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July 27, 2023 43 mins
This week Kerri and Jenny are taking on the first movie of the 2022 Hallmark Christmas movie season, which obviously started before Halloween.  Come listen to our review of Noel Next Door starring Natalie Hall, Corey Sevier, and Edgar the bunny. 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 ogs 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):
Welcome back to the Hallmark Junkies. We are here today
to bring you another movie. And I am Carrie. Jenny's here.
Our producer Harry aka my Dog is here taking a nap,
taking a nap in the corner his usual producing area.
Yeah yeah, So Jenny, tell us what movie we're going

(01:02):
to talk about today.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
We're going to talk about Noel next Door, which is
the first movie that aired in the twenty twenty two
Countdown to Christmas Countdown to Christmas obviously starting in October
as it should, before Halloween. Yes, this is the movie
that most big Hallmark fans look forward to every year
because it starts the Christmas season before Halloween.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Again, you can really weed out the people who are
true hallmarkis because the ones who aren't are like, oh,
movie before Halloween.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Now you can take a break and put a costume on.
You can even wear a Halloween costume and watching the movie.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
M So what should we do first?

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Let's start out with Picture It just you know, named
after our favorite golden girl. So Petrillo, let's start out
with that segment and just give a little overview of
the movie.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
All right, I think I'll go ahead and do a
very short synopsis. What do you think sounds a fabulous?
All right? Picture It Chicago? We think twenty twenty two.
We have single mom down on her luck, meets a
guy at the diner where she works. Their chemistry is amazing. Meanwhile,

(02:19):
her son has been having all kinds of problems with
his grinchy neighbor. Guess what grinchy neighbor is the great
chemistry guy. He's a grinch because we find out he
had a stroke and then his wife up and left him.
Then his job kind of changed, YadA, YadA, YadA. The
two of them go ice skating and they eat pie,

(02:41):
and they spend Christmas together and spoiler alert, it's a
year later they're together and we have a happy ending.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
So magical, it was magical, really was, yeah, all right,
should we do a deeper dive? I think so, let's
do it now.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Picture it.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Chicago, twenty twenty two. Noel, a single mom, is in
her very cutely decorated condo. Her son Henry is living
there with her. We know this from their fabulous stockings.
Noel gets a voicemail from her ex husband and we
can tell basically that.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
He's a cheer. He's the worst. He is an awful man.
Was that an answering machine? I mean it wasn't because
she was holding her cellphone, but it sounded very answering
machine esque. I did not notice that. I mean it
was like loud because her son's listening in.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Her son did listen in. It's a pain point.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Wait, I have to go back to the voicemail because
the horrible ex who moved his mistress in to their
old house, he said that he wants the sun for Christmas,
right because he can give him a family like atmosphere.
I actually wrote that down. Has anyone noticed this condo

(03:58):
that she's living in, that every single inch is decorated
for Christmas. It's a very very beautifully decorated condo, but
not a family like atmosphere. Apparently, no not suited for
a child. Okay, continue, Let's go to the condo quite
near in the same community. A man who I would

(04:20):
probably only describe as ornery lives there, quite the opposite
of Noel's condo. It's very dark, there's no Christmas decoration anywhere.
The minds are drawn.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
We see that this man has some types of injury
to his leg and arm, and he turns on classical music,
and this is the only time we can see that
he's kind of at peace in the zone. Otherwise, this
just seems like a very angry human being. Yeah, after
he gets in his flow listening to this classical music. Yes,

(04:54):
there's a lot of noise coming from his walls, and
we find out that it's Henry well Son kicking a
ball off of the house. A fight ensues, not a
physical fight, just a verbal battle ensues between the two.
The kid talks back a little bit, not that nice
to his elder. There's lots of snows outside.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Okay. Also there is a lot of snow, and this
kid is out there playing soccer and it is covered
in ice. I played soccer. Did you know that I did?

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Not?

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yeah? In high school, I played soccer. I would not
have been out in the ice because soccer season is
typically like fall. Maybe yeah, maybe it's right because he
was trying to make the team. Yeah, but I would
have found somewhere else, maybe a gym, or maybe he
doesn't have access. They just moved to this condo community. Really,

(05:52):
it's a dedication on his part, is practice in the ice.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, there, Henry has a lot of downsides, but perhaps
he is quite the dedicatedil.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
I bet we get to some of those downsides later.
You think we will.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
So we're gonna go back and forth between these two condos.
Noel comes down next. Out of her condos. She's dressed
ready to go to work and serve food with her
hair down, which we see throughout the entire movie. I'm
not a fan of that. No, I didn't like it. Now.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
I don't want to waitress serving the food when their
hair is in their face. I'm pretty sure that's a
health violation. No.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Before Noel heads out, she does get a text from
her sister Shannon with a picture of a possible guy
that Shannon would like to set her up with. Eelle's
not sure about this. Let's go back to Jeremy's condo.
He's sitting at the piano. It looks like he's composing
some music where there's a ring at the door. He
opens the door only to find Shannon, Noel's sister, with

(06:49):
her daughter and two other girls from their dance troupe,
caroling to make money, which I would think is a
hard way to fundraise. They cut into a rendition of
jingle bells and he decides to slam the door in
their face.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Guess what if you don't want to talk to someone,
don't answer the door. But you don't always know who's
at the door. I guess. I mean you could have
a ring alarm. I feel like not he didn't have
a ring alarm.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
No, I mean we didn't hear that that noise. Yeah, so,
and he opened the door. I don't think he knew
it was Caroller's at the door.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
I wonder who he thought it was. He probably hadn't
know it. Maybe he ordered food, yeah, maybe some grub Hub. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
So let's go back to Noel and Henry. They have
taken a quick trip to a bakery and Henry is
telling his mom about the mean neighbor next door. In
the soccer ball situation.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
In this walk, we also find out again that their
father has left them and his mistress or his mistress
who I think he was a dentist and she was
like the hygienist. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
They are walking home when they run into sister Shannon
and her daughter Katie, who are quite upset about this,
and so with the ornery neighbor, they figure out that
this is the same neighbor that they're talking about. He's
in Unit two twenty four. If you were wondering, stay
away from that unit.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Yeah. Well, okay, sorry, I have a lot of thoughts here.
Can we talk about the bakery. Henry has to get
to the bakery, even though his mom was just like,
I gotta get to work. I didn't notice that because
he says he needs to get there because all the
best banana bread will be gone. Oh yes, I actually
do remember that. I thought that was such a random

(08:33):
baked good to really want.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, especially around Christmas, you would think they would have said,
like the Kringles will be gone or the sugar cookies.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, the fruitcake whatever. Yeah, it was just bizarro. I
don't know. Maybe they make really good banana bread. Maybe
they do.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Post bakery trip Noelle finally makes it to work. We
don't know if she was late or not. And what
do you know, the ornery neighbor comes in. Jeremy gets
take out. They talk a little bit. He tells her
that Christmas is his least favorite time of the year.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Jeremy heads back home to the condo after he picks
up his meal, and we first meet Frank. Frank wants
to set Jeremy up with a woman named Haley. During
this exchange, Jeremy actually trips over an extension chord that
was used to put up a very large tree in
the condo community. He gets quite angry at this. He

(09:27):
yells at Lewis, who we will see quite a lot
throughout the movie.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Lewis's the person who is putting the tree up. Louis
has a lot to do.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, Louis, he says, you know, maybe I could rewire this.
He was using power from two units, which I found
surprising that two units would just be like, yeah, I
light your massive Christmas tree, put it on my bill.
But Jeremy's like, no, that tree is coming down, and
apparently the condo board agrees and the tree comes down.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
It's very sad.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, but we also find out now that Jeremy did
have a stroke and he doesn't like Christmas partially because
of this stroke. He just has a lot of pent
up bitterness about the fact that it's derailed his life
and he knows that yes, yeah, he is self aware. Yeah,
Jeremy has some it seems arm pain on this stroke,

(10:15):
so he goes to pick up a prescription for pain
medicine and he runs into Neel at the drug store.
Noel was buying tampons in a box with a big tampon.
They had a little bit of a cute exchange. She
asks him to help her choose her cereal. One thing
we noticed here is that back in the day, these
both would have been sold as a product placement.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah. I don't know if Hallmark maybe lost their product
placement deals or they're getting trickier about it maybe, or
maybe they were trying to be with the twenty twenty
two times and saying, you know, inflation's high, they had
to buy store brand. Maybe yeah. Well and okay, well
she's a single mom too, so yeah, yeah, so maybe
she just needed to get like CVS brand tasty or whatever.

(11:03):
Tiny up.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
Yeah, I'm not judging, No no. So Noel goes back home.
She sees our friend Lewis taking down the Christmas lights
because the mean neighbor made them.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Condo is he han? Is it two two? Yeah, she's
two of two.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
Yeah. Noel's not quite sure what's going to happen with
Jeremy yet, so she goes on this blind date, which
is actually dinner at her sister's house. This isn't gonna
go well. This man is awful.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, he's a weird. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
He was banned from social media for spreading misinformation.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
I wonder what he was spreading.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
Fist bumps instead of handshakes because of germs he near, though,
you know he could have.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Gone and washed his hands afterwards. I mean, I'm a hugger,
but you know, with COVID and everything.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
We can go with the fist pump. But there's still
some other red flags here. Tell me he's a flat earther.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Forgot about that.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
He also says he hates fiction, which then that's shaky
a huge from and he hates movies. Shannon tells her sister, though,
that he does have a positive quality and that he's single.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
I liked Noel's response too, Yes, he's single. That's not
a quality correct. But more importantly, we need to talk
about the sister's house, specifically the outside of the Sister's house.
I actually had to rewind it twice because I was
trying to figure out what was going on there. And
there are two ginormous balls of light that are like

(12:33):
sort of flanking these steps. What is that? What did
it look like a decoration? I mean it would have
to be. Oh, it's definitely it has to be decorations.
Everybody go back and check that out. And I think
you see it a second time in the movie. I
think she's back over there again. But yeah, the biggest

(12:54):
decorations ever. It's just be fuddling.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
Next up, Jeremy's blind date with Haley. Right, whoops, Jeremy
forgot to make a reservation. Uh uh so where do
they have to go? Midnight diner where Noel works. They
go to the diner, and of course Noel is there working.
She sees the two on a date and she's clearly bummed.

(13:20):
But you know what, the date doesn't go well because
Jeremy has trouble taking off his jacket. His arms a
little bit tight that night, and this brought Haley's like, well,
you're making a scene.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Which yeah, she was.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
She was awful, So he called it tonight. He said,
I'm done. Haley's pissed. She walks out, and Noel comes
to save the day. She convinces him to stay. She
helps him get his coat off. She brings him apple
pie and hot chocolate, which I thought was a really
bad combo, and they commiserate a bit over their bad
blind dates.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
I hate that, like, he says. He says something like
he blew it with Haley, and I'm like, you actually
did relay? Was she blew it? She was awful? I
think the right thing. He stood up. Yeah yeah. But
also maybe his arm was super tight because he walked
to their date, which concerns me because he has a
cane and it's really cold and icy. He's a daredevil. Yes,

(14:17):
I don't know, but I'm glad it didn't work out
with Haley.

Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, me too, Jeremy. After he and Noel talk for
a bit, he leaves the diner and he goes back
home and there's the same sound the kid from two
o two kicking the ball against the wall.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
Two four. Yes.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
He goes back back outside again. He starts yelling at
the kid kid calls him a scrooge, and the kid, Henry, throws.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
A snowball at him. Yeah, that's messed up. Frank comes over.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Frank really gives the pep talk to Jeremy. Frank is
a solid guy, is a friend Jeremy, and Jeremy gives
a call to the diner and finds out if no
Well is working there today. Turns out she is, and
he shows up to her shift right in time to
be the night and shining armor because this awful human
is hitting on her.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
You know what, that guy who's hitting on her should
go out with Haley.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
I really thought I recognized that guy, like as in,
knew him personally.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
I really, yeah, I wouldnt that'd be crazy. Yeah, I
thought I went to high school with him or something.
Let's look him up on IMDb and c Well, after
Jeremy saves the day from this creep, he gets her number.
Very exciting. He's quite smooth. I think he's very funny,
dry sense of humor. Yeah, he gets the number and

(15:42):
she tells him to call her tonight. I love that
sign they are really working well. She's very trying to
think of the right word, like very flirty. I just
like her whole. Like she's very confident. I like she's
very confident. I like her. I like both of them.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Later that evening, she gets the call from Jeremy. You know,
six feet, brown hair, soulful eyes.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
That's how I love that description eyes. I'm gonna put
that in a book. You should and confident.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
Noel, just like we said, cuts the chase, asks him out,
so we get the first date.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Oh my god, what is the first day. Well, he
chooses ice skating. Let's all take a pause here, ice
skating with a cane.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
He says that it's different muscles when you ice skate,
therefore he can do it. And actually he was really
moving on the ice, like he was really moving. Yeah, okay, again,
I don't know if you knew this about me. I
was also a competitive figure skater.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
I did know this. You really need your arms for balance.
I mean, it's not like he's doing jumps or spins
or anything like that. But I twizzles, no twizzles, But
I just I really I don't know. I don't I
just don't know if I can believe the skating. But
I like it because I love when they're skating in

(17:08):
these movies. Yeah. What I didn't like was that Noel
is wearing the biggest ear muffs I've ever seen that marked.
They look like they look like those balls of lighted
or Sister's house fit Dumbo, Like these things were so big.
We are wearing these large headphones right now to podcasts,
and they're bigger. Those were bigger than a big Yeah, bigger.

(17:31):
They would have fit Prince Charles, like they were. She
takes them off later because she's probably like, I can't
even hear.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
Like.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Immediately, like so bad. They were bigger than like Princess
Leiah's buns. You know, Oh man, I couldn't.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
I could not get over those, even with these earmuffs on,
which I would think would make your head like quite overheated.
She's too cold to continue figure skating, so they go
sit by a fire. They talk a little bit more.
He does mention that he had a stroke, so she
now knows a little bit more of his background, and

(18:14):
he talks about his love for classical music, and the
date gets extended. He takes her to go watch a
symphony practice. Then we learned that he was a conductor.
He still composes, but he can't conduct anymore. That he's
hoping next year to have the symphony, and she says
she'd love to go the symphony next year, but he says,

(18:34):
you know, I don't want to wait a year to
see you again. Let's go to dinner. They're so close
to kissing.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Almost a mid movie kiss, yes, but a Charity Santa
walks by and he it's Rekis And that's when I
learned they were in Chicago, because Charity Santa says something
about Chicago.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
All right, morning after the date, we meet a new
character and this is Edgar the Bunny.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
This is when it really got good.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Edgar is Henry's bunny who somehow escaped over the night.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
By the way, I wasn't really I must have not
been paying attention or something. I thought Edgar was a
burd first. And they're looking for him and they're on
their hands and knees, and I was like, what are
they thought he died for sure, but no, it's a
really cute bunny.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yeah, they can't find him anywhere in the house. And
that's because somehow this bunny escaped the house and hopped
all over in the freezing cold winter. Joy hopped really
to condo two four for me Jeremy's condo. Jeremy wakes
up and finds Edgar in his house. He traps him

(19:53):
with a laundry basket and calls Louis, the neighbor that
does everything for everyone in this time.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
See that laundry basket was moving like Edgar's like kidding
a straw.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
I mean to make it across the way.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
How how did this bunny get over there?

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Well, I don't know, I don't. I don't know any
bunnies that could make it besides perhaps the easter bunny bugs.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
You know what, maybe I don't know that much about bunnies. Yeah,
I don't. I don't. Yeah, maybe bunnies are actually fast
when they get out in the wildlociraptors.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Well, Lewis comes over. He actually knows that this is
Henry's bunny. Jeremy realizes Henry is the kid that kicks
the ball against his house, and he writes a horrible
note to the neighbor. But Jeremy does not want to
take this note over to the neighbor. He sends Louis
to deliver the bunny, the news that Jeremy's gonna set
bunny traps and the note.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
That Lewis man. Yeah, while this.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
Is happening, and Noel and Jeremy do not realize that
their neighbors, they're texting each other about how awful their
neighbors are.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
It's like you've got mail. It really is.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
This is This actually went on longer than I thought
it wouldn't be Tom Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
I thought, yeah, I thought that was going to be
definitely in the first third, and it was not. Yeah,
which I like.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
Jeremy arrives home and what do you know, something is
jammed in the lock. It seems it's probably a toothpick
two two four. He has his date with Noel. This
toothpick is threatening him to be late, perhaps miss the date.
Like Noel's over there getting ready for her date.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
I mean, it's not like you could text your date
and be like, hey, I have a situation.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yeah and Noel. Henry is talking to Noel and he's like, wait,
you haven't even googled Jeremy yet.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Wait this is That was one of my favorite parts,
which was when Henry was like, you haven't even googled him,
and she's like, I don't even know his last name,
and I was like, yeah, fair enough. But it's when
Henry or Noel says to Henry, Oh, you know how
to do that? Yeah, everybody does, right, Yeah, that's what

(22:07):
I forgot about that.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
So we do find out that it was a toothpick
in the lock. Jeremy knows kid and Unit two O
two did this. He marches straight over to confront and
Noel's and they're getting ready for the date.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Ring at the door. She opens it it's Jeremy.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
They're confused for a second, yeah, until Henry comes up
and it's like, oh my gosh, it's Scrooge, And very
quickly this all unravels. Henry lies a lot, which makes
it unravel faster, but Noel believes Henry. She cancels the
date on the spot. Jeremy goes back. Noel's sad.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
This is as you taught.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Me, the dark moment it is, and I thought it
was a good dark moment, Like I thought it was big.
If it were real life, I would think this would
be big, I think, especially because it involves your child.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
So Noel's inside and Henry actually apologize and she's like, oh,
you have no thing to be sorry for. But Henry
confides to her that Greg's mistress Dana doesn't really like him,
and then it's been tough for him, but his dad's
going to marry this woman anyway.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
It's just tough.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
Maybe that's why he's been acting out. Yeah, the next morning,
we see Jeremy hungover. I was shocked actually at the
use of alcohol in this movie.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
I know they had a lot of wine. I liked it.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Frank in real life, Yeah, you know, Frank, the best
friend ever walks in. Jeremy says he blew it with
the best woman he's ever met, I think three days ago,
so things are really moving fast. But Frank says, you know,
you should go apologize to her, and he makes Jeremy breakfast.
So I really love Frank. I have to say that.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, although I wouldn't want eggs when I'm hungover.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
No, maybe bacon. Oh definitely, I could do an egg sandwich.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Well I could do a sandwich. Yeah, I'm not just
like scrambling a no no.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
And we also have then Noel calling Greg and offering
to split Christmas so that Dana can start liking Jeremy.
Sense to Melely really surprised by that, me too, because like,
let hers start to like him after Christmas.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Just let the kid enjoy Christmas well, And I mean
it was a really kind act of her, Yeah, to
even want to do that. I don't know that it
was warranted, Like, you know, her kid isn't getting along
with his possible new stepmom. But I'm not as good
of a person as Noel, but I probably would have
used that. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
So later that day, Henry goes over to apologize to Jeremy,
admits to everything and tells Jeremy he should ask his
mom out again. And Noel can't find Henry, and that's
because Henry is outside playing soccer with Jeremy.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
Still in the unies.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
Henry then confesses it all to his mom about everything
that he's done to Jeremy.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
And Noel's lipstick, by the way, is it banging? Oh yeah,
it's great the whole movie. She has a couple of shades,
but there's this pink shade toward the end that I
was like in love with. I love the really deep
red for the date that never happened, to the dinner date. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
So Jeremy heads over to Noell's. They have heartfelt moment
kind of reconciling. He gushes about Henry. Big change of
mind about Henry just from the apology, and he tells
us that, you know what's been really tough for him
was that his stroke was actually on Christmas morning three
years ago, and six months later his wife left him.
I can understand being bitter about Christmas after that, and

(25:32):
I hope he watched a lot of Hallmark movies to
feel better after that.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
Yeah, me too.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
Yeah, we are nearing the end. We're feeling this reconciliation.
Everything's going perfect. It's Christmas morning, it's snowing. Henry and
Noel are wearing matching Christmas jammies. Jeremy comes over with gifts.
I mean, this is just a great scene that evening.
They're having more wine together because the alcohol flows freely

(25:57):
and love it movie. Yeah, we see Edgar Bunny again.
He's back home, safe and sound hasn't escaped again. Jeremy
says he has one more present before Henry leaves to
be with his dad for Christmas evening, and this is
that the tree is back up, the condo tree. Jeremy
let it go back up, and all of her friends
and family are gathered around the tree to carol, and we.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Get their first kiss finally.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Yeah, we get a scene presumably one year later where
they are at the symphony alogue if you will, Yeah,
and they kiss again the end happily, ever after they live.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Job. What a good time to take a break too.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
The Hallmark Junkies podcast will be back after this short break, Okay,
Carrie one to five Candice Cameron Berets.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
You know it's interesting. Originally I was going to give
it three yeah, but I actually I'm gonna get a
little higher and give it like a three point four maybe.
Oh okay, Yeah, I liked it overall, I did two.

Speaker 3 (27:09):
Yeah, I'm giving it three point twenty five. My only
complaint or the only reason I wouldn't rate it higher,
is I would characterize it more as a story that
occurred at Christmas more than a Christmas story.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Oh good, you know what I mean? Yeah, very astute.
I will also say I probably would have given it higher.
I thought at the end, and like the epilogue, so
they're listening to his symphony and we are assuming it's
a year later, and they're like sort of the camera's
panning down and I really thought it was going to
show her stomach, and I thought she was going to
be pregnant. She's going to get a little bit of

(27:43):
a lotdown for you. Yeah, yeah, I thought that would
have been really sweet.

Speaker 3 (27:48):
That would have been yeah, yeah, I think I would
have done that in my epilogue if I.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
Writ if I wrote that, should we move on to
Free for All? Let's do it? Okay, what other comments
do you have about this movie? I actually have an
OsO Homewark move moment oo okay, yeah, and it is
And I don't know, this is maybe a personal one
for me because I have a history with ice skating,
but I loved the moment when they are sitting by

(28:14):
the fire because she's cold, so they stop. Oh yeah,
ice skating. And then and Claire Daloon is playing and
I love clear Dealude, Like I think it's such a
pretty song. Oh yes, yes, it's beautiful. They paid a
lot of the classical hits in this world, I wrote down.
I was like, man, Homework's really stepping up their their
music budget because it had to cost a lot.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
When they go to the symphony and they're playing the Nutcracker, Yeah, yeah,
they did. They did a lot of the big hits
in the classical Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
I love I love that, like sort of by the fire,
like you can imagine it, like you can smell the fire.
And yeah, this movie in general made me feel very cold.
Me too. They did a great job, Like it did
not seem like they were filming this in the middle
of the summer with fakes in it, like that looked real. Yeah,
the ice was intents, you could see their breath. It

(29:05):
just it really that it looked cold.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
What about You want to comment a bit on the
Christmas decorations in this movie. There's some I really like
and some I didn't like the genormous balls of light. Yes,
I actually didn't like her sister's house that much.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
In general.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
I thought it looked like a department store at Christmas,
especially the tree, and also like the two times she
had people over for dinner, it was almost like she
had a spread on her counter that was for a gala.
Like the house was just a little too much. That said,
I loved the paper snowflakes that they made, You didn't.
I thought they were so beautiful, Like I felt like
I was in Denmark or something.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
I haven't made paper snowflakes in a million years, but
I do remember when I made them. They never looked
that good. No, they were beautiful. They were beautiful.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
And I also liked it. At Noel's house, she had
some ornaments hanging by the exposed brick. Really love that.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Now.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
One thing I was surprised about. I really thought at
the end we would get a cut back to you
Jeremy's condo and we would see it that he had
decorated it a bit.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Oh, that would have been nice.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
Yeah, But overall I did like the Christmas decorations in
this movie.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, I thought they did well. I tryed to think
where to go next. Okay, I'm gonna say something more
about the snowflakes. So the snowflakes scene, we have her
son Henry cutting out these snowflakes, and it just brought
up a lot inside of me because I tend to

(30:29):
not like movies and also books with children in them,
and it's just not one of my things. It's a trope, yeah,
and it's just not a favorite. It doesn't mean that
I wouldn't watch the movie or read the book. It's
not like a huge hatred or anything. But I've always
kind of wondered why it bothers me, and I realized
in these movies it's because we often have a child

(30:53):
who is acting much younger than they actually are. It
drives me banana sauce crazy. So if I had to
guess Henry's like twelve, I felt she treated him as
if he was three. I mean, there's a scene where
she's checking on him when he's sleeping. His room has
like a Teddy Bear. It just looks a lot younger

(31:16):
than I feel like he probably is. Yeah, and I
hate that. I mean, Okay, look, I want everyone in
the world to believe in Santa, because I think that'd
be really magical. But that's not how it is. I mean,
you get to what seven eight, Yeah, where you're believing.
I mean, this kid is like twelve, but there's no
way he's believing in Santa, but yet he does. So

(31:37):
I think that's why I tend not to like kids
in these movies, because I just don't feel like they're
ever cast well. But this was crazy. I don't know
if it was the actor or what, but he flipped
it on me. When he went over and apologized to Jeremy,
I really started liking him. And when he noticed that

(31:58):
his mom she's getting ready for the date and he
notices she's happy and she hasn't been happy. I just
thought he did a really good job. And so by
the end of the movie, I actually really liked Henry
the Sun. Wow, I know, like a big change. I
was like, ah, yeah, but maybe that was like part
of the whole thing. Maybe she was treating him young

(32:19):
and then he started acting like grown up and she
started treating him differently. And now again that said, I
talk about Edgar the Bunny because Henry owns up to
a lot. You know, he put the toothpick in the door,
kicks the soccer ball. But I don't think correct me
if I'm wrong. I don't think he says he put
the bunny in his apartment.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
No, he does not say this. How would he even
get it in the apartment?

Speaker 1 (32:44):
No?

Speaker 3 (32:44):
I think Edgar went on a joy ride joy pop?

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, how did this bunny get over there? Okay, you
guys need to hit us up on social media. We
are on Instagram and Facebook at Hallmark Junkies. What's your theory?
How did Edgar the Bunny get into his apartment? Are
they those tunnels? Are those condos next to each other too?

Speaker 3 (33:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (33:08):
I was like, so we couldn't go through like a
heating vent thing? Oh yeah, No, I mean if you
have like a mouse, they can get through anything. It's true.
I don't think bunnies are boneless.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
No, And they also would have to hop through everything,
where his mice can kind of like run through things.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I'd like to talk about
Lewis for a minute. Oh, bring it Lewis.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
I was confused actually in the movie as to whether
Lewis was the property manager or he was just, you know,
the friend that everyone kind of used because he did
everything and everyone called him when they had an issue, right,
and like.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
Which would suggest property manager, right?

Speaker 3 (33:49):
And he was the one putting up the Christmas tree,
and he was the one throwing salt out of a
mini bucket to make the sidewalks more safe.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
The bucket look like you know when you go to
a trendy restaurant and they give you fries like truffle
for it like that.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
You know, it looked to me like you know when
you get one of those candles to burn during the
summer some mosquitos. Yeah, like it looked like the bucket
for that. And then and then when when Jeremy called
him because there was a bunny in his unit, I
was like, oh, property manager. Then I was like, no,
he's just actually lives there, and he's a punching bag,
and I think he needs to do, you know, some

(34:28):
work on himself and find his self worth and be like, no,
I'm not at your beck and call you go return
the bunny and tell them that you think it's a
glorified sewer rat. I'm not doing that.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
You should tell everyone your favorite line about the bunny.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
I knew this because Jenny and I actually couldn't watch
the movie together, so we were texting each other during it.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
He's like, so when after Jeremy calls him in and
he's like, hey, there's this bunny in my gondo, Lewis,
you take care of it. Lewis is like, no, no,
this isn't just some bunny.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
Off the street.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
This is as though bunnies often come in off the street.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
Right, Well, it's really cold there, which I.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
Mean I've only visited Chicago, but I would assume that's
not the case in Chicago that bunnies live on the street.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
I mean a lot of stuff happened during covid' I
don't know where you would live that.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
There's just I mean I could see maybe like a
bunny or two you see around, but a Street Bunny
in your house. I don't know that was I mean,
that line was hilarious to me.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
No, but that's good, And I do think, yeah, Louis
is something else you can hit us up at at
Hallmark Junkies. Louis. Did he just live there or did
he work there? Or both? But I really yeah, I
think I'm going to end with my My last thought
with him was just that he lived there. Yeah, was

(36:03):
a nice guy mine too. Yeah. Does he have a
regular job, I don't know, doesn't have time for it.
What else do you have? I thought?

Speaker 3 (36:14):
Shann and the sister was a bit condescending to about
her singlehood, both saying that the positive quality about this
awful flat earth that she sent him up with was
that he was single. And then when she just barged
in the next morning and she's like, oh you just
walk in, She's like, well, I knew there wouldn't be.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
A man here. Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
I mean, first off, there's nothing wrong with being single.
So I don't understand why if you have someone with
all of these negative qualities you're like, yeah, but he's single,
Like it kind of insinuates that, oh my gosh, the
worst thing in the world. Is that you're single and
you need I'll set you up with in any of
that breathe.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
And secondly, just because you're single doesn't mean you still
don't need privacy and that anyone can just walk into
your condo any time. This bothered me a bit because
I don't like those tropes, if you will, about single people.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yeah. I hadn't really, now that you're saying that, that's right,
she did. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Well, something that really
bothered me in this movie is they often talked with
the door open, and I kind of feel like my
dad here, but like all the heats going out, and
also we know it's really really cold there, like it

(37:28):
just you come in. Yeah, I wasn't into that. But
also like the condos too. I thought was interesting because
we have a symphony conductor slash composer living in the
same condo as a diner waitress. And I'm not saying
anything against diner waitresses because I used to be a waitress,
but those are very different paying jobs. Yeah, but their

(37:52):
condos did look different.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
Oh yeah, so maybe he was in like the upper
and condos in the community and she was, but hers
was still really nice.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I noticed that too. I was like,
how is Noel affording this? Right? Yeah, but I think
that's all I got for this section.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
I have one more comment, and that is just that
I really thought I think it's Corey sever the lead
male did a great job.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
Yeah he did.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
I really liked him in this movie. I liked that
the male lead was more sensitive than macho. I think
oftentimes in these Hallmark movies it's it's the macho male,
a beta.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
I liked that he was into classical I like that
he didn't really fit the bill. He's also been in
one of my favorite Christmas movies, The Northern Lights of Christmas,
about the reindeer farm that got in. Yeah, but I
just thought he was great.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
I really enjoyed him as a star in this movie. Yeah.
I hope he does more. Yes, all right. Last segment
Romance one oh one, where our resident romance author, who
is not me or producer Harry, Yes, it's Carrie, tells
us just a little thought she might have had about
this movie being in this industry. Well, we actually got

(39:09):
our very first question on social media. It came to
us via Instagram from Funny Gut, and Funny Gut asked us,
or asked me I should say when I write a book,
do I write an order? Which I thought was a
really good question. Do I write the story and order?
Short answer, no, I do not. A little bit longer answer.

(39:34):
In writing, there tends to be two types of people.
We have plotters and we have pansers. And a plotter,
I think is pretty self explanatory. They're plotting out every
aspect of their book where things are going to go.
A pancer is someone who flies by the seat of
their pants. They get the idea for the book and
they just kind of write whatever they want. They don't

(39:54):
really plot things out then just kind of do what
they want to do, which is what I am. I
am a panther, which is very strange because in my
I would say my regular life, I'm more of a plotter,
But with writing, I like to just write whatever character
is speaking to me at that moment, I'll write that scene. However,
now that I'm actually published, you have to be a

(40:18):
little bit more of a plotter when you're working with
other people. So you know, when I first start writing
a news story, my editor is going to want to
know about it, and they're going to want to see
the beginning, so I have to have the first three chapters.
I have to have a synopsis. So I usually give
myself a little bit of time and do whatever kind
of writing I want. If I want to write the
ending first, I'll do that and just you know, maybe

(40:39):
I have And actually this happens quite a bit where
I just have dialogue, almost like a play is running
through my head, and I'll just write that down and
then kind of connect the scenes later. But at some
point I always stop. I work on the first three chapters,
and then I kind of get more of an idea.
My synopsis is never super super detailed. It tells story,

(41:00):
but I can usually do that in about three pages.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
So we know that this movie was based on a
romance novel called How the Grunch Stole My Heart by
Annabel Costa. If you were going to take wild Guests,
she applotter, where she had answered.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
I actually would guess she was a plotter. I do
not know this writer, no, but I would just plotter
because I really liked her dark moment as you did. Yeah,
and I feel like that was going to take some planning,
Like you know, maybe she thought, Okay, we have this guy,
he's been through something with his health which affected all

(41:38):
these other areas of his life, and you know, who
are you going to pair that guy up with? And
there just there were a lot of moving parts that,
like I said, it was very You've Got Mail, and
that you kind of almost had two movies going on
at the same time. You had Noel and Jeremy really
falling in love and having a lot of chemistry. And

(42:00):
then at the same time you had Noel and Jeremy
the single mom and the grinchy neighbor happening. So I'm
going to guess she's a plotter. Okay, I like it.
I think she's a plotter too. Why not? Yeah? Maybe
one day, well we can ask her. Yeah, that'd be fun.
All right. Last question, do you think this couple's going
to make it? I do think they're going to make it.
I think they compliment each other. We saw them together

(42:22):
a year later, so we already know they've at least
made it one year. I'm going to say they make it.

Speaker 3 (42:27):
I agree, I think they're going to make it. I
also thought they understood each other, they complimented each other.
They already made it through some tough stuff, So I
think this couple's Also, they're good. They're going to make
it awesome. Well, did we just get through another movie?

Speaker 1 (42:43):
We did a good one at that, Yes, So I
think that's all we have today. But we're excited to
come back and talk to all of you again. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
And if you like this podcast, please remember to hit
the subscribe button and give us a rating only if
it's you know, the highest possible.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
Radio would give us glitter toss rating. This is Jenny
saying cheers, and this is Carrie saying we'll see Yin's
next time. Merry Christmas.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
Hallmark Junkies is a part of the Seneca Women Podcast
Network and iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, check
out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
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