T&K's XMas (2021) Advent Calendar: Day 18 - Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy

2019, Sean McNamara (That's So Raven) -- Amazon/StackTV

Full disclosure. I just tweaked the writing order of this post bumping it up, because its so fresh in my mind (to a degree) and because I just really want to write about this almost meta entry into the Hallmark Cinematic Universe that is Evergreen.

The Draw: Because Evergreen; that lovely town in upstate Vermont, so close to the North Pole that it forgets Canada exists. And because Evergreen is shot in Abbotsford, BC where sooooo many other Hallmarkies are shot. I am thinking that maybe my writing-it-in-my-head Hallmarkie will have to be shot/set there instead of the SSM I was originally envisioning, only because I visited SSM in June while they were shooting a yet to be released Hallmarkie.

HERstory: 

Yay! The Xmas train is back! And boy is it cute in all its CGI-y goodness. Seriously, you are in BC, just find a real quaint looking train and drone shot the fucker. Anywayz, we kick things off with a meet cute between Katie (Maggie Lawson, Two and a Half Men) and Ben (Paul Greene, Bitten) who are both heading into Evergreen for the season, after the shaky train tosses her into his lap. Katie is a writer, coasting on magazine articles while struggling on he second novel. She's coming to Evergreen to see if the place is real, as it really cannot be a town that lives only for Xmas, can it? Meanwhile, Ben is from Evergreen. I don't remember where he was or why, but most likely a job interview or something Big City influenced.

The conversation between the two is quite amusing, and at some points, almost meta. She actually refers to the train they are on as being a conjunction of the Polar Express and the Hogworts Express. And she talks about the background of Evergreen being like Brigadoon, in that it appears and disappears, but as Ben points out, every year instead of every hundred years. And thus began the forming of my idea about the ECU in that there might actually be mystical ties to the PST.

Anywayz, they arrive and walk into town like proper tourists, amidst the fake snow and bright BRIGHT green grass underneath. Of course she is staying at the Inn, of course she has to pass by the Chris Kringle Kitchen and inevitably end up at Daisy's General Store, or whatever Lisa is calling it now that she owns the place. And there we go, there is Lisa and Allie and Michelle and Hannah, and laughing women standing outside the store must work in it. But wait, where are the men? Where are the guys that paired up with these women of Evergreen? Wait, is the weirdness that is Evergreen perhaps dependent on the sacrifice of men folk, to retain the Xmas-y nature that the PST has all year round. Is, perhaps, the Midwintaar  ritual that hides behind the fake snow and PST exteriors?

But then Katie gets a call from Mom, who owns a news magazine and needs someone to write a puff piece because someone else backed out. So much for vacation time, onto work work work !!

Now, this entry of Evergreen lore is not as much about how the Big City Girl hooks up with the PST Library guy, as it is about all the other things going on in town. We get flashbacks to Evergreen that was, and the year they were snowed in for a month (that single road is their downfall again). And that ties to a secret time capsule that hunter-seeker kid from the last movie is chasing down now. And the snowglobe from the first movie is broken, so Hannah has to make goo goo eyes at the guy who can fix it, establishing her as the side-love-story for this entry. 

Katie is showing some genuine affection for Ben, the guy who just works at the local library (he... does story time?) who used to be a journalist, but doesn't trust that Katie will write genuinely about Evergreen. We montage through the bulk of the movie, until David the Hunter-Seeker finds a key and finds the time capsule, which turns out to be a giant Advent Calendar behind a weird magical accordioning wooden wall. Nick, who someone finally commented on him looking like Santa on vacation, and not-Nora-but-Nan have been hiding the secret until the day came when it looked like it SHOULD be revealed, whatever that meant... maybe after they have hit the point where they need one more male inhabitant to be sacrificed to the Great Joulupukki that powers this Xmas town?

But whatever, we have the calendar revealed and also... what the fuh... it's before December 1st? They are only now ready to open the first spot in the calendar? Since when do these movies take place more than the week before Xmas? Was Katie expecting to be in Evergreen for the entire month of December? That's a weird vacation even if we forget her mom pressuring her to write a story and that she has a crush on Ben. Not only am I distracted by all these weird side plots and otherworldly elements, but I think the plot is, as Ben and Katie falling for each other is pretty sidelined.

December long montage. Seriously.

But as we get closer to Xmas Eve, Katie actually returns to Big City to spend time as she usually does -- avoiding her mom's Xmas Party and hanging out alone in her apartment. Somehow I missed Katie is just not that into Xmas. There is a brief but of miscommunication where Ben finds a badly worded except of the notes for Katie's story, but then she doesn't bother explaining and just doesn't write anything at all. Instead Ben writes his own story in the local paper about the women of Evergreen -- you know them: Allie, Lisa, Hannah, Nan, Barbara, etc. All the women who sacrifice some male figure in their life to.... OK, maybe not that but its a lovely story that Katie's mom loves so much she wants to publish and give Ben a chance at real writing for Big City Magazine. Katie and Ben hook up again, in the city AFTER Xmas and ... plan to do things together? Again, love story sidetracked by other things going on, not really paying attention to their own plot.

The Formulae: Even with all the weird shit going on in town, we still get some traditional Xmay tropes. Xmas Trees are captured, cookies are baked, frozen ponds are skated upon. Big City Girls come to PSTs where they meet PST Boys who like the simple life. There are brief misunderstandings and feelings bruised. Evergreen replaces red dresses with that vintage red truck. We do have Xmas parties, but they play little parts, overshadowed by other Xmas Events around the Advent Calendar from Oz.

Unformulae: That the bulk of the movie happens in the days before December 1st was entirely out character for one of these movies. And that the final connecting of the two love interests happens in the Big City after Xmas was ... weird TBH. 

True Calling? I honestly don't know how that Xmas-y title has anything to do with the movie at all. But it was the title of the third book, from which this series arises.

The Rewind: 

The Xmas Tree hunt always takes place at the local red barnyard, which uses the same stock image from above and just this side of the barn entrance. But when they zoom in, to have our characters arrive, the continuity is all wrong. Things are missing, structures are differently sized, and there is a WALL OF 40' TREES in the background. 

Secondly, when a sheet of Katie's story-notes is left on the printer, we get a brief look at the less than flattering words. But its not them that begs a rewind and pause but the bad attempt at lorem ipsuming the rest, "You won't have to go far to find it Victorian a architecture and even a gushing waterfall." That is word for word what was written there, all the brain break bits of it.

Remember that church structure from the last movie where there was a bell tower activated by the key that David found, that was actually just being used for Xmas supplies storage? It is now suddenly an actual chapel that is bigger on the inside than the outside. Yup, a lovely TARDIS Church. But with all the other things going in this town, this is actually mystically plausible!

The Regulars: All the cast of the first two movies plus.... Maggie Lawson has done a few, while Paul Greene has done quite the boatload of them. Its funny, but despite these movies, and all their non-actual-Hallmark lot all use the same actors over and over, I am amazed at how few of the actors I actually do recognize from movie to movie. Maybe I need to just watch more of the Canadian made ones where I will recognize half the cast from all my Canadian made specfic shows.

How does it Hallmark? Surprisingly, not so much? Its because they trope laden main story keeps on getting interrupted by the mystical side stories of lost time capsules, month long winter storms, snow globes with deep secrets, ancient rituals to dark gods, mythical Santa figures that live off the lives of sacrificed men... Sorry, went away there for a bit. I think I have a Hallmarkie Meets Asylum Horror movie to write.

How does it movie? The one we were writing in our heads while watching it was .... slightly better?

How Does It Snow? 

I only really paid attention to one example of the fake fake fake snow and that was the cotton batting laid over the very manicured bright green lawn in the background when Ben and Katie first arrive in town. The rest was ... the usual no real snow to be found.