Toast & Kent's Xmas (2025) Advent Calendar: Day 24 - Gingerbread Miracle

2021, Michael M Scott (It's Christmas, Carol) -- download

Why do so many of these movies take place in locations where snow covered mountains can be seen in the background?

And that's all she wrote folks. I might have to admit defeat this year. Beyond Ted Cooper's entry, I didn't find much in the way of Xmas Spirit this year. I will persevere and finish off a few in my hopper, as well as Netflix, as Xmas Leftovers, but... overall, a big meh year.

I think I killed that desire to even watch the few left in my hopper. Need a violent full of guns movie as a chaser.

The Draw: I needed at least one gingerbread / baking related movie, so this was it. 

HERstory: We begin with some montage-y gingerbread cookie dough massaging - flour everything, roll them out thin, gently cut them out -- baking with love. We also begin with some pretty impressive stock footage of blowing snow, wind-swept winter streets and winter at its best/worst. Then we follow it up with HER jogging past mounds of fake snow & cotton batting towards our requisite large family house on probably what is a July day.

Interestingly enough she states its Dec 3, as if someone writing the script pointed out to the writing room that Hallmarkies never give enough time for people plan & execute their Xmas Event plans and/or growing affections.

She is Maya (Merritt Patterson, Chateau Christmas), an LA lawyer returned home to her parents garage (but seriously, its a converted detached apartment) after a divorce and work collapse. In the kitchen, we get some family recap: Mom has started an event planning business and one of her early events will be the Gingerbread Challenge, which no is not a Gingerbread House Baking Contest but basically an obstacle course involving already baked gingerbread houses and is raising money for something or other. This year's sponsor is Casillas Panadería, local Mexican bakery and home of the famous gingerbread cookies that grant wishes. Luis (Jorge Montesi, Chupacabra vs the Alamo), the owner, is selling the place because his wife recently passed and his heart isn't in it any longer. Luis doesn't have any children to hand the long running family business down to, so sale it is. Maya runs her freelance law work out of his office; basically sits at a laptop in a crowded storeroom, but really, she could do that anywhere.

His nephew Alejandro (Jon-Michael Ecker, Fearless Heart), or Alex, is a Big City Lawyer in NYC who doesn't really like his job and has bad luck keeping girlfriends because he's never available. Luis and his wife raised Alex after some unmentioned Dead Parents situation. We also get introduced to his love of cooking when he dumps the bland takeout his ex gives him and makes, from scratch, shrimp tacos instead. His latest work assignment is being ignored by the Boss, so he might as well go home for Xmas.

Of note, everyone pronounces the Mexican names with strong proper enunciation, including the white folks of this very Rockies adjacent, near Denver PST. I doubt this movie would get greenlit in current American society, as it definitely highlights its Mexican immigrants in a positive light. Inclusivity is a naughty word these days down south.

Baiting the border guards with social media content that could get you banned?

First up, getting the Xmas Tree, where the two bump into each other  - literally. Its a cheerful bump involving chasing the family dog. Hers not his. His old high school feelings are still strong and he wants in on helping sell the bakery, a little peeved at himself that he wasn't asked.

Next up, Decorating the Tree. Luis and Alex talk about Maya and Aunt Julia. And that's when its decided that Alejandro will take over baking at the panadería for the holiday season, since he is home and so Luis can focus on the sale and the Xmas Event he is sponsoring. You'd think Luis would want to actually do the baking for his event.

Are we sure they are related? The only thing said is that Luis and Julia, "Took Alex in...."

I am realizing a lot of Hallmarkies are based on expositional scenes, instead of story telling. From the tree trimming we go to Maya and her bestie and her sister talking about how she screwed up Alex & her getting together when they were kids. She faked a French Boyfriend and he thought she wasn't interested. That is followed by Alex and the kid working for Luis talking about being poor and wanting a hockey scholarship with the foreshadowing of Alex Baked a Magic (Hockey) Cookie. You see, the tradition is that the cookies must represent something important to the people they are given too. And the we stick in a side-story so Maya's BFF can have someone to crush on too. Except it feels tacked on, like pretty much all the side-elements of the movie do.

Montage Scene. Sis is taking photos of the bakery for the sales website. To be honest, the bakery really looks good, well decorated and the set designers obviously had some fav bakeries they based it on. It just looks authentic and cozy. That is followed by another Montage Scene where Alex nixes every single potential buyer. And it happens over a week! Not just a day! Dec 4th starting date is moving along quite well. Buuuut the potential buyer shows up -- Jacque Hubert (IMDB calls him Jake, Patch May, Home and Away), a well known baker from Denver where he has a patisserie. He's handsome and has ideas and Alex doesn't like him. And cuz Maya thinks he's pretty. Jacque flirts with Maya.

Fuck; if they say Jacques properly, why do they pronounce Hubert as "H-Yoo Bert" instead of "Hoo-bear" ?

Ugh; losing steam on recapping this as its just a long long series of barely connected expositional pieces. The coming Holiday Games, Bestie and her Potential BF, Alex is better at cooking & baking than lawyer-ing. Add in some complication / jealousy as Maya smiles brightly at Hyu-Bert and he legitimately flirts and asks her out, while Alex just pouts in the background, and I was just bored.

They have the Reindeer Holiday Games but never quite explained how this was raising money for charity considering there were THREE contestants and they were our main characters plus Hyu-Bert -- its not like their "entry fees" would have contributed much. Besides, its just running an obstacle course while holding a pre-baked gingerbread house one-handed; given the high chance of EVERYONE dropping theirs, not sure of the "laugh oh well all fell down" fun to be had.

Eventually Alex has a sour encounter with his boss so he decides to stay and run the bakery, which should have been the primary plot focus but was done in a sort of background off-camera manner. And Maya realizes her potential new job is going to be worse than the LA job she quit, so decides to stay and work out a house she will buy. And at the last second, when we think Hyu-Bert will be an issue because he wants the bakery, his heart grows three sizes and he drops the need for a new bakery. Everyone is making a good choice for everyone else! Alex and Maya realize they are both staying in the PST and getting the jobs they wanted all along and also realize that despite a decade of miscommunication (and failed marriages) they still like each other. Kiss kiss.

Yeah, I was bored, and late in publishing. Fully lost steam.

The Formulae: There was a PST and a Main Coming Home from the Big City. There was Crush History and Dead Parents (we don't even get the story behind Alex's lack of parents) and a Holiday Event. Of course, there was Holiday Baking. There was a very minor complication which was resolved far too amicably for Hallmarkies. There was a Side-story Romance and lots of Xmas Traditions.

Unformulae: So, nobody has to dash their dreams in order to stay in the PST to find love; everyone decided to stay on their own to all follow their own dreams. There were no Dick BF/Ex's. Both of the mains are of the Big City Type Job, neither doing something low-key or hokey... even the bakery is well-established and doing well. That said, there is no Last Minute Desperation to Save the Bakery. There was not any Emotional Turmoil at all in this movie, which is why it may have been so... boring.

True Calling? A key plot point are the Magic Gingerbread Cookies and they go very far to explain how Alex had the magic as well: Maya's red briefcase cookie is connected to Alex, the hockey cookie gets the kid his needed scholarship. So, yes.

The Rewind: Nuttin, but I did re-watch the opening stock footage to see if it was real or CGI.

The Regulars: Merritt Patterson is really the only Hallmarkie staple.

How does it Hallmark? For the ideals of family traditions and supporting the community, it worked well. The magic between the two was basically nil; Maya smiled more brightly at Jacques than ever at Alex.

How does it movie? Yawn.

How Does It Snow? Lots of digital snow imposed on shots of structures that had a bit of cotton battling, and other than that opening stock footage, no snow... at all. Not even a mention of it.