. He thought moving to Boston and working the job she’d previously resigned from was her calling, but clearly the last couple of days had left a tremendous impact on her. Kate admitted that she too couldn’t imagine her life without Everett, and the couple finally kissed.
A Merry Little Ex-Mas’ ending revealed that Kate didn’t give up on her dream; she simply chose to do it from her happy place. She opened her own sustainability company, and she was making a difference and changing the world just as she’d always envisioned. We don’t know if Everett closed down his practice, but he surely was more present than ever before. Kate was now the busy one, who returned home to her loving, complaining husband. They were both visibly happy, and Kate admitted that while she thought that maddening love between them had dissolved, spending Christmas with him helped her realize that they were still head over heels for each other and all they needed was to rediscover it.
