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July 13, 2023 48 mins
Join Kerri and Jenny in the inaugural episode with a rewatch of the legendary Christmas Under Wraps, or as they call it "Alaska Christmas Doctor".  This movie originally aired in 2014 and stars the Hallmark (former) queen Candace Cameron Bure, David O'Donnell, and Bill Murray's brother. Need to talk about even more baking montages and snowball fights? Connect with us today! Instagram: @hallmarkjunkies Facebook: @hallmarkjunkies Kerri: @authorkerri Jenny: @mrs.chanandler_bingg  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi. I'm Jenny. Hi, I'm Carrie. We're best friends and
new moms. We're also the OG's of Hallmark Christmas Movies.
That's right. 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 2 (00:21):
We are the Hallmark Junkies.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Oh my god, it's our first podcast. Yay. Can you
believe it? Not at all? Literally, just not at all. Well,
we should let everyone know that we Carrie and Jenny,
are one of the ten winners from the Seneca Women
and iHeartRadio search for Women to Hear, which means we
attend to the Seneca Women Podcast Academy where we learned

(01:03):
so much. Who knew so much went into podcasting not
I No. And we have a lot of gratitude towards
Seneca Women iHeart, and also our wonderful mentor Sierra Spreen.
All these people have been wonderful and amazing and they've
been integral in us starting the Hallmark Junkies podcast. This podcast,

(01:25):
you could probably guess by the name, is going to
be two Hallmark super fans reviewing Hallmark movies. Carrie and
I have been Hallmark fans forever. I think I think forever. Right,
that counts me. I think we can safely say forever. Okay, yeah,
so we've been fans forever. We're also best friends, and
as part of our best friendship, we spent a lot

(01:46):
of time discussing Hallmark movies. So now we're going to
do this in a podcast. One additional little plot twist
we have is that Carrie is actually an industry insider.
She is a romance author, so she'll be bringing us
a unique perspective. I am just a Hallmark super fan,
and I will be bringing you that perspective, probably much

(02:06):
like a lot of yours. We're going to be starting
with some rewatches. This episode will be a rewatch of
Christmas under Wraps. We also lovingly like to call this
Alaska Christmas Doctor. That's right, and we could not be
more excited to do this and hopefully go on this
ride with all of you. Are we ready for our

(02:27):
first segment? I think we are all right. Our first
segment we will be calling picture It. Carrie, do you
want to give everyone a background as to why we
named this segment picture It. Okay, I don't know if
anyone has ever heard of this little show. It was
on TV in like the late eighties, early nineties, maybe

(02:47):
all eighties, I don't remember, but it's called Golden Girls.
I have heard of it. Do you like it? I
love Golden Girls? Who doesn't? Golden Girls is just every
thing that I need it to be. And also they
play reruns on the Hallmark Channel. When when? Yeah? When?
And in Golden Girls, Sophia is from Cicily and she

(03:11):
always starts her stories with picture it, Cecily nineteen twelve. Okay,
that's my Sophia impression. It's really bad. I thought it
was good. Yeah, yeah, picture it. That's right. In the
picture It segment, we will be giving a synopsis of
the movie, always starting with picture it, city that the
movie is based, and year, and then we will be

(03:34):
rating the movie between one and five. CCBs obviously CCB
standing for the Hallmark Queen Candice Cameron beret All Hill,
or should we say the former Hallmark Queen Candace Cameron Brey. Well,
CCB's still with us, we should say yes, CCB's with us.
She's alive. She's just no longer with Hallmark, but we

(03:55):
will still celebrate all of her Hallmark movies. She left
us a lot to celebrate, and we will start by
celebrating Christmas under wraps? Do we want to just start
with a very brief synopsis Carrie of Alaska Christmas Doctor?
You know, I think we do. I'm gonna sum this
up or real fast CCB. She's type A, she's a doctor.

(04:16):
She ends up in Garland, Alaska, where she meets Frank
Holliday aka Bill Murray's brother in real life aka possibly
Santa Claus. She also meets Bill Murray's brother's son named Andy.
She ends up falling in love with Andy. She falls
in love with the town in Alaska, and she falls
in love with her new doctor job changes her tune

(04:38):
spoiler alert. She stays in Alaska and there's a happy
ending and the scene. Yes. Also, many Hallmark movies kind
of take that path, don't they, interestingly, Well, you know
a little bit. We might talk about that later. All right,
let's do the deep dive. Okay, picture it. San Francisco
twenty fourteen. Doctor Lauren Brunell as a surgical resident finishing

(05:03):
up her last days of residency before she starts or
hopefully starts, a fellowship. We find out why she's talking
with her surgeon friends that they'll be matching soon with
fellowship programs, and doctor Brunell decided to only apply to
one program. We have issues with this. Yeah, it's bold. Yeah,

(05:23):
it's presumptuous. It's bold. I mean, come on, safety school, Lauren.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Right.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yeah. She also tells her friends that this night she
will be going out to dinner with her lawyer boyfriend, Scott,
and she believes that he will be proposing and moving
to Boston for her for the fellowship. This could be
the night. I hope she got a manny, got her
hair done, got a manny. But we see trouble issues
being one. Scott's a lawyer, probably in a big corporation.

(05:51):
Hallmark does not like lawyers. Hallmark does not like big corporations.
You need to be a handyman in a small town.
Correct issue too. We are talking about a city. Cities
are evil in Hallmark movies. Big cities, big cities, right,
San Francisco, Boston. These are not New York like. Come on,
So we see trouble, but let's find out what happens.

(06:11):
We next see Scott and Lauren at dinner. Lauren believes
he's about to propose, but Scott breaks up with her.
Uh oh, his main complaint Lauren plans too much. Lauren
leaves dinner goes over to her parents' house slash villa
and their beautiful, beautiful house. Yes, it's gorgeous. She actually

(06:34):
doesn't get a chance to tell her parents that Scott
has just broken up with her before they break the
news to her that she did not get into Charlestown
but that safety schools looking better right now? Now, yep,
somebody did doctors without borders. She didn't. They got in,
she didn't. They thought outside of the box. They did,
they did she planned, They thought outside the box. So
in one evening, Lauren has lost the boyfriend that she

(06:57):
thought was proposing to her and also lost the fellowship
that she had planned for for basically half her life. Right,
And I have to say she takes it quite well,
don't you think? Yeah? Pretty much. I mean she's kind
of bummed, but like she's like, all right, I'm going home.
She's just melancholy. I would be devastated. I mean I
would be drunk, right. I don't even think she drank

(07:17):
it all. She just took it well, kept on moving.
She didn't even eat her feelings. Yes, I need to
insert something here, and I want to talk about Lauren's clothes.
I really really like her wardrobe in this movie. Her
wardrobe is amazing. Yeah. I can't say that about all,
you know, the heroines in homework movies, but this one, like, yeah,

(07:40):
it's killer. It really is from start to finish, and
it does evolve as we go. Yeah, all right, so
let's go to the next day. Lauren decides to take
matters into her own hands, and she goes to a
career counselor, and the career counselor somehow finds a fellowship
in general doctoring open at a hospital in Garland, Alaska,

(08:03):
which is adjacent to Anchorage. We don't know how this happened,
but it just so happened that it was open, and
she happens to have a brochure for that specific fellowship
on her desk on the off chance that someone looking
for a general doctoring job would come in. Lauren decides,
this is out of the box. This is a small town,

(08:25):
this is less traditional. She's going to take it. Billy,
the nurse slash hospital administrator slash Fellowship Admissions reviews her
application and lets her in. So next thing we know,
Lauren is landing in Anchorage, Alaska, without shopping for new
clothes first exactly, but she does have the great wardrobe

(08:45):
as we've discussed, right, so maybe a good decision. Lauren's
chauffeur comes to pick her up, but we find out
it's not your traditional chauffeur. It is a man flying
a two seater plane to Garland, which, although at a Jason,
is still three hundred miles away, right. I don't know
that i'd be able to get on. I could get on,

(09:07):
I would be into it. I like to be up, hie.
Is it more the plane like you know the little
planes kind of move all over propellers. I don't know.
I want to be I want to be on a
big plane that feels like a city, so that I
don't realize I'm in the middle of the air. I mean, no, no, no, no.
I would never go to space. You know what they
make it. They land in Garland. It's this cozy, cute

(09:29):
small town. There's Hattie's Diner, there's Garland General Store. There's
holiday shipping, which might play a big part in the
movie maybe. Next morning, Lauren starts her first day at
Garland General Hospital. First, she decided, can we pack up
for a second? Sure, okay, because I want to discuss something. Okay.
This small town hospital is also putting her up, like

(09:53):
they're paying for her lodging. That's why she is in
this cabin, which for some reason, Lauren thinks disgusting. She's
just like, ugh, I think she's like, I guess I
can make this work. I mean, it's really cute. I thought, Oh,
it's it's so cute. Like it's clearly not real wood,
no logs or whatever. It's like paneling. Do you know

(10:14):
what I think? It's like if you went to Disney
World and we're like, I want to stay in a
log cabin and they just made it feel like a
log cabin, right, and then they have fake streets and stuff. Yeah. Yeah,
And I mean, and the appliances are stainless steel, So
I don't really get what the problem is. There's no
coffee maker. There was no coffee maker, which brings us
back to her stopping at Hattie's diner the next morning.

(10:36):
She orders well after her skin Vanilla Lata isn't available,
she orders just a coffee with fake sugar and skim milk.
Apparently nobody in Alaska drinks skim milk or fake sugar
because that's also unavailable. You know, That's why I keep
Splendi in my purse. By the way, she didn't pack
the splenda a man, and the diner decides to tell
her that she shouldn't be afraid of a little sugar
and fat. Who's that man? That man just happens to

(10:59):
be Frank Holiday, CEO of Holiday Shipping. Also Bill Murray's
brother in real life, and he was in the Christmas
classic Holiday Vacation Christmas Vacation. He was the boss in
Christmas Vacation, the main boss who took away their bonuses.
Let's hope he's not a mean boss in this movie, right. Also,
can we just mention that Lauren stops and tells him, Hey,

(11:23):
has anyone ever told you that you look like Santa Claus, which,
by all accounts is not a compliment to give someone, right,
But you know what, even telling someone they look like
insert any actor. I mean that could really go sideways fast,
you know, because if you're like you think it's a compliment,
but maybe they're like, ugh, this has happened to me
a few times. All right, back to the movie, Okay, right, yeah,

(11:48):
Next thing we know, Lauren is arriving at Garland General
Hospital for her first day of work. This is basically
a house, but the inside looks like a hospital. She
finds out there's a total of four staff, two nurses,
one of whom is Billy. Lauren really starts having second
thoughts here, but the waiting room is full, so Lauren
gets to work. Also on this first day, we meet Wyat,

(12:09):
the flower delivery man, and we see some immediate chemistry
between Wyatt and Billy the nurse. So Lauren finishes her
first day headed home. Guess who picks her up for
a ride home? Who? Andy? Holiday? You chat a little bit,
maybe getting to know each other. Next thing we know
is the next day at Garland General Hospital and the

(12:31):
place is packed. It's packed, which makes us stop and
wonder what have these people been doing. They say that
it's been a year since their last doctor. They have
not had a doctor in one year. What are people doing?
They've just been winging it and now they're flocking to
the doctor. What is someone had a baby? I mean,

(12:53):
I guess they did it back in the day. I mean,
Jenny and I both have babies in this last year.
Would you be fine with Billy the nurse? No Frank Holiday? No, No,
I would probably go to an anchorage. All right, So
the hospital's packed, but not to worry her. Staff who's
in before her has trioged all the patients and they've

(13:14):
put them the most important patients in the rooms for
her to see. First. First stop is stomach ache, stomach ache?
Too much Christmas candy. This is mind boggling because that
is how they've made it a year. You need a doctor.
Lauren finishes this day. And guess what happens that night?

(13:35):
What Lauren has dinner with the Holidays? As in the
Holiday Family, Frank, Andy and Faith at dinner, a few
things happen. Frank's diet gets brought up. Also, we see
a little tension be pued between Frank and Andy, and
we find out this is because Andy once moved to
a big evil city, Seattle, to be an architect, and

(13:55):
Frank was not happy about it. Now, wait, was there
ten about Frank's diet. Yes, Frank eats a lot of cookies.
Frank is unconcerned about this, but everyone else is very
concerned about Frank's diet, and maybe again this is how
they made it without a doctor for a year, because
the biggest concern in the town is Frank's diet and
stomach aches and stomach ache for Christmas candy related. Let's

(14:20):
get to the next day. Lauren shows up to work.
Power is out. Uh oh, guess who fixes it? Andy?
Town handyman, handyman, electrician, chauffeur, the man does everything, also architect,
I know, pilot. Lauren gets chatting with Andy and admits
that she might need to stop and smell the roses more.

(14:42):
And they hug and they stare at each other. Oh,
I feel love brewing. Yeah. That evening we find out
that Billy and Whyett are going on their first date.
Look at that, and Lauren just goes back home. All
of a sudden, there's a knock at the Who is it?
It's why? Guess what happened? What? Rudy is injured stomach ache.

(15:07):
Lauren neats to compast. No, not stomach ache, he's sprained
his ankle. Rudy is well, not the town handyman, No,
he's the town reindeer reindeer or caribou. Rudy the reindeer.
Doctor Brunell took care of Rudy the reindeer, luckily, just
an ankle sprain. She put an ice pack on it.

(15:28):
I kid you not. She didn't follow rice. No, no,
just an ice pack the part of a rice ress
ice ice, yes, good bye compression elevation. Yeah, they just
well I think they did rest so they rest ice. Yeah,
but yeah, I guess maybe it's different form reindeer, though
I don't know, or caribou. Lauren becomes a legend from

(15:52):
doing this in town, I mean standing ovation. Yeah, they're psyched. Yeah,
Lauren is now she cannot leave. She's town doctor and
she's a legend. She saved Rudy, and Rudy is in
the parade or the town Christmas it's Christmas Eve festival parade.
Yeah yeah, Carrie, guess what happens next? What we have
a breakthrough? Lauren and Andy go on a date? Ooh?

(16:16):
Where do they go? Because I'm thinking first date would
be like movies or maybe to like a bar, trivia,
even just coffee. Yeah, this was also something low key.
He took her in the two seater your favorite at night,
flying over the mountains pitch black, so that they could
go sit on a random park bench and watch the

(16:38):
northern lights. Well, first of all, good thing that park
bench just happened to be there. Secondly, that's romantic. It
is romantic, and they're dangerous. Absolutely zero chan. Honestly, I'd
be more excited if you showed up with a sharpa
where like, we're gonna hike these fountains tonight, you go
see northern lights. Like, I'm not getting on that plane.

(17:00):
I'd like to see them northern lights. I would like
to see them too, but not on a small plane.
It's a TV No, yeah, watch him on TV. I
could go on IKE. I'm just not taking a tiny
plane at night. But they made it. They made it.
They had a great date. They might even have kissed ooh,

(17:20):
middle of the movie kiss That is non typical for homework.
It's not, it's not, but I like it, and that's
the type of chemistry they had. Yeah, Lauren has this
big night, straight back to doctoring. Yeah, finally a day
it's not too busy. So doctor Brunell decides to make
a house call to Holiday Shipping to see Frank and
confront him about his diet, which is appalling. She is

(17:44):
so concerned about Frank's diet. As now the Cookie's Frank.
Frank eats a lot of cookies. His diet is actually
becoming a trope in this movie. She diagnoses him with
stress related symptoms, says he needs to take it easy,
but it's his busy season stress eating. He has stress eating.
Doctor Lauren Brunelle did not stress eat. He stress seats,

(18:05):
and he loves Hattie's cookies. He can't even dunk them
in skim milk because they apparently don't have they don't
have Arlyn. No, he dunks them in half and half.
Later in the movie they do talk about an organic diet,
which like if they can't even get skim milk, like
what they have organic stuff? Maybe they have a local

(18:25):
farm that they could go where they just go fish.
I guess, yeah, yeah, that would be good, better than
his cookie diet. I don't know. You would think Andy
could fly and get some splendor all I'm saying that's true.
That night, Lauren and Andy go get a Christmas tree
to decorate her disgusting cabin that she has to stay in.
There is a great tree trimming scene and Lauren kind

(18:51):
of lies a little bit about not really having celebrated
Christmas or really had time to have a tree in
the past, except for one sitting on a table. I
want to talk about that. Yeah, because I noticed that too.
She's all, I never had a tree except for these
table trees that she had. Okay, let's go back to
the beginning of this movie. What happens. Lauren walks into

(19:13):
the beautiful villa that her parents live in. What's in
the corner a Christmas tree? Yeah, that's right, she grew
up with a tree. There is no way that her
parents did not have a Christmas tree. Yeah, real, fake,
It doesn't matter. They had something. I would say they
probably had multiple trees. If I had the money, I
would have bought that house, that villa that they live in,

(19:35):
just to decorate it for Christmas. Oh yes, yeah, Okay,
so they got to decorate the tree, which doctor Lauren
Brunell never gets to do. Lauren also confronts Andy about
holiday shipping, just too many coincidences with the North poland Santa,
but he denies everything, almost like he's gaslighting her, but
not quite. Andy leaves for the evening, and Lauren gets

(19:58):
a call from her dad. The fellowship spot that she
lost has now opened up. She has twenty four hours
to get there, which you know makes a lot of
sense because often fellowships and new jobs do start on
Christmas Eve. Oh yeah, yeah, a lot of things. Christmas
is dedicated. There is no better way than to be like,

(20:20):
we're starting on Christmas Eve. Show up or you don't
get it. How much do you think that plane ticket
costs last minute from Alaska to Bostin. I would guess
two k thirteen thousand dollars. Do you think she could
even get there one day? I don't know, but I

(20:40):
would question it. It's got to be hard because she's
also going against time. I mean, they're ahead of her already. Yeah,
that's true. Not even sure she can get there, but
she decides she's going to do it. Yeah. Next day
she breaks the news to Andy. He's kind of pissed
and devastated. Pissed and devastated, yeah, but gracious. And she

(21:01):
goes and she tells the hospital staff that she's leaving.
They already know, because that's Garland for you, that's right.
She also goes to the Holiday house, that is Frank
and Faith Holiday's house to say goodbye. Frank comes to
the door, what's he doing eating a cookie. Put down
the cookie. Frank, so Andy, wearing his chauffeur slash pilot hat,

(21:25):
comes to take her to the airport. On the way driving,
Andy gets a call. It turns out his dad has collapsed,
and Lauren does not think for two seconds. She says,
turn this Dodge Ram truck around. We are going to
take care of Frank. That's right. And we think Lauren
would do this for anyone in town. Yeah, she definitely.

(21:47):
I mean she did it for Rudy. She is just
a woman of character that Lauren Brunel. Lauren meets Frank
at the hospital and determines that he did not have
a heart attack and he was very lucky, but he
needs to change his diet. And all of this going
on has made Lauren realize something, and that is that
she wants to stay in Garland. Loves Garland. Andy also

(22:11):
realizes that he wants to stay in Garland, not move
them back to an evil city. Right, and he wants
to take over holiday shipping from Frank Holliday, which, even
though it's kind of a corporate job, is not evil
in this movie, you know, because it's a small town
corporate job. Next thing, we know it's the Christmas Eve festival,
biggest festival of the year, biggest day of the year

(22:31):
for Garland, Alaska. We see Billy and Wyatt and Love
and doctor Lauren Brunell walking around the festival looking for Andy,
but first she eats one of Hattie's Christmas cookies and
takes a bite and says, ooh, like this is delicious.
That cookie looks disgusting. That cookie is hard, it's thin.

(22:55):
And Jenny and I have talked about this a lot.
Every Hallmark movie has only one of two cookies, gingerbread
or sugar. That's it. There's no other cookies. And they
never even look good, No, they really don't. They always
look overcooked and under decorated, sometimes overdecorated like the kids

(23:15):
doing it. And that's a bit I mean, I love icing,
but that's a bit much for even Yeah. So, after
Lauren consumes said disgusting gingerbread man, she finds Andy. She
tells him the news that she's decided to stay in Garland, Alaska,
and she asks him on many dates, many many dates,
she asks him to go out with her on Near's Eve,

(23:38):
Valentine Snesday, Easter, Yeah, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Day, Maybay Birthday,
flag Day. She wants it all. Then we see Frank
coming through the Christmas Eve parade with Rudy on his sleigh.
He invites Lauren onto his sleigh. This is my favorite

(23:59):
part of this movie. So I've seen this movie just
a guess guestimate of five hundred and twenty six times,
and on one of my more recent viewings, I noticed
that in this scene, here's Frank coming along with Rudy
dressed like Santa Claus, and he's like, hey, doctor Lauren,
come on up on the sleigh. And she's like, yeah, okay,

(24:20):
And she gets up on the sleigh and she's like hi, Rudy.
And then Bill Murray's brother goes, well, I don't mean
to Russia. He really doesn't get off on a sleigh.
She was on the sleigh for point two seconds. Why
even invite her up there? She really was. I mean,
you very awkward. Yeah, and you can invite her up
the next day when you have more time. It was.

(24:40):
I mean that it's kind of it's borderline rude. I
felt bad for her. Yeah, I don't think Sanna would
do that, but maybe, I mean, it's a stressful day,
you know, I think doctor Brunell was okay with us
because she got off and she got to kiss Andy.
And then end of movie, we see Frank Hollidays lying
off into the night saying ho ho ho with one

(25:04):
reindeer who we think was Rudy all healed from his
sprained ankle. And that is a wrap one of our
all time favorites. I really if that one comes on,
I'm watching it like it's yeah, oh yeah, and I'm
probably texting Jenny and I'm like, Alaska Christmas Doctors on
and then my response back is I know I'm watching.
This is how we always text each other about any
good Hallmark movie that comes on. I will also text

(25:27):
my mom and tell her and then she'll say, what
channel guaranteed. Now that we have gone through the movie,
let's rate it one to five CCBs, Carrie, all right,
I'm giving this movie four point seventy five CCBs. That
is painful to hear. I know, I know it would
disappoint you, but I can't get like a five ccb.

(25:52):
It takes a lot. I just don't know how you
get to five CCBs. If Alaska Christmas Doctor is not
five CCBs ps, I'm giving it five CCBs. Yeah, I
thought you might. I don't know how you beat it
unless it's switched for Christmas or one of CCB's other movies. Yeah,
which my one that I would give five stars is

(26:13):
a CCB movie. Let us know. Yeah, yeah, you are
a big fan of that one. Yeah, that one's good too.
I would probably also give that one five CCP's all right,
So should we take a break and then we'll come
back with our next segment. I think it's a good
time to take a break. Let's start with our next segment.

(26:38):
We have named our next segment Free for All, so
it's going to piggyback right off the first segment and
it's just going to be any other thoughts or comments
that we had on this movie. What did we like,
what didn't we like? Who was best dressed? What did
we think of the Christmas decorations. We also have what
we call in movie's glitter toss moments glitter TuS. That
is a phrase coined by my friend Carrie and it's

(27:00):
just our favorite movement in the movie. We also call
some moments oh so Hallmark moments, and those are those
moments in the movie where you're just like, this doesn't
really make sense what is going on. It doesn't make sense,
but yet in the Hallmark world it does. Yeah, and
it makes the movie better. That's the fact that these
are in there. Yeah, we love them. So, Carrie, do
you want to start with your first? Okay thought? I

(27:23):
do have a couple of thoughts. I want to start
with something really important, and that is CCB's hair. Now.
CCB is in I don't even know how many Hallmark
movies she's been in, but a lot. Yes, So she's
had various hairstyles over the year, and I want to
say that I really like her hair in this movie.

(27:46):
I do too, and I think it really brings her
eyes out. I like the color, the length, the style. Yeah,
I'm into it. We are CCB fans if you can't tell.
But I don't always like her hair. No, agreed, agreed? Yeah, yeah,
this one is probably it's up there with my favorite
as well. Yeah. What other thoughts do you have? I

(28:10):
am wondering what you thought about the Christmas decorations in
this movie. And the reason I wonder that is because
I thought the decorations in this movie outside of the
Christmas Eve festival were quite understated. And I know that
understated to you is a synonym for disgusting and trab, yeah, boring, yeah, yeah,

(28:33):
And so I didn't mind it, but I did think
that compared to a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies, it
really was just you know, a simple wreath, a tree,
maybe some lights somewhere, and I'm just wondering, what did
you think of that? I mean, when she first gets
to Garland, she's driving by holiday shipping and she sees
the decorations and she's like, oh, I would have loved

(28:54):
this when I was a kid, and I'm like, oh,
I wouldn't. There's just like a snowman. There's just a
couple of things on the steps that come on. But
I will say this, Hallmark has now gone banana sauce
crazy with their decorations. I mean they're putting wreaths on
walls for no reason. They are decorating kitchen cabinets, which

(29:17):
I want I want to kind of do in my
house now. The over the top for me is when
they put live greenery in bedrooms, on beds. I don't.
I can't with that the chance that there's some sort
of bug in your bed and I hate nature. So
there you go. Yeah, So they they've really gone banana

(29:38):
sauce with their decorations, which you know I'm here for.
But back this came out went in twenty fourteen, twenty
fourteen San Francisco, they were still I feel like transitioning
at this point to the gaudiness that I love so much.
So I think it's okay, Like it doesn't bother me
that it's understated. Yeah, what I like more. Yeah, I

(29:59):
love understand to ject decorations in general, but except for Christmas,
where I'm more of a Christmas vacation, make your house,
you know, look insane. But I also was okay with
the decorations in this movie. And plus there's snow, and
I feel like snow is its own decoration. Well, you know,
it never actually snowed in the movie, though. There was
just snow on the ground ground, which I think it's
snows in Alaska. I've never been to Alaska. Me me there,

(30:22):
Do you want to go? I do want to go?
So do I Maybe we could go to Garland. Maybe
would you'd have to get on one of those planes
that I'd find another way? Dog sled dogsled hiking cruise.
Maybe there's a train. I don't know, I'd figure it out.
I am wondering Hallmark really leans into the is Frank

(30:46):
Holliday Santa or not. We're never actually given a clear
answer of whether Frank Holliday is Sansa or not. So
I want to know if you think it's Santa or not,
and I want to tell you what I think. All right,
tell me. I think Hallmark really wants us to think
that it's Santa, and I am not buying it. I

(31:06):
don't think he's Santa. Wow. First off, Alaska is not
the North Pole. We know this. It's just not I
don't even have the best geography in the world, and
it's very easy for me to say that North Pole
and Alaska are two different places. I mean, they're both cold.

(31:27):
That's it. That's where it ends. Also, I just want
to say, if Santa is leaving from Alaska in the
evening after the Christmas Eve festival, he has missed most
of the world's Christmas. There's a lot of kids waking
up without gifts because Santa missed it in Australia. Australia
is missing it. Anyone over in Europe is missing it.

(31:50):
Like sorry, kids. Frank Holladay had to make the Christmas
Eve festival in Garland, Alaska. That's a good point. Yeah.
I also think that the warehouse looks nothing like Santa's workshop,
and we know that Santa's workshop is super cute. The
warehouse just look like a warehouse. Okay, I'm going to
weigh in here. I think he is Santa Claus. I

(32:13):
think that warehouse is a cover. I think something like
you go underground there and it's the workshop, the cute
workshop that we know and love that Santa has that's underneath.
Like the CIA, you know how they have, according to scandal,
they have rooms where they like torture people in the basement. Okay,

(32:39):
so you like in Santa's workshop to torture chambers. No,
just like how I'm sure the government has secret rooms.
Okay underneath known building. Oh I. And then underneath Holiday
Shipping is the actual north Pole Santa's workshop. Maybe, but

(33:03):
let me give you another reason. Okay. I do not
believe that Santa uses an alias during the year. I
don't think he's like, hey call me Frank Holliday, wink wing.
He's loud and proud. I'm Sanna. I'm going by Santa.
Maybe Chris Kringle, maybe Saint Nick, but I don't feel
that he would be like, please call me Frank Holliday

(33:27):
CEO CEO Holiday Shipping. I don't know. Yeah, I mean
these are questions that we don't know. I will admit
there are a lot of signs that he is Santa,
you know, probably the biggest one being that he flew
off on Christmas Eve with a sleigh and reindeer and
the cookie eating and the cookie I think Santa eats
a lot of cookies. I do think that Sanna would

(33:49):
be able to eat a lot of cookies and not
have stress related symptoms. I agree. He also said he
was third generation, and I feel like there's no third
generation Sanna. I feel like Santa is forever. And they
implied that Andy would be taking over the business akaa,
Andy would become Santa. Well. So some people do think
that it does pass down like that's been in other

(34:10):
Hallmark movies. But if you are more of like a
Fred Klaus fan, then there's one Santa, and he lives forever,
and so does the rest of his family. So we
fall on opposite sides the asle for that one, and
we want to know where everyone else falls. Yes, we do,
so if you want to hit us up on social media,

(34:34):
the Hallmark Junkies are on Facebook and on Instagram at
Hallmark Junkies, and go ahead and find those posts and
let us know what you think. Is Frank Holiday He's
Santa Claus or not? And why let us know? You
know what? Though, since we're talking about Frank and his family,
I do want to say something about Andy. When I
first saw this movie, and maybe even when I was

(34:56):
seeing the commercials for it, I was kind of like, Uh,
don't know about this lead. This lead guy, like he's okay,
like he's cute, but he just didn't seem like the
typical like Hallmark kunk. But I have to say that
I really like him. Yeah. I think he's a good lead. Yeah,

(35:17):
he does a good job. He has like sort of
a fun sense of humor, a little corny at times,
but that's okay. And I think just his personality makes
me like him. He plays a good small town handyman. Yeah,
and that is quintessential Hallmark. The male protagonist, non evil,
non evil, non evil corporations, big cities. Yeah, that is

(35:40):
Andy Holliday. I have another one, and we've discussed this
a little bit before, Okay, we think that this is
the only CCB Hallmark Christmas movie in which both her
parents are still living. We've been racking our brains about this,
and I think it's the only one. Yeah, let's think

(36:03):
about that. Yeah, because we have, let its know, my
fave dead Mom. Yep, we have switched to Christmas, which
is a twin CCB and dead Mom. We have that
one where she is on a train in the beginning
Christmas test town. Yeah, that is both parents. Yeah, she

(36:25):
addicts Christmas dead Mom. And you know, Hallmark, I feel like,
really and really just Christmas stories in general, really like
a dead parent. You know, nothing says Christmas like a
dead mom or dad because it just pulls at the
heartstring And if you want to get like really into it,

(36:46):
then you want to have dead parent dying at Christmas time.
But it just seems so sad. But I think maybe
it works for Hallmark because they do it so often
that you become immune to it. So maybe this movie
was really a stretch for her acting wise, because she
had to play a different character who had both parents

(37:08):
still right, who had like an amazing house, yeah, who
had a compound in San Francisco. One of the highest
cost of living places in the country. I have something
that I want to talk about. As you know, Jenny,
in these movies, there are usually montages, and they tend
to be either a baking montage or a decorating montage.

(37:32):
And it could be decorating the tree, it could be
decorating the whole house. Occasionally you get a wrapping presence montage.
That's that's rare. So we basically have our baking montages
or our decorating montages. And I'm coming out with a
bold statement. I prefer the decorating montage to the cookie

(37:52):
baking montage. That's a big statement. Yeah, but I've given
it a lot of thought. You can do more with
dec there's more options with decorating. I still like the
baking montages better. I like them, don't get me wrong.
I think those are more like the bread and butter
what they They started out more with baking and baking
ones have gotten short. Yeah, but I love a good

(38:15):
baking montage. She like when they get flour on their face. No,
that drives me absolutely bonkers. And I don't understand, like
they always have random flower on their face even when
they're good bakers. Yeah, there's just no reason for it otherwise.
I do love the baking montage, and I wish that
they were longer. Right now, it's just like, you know,
a few notes of a song and we're done. But yeah,

(38:35):
I'm going decorating. I'm gonna stay with baking. Okay, I
have one more tell me and this one's just going
to be very brief because we talked about it a bit,
but I must bring it up because this is one
of my all time oh so Hallmark moments, actually, maybe
so much that I would call it a glitter toss moment.
And this was when doctor Brunell showed up to Garland

(38:57):
General Hospitals and her staff had triaged the patients and
put the most critical patient in roumwand for her to see,
which was stomach ache. I just try to sometimes in
my mind think what could possibly be less urgent than
a stomach ache due to eating too much Christmas candy,
and I honestly have a tough time getting there. Maybe

(39:21):
it's like my face hurts and they're like, oh my gosh,
stroke and it's like no snowball fight. Also, is this
a hospital slash house on the street an urgent care?
Because I don't like to tell people how to do
their jobs, and I don't work in a hospital, but

(39:44):
maybe have like appointments, because not only are all of
the hospital staff there, but like the entire town is
hanging out in this waiting room. I've never thought of that,
but it's a very good point urgent care, that you
make appointments with urgent care. I guess the hospital show

(40:05):
up like urgent care. I think you can do both.
You can do appointment or just show up. But if
you show up, you're waiting. You are waiting, and you
know it's because other people made appointments. It's like go reservation.
I don't really get it. Something I noticed and again
my five hundred and twenty six viewing of this movie,

(40:26):
and go back and look at this. Everyone. She visits
her dad briefly in his office. I'm assuming his office
because I think he's wearing like his doctor coat. His
office appears to be in the middle of a pretty
bumping coffee house or a hospital that has brick on
the wall. So everybody go back and take a look

(40:48):
at that. I actually didn't notice that, but I'm going
to go back and watch that. Yeah, I started looking
at after you told me the career center that we
assumed was part of her medical school was not. Oh
that's just a random career center that somebody could get
her into a fellowship for, which makes it even more
random that that brochure from Garland, Alaska is on the desk.

(41:09):
It's like, oh, here it is. Santa dropped it off.
That's right, Yeah, when he was late for Christmas and
with his secret spies. Should we move to our next segment, Well,
let's do it. This is going to be our final segment.
We're going to call it Romance one oh one. There's
two things that will be a part of this segment. First,

(41:31):
as we mentioned at the start of this episode, my
friend Carrie writes contemporary romance novels and has been published
multiple times. She has worked with Hallmark before. She knows
a lot of people that work with Hallmark, so I
constantly text her and ask her things about Hallmark movies,

(41:52):
including can you get me in a Hallmark movie? The
answer to that is no, not yet, not yet. That's
the key. One other fun fact is that I'm in
one of her books. That's right. It was an Easter egg.
But if you buy bidding on the Bachelor, part of
a three book series. I'm on page two, fourteen, and

(42:13):
it is riveting. I do like to slip little easter
eggs into my books for my friends and did not
tell them about it, and then forget and then find
out if they've read the book, because a good way
to make sure that your friends are actually reading it.
And I remember I was so busy at that time,
and you kept being like, have you finished my book yet?
And I remember thinking back, like, I'm so happy I

(42:34):
didn't just be like, yeah, I finished it. You're an
honest person. So that's going to be the first part
of Romance one on one is Carrie is going to
be giving us just like a little perspective on the
movie from her unique perspective, and then we will answer
the final question, perhaps the most important question of all,
and that is will this couple make it h So Carria, yeah,

(42:59):
start us off. I was thinking about this and because
I don't even realize I have been writing books for
a long long time. It took me about thirteen years
to get published. So I've been part of the romance
industry for such a long time. It doesn't dawn on
me when I say certain things and then Jenny just
looks at me, like what, So, what should I tell

(43:22):
everyone about? But I thought I would do a little
discussion on tropes. And I don't know how many people
out there understand what a trope is in terms of writing,
and it's a really integral part of Hallmark movies. A
trope is basically that thing that drives the story forward,
and you can think of it like a theme. So,

(43:43):
for example, in romance novels, a lot of times we
have something like friends to Lovers, which would be a
book about two friends who in the journey across the
book end up as lovers. You could have enemies to lovers.
You could have one of my faves best friend's brother
or brother's best friend. Oo. Yes, you could have there's

(44:06):
a whole trope on doctors, and then that gets even
more specific with certain kinds of doctors. Or you could
have a military trope. So if you think about your
homework movies and just think about what's kind of driving
them and keeping them apart, small town people finding their way.
That was this movie nice? And I know that, Jenny,

(44:26):
you like a good amnesia. I love an amnesia movie.
Yeah I do too, Yeah, I really do, and I
personally love, of course, the moving from the evil big
city to the quaint, amazing small town. I'm a little
tired of that trope. I will never be tired of it.
I do love the person finding their self trope, and

(44:47):
I'd like that that was this movie as well. Yeah.
I also like that in this movie she found herself,
but it didn't involve giving up this like baller career
that she had. She just changed the type of doctor.
She didn't quit to like paint ornaments. Ps. I would
love to quit my job to paint ornaments. Yeah, yeah,
that sounds something, But I'm also not a doctor, so yeah,

(45:09):
that's basically it. But we would like to hear from
you again, so please visit our social media at Hallmark
Junkies on Facebook and Instagram and let us know what
probes you like to see in Hallmark Channel movies. All right, Carrie,
final question, what do you see for this couple? And
if I may, I would like for you to cover
two couples, doctor Lauren Brunel and Andy and Billy and Wyatt,

(45:33):
the secondary couple in this movie. I'll start with Billy
and Wyatt. They're definitely gonna make it and I'll tell
you why. Because they were childhood friends, which is another trope,
by the way, and they it sounds like they have
a really good foundation for their relationship and they seem
really comfortable with each other. I think I can really

(45:55):
see them making it in the future and then Doctor
Lauren and handing me on Andy. I absolutely think they
are going to make it. I just see the chemistry there,
and I see possible sequels, and I don't know why
they haven't thought about it, and now they can't do
it because CCB's gone from Hallmark. But they could have

(46:15):
done a sequel with you know, let's say Billy and
why It's wedding enduring the planning preparation of their wedding,
Andy is considering proposing to Doctor Laurence. I'm going to
agree with you. I think both couples will make it.
Both couples have great chemistry. They're living in a small town.

(46:36):
There's not a lot of other fish in the sea there,
so it's not like they're going to go find other people.
So yeah, I do think they're going to make it.
I think Hallmark definitely missed out on a chance to
do Alaska Christmas Doctor Wedding they could have done Alaska
Christmas Nurse Wedding. They could have perhaps taken this farther

(46:58):
than the Evergreen movies, which I think are at four.
They could have done Alaska Christmas Doctor Baby, Alaska Christmas
Nurse Baby. We can get five movies for this, that's
how great the one they did. Did we just record
our first podcast? We did it did. This was so

(47:19):
much fun. It was a blast. We had a great time,
and we hope everyone do it again next week. Okay,
let's do it. Let's do it, maybee another rewatch. We
would just like to remind you that if you like
our podcasts, please remember to subscribe and also give us
a little rating and maybe send it off to your

(47:41):
friends so they can listen to it. And if you
just can't get enough of us, please follow us on
Facebook or Instagram at Hamewark Junkies. This is Jenny saying cheers,
and this is Carrie saying, see Yin's later, Marry Christmas.
Hallmark Junkies is a part of the Seneca Women Podcast
Network and iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out

(48:05):
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows,
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