Toast & Kent's XMas (2025) Advent Calendar: Day 14 - Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper!

2025, Jason Bourne Bourque (Asteroid: Final Impact) -- download

We loved 2020's The Christmas House, not only Kent and myself, but also The Peanut Gallery gave it some begrudging smiles. For some reason, we never watched the sequel. But fuuuudge, this one was a breath of fresh air! This movie was great fun!!

The Draw: Robert Buckley is baaaack !! And along comes Kimberly Sustad.

HISstory: We start ice cold: no fly over, no production credits, just a live weather promo from a news station in Buffalo. Ted Cooper (Robert Buckley, iZombie) is the weather man but the Dick Anchor (Brendan Penny, Private Princess Christmas) keeps on calling him Tad (or has a terrible accent; couldn't tell for sure). Ted is telling us how he will be heading to his home town of Lackawanna in upstate NY to participate in the annual "Gingerbread Invitational". Its to be a bunch of cute, fluffy check-in's but apparently the viewership will come mainly from people wanting to see whatever disastrous thing happens to Ted this year. Ted, you see, has something unfortunate happen to him pretty much every Xmas. And always on-air. He trips and breaks things, he has sets fall on his head, he developed an unfortunate virus, so rare they ended up naming it Ted Cooper-itis. Dick Anchor is sooooo milking Ted's misfortune.

Roll opening credits.

We returned to the news crew's "Ted Cooper Christmas Pool" a white board covered with a bunch of unfortunate, or at least embarrassing, things that they have predicted could happen to Ted this year.

 "Kisses beautiful woman on air" is at 10,000 to 1 odds. The weirdo lady in the office has put $20 on that. Everyone else is just praying for horrible things.

Buuut they aren't wrong. It starts with Ted's car not working, forcing him to take a bus, and well, we all know how inter city buses go. You don't? Let's just say, lucky you. AND as soon as he gets off the bus, and sets his suitcase down to hug his kid sister (Meghan Heffern, When Christmas was Young), wouldn't you know it, someone grabs his, leaving its exact likeness behind. And that suitcase is full of the pink frilly things of a sorority girl. Comedy has them skip right past trying to find its rightful owner to and to Ted coming down the next morning in a pink crop top sweater, which he embraces. You see, Ted is terminally cheerful -- not toxically so, but always sees the silver lining, even through all his misfortune.

After a heart to heart with his sister heads out to put the lights on the house and ... ladder, heavy box, unconsciousness. Ted got conkered but he's OK, aaaaand lo and behold he is cared for by Dr. Hope Miller (Kimberly Sustad, Three Wise Men and a Baby), the girl from high school whom he had a crush on. Hope has been away but is back in town. Her doctor friend Sydney has taken care of Ted during past unfortunates. The charming banter between two witty adults got quite a few chuckles out of me. 

Oh, and in the lobby, he meets his retired teacher Ms Mittens (#snort) and she asks Ted if he can go get her an Xmas tree as she has a hand injury. Tree lot! Except that leads to injury number two -- a tree pokes him in the eye. Normally, this is where the hopeful couple has one of their early walking chats, but since Dr. Hope is working, this is where we get to know Ted better as he and Ms Mittens (Barbara Pollard, Good Morning Christmas!) chat it up -- the man is utterly charming! But back to the hospital.

And that means on the air, later that day, with an eye-patch (someone won something on the pool !). His eye patch is Xmas-y themed (#sillygrin). After the on-air promo, its off to get some not-pink clothing and he bumps into Ms Mittens and her matching-tracksuited walking group. Shopping Montage! And more get-to-know-Ted, who is seriously a nice likeable guy. And they bump into Dr. Hope, and of course the walking group convinces Ted and Hope to go out for some burgers & beer down the street. Beer, real beer, a dark "Xmas Ale", in a Hallmark movie (#swoon). The two get to know each other a bit more, highlighting how Ted refuses to inconvenience people and how she makes her own ramen (#SWOON).

But the night ends with Ted locking his keys & phone in his sister's car, and while trying to wedge his arm in the window, the cops show  up. Scroll up a bit and look at that whiteboard. But its alright, his sister shows up not quite to bail him out, but at least retrieve him and her car. Ted meanwhile has made friends with all the cops, because of course Ted has. 

Next Day! Ted is meeting up with Dr. Hope to get a walk-through of the hospital wing for which this "Gingerbread Invitational" is raising funds for and he meets a nice young lady who baked gingerbread cookies -- make that, peanut butter gingerbread cookies. Who puts peanut butter in their gingerbread? Luckily Dr. Hope has an epi-pen nearby. It should be pointed out that just before he ate the life threatening cookie, they were having the Dead Parent chat and ... OK, weird pivot to derailed that conversation. But that's alright as she needs to keep Ted "under close observation" and that leads to him helping her Trim Her Tree (no, not a euphemism).

Next Day! (is that another trope? that these movies, given that they happen "just before xmas" always have to obviously count down the days?) Ted's sister is baking cookies, "Is that frosting and anxiety I smell?" She is stressed over this whole fund raising event she is running. She wants Ted to invite Dr. Hope to her party, and he, um... well, he flakes. So, she invites Hope herself. Said party is an Xmas themed costumer party and Hope shows in Dickens finery while Ted is decked out in a snowman outfit. Sis has invited Hope an hour early "accidentally" giving the two more time to banter wittily, also pointing out that Ted, in the high school yearbook, quoted Gimli the dwarf from The Lord of the Rings. The party goes well, Ted stumbles over asking her on a second date and .... its to an escape room. An escape room they cannot escape from because the only staff member accidentally falls asleep and locks them in all night. 

OK, ok, let's move things along. They are scheduling another date, but first, another promo for Xmas Event. Ted's sister has the car, not that she would trust him with it again, so he takes a ride share -- in a party limo, where... well, Ted leaves his phone. The same phone Hope tries to call later and gets a stag-do (i.e. strange drunk lady) giving us our expected COMPLICATION ! Hope is hurt that a woman answered his phone, so she leaves. Ted arrives, in his sister's car again, but Hope is gone and the note he leaves does stay stuck long. They do not connect. Ted is hurt.

The Next Day. Ted is still trying to call her, on his sister's phone, but she has to leave, for the Xmas Event, with her phone, with her car. He walks to town where he runs into the walking group (Sole Sisters #GROAN) and they have a matching outfit for him! Meanwhile, Ed the guy who was driving the party limo has found Ted's phone and used it to call Hope (Ted's phone is that easily unlocked?) and she realizes she has made a horrible mistake, which is something she let herself do far too easily. Ted shows up, she's upset that she got upset and ... well, Ted isn't upset. As Ms. Mittens said, "Its a classic misunderstanding." Hope doesn't like that Ted is not upset. She thinks Ted never gets upset, that he just lets the world walk all over him. They are having a real conversation about feelings and personalities and ... well, it doesn't go well. She basically accuses Ted of being shallow and then walks away.

Later, finally getting to the Gingerbread Invitational. Hope's not going, Ted's congratulating his sister for meeting her funding goals and Dr. Sydney is yelling at Dr. Hope for finding fault with Ted. I mean, she has a point, but to dump him over something so trivial? Maybe she's right and she's looking for any reason, but as Syd points out, he's the first person to make her smile in forever. Go after him girl! And she puts on a nice red dress (!!!) and shows up for his on-air promo where they have their proper heart 2 heart and make up and KISS. On-air. Weirdo Lady at Ted's station is going to win a TON of money from Dick Anchor. Happy Ending!

The Formulae: Its not trying to adhere strictly, so while there is a Big City (is Buffalo all that big?) and a smaller community, I am not sure Lackawanna is a PST, just a suburb. But we do get the tree lot and baking cookies and decorating a tree and a time-based Xmas Event (fund raising!) and we GET A RED DRESS !!

Unformulae: The humour. It was genuine and actually funny.

True Calling? Yes, it really does.

The Rewind: It was that whiteboard, because, of course it was. I had to rewind, pause and chuckle at the fun of it all. His coworkers are mean. No wonder he wants out.

The Regulars: Sustad is Hallmarkie Royalty. As mentioned Buckley has done a few and I hope he keeps doing more, like actually producing & writing more, like he did with this one. Meghan Heffern has done a few. Barbara Pollar has done quite and few and is part of the familiar face stable of Vancouver actors. Brendan Penny has also done quite a few, considering his bit part here. 

How does it Hallmark? Pretty darn well. The chemistry between the two was genuine and sweet and, as I rewatched in 10x speed, to assist in writing this, I saw so many subtle expressions on their faces. It worked so well for me, not even requiring me to soften on the less-trope nature.

How does it movie? You know, it kind of does. There are so many uncharacteristically Hallmarkie funny moments in this movie, things that made me smile and chuckle and just feel good. Ted and his sister constantly yell at each other, but with only love. Ted and Hope make fun little quips that are not the usual cringe of Hallmarkies. 

How Does It Snow?  There is some hockey rink shavings but mostly cotton batting.