Toast & Kent's Xmas (2025) Advent Calendar - Day 9: Christmas Do-Over

2006, d. Catherine Cyran - tubi

A T&K Go Loopty-Loo side hustle...

How did the Loop Begin?
Kevin (Jay Mohr) isn't exactly a jerk or an asshole, he mostly just thinks he's better than anything or anyone. He doesn't actively bolster himself and his accomplishments, so much as he puts down other people, events, things...he's above it all and he's so over it all. At least so he thinks.

Kevin needs to drive to his ex-in-laws place in Washington (where there's no snow and it looks like it's late spring) to spend time with his son Ben, but first he needs to get him a present. He squeaks his way into the store just as they're locking up, insults a little person who is just shopping, and blindly takes what the kid in the aisle is begging for, having it wrapped without a second look.

Upon arriving at Trudi (Adrienne Barbeau) and Arthur's (Tim Thomerson), he gets whacked in the head with a football, once inside, Arthur insults him, he learns his ex, Jill (Daphne Zuniga), has a boyfriend, Todd (David Millbern) whom her parents, and even Ben love. He's a cardiac surgeon. Granny Conlon (Ruta Lee) comes downstairs and immediately assails Kevin. She goes in for a big kiss, he recoils ("No tongues!") and she grabs his butt. She's the only one in the family that seems to like him (besides Ben).

 They open presents and it turns out what Kevin bought Ben was an Easy-Bake Oven much to Ben's disappointment and Arthur's derision (for the record, I would have loved an Easy-Bake Oven as a kid...it is a unisex toy, as Kevin proclaims). Then Todd presents Jill with her present, a new car. 

Kevin says he's going to leave, but a neighbour says a giant boulder is blocking the only road out of town and won't be removed until next day, so he's stuck at his in-laws. They go to the Christmas fair, where Arthur puts on a display each year, losing to his rival neighbour (they're always pun based, and this year it's "Peas on Earth"). Kevin used to hate being part of Arthur's display, but Todd revels in it. Kevin walks into a sawhorse hitting him square in the nards.

At dinner, Kevin refuses to participate in the family's traditions, and Ben says "I wish it were Christmas every day". A gust of wind comes through the dining room sending a chill up everyone's spine. Kevin gets dragged out to carolling where he actively ruins the songs by singing off key and making up lyrics (like a petulant 10-year-old). Then the family goes for a stroll where Todd has prepared a whole thing to propose to Jill. Kevin says "No!" and Jill says "He wasn't asking you." Then it "snows" (ugh, digital snow).

Todd goes to bed sad, with his shoes on, and is thankful the day is over. 

Except, when he wakes up he's ringing Trudi's doorbell and he gets hit in the head with a football.

What was the main character's first reaction to the Loop?
Incredulousness. He thought he was having a delusion. He knew he had been through the day before but he really can't believe it's happening again. He starts spoiling all the surprises and being even ruder and more callous than he was the day before. He winds up at the Christmas fair again, and hits himself right in the nuts on the sawhorse once more and decides to call it a day. He heads back to Trudi and Arthur's and goes straight to bed.

WHY did the main character get put into the Loop? Can someone else be brought into the Loop?
Why? Because Kevin is a sarcastic dink who doesn't really consider anyone else other than himself. As usual with a "Groundhog Day"-esque time loop, it's about becoming a better person

How long is this time Loop? What resets it? Can you force the reset?
Until he goes to sleep, then he wakes up and it starts all over again. So he can always go to sleep to reset the loop. 

On the seventh loop he rings the doorbell and immediately dashes to his car an speeds off, trying to beat the falling boulder out of town. Alas, he doesn't make it in time. (I was actually hoping he would get crushed, if only to let us know that dying resets the loop...wait for it..).

But also, the loop resets at midnight, because on the ...15th loop, maybe, he's gotten Jill to see him for his former self, before he started being bitter about his failed musical career (he writes jingles now), and she's seen her current boyfriend have a meltdown. Kevin asks her if Todd makes her laugh. She says "No, but he doesn't make me cry either." A moment or two later, they're about to kiss, and then the clock strikes midnight and Kevin's back at the front door.  (Four loops later, he's trying to rush things with Jill, and she says "You can give me whatever you want, Kevin, but it's not going to make me love you again"), and for the next few loops Kevin is right back to trying to leave town, this time trying to destroy the boulder.

On loop 21 (I think) Kevin rams the boulder with his truck, presumably dying in the process, and the next  loop he tries to hike out of town, only to have a cataclysmic fall, and two loops later her tries to parasail. I guess dying does reset the loop.

How long does the main character stay in the Loop? Does it have any affect on them, their personality, their outlook?
By loop 8, he's gone nihilistic... "nothing matters... my behavior has absolutely no consequences. I can say and do whatever I want, Trudi!" And he does, insulting Arthur bluntly, eating Trudy's pies with Ben. It's not really as far off from his normal behaviour as he thinks. (He tells Jill a "story" about a "friend" who cheated on his girlfriend and felt so guilty he bought her a car... and then Todd shows up."

Two loops later, Kevin starts a brawl at the Christmas Fair, and upsets Ben greatly, but he promises him he won't ruin the next one tomorrow and that Ben won't even remember this one). He knows he needs to be better if he's going to win his family back, so the next loop he overcompensates, being especially nice and complimentary. But Kevin thinks that part of it is sabotaging Todd. He switches the Easy-Bake Oven with Todd's gift and causes Todd to get injured, and he takes over at Arthur's "Peas on Earth" display. But it's still Kevin being selfish. And he spends another three loops sabotaging Todd. By the fourth loop, he's managed to drive Todd entirely mad and Todd punches Jill in the face by accent trying to propose.

After the parasailing attempt, which the family took to being a suicide attempt, Kevin and Todd have a chat where he realizes Todd is a nice guy and good for Jill. It's maybe not all about him anymore and he genuinely tries to make amends to the people he hurt and be responsible for his actions but as the day goes on Kevin withdraws more and more, standing back, watching what was once his family on the outside. Jill tells him "I've taken my life in a new direction, now you have the opportunity to make your life whatever you want it to be." 

and so he spends, like, 10 loops learning to breakdance? All so he can help Arthur's "Peas on Earth" display with the competition? He ends the loop by being selfless and then spends another ten loops trying to learn how to use the fun bake oven to turn it into The Monster Melt, a one-of-a-kind gift that's more "boy coded".but in the process of being selfless,Todd starts to feel alienated. And they're out on a stroll, they're both happy and they kiss and it's after midnight, and Jill decides she does want this new Kevin after all.

What about the other people in the Loop? Are they aware? Can they become aware?  Does anything happen if they become aware?
Kevin tries to tell Jill three times over but she always logics her way out of believing him.

What does the main character think about the other people in the Loop? Are they real? Do they matter?
For Kevin, in general, he doesn't treat people like people even before he's in a time loop,but it's the whole process of learning to care, learning that in order to find happiness he needs to be happy himself, and some of that happiness comes from being selfless.

Most memorable event in a Loop? Most surprising event during a Loop?
I liked the heart-to-hart Kevin has with Granny Conlon, because Granny C is saucy, but it's also the turning point.

How does this stack up in the subgenre
It's not awful, but also not great. By about the halfway point the loops start to get tedious and the journey for Kevin is so obvious. I was even more disappointed by the fact that it ends with Jill realizing that she still loves Kevin, and not that Kevin helps make Todd's proposal even more special. Sometimes people aren't meant to be together and this movie seems to really get it until the last possible moment. Even Kevin seems to understand that.

There are some good laughs but also a lot of cheap ones, and often the framing or editing mess up the comedic timing. There's also more than a few "where'd he get that from on short notice" plotholes, like a diamond bracelet for Jill at one point? Or the extra "Peas on Earth" costume.