It's Christmas Break, but when a judge orders a bickering family to three-weeks of lockdown in a two-hundred-square-foot "tiny house" in a forest, they must find a new lease on life, love, and Christmas to survive. [Optioned 04/13/23; no longer available.]

SYNOPSIS:

TRICIA RAWLINGS (30s), a third-grade teacher, and BEN RAWLINGS (30s), a real estate agent, are arrested for disturbing the peace after one of their legendary arguments. The small county jail is full, so JUDGE THOMAS (60s) sentences the bickering couple to three weeks in his "tiny house" in a remote forest over Christmas Break. They will have no car, a restricted landline phone, no WiFi, TV, or radio. If they escape, they get three months in the county jail. When strict SHERIFF LACY (40) drops them off at the tiny house, the couple's situation looks hopeless, but all the Sheriff's attention must go to catching a serial arsonist.

The couple receives supplies from a general store an hour away from PAULY THE PIZZA GUY (16), a scruffy lad on a motor scooter, dashing the couple's hope of escape. Things turn uglier one week later, when their ill-behaved children, SARAH (A.K.A. SASSY; 13) and MIKEY (A.K.A. VEGAS; 9) are ceremoniously dumped off by AUNT MARTHA (35), who breaks her promise to keep the kids for the full three-week sentence. The nightmare escalates as the family shares the two-hundred-square-foot house, while raccoons and a bear share bags of garbage outside the house. The tiny house becomes a source of ridicule and frustration from within. From the outside, the family's financial troubles, the source of all arguments, creep in with the Sheriff's mail deliveries. Ben and Tricia are losing their family's home.

A visit from the Judge after two weeks forces a turning point like a voice from on high! This triggers the family to dig deep to change things in the final week. Tricia advocates the "Golden Rule" as a guiding principle. They clean up the house and yard, pick out a "Christmas seedling," and treat each other better. Pauly sees Sarah in a clean outfit and is smitten. Mikey's fears dissipate. Tricia and Ben fall back in love, despite their monetary woes.

While "doing time," the tiny house becomes their efficient home. That's good, because the Sheriff stops with the foreclosure notice of the couple's real home. They respond by sharing a meal, and working through it as a family. Tricia sneaks away on Pauly's motor scooter and returns with simple gifts for the family, Christmas lights, and fire retardant paint to save the house from the arsonist. Tricia links the arsonist's victims to Aunt Martha, setting up a showdown at the tiny house. The family is ready for her. They save the house from a fire, and delay the aunt for the Sheriff. The Judge gives them a reward and the tiny house, but their greatest reward is faith in each other, and a new lease on life, love, and Christmas.

TINY HOUSE, BIG CHRISTMAS