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August 31, 2023 44 mins
No Hallmark Christmas season is complete without a fake engagement storyline, and today we're watching the all-time greatest fake engagement Hallmark movie, A December Bride. This movie originally aired in 2016 and stars Jessica Lowndes and Daniel Lissing, Kerri's Hallmark crush.  A December Bride is nothing short of a treasure trove of Hallmark Christmas tropes and we're here for it.     Need to talk about even more baking montages and snowball fights? Connect with us today! Instagram: @hallmarkjunkies Facebook: @hallmarkjunkies Kerri: @authorkerri Jenny: @mrs.chanandler_binggSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
I'm Jenny.

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, I'm Carrie. We're best friends and new moms. We're
also the ogs of Hallmark Christmas Movies.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
We've been watching these movies since long before they became
a Christmas juggernaut, and now we're here to talk all
things Hallmark with you because we know you're watching too.
Sit back, relax, and get your Hallmark on.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
We are the Hallmark Junkies.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Welcome back to the Hallmark Junkies Podcast. We have Jenny
and Carrie here, and please don't mind Carrie's little cold
that she has going on. Do I sound sexy a
little bit? Ye?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Have voice? Yeah? Yeah, maybe keep that cold.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, maybe I'll like my voice more. We're very excited
about this movie.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
This movie is so good.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
It's an oldie, but goodie it is. What are we
watching today, Carrie? You're watching one of my faves, December
Bride from twenty sixteen.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yes, I do know, like every Christmas in July or
when they start playing in October, when Christmas season starts,
you're always like, I can't wait for a December Bride
to come off.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yes, yeah, December Bride, Snowbride obviously the CCB movies and
the Lacy movies.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, I do like this movie, but after rewatching it again,
I feel like I'm getting into your territory of loving
just loving it good.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
I'm glad come over to this side.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
I always like, I always liked it, and I was
just like when you would tell me it was on,
I'd watch it. But now I'm just like, this is
this is gold.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, you know, I am feeling a little weird today.
Our producer is in here. Oh yeah, our producer, Harry.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, I couldn't make it today.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah. It's hardy at the office. Yeah, it's hard without
him snoring in the.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Court for barking or mostly sleeping. Yeah, we miss you, Harry.
All right. So December Bride stars Daniel Listening and Jessica Loundus.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Daniel Listening, fun fact, is my favorite Hamewark guy. I
am very much in love with him. I'll tell your husband.
I will mention it to John. Kind of looks like
him in my mind.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Is that maybe what brought you guys together.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
It could be that I was like, you look like
the guy from December Bride. Yeah, yum yum.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
These are both big Hallmark stars. Though he has been
in a little bit less movie wise or her, but
he was in that series, yes, one cause the Heart.
And it seems that unfortunately both have jumped ship to
another channel which we will not name.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, and that we don't get, so we can't even watch,
and I wouldn't want to. What if they had jump
ship to lifetime?

Speaker 2 (02:59):
I know, pens if it's like a lifetime Murder Christmas.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Oh yeah, I do like the Murder Christmas ones.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
All right, So should we get into our first segment?

Speaker 1 (03:09):
I think so?

Speaker 2 (03:10):
All right, So our first segment was called Picture It,
where we just give a little synopsis of the movie,
and it is named after our favorite golden girl, Sophia.
All right, here we go Picture It. Pinefield Township twenty sixteen.
Laila O'Reilly is an aspiring interior decorator or designer working
for Darcy Sterling at Darcy Sterling Designs. She desperately needs

(03:30):
to find a date to her cousin, Jessica's wedding to Jack.
You see, just a year ago, Laila was engaged to Jack,
the same Jack that is now marrying Jessica, and Jessica
was dating a man named Seth Murphy played by Daniel
lissing Carrie's favorite Hallmark man.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah. Uh ps, I don't know why anyone wants to
marry Jack. He seems awful. It's boring.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
He was a little bit boring and stupid too. I was, Yeah,
I wasn't a fan, and we'll get to some of why.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Later maybe, But I mean compared to Seth also, I
mean because Seth is just Seth is, Yeah, the epitome everything. So,
like we said, Jessica was dating Seth a year ago,
but Jessica and Jack met and hit it off. One
year later, they're having a December wedding dot dot dot.
Laila has has it about going, but her aunt Loraine

(04:23):
her mother figure, since her mother is no longer with us.
Excellent Hallmark trope, dead mom, r.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Mom right away right away. So you know, Aunt Loraine
mother figure is really pressuring her, so she ends up
going as a last resort with Seth after everything else
fell through. That would be Carrie, the same Seth that
was dating Jessica last year while Layla was dating Jack.
So now Leila and Seth are going and Jack and
Jessica are getting married.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Okay, I got it. Yeah, super awkward.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
So how did this happen. Well, Layla just randomly ran
into Seth. Her firm was hired to decorate Seth's office
for Christmas. So he ends up hiring Layla to decorate
his home for the holiday tour of homes because his
boss's wife really wants him to participate in this holiday
tour of home.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
I like, by the way, the boss's wife who's just like, oh,
just hire someone, hire someone to decorate your house for this,
you have the money.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
I also think it's funny that, after rewatching a lot
of these movies, I feel like a new Hallmark Bengos
Square could be Boss Slash. Boss's family wants you to
do something that you really shouldn't have to be a
part of work.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Right. That costs money?

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, and your job might depend on it, right, and
you maybe could sue about it.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Uh huh, Yeah, let's add it.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
It's a lot to put on Ox Square.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
We'll have to Yeah, we'll have to condense that.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
So Seth and Layla are going to the weddings. Layla's
wearing a black dress that screams what was Jack thinking?

Speaker 1 (05:50):
According to her brother.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Afterwards, Seth and Layla are walking through the receiving line
and it just so happens that Lailah and Seth tell
Jack and Jessica that they're a couple of I mean,
I could see myself doing that quite honestly.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Things escalate quickly from there, and Seth perhaps takes it
one step too far and he announces that they're actually engaged.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Ride happens.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
You know. Oops, sorry, by accident, I mentioned we were
engaged even though we're not. So now we have a
fake engagement storyline and we I think both love that storyline.
Fake dating, fake engagement.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah. I have a lot more to say about that later.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Oh okay, Leylan and Seth agree that they should just
wait and tell everyone the truth the next day, which
sounds like a plan. But then you see Stanley Malcolm,
who owns the big real estate company in town that
all the interior designers are trying to design for. He
wants to have her stage some houses if and only
if she does a good job on Seth's house for
the holiday tour of homes.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
But it's only three weeks away.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Oh no, what are we gonna do? I guess that
Ruth has to continue for three more weeks. Oh good
for us. So Leila gets to work on Seth's mansion.
It's pretty bare because spoiler alert, Seth works a ton,
he's a busy dude, and she is going to bring.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
It to life and make it homey.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Meanwhile, Aunt Lorraine is running the local Pinefield toy drive
and she is super overwhelmed.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
And the toy drive. Let's just talk about that, okay,
because I know what a toy drive is, and we've
talked about toy drives.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yes, this is another I think new Hallmark Bingo Square.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yes, I think you're right. She's like always super busy
with this toy drive. But really the only thing we
ever see them do is move Teddy Bears from one
box to another.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, and they were all the boxes all had ages
on them, but most of these toys could have fit
in any of the age boxes. And they're like, oh no,
that can't be in the one to two year old,
it's in the two to three.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
But this teddy Bear is for someone older.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, So I don't know. Maybe that's why it's keeping
her busy. Maybe they're micromanaging the toy drive.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Ooh yeah, so she needs needs Jessica and Laylah's help immediately.
And things are pretty cold there's really not progress. Obviously,
Layla still hurt that Jessica married her then fiance for
her Fanca December. Layla makes it back to her main
priority right now, which is decorating Seth's house. But uh oh,

(08:18):
her boss, Darcy Sterling of Darcy Sterling Designs, has found
out that Laylah's decorating Seth's house and she fires her.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
And they have very different design aesthetics.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Oh yes, I have that as a question for you later. Okay, great, Okay,
This decorating gig and subsequent possibility with Stanley just got
a lot more important for Laila. She spends a lot
of time with Seth decorating and they get to talking
about her dead mother.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Excellent.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
So Christmasy and guess what Layla's super into Christmas and
Seth is not.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
But Seth keeps using the word Christmasy, and at one
point Laylah says, I mean, what does that word even mean? Okay,
just context clues. I'm gonna guess Christmas esque.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
You're brilliant.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Christmas, You're brilliant. I know that's why I'm a writer.
And Layla is an interior designer.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
But interior designing for Christmas? So one would think she
knew what Christmas meeme.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Meant and loves Christmas in a Christmas ey way. I
guess I don't know.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Maybe she only wants she just wanted to know what
Seth thought with that, Like she knew in her head
what her definition was, but she was like, Seth, what
do you think Christmas means? I don't know. So Leyla
and Seth are newly fake engaged couple have dinner at
the O'Reilly House, which is Laylah's family's house, and we
find out a couple of important things. One is that

(09:44):
they actually met a few years ago doing community theater,
which I love. And two that Layla, as we said,
always dreamed of being a December bride and it's still December.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Okay, yeah, two to say about this seeing one the
December Bride, I mean, I know that's the name of
this Yes, I mean, she's like obsessed with the December brides.
Like I think she's more upset that she doesn't get
to get married to Jack in December than she is

(10:18):
that he was stolen from her by her cousin. Also,
I read this on the internet while researching this movie.
Someone said, if you really look at the setup of
this house. It's an open concept. And so when Layla
and her brother they like, go into the kitchen, air
quotes everybody to get dessert, and they're talking about it
being fake. This isn't a real relationship. This guy doesn't

(10:41):
know you that yummy yummy. Seth and her dad are
literally five feet away at the table.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
That makes it really much more interesting because she's really
like the only person that I think it's names Beckett,
that she divulged in of the truth of the.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
I also think they have a weird relationship, but that's
a whole other part.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Okay, I could see where you're going.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
I mean, I have a brother. We don't act like that.
We never have Like there's just too much like, oh,
like that dress is gonna look great on you. You know
that's not how brothers and sisters like react to each other.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Well, back at the toy Drive, Aunt Lorraine is yet
again overwhelmed and she has put the Teddy Bears, Yeah,
Jessicun Layla back together and things are thawing a little bit,
and the decorating job continues, and Layla and Seth continue
to grow closer by doing quote Christmasy activities together and
to me, that means decorating outside, which she fell off

(11:41):
a ladder, which we know is a really good sign
that two people are gonna fall in love.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Very OsO Hallmark Moment, bought a tree together. They decorated
the tree together. And meanwhile, the toy drive is still
going on and Jessica's still trying to make inroads with Leila.
She apologizes for what happened and they have a break.
But one thing jessicause like, where is your engagement ring?

(12:05):
And Leila's like, you know what? People have been wondering this,
And that evening, Seth pulls through and actually gives her
an engagement ring that was his grandmother's and he put
it in a stocking hanging by the chimney. Loved that.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
I was a little like, why wouldn't he have won
given it to her before? And two like, that's a
big step to give someone your grandmother's engagement ring in
a box in a stocking if it's a yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
One time my aunt jo Anne gave me a fake
ring and told me to keep it in my purse
when I went to bars, just in case.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
She put it in a box in a stocking.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
She put it in a box. I don't think a
stocking was involved, but I still have it.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Do you do you ever wear it anymore? No?

Speaker 1 (12:51):
I don't think I ever wore it.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
Oh, I want to see it now.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, it's really pretty.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
We should put a picture of it up on social media.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
Yeah, at Hallmark Junkie's on Instagram and Facebook carries fake
engagement ring Yeah from imaginary staff Yeah aka Ancho Anne. Well,
now that Leila and Jessica have made some inroads, Laila
has very kindly, in my opinion, agreed to meet her
ex fiance slash Jessica's husband Jack at a restaurant where

(13:18):
he sort of apologizes, but he also goes on to
just tell her what she did wrong and the relationship, Yeah,
which is an odd choice when you're trying to, you know,
make amends for marrying her cousin. Although he does have
a fair point because he's like, you were like super
obsessed with this December bride thing, but.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Then he got married to December. Yeah, like that's just
throwing salt on the woman. In my opinion, she is obsessed. Yeah,
but you know what, it's not that bad because Leila
gets home and seth it's baked her some awful looking
gingerbread cookies.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
But unlike other movies where they're supposed to be good
gingerbread but they look disgusting, they are actually supposed to
She said.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
They were disgusting and it was act really sweet that
he did that because it was something that her deceased
mother used to do at Christmas time and he kind
of heard her say that and made them. He also
decided that he is not selling the house, which he
had initially planned to do. It was really just an
investment property, right because Layla has made it a home.
Oh very sweet. Yeah, so looks like he gets to

(14:19):
stay in the mansion by himself. So now it's time
for Layla and Seth to have dinner at Seth's parents,
and his mom has taking the liberty to start some
preliminary wedding planning, including bringing some wedding cake samples to
dinner that were actually just like full cakes that were
really ornate. And yeah, yeah, they welcome to her to

(14:42):
the family. And now Seth and Laila realized that the
charade might be getting a little bit out of hand,
but the holiday home tour decorating must continue, and Layla
needs a sleigh for Sess's front yard and says like,
I'm going to find you that sleigh. This is how
much I care about you. I will find you a sleigh.
Layla finds a little bit of time to take a

(15:02):
break from decorating SAA's house and she hangs out with
Aunt Loraine, who makes her try on her mom's wedding
dress and hopes that this will make her move forward
with pursuing her dream of being a December bride.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
No, I'm going to talk about this more. But do
you think she means like as in this December?

Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Sh Like aunt Loraine is like you've got to get married,
like yeah, like old, like come on. Not my favorite person,
by the way, but I do like that actress. She's
in a lot of Hallmark movies.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Well, she redeem herself in another one. At this point,
Layla breaks down. She can't take it anymore. She tells
Aunt Loraine the truth. But again, the most important thing
here is that she has to continue decorating for the
holiday tour of home.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
And get married in December. Ant Loreen's kind of like,
you're lying, but you could still be a December bride.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Like, FYI December, So they're behind for decorating, which is
crazy because she has spent all of her time decorating.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
And she doesn't have a job.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, this is her only thing. But all of the
family shows up to health and that's like both sides
of the family, which is really nice and it goes well.
Stanley actually didn't like Darcy Sterling of Darcy Sterling Designs Designs,
but Gold and Silver loved Layla's which I might add
was complete with the sleigh that she needed.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
Do you think she had a plan B for that sleigh?
Like if they didn't get the sleigh, Like, what was
she going to do?

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Out? The first question, because she wouldn't have known and
it was very last minute, so it seems like she
maybe didn't have a plan B.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
I mean just go to like home Depot and get
you know, like root Off or something.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
I don't think home Depot exists in Hallmark World. Oh
my god, that's a big box store.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Oh yeah, yeah, she had to like Bob's hardware and
get You really have to make the sleigh from scratch?
Is that what it was? It would be an antique
sleigh that's magical.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Needless to say, Layla gets the business so she's no
longer unemployed. So now that that's sorted, they can stop
the fake engagement, and they're going to do so by
getting into a fake fight at dinner with Aunt Lorraine, Jessica,
and Jack. But they show up to this dinner and
it ends up being an engagement party for the Rise.

(17:22):
So Laila's like, you know what, I'm still moving forward
with this, and she tries to start a fake fight
and says like, no, no, I can't go through with this.
I love you. And he asks her to marry him,
and she's like, I love you too, and they get
for real engaged at the fake engagement party.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
And that was a good kiss.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
It was a good kiss. It was a good kiss.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Because he's hot.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
I thought it was interesting too, Like everybody there just
clapped like it was a normal thing to happen at
an engagement party that you get engaged. Only Jack was like,
what is going on? Yeah? And I wasn't a fan
of Jack, but I would have also been like wait,
like like yeah, I'm here. Were already engaged, and so
in the next week to week and.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
A half, I'm going to talk about it.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
They have a December wedding and everything ends up perfect.
So good. God, it's a really good movie.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
I mean that, and that summary was so good. I
think maybe we need to take a break.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
Let's take a break, all right, Kerrie. One to five CCBs.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
Given in a four.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Ooh, I actually thought you would rate it higher.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Yeah, I'm not.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Okay, I'm going to give it a four point five.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Oh I really well, maybe I'll upline to four point
five as well. I like to do anything Jennie does.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
This is where we're friends. I like, I just love, love,
love all all of the just classic Hallmark tropes that
are in this and we can probably talk about that.
But I mean there's it's just like one after the
not they just keep coming. It's amazed, start out, like
immediately find out there's a dead mom Christmas who loved Christmas.

(19:16):
We have the fake engagement. I mean, it's just there's
so much I love it so much. Didn't make sense. Yeah,
maybe we can talk about what didn't make sense and.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
You're free for all. I have a lot to say,
all right, start us off. Okay, I'm going to preface
this with I love this movie. I love, love love it. Okay,
we have that. Let's get that over in this pocket. Also,
I feel that Hallmark movies, there's two kinds of Hallmark
Christmas movies. There is your serious movie, which might be

(19:50):
actually serious, like it's based on a true story. Yeah, yeah,
it's a military you know, everybody's an orphan whatever. And
then there's the absurd. Yeah, and like very lighthearted. You laugh,
you cry, you love it even though it's completely unrealistic.

(20:11):
And I love both of these types of movies, serious
or stupid. I don't care well partial to stupid. Yeah,
And it used to be that on the Hallmark channel,
that's where you got the lighthearted movies, and then the
Hallmark movies and mysteries did the more serious. It appears
now that you just it's a free for all, like
both chances.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
Hard for me because I always knew just go to Hallmark,
because yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
I would usually go to Hallmark. But then every once
in a while you're kind of like, eh, I feel
kind of moody tonight. I'm going over to movies and
mysteries so I can cry, but you know whatever. So
this movie came out in twenty sixteen, and unlike some
other movies, they actually play it quite a bit. Yeah,
they play it as you said in Christmas. In July,
they play it throughout the season, which I love because

(20:55):
it's amazing and I'm in love with Seth and my
husband also. Okay, so with all of that said, there
is something about the concept of time in this movie
that makes zero sense. I'm gonna break it down for

(21:15):
every guy. First of all, the very first scene of
this movie, they are at some sort of networking event
and we have Layla is engaged to do she Jack
and her cousin returns from Paris or New York or
somewhere and yummy, yummy. Seth is there too, and he's

(21:35):
just like, oh, hey, Leyla, guess because they met at
summer singing camp or wherever they were.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
I love that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah, also makes no sense given his profession, but I'm
into it. Yeah yeah, that's the investment banker who goes
to theater camp. But whatever. So that scene is supposed
to be summertime, okay, okay, like just outside, there's no snow,
it's bright, they're wearing sleeveless, although that doesn't mean much

(22:03):
in homework movies at all, but it's implied that it's
like summary. So let's say it's a June.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Uh, huh, So you were.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Telling me that from June that Beyonce Jack breaks it
off with Layla to get with her cousin Jack and
the cousin date get engaged, play in a wedding, and
get married to December.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
I thought it was the next year.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
No, it's the same year.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
And also that you know Layla was supposed to get
married in December, right, She says something about that, like
you're getting married in December or she wanted to. So
they so six months this all happened. Next weird time situation.
So also still toward the beginning of the movie, Layla's

(22:53):
all like, I don't want to go to this wedding,
which yes, I wouldn't either. Now we could talk about
that later. But then it's like, oh, just come, and
she's like okay. The next day she fills out her
RSVP cart and puts it in the mailbox. The wedding
is that week. Now, Jenny and I have both gotten
married recently, so we can tell you when you get married,

(23:17):
there's a cutoff date. Yeah, it's not really your cutoff date.
It's all your vendors, like the people who make the food,
who are like by a week before the wedding, you
have to tell us who's coming because we're going to
make food for them.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
Also, you typically do a seating chart so you know
all the guest's name, unless you get married during COVID
and people keep dropping in and out, like my wedding,
that's a different podcast. Uh So anyway, so this is
all happening the week of the wedding. She's deciding to
go sending something through the mail to the same town.
And then the biggest what the hell is going on

(23:51):
with time in this movie is the very end when,
of course Leila and Seth get married. And I would
have assumed that it would be a year later. Oh,
and that they would have put up a year later.
They do not do that. And it is supposed to
be the same December. The holiday tour of homes has
already happened. We've already had a wedding, one wedding in December.

(24:16):
We know the movie starts at Christmas time because they're
decorating trees, right, so this holiday tour of homes happens,
it has to be really close to Christmas Day. Yeah,
when they finally get together, and yet they get married
in the same December why not just make it a
year later? Like what is there something like, Okay, I

(24:38):
live in a normal world, and where I live in
my universe, December is a month and it happens every year. Yes,
I feel like maybe in December bride, there's only one December.
If you miss it, you're out, Like there's no December
wedding because everything has to.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
Happen that December. Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Yeah, maybe there's like a sequel that's like the apocalypse.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Or December is gone the Apocalypse wedding. I don't know.
No one can get married in December anymore. I mean,
and it's also you'd think there's overlap in the guest lists,
so it is a lot. I think it's a lot
to wane just ask people to come to December wedding
because yeah, people always have things doing in that time of.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
Year, busy, especially Thanksgivings late.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
Right, So then you're you're asking a lot of the
people to come to one wedding, an engagement party, and
then another wedding.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
All in December, and possibly with the toy drive.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
We'll probably help with the toy drive more than anything.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
So I think that's my biggest takeaway of this now again,
I think all of that's completely cuckoo bananas, but I'm
here for it and I love it, and I still
love this movie.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
I love this movie too. Yeah, I hadn't thought much
about the time, but I mean I did, of course
think about the wedding in the same month. But that's
very okay. I want to talk a little bit about
the fake engagement. Yeah, you know, I love a fake engagement,
like I really do. Fake dating, fake engagement has to
be at least one every year. What I don't get
was why the ruse had to continue for anyone except

(26:17):
for Darcy and Stanley, Like they could have told their
parents and they were brother and I don't I mean,
maybe they think their family's very untrustworthy.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
But maybe they wanted to stay in character like method acting,
but with lying like method lying.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
It just felt like there was really two people in
the world that had to think you were engaged. Right,
you could probably pull it off and mentioned to your
parents that you're not actually engaged. Your parents, one of
whom is planning the wedding already, and I don't know
if maybe she knew that it had to happen this

(26:57):
December because the world was ending I don't know, but
there just didn't seem to be a very good reason
to me that they had to keep this charade going, right,
And in fact, if you told.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Your families, we're doing this because she has the potential
to get this really big lucrative job, offer ye to
stage homes for Malcolm, mister Malcolm, then they would help
you even more because that's a big deal.

Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah. I mean, I'm glad they kept it up. Yeah,
but I also it didn't quite make sense that they
had to keep it up, which I mean makes the
whole plotline better when it doesn't fabulous. That was a
good one to me.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
So I have some questions, okay, and I have other
things to say, but I'm gonna ask my I have
two questions. I'm going to ask you, okay, and then
also if you follow us on social media at Facebook
and Instagram at Hallmark Junkies, you can let us know
what you think. My first question, would you blame Seth

(27:57):
for breaking up your engagement? Because they really that's a
heavy like they're like, you you did this, yeah, but
really all he did was like, oh, you should get
some free advice.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Right right, Jack. It kind of came off that way
in the movie. But when you take a step back
and think about it.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
Like they weren't gonna meet, Jessica and Jack would meet,
you know, if they had gotten married.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, and they made it seem like it was a
connection like instant love. Yeah, So no, I don't think
I would. I would have definitely blamed Jessica and Jack
and right rudge the way you're supposed to.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Yeah, like man people and not go to the wedding
or go to their wedding and get wasted, like those
are your two options.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, and make a scene. Right.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
My other question, would you have gone to the cousin's wedding?

Speaker 2 (28:42):
I honestly don't think I would. And it made me
really really like one of my points, not like Aunt Loraine,
why are you pressuring this girl who went through this
to go to the wedding, which, by the way, they
didn't even invite her brother, Like, and it was a
small wedding. There weren't that many. It was a small church.
Her brother wasn't even invited, which was odd to me

(29:02):
because he was going to go as her date and.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
He thought her out that was sexy.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
That's very true. Maybe that's why they didn't invite him.
But yeah, so no, I would not have gone. I
would have stayed home and been bitter and like ate
a lot. And also Lorraine shouldn't have been pressuring her
to go. She shouldn't have been pressuring her to make
up with Jessica. I understand Lorraine wants family, but these
things take time, and this was, as you now pointed out,

(29:29):
like a six month span where she's supposed to be
all gracious and stuff.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
That's just not how it works. No, I agree.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Okay, well then I have a question for you. What
did you think of the job that Leila did on
SE's house and did you like it better than Darcy
Sterling of Darcy Sterling Designs and what she did on
the other house.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
This is like one of my biggest things about this
movie that makes it fabulous. The decorations for Sess house
are horrible, Like that is the worst decorated house in
the history of Hallmark Channel movies.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Just talk about the pine cones that were like the
side of like traffic cones hanging from I mean, I
hate pine cones to begin with. They're not very quote
Christmasy either, I mean they're fall like, Oh, those are
so bad.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
I mean, like the whole movie too. She's like, I'm
so busy. Look I'm decorating, and she like puts a
bow up, you know, and you're just like, well, if
that's how slow you're going, Like, yeah, I could see
your point.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
And it was so Also, the Christmas tree that she
chose looked like it should be on display. It was
not like a house Christmas tree. And then she said,
let's put let's drink some popcorn and put that around
the tree, which is very family how like, it just
didn't work. Maybe she doesn't know what homie means and

(30:54):
she doesn't know Christmas Christmasy? Why y like you? I
mean that said. I didn't like Darcy's designs that much either.
I do like the gold and silver look, but I
didn't like hers.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
And well we didn't really get to see a lot
of hers either, But yeah, I didn't like what I saw.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
No.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
I also didn't like in Seth's house, just the normal
thing she added, like the leather chairs. I just I mean,
it's awful and the outside looks awful. Everything looks awful.
And I don't understand the tour of homes because there
are people. Is it for the outside of the houses.
Is it just like that particular street. If it is
that street, is there some kind of hoa that's like

(31:35):
organizing this? I mean? And then like people were just
going up the stands.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
No. At first, I was like, this is cool, it's
a really decorated street and you can walk down it
and see. But then there's people like going inside. And
I also.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
Tell it's a twenty sixteen movie because within the next
two to three years that's when they really started in
homework movies, like there were lights on the kitchen cabinet and.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, this was still in the relatively understated.
Yeah it still even for understate, it's awful. Yeah. And
the sleigh, it didn't. I honestly, I didn't know it
was a sleigh until they were like, we found your sleigh.
I thought it was just like a piece of wood.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yeah, okay, So I think we're on the same page
as those decorations, like.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
In general too. Like to answer your question, like Darcy's
her aesthetic was supposed to be crisp, clean, golds and silver,
uh huh, whereas Leila was supposed to be like the
classic traditional red and green. Yes, which do I like better? Well?
She ever has more glitter, That's what I'll take. But
probably red and green for Christmas, Red.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
And green with glitter, yeah yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
Also red and green with golden and silver.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah. I actually like all of them. I don't know
why they had to split and one had to be
gold and silver and one had to be red and green.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, that was a good question. How close are these
cousins in age? No, how close are they as in
a relationship, because they imply that Layla and Jessica at
one time we're super super close sisters. Yeah, yeah, and
yet we have Jessica has not only moved back from

(33:08):
either New York or Paris, I'm not sure which one
she's in, moves back to wherever this town is. Anne
has opened a boutique, which is a major life change,
and her cousin Layla has no idea any of this
has happened. Layla has gotten engaged. Yeah, and Ja doesn't know.
I mean, didn't Aunt Loraine like drop that in conversations

(33:30):
with R because you know Aunt Loraine's nosy.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
That's a really good point.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah, so I don't think they really were that club.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
No, I mean that makes me not like Aunt Loraine.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
Evenmore like there's no like text message like a family group, yeah, messaging.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Thing like hey, Jessica's back in town and opened a boutique,
like oh my.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
God, here's a picture Jessica.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yeah. Yeah, no, Miley Faith, that's a good point. Yeah,
all right, I have a little wardrobe commentary for I
haven't okay, go ahead, all right. First, there's a few
things that I noted. One, I love coats. Jessica had
like thirty five coats that she wanted this movie, and
I was jealous.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
I didn't notice she sang it maybe not.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Thirty five, but a lot, and one of them was
actually like open in the back the way I would
in the front. Was at the very beginning of the movie,
and I was like, what is going on with this coat?
But then she had, you know, thirty four more that
I did like, Okay. Another comment Jessica's wedding dress was oh,
it was like it was like they took something from

(34:34):
Little House on the Prairie or something. We're like, here, Jessica,
wear this, and we're going to keep your hair the
exact same for your wedding, but put a little thing
in it like they made her on purpose. Look silly
at her wedding, and.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
She's supposed to be a big fashion she owns a boutique,
lived in Paris.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
And she had on the little House on the Prairie dress,
no veil or anything so bad. Okay. The officiant at
Jack and Jessica's wedding, who was this same efficient at
Layla and saasweating, he had on a clown tie at
the first wedding, it was it was one of those
really wide short ties. At the second wedding, he looked, fine,
I have.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
To go back and look at my gosh, I can't
believe I missed this.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
And then here's a whre I have a question for you.
There's this one point in the movie where she's wearing
like a plum colored dress Laila nice, and she it
looks like a sweater dress. This is when I think
Darcy fires her. And she's wearing this like sparkly belt
that looks like they would give a wrestling champion, like.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
Like you're the heavyweight champion. Yeah, okay, spark over it.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
And I was like, oh my god, I've got to
know if Currie would wear this belt or not.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
Okay, Well, as you know, ordinarily I will wear anything
with glitter sparkles. However, I don't wear belts.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Okay, good, because this belt was so bad and I
was so worried that you were gonna be like, no,
it's like I would wear it with my sparkle beret. No.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
I mean maybe i'd wear it as a headband or
something because I don't like the around my waist, because
why do we want to draw attention? Then nobody needs to.

Speaker 2 (36:06):
See that last question for you?

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Please tell me, Oh, I hope that's what I'm gonna say.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Tell me that you hated Layela's earrings at her wedding.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
That is what I was going to say. She has
on her wedding dress and then she has on these giant,
enormous sparkle red earrings. Now, of course I love the
ear rings. They're not wearing them to my wedding. I'd
wear them to a Christmas party.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Okay, thank you. I was like, I knew you were
going to be like, no, I would wear the sparkle
belt and the sparkle beret and sparkle ear rings all
to my wedding.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
I mean, you know about a sparkle bray and love ashtaglar.
The ear rings at the wedding just I hate, like
I wanted to gouge my eyes out. But maybe the
ear rings are really why she wanted to get married
in December. She wants to wear the earrings.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
She had chosen those earrings.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
It's kind of like, you know, at one point we
thought about canceling our wedding because you know, it was COVID,
But I already my dress and I really wanted to
wear it. So maybe she's like, I have these earrings,
I gotta get married. Yeah, maybe she borrowed them, has
to give them back in January.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
I hope she has to give them back.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
I d er who she borrowed them.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
I hope they get retired. Yes.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
No, that was one of my big notes, along with
the very beginning of the movie. We start with a quote.
It's a little dramatic for my taste.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
I'm already laughing.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
We have a voiceover of Laila saying Christmas is a
happy time for everyone but me. I'm going to go
with that's not true. Probably not, I would say probably
half the population hates Christmas.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, yeah, it's very traumatic. We're both in the part
of the population that loves it.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
Right, even when something bad is happening to me during Christmas?

Speaker 2 (37:51):
I still love Christmas? Yeah, yeah, like no, Layla is
the ultimate Christmas victim.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
And it's like, okay, but you don't get to have
a decembd like, don't hate Christmas. Your wedding's not Christmas.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Ey Leyla's truth is that everyone gets to enjoy Christmas
for her.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah maybe in this town, though I don't know.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
I had a couple of favorite quotes too. There was
one time when Seth your favorite bachelor yum says everywhere
I look, I see Christmas and I see you and
I love it. And this is like before they were
together together, and I was just like, I love in

(38:32):
these movies where it's like a random love quote, but
we just add Christmas to that quote. Yes, yes, that
was great. Now here's my other favorite quote. So cousin
Jessica trying to, you know, redeem herself with Layla, and
I think we can all agree she did her wrong.
And she's like they're at the toy Drive site obviously,

(38:53):
and she's talking about fashion model Barbie and she's like,
what she lacked in substance she made up for Blair
kind of like me. And I'm like why would you
Why would you compare yourself to fashion model Barbie when
you're trying to make a mess of something. I mean
to me, it's like being like, I am amazing.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
You're like I look like Beyonce and I have her talent.
Also I am fashion model Barbie.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
What it didn't fit in? I was like, where did I?

Speaker 1 (39:27):
I loved it, but like what and it doesn't really
go with her character?

Speaker 2 (39:30):
It didn't at all. It didn't at all, Like she
did not fit how they like the way they dressed her,
the way they did her hair, didn't fit how they
kind of described her lifestyle right as fashion model Barbie
for sure. And now Mottle Barbie would not have been
wearing the Little House on the Prairie wedding dress.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Oh no, not even in the eighties.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
No.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Yeah, I did not hone in on that quote. And
I think it's just because I was always looking at
the Teddy Bears, like anytime they're at the toy drive.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yeah, the toy drive. There's a lot of confusing toy
drives in Hallmark movies. Yeah, and we love them, yeah,
each of them.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
All right, do you have any other thoughts on the movie?

Speaker 1 (40:07):
No, I mean just you know, overall fabulousness.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty much all I have too.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
Should we move on then to Romance one oh one,
Let's do it, okay, Romance one O one when my
friend Carrie, romance author extraordinaire, gives us little insights into
the movie. So, as Jenny said in the beginning, this
movie is one trope after another after another, which we love.
We're here for it. Yeah, but the biggest trope going

(40:38):
on is the fake relationship, fake engagement. And here's what's
funny about this trope is that I love it in movies,
and I love it in books, and I've actually written
it in several books, and actually I'm writing a book
right now where I'm putting it in. And yet I
find it to be one of the most unrealistic tropes

(40:59):
out there.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
And this one is based on a book too. This
one's based off it is a novel. So it wasn't
a book.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
It wasn't a book.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah it is.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
It is very unrealistic, like it something about it makes
it work in this medium. But if you really stop
and like you yourself, could you imagine, like if I
was just like, hey, Jenny, I'm engaged to this Joe
Schmoe over here, Like I wouldn't be able to lie
to my friends there some of my family I could

(41:29):
probably lie to, but not all of them. And I
mean it's just insane, Yeah it is. And what is
it that would make me like, what do I want
so badly that I would have to go with this lot? Right?

Speaker 2 (41:43):
Right? And it be a little more understandable for Leila
in this movie because she did have like her whole
income writing on it. But Seth was just kind of
being a good guy.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Although not in the beginning, she still had a job.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
That's true. That's true.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
I mean Seth, I guess his motivation was just He's
all he had always.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
Liked her, Yeah, from theater camp, which when he said that,
I was convinced that they knew each other since high
school slash middle school. And then I was like, wait,
they went to theater camp like two years ago.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
Well yeah, that was the other thing, because I was like,
I had the same reaction. I was like, oh, I
guess like in high school they went to theater camp,
but that was two years ago. And he's like already
an investment banker, means he probably has an MBA, which
means he went to college and then two years getting
his MBA.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
And admittedly has no free time like overwork. Yeah, but
has time for theater camp. I loved that. I really
I did too, And I want to go to theater camp.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
I don't know, I think he would like it. Well,
I mean I minored in theater in college and did
a lot of theater, so I kind of feel like
I did go to theater camp. Oh yeah, yeah. So anyway,
so it's a trope that I find completely insane. It's
there with amnesia, but I love the amnesia amnesia too.

(42:53):
And but yeah, like we said, it works for these
these movies, it works in romance novels and just love us,
yeah and hit us up on our socials and let
us know if you like this trip, all.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Right, Kerrie, final and most important question of the pod.
Is this couple going to stay together?

Speaker 1 (43:12):
I want to say no because I want him my love,
But I do have my husband. I do love more
than Seth Murphy.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
Well, yes, they're going to stay together.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
They're going to stay together. Yeah, I think they are too.
Even though it was a wildly short engagement, everything happened
in December. But yeah, I think they're going to stay
together and live in the Murphy Mansion. Huh. And yeah,
she's going to be like a super fabulous interior designer
Stager Stager of homes. Great movie.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
We loved it, loved it, loved it, loved doing this podcast.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
Love the movie, all good, love all of you. Yes,
love is love. All right, Well I think we did it?
Did we do it?

Speaker 1 (44:06):
I think so?

Speaker 2 (44:07):
All right? Well, then this is Jenny same cheers.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
And this is Carrie saying we'll see Yinn's next time.
Merry Christmas.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
Allmark Junkies is a part of the Seneca Women Podcast
Network and iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
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