November 28, 2025 • 22 mins
Girls Gone Hallmark is turning up the heat for Melt My Heart This Christmas, a holiday story rooted as much in artistic ambition as seasonal charm. The film follows Holly, a gifted glassblower who lands a last-minute dream opportunity to assist her artistic idol at a famed Christmas market - only to discover that the real tension isn’t with Jack but with the mentor she’s idolized for years. What unfolds is a story of creative collaboration and bruised trust as Holly realizes that talent, recognition, and loyalty can all shatter under pressure. Starring Laura Vandervoort and Stephen Huszar, this one’s more kiln drama than meet-cute.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is a Bramble Jam podcast. Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark,
(00:24):
a Hallmark review podcast. I'm Megan and I'm a longtime
Hallmark fan. I'm Wendy. I'm a former Hallmark hater. Today
we're discussing Melt My Heart This Christmas, which originally aired
on Sunday, November twenty third, and is currently available to
stream on Hallmark Plus. If you're listening, if you're a regular,
longtime listener or a new listener, you know we're heading
(00:45):
into the holiday season and if you want to give
us a gift that is completely free, we would invite
you to rate and review this podcast. You can do
it right in the podcast app that you are listening to.
The best way to do it is actually in the
Apple podcast app. And I'm just going to read a
quick review in case you're wondering what one might sound
(01:06):
like from Sherry. She says, great podcasts. The hosts are
down to earth and realistic without being mean spirited. Their
humor makes me smile every time I listen. Nice, Thank you, Sherry.
See how we see that is, folks, drop a rating
and a review in your favorite podcast app, but make
it Apple Podcasts. Yeah, that would be super helpful. I'd
(01:27):
also like to shout out our wonderful Facebook community who
somebody recently was in there and saying like, hey, there
are fifteen hundred of us in here and our girls
at Girls Gone Hallmark only, well, we have like a
nice healthy amount of reviews, but not fifteen hundred reviews,
and they were encouraging members of the Facebook community to
(01:51):
leave us a good review, and I thank you for that.
Our Facebook group members are the best. They are the best.
They are the best. Hey. If you like us, Megan
and Wendy and you want more of us, you can
come listen to our Patreon, which is a paid platform
patreon dot com slash Megan and Wendy. For five dollars
(02:11):
a month, you'll get four episodes from us where we
talk about things that are not Talmark related, although behind
the scenes we are toying with adding a Hallmark specific tear.
Stay tuned, Stay tuned. Let's hear a synopsis for Melt
My Heart This Christmas. Okay. Glass blower Holly James finally
(02:33):
gets her break at the fern Grove Fair, where she's
invited to assist her Idol Bianca but Noam, but secretly
displays her own pieces under a pseudoname. When Bianca's creative
slump threatens the booth, her work becomes the surprise hit
of the fair, and when a reporter exposes her identity,
it damages her relationship with both Bianca and Jack. Holly
(02:57):
now has to repair the fallout and decide what kind
of artists she wants to be moving forward. Mount My Heart.
This Christmas was directed by Amy Force. Amy has twenty
directing credits, including two from last year's Hallmark Movies collection
Unwrapping Christmas Lily's Destiny and Unwrapping Christmas MIA's Prince. Ainsley
Gordon wrote the screenplay. She works as both an actor
(03:20):
and a writer, and this marks her twenty first writing credit.
Laura Vanderbert plays Holly. Laura has sixty nine acting credits
and last appeared in Hallmark on Miracle in Bethlehem, PA
opposite Benjamin Ayres. Stephen Huzzar plays Jack Dubois. Stephen has
seventy three acting credits and was last seen in The
Jane Mysteries as Detective John Cameron with Jody Sweeten. Jennifer
(03:44):
Wigmore plays Bianca Bonam. Jennifer has thirty four acting credits
and has appeared on shows like Cross and Why the
Last Man. Madeline Leon plays friend Collette with thirty four
acting credits. She last appeared on Hallmark in Fall Like
Snowflakes from twenty twenty four. Darren Baker appears as Walter.
Darren has eighty nine acting credits with seven upcoming projects.
(04:07):
He can most recently be seen in the Fox series
doc Have You Noticed a lot of actors? Yes? And
Doc Yeah, which is a series Wendy and I both
watch enjoy it very much. John Cohen's Jen plays Jack's dad.
This movie marks his sixty fourth acting credit and he
was last seen in The Perfect Setting from earlier this year.
(04:29):
We are going to take a quick break and come
right back with our first impressions. Hey, Wendy, what is
your first impression of Melt my Heart this Christmas? Well, listen,
there's I candy in this movie, and for once, it's
(04:50):
not Stephen whozar Oh. I'm talking about the ornaments. I know,
not his dad. There's no other man in. I didn't
think you were talking about his dad. I'm talking about
the freaking ornaments were gorgeous. My first impression is it
must have been absolutely freezing on the set of this movie.
(05:13):
When when was this filmed, I don't know. When it
was snowing and freezing and you could see their breath
and I felt very sorry for them because it must
have been chilly. Yeah, that opening scene when they're in
the fair and they're outside and it's just like breath.
I'm like, whoa, it's old. They're at very very in
(05:35):
the Great White North. Well, let's talk what you liked
about this movie. Surprisingly, I have a healthy list, and
I know, okay, Look, Megan and I have chatted a
little bit via text about this movie. Spoiler Meghan didn't
like it. I enjoyed it. Now, I don't know why.
(05:56):
I don't know why because I went in with rock
bottom expectation. Sure, I know it. I even from like,
you know, months and months ago, when news of like
the movies were trickling out for countdown to Christmas, I
was like, this reads like an acquisition. And the only
(06:18):
way I say that, the only reason why I say
that is because at the time IMDb was like fully
completed for this movie, right, So I was like, well,
I had to have been out here, and then Hallmark
picked it up. I don't know I don't know if
that's the case. I think it is the case because
I saw another movie poster for it on IMDb or
(06:40):
on the production company's website. Actually, that's not the Hallmark poster,
so I do think it was made and then shopped.
Let's talk what we liked. I have a probably shorter
list than you can. We talk about the glass blowing. Sure,
I actually really liked the glass blowing scenes that we got.
I wanted more of that. Laura gets to at least
handle some of the equipment. We see her like swinging
(07:02):
it back and forth. I know that most of the
scenes are not her, but I liked seeing the bits
and pieces of that. Who the hell's Laura? Oh? The
actual actors? Okay, yeah, Laura as Holly. Yeah, yes, I'll
like there's that show Blown Away. They've ever seen that
(07:22):
on Netflix? The glass blowing competition, I have not. Yeah,
it's a it's a glass blowing competition, and so if
you like this sort of thing, you can get that there.
I like watching the process of glass blowing. Well, you know,
locally here in Orange County, the Laguna Art Fair has
a glass blowing exhibit there, like they have the kiln
(07:43):
or whatever they use to heat up the glass. Huh,
and you can watch them make it. Oh, that's very cool.
You stand out like outside this like cage thing. Sure
them do it. Yeah, it's pretty neat. It's that's in
the summer. But they also have a winter fare too,
so they may or may not do it into winter
the wintertime. But anyway, I agree. I thought it was interesting.
(08:03):
I'm like, wasn't super interested. I like the final product
of it. I thought the work was stunnying. Do you
know if there's any information of the actual ornaments, like
who actually made them? I couldn't find that. I tried
to find to see if there was some sort of
(08:25):
personal motivation for this story, because glass blowing seems like
a very specific art to choose. Yeah, and I couldn't
find anything about that. So I'm curious. Did they work
with a specific artist or did they just purchase these
glass pieces in order to use them in the movie.
Particularly in Beyonca's shop. There's quite a bit the gifts,
(08:49):
the shit wow so pretty, I really do pretty. And
the story behind them, the story behind it I thought
was really great too. Do you remember a Heidelberg Christmas
or a Heidelberg Holiday? I have not really exact title,
sob oh, I don't remember that, but I remember, you know,
she made those ornaments, but those were an actual artist.
(09:12):
Remember there was a whole not that there was a
whole thing, but like there was information about the artists
who actually made the ornaments. So I was like, is
that information available for this movie? I haven't found anything,
and neither have you. You said, correct. That bums me out
because I just thought they were so pretty, so pretty.
One of the highlights in this movie for me was
(09:33):
the female creative partnership between Bianca and Holly. It's an
absolute high point. Yes, it's this like relationship that pulled
me in. It was not the romance between Holly and Jack.
Like actually did not even care about that. I just
I thought it was compelling to give us a middle
(09:56):
aged woman who is in this artistic identity crisis, Like
I haven't seen anything like that on Hallmark. I thought
it was super relatable. I thought it was a bold
move in storytelling. I liked it. So I have some
thoughts on the character of Bianca and her story, but
I did love the moment at which her ice cold
(10:17):
heart does melt and she warms to Holly and takes
her under her wing, and they have that great scene
in their workshop where they're collaborating and she's going to
mentor her. I loved all of that very much me too.
Let's talk about Bianca then, okay, Oh, I thought you
had more to do well, it's all of my wishes. Oh,
(10:37):
it's in your wishes. Okay. Well, for me, I thought
Jennifer Wigmore as Bianca was perfection. She was giving full
Miranda Priestley, yes, with like a craft fair situation. But
what I like the best is, you know, we get
this very hard, rigid character and even her makeup. She's
(11:01):
wearing this very bold red lipstick, and then towards the
end we have this full softening and it's also reflected
in her look. She has this like lighter gloss and
I was like, kudos to the makeup department for going
along this, you know character arc. I thought it was
done really well. I liked Bianca. I'm interested to hear
(11:23):
your wishes. Okay. I also very much enjoyed Stephen Whosar
and Laura Vander have a hard time saying her name individually.
Like they're likable, they're watchable, they're romance didn't do it
for me. It was classic Hallmark pest to love pipeline situation. Right,
(11:44):
he's annoyed with her, she's plucky, they fall in love.
It was fine. That was fine. It was fine. And
my final like, which was a really funny line when
Jack's dad said he hired a social media manager quote
whatever that is ikey plus joke. I thought it was
really funny, mostly because it's like, very much reminded me
(12:07):
of my dad, who is a business owner, and he's like,
I'm not getting into that social media business. Nobody watches
that or nobody pays attention to that. I'm like, okay,
time marching on totally. I know my my mother recently
discovered Instagram and she's like, she's like, there's this guy
who dances. I'm like, oh, yeah, the one guy. She's like,
have you seen this guy who dances? I'm like, I'm
(12:28):
gonna need some more information, mom. I wrote that line
down as well. I also liked and I can't even
remember who said it, but I think it might have
been Bianca. She says, you're at a nine. I need
you at a four. Yes, yes, great line, loved it too,
really great. Are you ready to talk missions. Sure, I
have a long list. I apologize. Okay. First up, why
(12:50):
is jacksonming to Holly at the beginning? Like what he's
What is their backstory there? Yeah, it's unclear, right, Like
she's hungry to be in the fair, like to show
her stuff in the fair. Yeah, she keeps applying to
be in your fair. She's keeping you alive, dude, i'd
maybe be less mean. I understand maybe she's not the
caliber you want her to be, but you want people
(13:10):
to want you. Yeah. I didn't understand it. And it's
one of my least favorite like tropes. Sure me see this. Yeah,
the hydienx simeter was high in parts of this movie,
falling in heels, crashing into Jack, the many coats situation.
I'm spending the entire movie on edge waiting for a
major glass disaster, which happens. It was a major, but yeah,
(13:35):
I mean it was pretty minor in terms of what happened.
I was waiting for one of the priceless Banam snowflakes
to go flying across place. That's so funny, such a
weird spot in her showroom. Yes, yeah, so that scene
did worry me, and I thought that is what is
was exactly coming because she's like, don't touch anything in
my shop, and then she proceeds to touch everything in
(13:56):
her toop like, ma'am, you are there for one thing.
Don't go snooping around looking at shit you're not supposed
to be looking at. Yes, it still thought, Oh, she's
gonna break something and then that's gonna be a problem,
but it didn't go that way. Mm hmm. But yes,
in that scene, I was like, oh, God, stop running
through the showroom. You're gonna knock something over. Right. It
(14:17):
seems weird for them to be given the seal of
the season at the end of the season. I'm not
really sure how it's valuable now, Like season's over. What
next year you can be like I got the seal
of the season last year. Come it's worthless. Yeah, but
my my two big wishes. Look, I liked Bianca's transformation,
but I did feel like she was Miranda Priestley is
(14:39):
a great description. She's like a super villain here. She
can't be bothered to remember Holly's name. She tells her
to dress up, she gaslights her, like why would you
heels around glass? Do you have a death wish? Like? Come,
you told her to do that. That stuff is very
frustrating to me. Also, while I was very interested in
the resolution between Beyanca and Holly, I think I was
(15:01):
actively rooting against Holly and Jack getting together, so much
so that when I realized that the movie was almost
over and we still hadn't had a kiss or even
really a hint at romance, I started to dread it
and I felt like the final romantic moment was unearned. Yeah,
(15:22):
it was truly not even needed. Agree, not even needed. Well,
back to Bianca, I agree with everything you said, but
also on the flip side, I feel like Bianca was
feeling threatened by another artist who was doing similar work,
maybe even better work than her what she was currently
(15:42):
putting out. So I could see how she was like
internally angry, Yes, like everything. I was not viewing her
the way you were, as a woman at a crossroads,
and that does make me view her a little bit
differently that perspective. In addition, I, and this is one
(16:04):
of my wishes, I do think Bianca's outrage felt thin
like you're mad at Holly because she's an emerging artist.
Of course she didn't like she's under a pseudonym like
you haven't been very warm and welcoming. She's not gonna
tell you. Oh, by the way, I'm working under a
pseudonym in the in the Emerging Artist. Do you know
(16:26):
what I mean? Like, why would she tell her that? Right?
But it didn't make any sense to me, Like why
Bianca would be betrayed? Right, she didn't. She was unaware
because of great give me a break. It was super manufactured.
I agree. My other wish that I didn't really love
was the marketplace drama of like we might lose the
(16:47):
market storyline? Yeah, what are you doing with this space
year round? Like you might have to sell the land?
What the six weeks that the fair is not going on?
What's happening there? Yeah? Okay, So that's a good question
because like the Laguna Art Fair, right, like I said,
it runs in the summertime for several weeks and then
it runs in the winter time. But off season, I
(17:10):
don't know what the heck they do there. Maybe have events,
but other than that, I have no idea. I don't
know either. I wonder who owns that. Those are great questions,
but when they're in this position of needing to make
more money, it seems like, Okay, do something with this
the other ten and a half months out of the year.
Make it a pumpkin patch, make it an Easter egg punch.
Make it. But those are my only two wishes. Well,
(17:32):
let's talk to you to see that this was real snow. Obviously.
My question is I kept noticing that they, like the marketplace,
there's snow all over the marketplace and people are like
walking on top of like the pack snow. Now, I'm
born and raised in California, I don't know what that's like,
but I thought that they would be like, somebody would
(17:53):
shovel that so that you can walk without walking on
top of snow? Am I wrong? Well, I don't know.
I mean it seemed to be actively snowing through a
lot of this movie, so maybe it was hard to
keep up with. I don't know. It just seems dangerous
(18:16):
to be walking on top of snow, like thick snow.
I don't even know how to describe it, because it
doesn't snow where I live. Yeah, I mean people who
live where it snows are definitely walking on snow all
the time. Really, yeah, I mean things aren't automatically shoveled
at every moment, so yes, Oh, can you imagine your
(18:37):
pants are wet all the time. No, it would be miserable.
I would be I would hate it. You referenced earlier,
but Holly in those high heels. You thought it was
like too hygiene sye. But several times they showed her
like almost rolling ankle. Yes, I was nervous for her,
someone with thin bones like myself. This is watching a
(18:57):
horror movie unfold. It's like that is so painful. Yeah,
I was concerned for her. Crazy what else do you have?
I have a couple in the opening scenes where she's
bringing her her balls to the table of emerging artists.
They're just in a box, like with crumpled paper. I
was like, these are very fragile. Be a little more careful.
(19:19):
We get our third Taylor Swift reference of the season. Yeh.
She's like I was, I got you t Swift tickets
and I was like, my gosh, we've just talked about this.
I'm like another one, Like God, we need to put
that on a BINGO card because holy heck, who knew
I know? We need another pop culture touchstone in these movies.
(19:40):
Also in the final live stream. First of all, I
always have issues when they're like we went viral. I'm like,
your craft fares not going viral. People, I don't care
who you are, but they have twenty four thousand people
watching the final live stream, and my notes say I
think effing not. I apologize, but also no, I thought
(20:02):
it was funny too, because like, then all these people
start streaming into their craft fair and he's like, what's happening. Oh,
he's well, I guess you went viral here too. I
was like, nope, no, And there were waiting outside on
their phones happened to see it. Con I just it's
I don't like these we went viral moments. Yeah. Well,
(20:23):
I really thought about this a lot too. I was like,
who's interested in this? Well, I'm sure there is an
artist community that is interested in like glass blowing or
like these kraft fairs are whatever, but viral, I don't know. Look,
I might watch, like you said, like the Laguna Art Festival,
Like I might watch, you know, reels that they're posting
and be like, oh that might get me to go,
(20:43):
But those reels aren't going viral. They just might get
shared amongst the locals. Yeah. Well, what did you rate
mount my Heart this Christmas? I gave it three and
a half stars. I gave it three stars. You didn't
hate it as much as you said you did. I
didn't hate it at all. It just wasn't my favorite movie.
(21:04):
I think there's been worse. Oh absolutely absolutely. Hey, thank
you for listening to this episode of Girls Gone Hallmark,
a Bramble Jam podcast. If you love this podcast, we
love your five star ratings and reviews. As you heard
read at the top of this episode, go ahead and
leave them in the podcast app you're currently listening to,
and we will be back next time with more Homewark reviews.
(21:27):
Goodbye bye. All right friends, before we go, just a
quick heads up. You're about to hear some ads die.
Little gems help us keep the show running and the
Hallmark love flowing. So do with that info what you will,
(21:50):
Grab a snack, hit the skip button, or maybe just
maybe listen in and discover your new favorite product. Bye.
This is a Bramble Jam podcast. Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark,
(00:24):
a Hallmark review podcast. I'm Megan and I'm a longtime
Hallmark fan. I'm Wendy. I'm a former Hallmark hater. Today
we're discussing Melt My Heart This Christmas, which originally aired
on Sunday, November twenty third, and is currently available to
stream on Hallmark Plus. If you're listening, if you're a regular,
longtime listener or a new listener, you know we're heading
(00:45):
into the holiday season and if you want to give
us a gift that is completely free, we would invite
you to rate and review this podcast. You can do
it right in the podcast app that you are listening to.
The best way to do it is actually in the
Apple podcast app. And I'm just going to read a
quick review in case you're wondering what one might sound
(01:06):
like from Sherry. She says, great podcasts. The hosts are
down to earth and realistic without being mean spirited. Their
humor makes me smile every time I listen. Nice, Thank you, Sherry.
See how we see that is, folks, drop a rating
and a review in your favorite podcast app, but make
it Apple Podcasts. Yeah, that would be super helpful. I'd
(01:27):
also like to shout out our wonderful Facebook community who
somebody recently was in there and saying like, hey, there
are fifteen hundred of us in here and our girls
at Girls Gone Hallmark only, well, we have like a
nice healthy amount of reviews, but not fifteen hundred reviews,
and they were encouraging members of the Facebook community to
(01:51):
leave us a good review, and I thank you for that.
Our Facebook group members are the best. They are the best.
They are the best. Hey. If you like us, Megan
and Wendy and you want more of us, you can
come listen to our Patreon, which is a paid platform
patreon dot com slash Megan and Wendy. For five dollars
(02:11):
a month, you'll get four episodes from us where we
talk about things that are not Talmark related, although behind
the scenes we are toying with adding a Hallmark specific tear.
Stay tuned, Stay tuned. Let's hear a synopsis for Melt
My Heart This Christmas. Okay. Glass blower Holly James finally
(02:33):
gets her break at the fern Grove Fair, where she's
invited to assist her Idol Bianca but Noam, but secretly
displays her own pieces under a pseudoname. When Bianca's creative
slump threatens the booth, her work becomes the surprise hit
of the fair, and when a reporter exposes her identity,
it damages her relationship with both Bianca and Jack. Holly
(02:57):
now has to repair the fallout and decide what kind
of artists she wants to be moving forward. Mount My Heart.
This Christmas was directed by Amy Force. Amy has twenty
directing credits, including two from last year's Hallmark Movies collection
Unwrapping Christmas Lily's Destiny and Unwrapping Christmas MIA's Prince. Ainsley
Gordon wrote the screenplay. She works as both an actor
(03:20):
and a writer, and this marks her twenty first writing credit.
Laura Vanderbert plays Holly. Laura has sixty nine acting credits
and last appeared in Hallmark on Miracle in Bethlehem, PA
opposite Benjamin Ayres. Stephen Huzzar plays Jack Dubois. Stephen has
seventy three acting credits and was last seen in The
Jane Mysteries as Detective John Cameron with Jody Sweeten. Jennifer
(03:44):
Wigmore plays Bianca Bonam. Jennifer has thirty four acting credits
and has appeared on shows like Cross and Why the
Last Man. Madeline Leon plays friend Collette with thirty four
acting credits. She last appeared on Hallmark in Fall Like
Snowflakes from twenty twenty four. Darren Baker appears as Walter.
Darren has eighty nine acting credits with seven upcoming projects.
(04:07):
He can most recently be seen in the Fox series
doc Have You Noticed a lot of actors? Yes? And
Doc Yeah, which is a series Wendy and I both
watch enjoy it very much. John Cohen's Jen plays Jack's dad.
This movie marks his sixty fourth acting credit and he
was last seen in The Perfect Setting from earlier this year.
(04:29):
We are going to take a quick break and come
right back with our first impressions. Hey, Wendy, what is
your first impression of Melt my Heart this Christmas? Well, listen,
there's I candy in this movie, and for once, it's
(04:50):
not Stephen whozar Oh. I'm talking about the ornaments. I know,
not his dad. There's no other man in. I didn't
think you were talking about his dad. I'm talking about
the freaking ornaments were gorgeous. My first impression is it
must have been absolutely freezing on the set of this movie.
(05:13):
When when was this filmed, I don't know. When it
was snowing and freezing and you could see their breath
and I felt very sorry for them because it must
have been chilly. Yeah, that opening scene when they're in
the fair and they're outside and it's just like breath.
I'm like, whoa, it's old. They're at very very in
(05:35):
the Great White North. Well, let's talk what you liked
about this movie. Surprisingly, I have a healthy list, and
I know, okay, Look, Megan and I have chatted a
little bit via text about this movie. Spoiler Meghan didn't
like it. I enjoyed it. Now, I don't know why.
(05:56):
I don't know why because I went in with rock
bottom expectation. Sure, I know it. I even from like,
you know, months and months ago, when news of like
the movies were trickling out for countdown to Christmas, I
was like, this reads like an acquisition. And the only
(06:18):
way I say that, the only reason why I say
that is because at the time IMDb was like fully
completed for this movie, right, So I was like, well,
I had to have been out here, and then Hallmark
picked it up. I don't know I don't know if
that's the case. I think it is the case because
I saw another movie poster for it on IMDb or
(06:40):
on the production company's website. Actually, that's not the Hallmark poster,
so I do think it was made and then shopped.
Let's talk what we liked. I have a probably shorter
list than you can. We talk about the glass blowing. Sure,
I actually really liked the glass blowing scenes that we got.
I wanted more of that. Laura gets to at least
handle some of the equipment. We see her like swinging
(07:02):
it back and forth. I know that most of the
scenes are not her, but I liked seeing the bits
and pieces of that. Who the hell's Laura? Oh? The
actual actors? Okay, yeah, Laura as Holly. Yeah, yes, I'll
like there's that show Blown Away. They've ever seen that
(07:22):
on Netflix? The glass blowing competition, I have not. Yeah,
it's a it's a glass blowing competition, and so if
you like this sort of thing, you can get that there.
I like watching the process of glass blowing. Well, you know,
locally here in Orange County, the Laguna Art Fair has
a glass blowing exhibit there, like they have the kiln
(07:43):
or whatever they use to heat up the glass. Huh,
and you can watch them make it. Oh, that's very cool.
You stand out like outside this like cage thing. Sure
them do it. Yeah, it's pretty neat. It's that's in
the summer. But they also have a winter fare too,
so they may or may not do it into winter
the wintertime. But anyway, I agree. I thought it was interesting.
(08:03):
I'm like, wasn't super interested. I like the final product
of it. I thought the work was stunnying. Do you
know if there's any information of the actual ornaments, like
who actually made them? I couldn't find that. I tried
to find to see if there was some sort of
(08:25):
personal motivation for this story, because glass blowing seems like
a very specific art to choose. Yeah, and I couldn't
find anything about that. So I'm curious. Did they work
with a specific artist or did they just purchase these
glass pieces in order to use them in the movie.
Particularly in Beyonca's shop. There's quite a bit the gifts,
(08:49):
the shit wow so pretty, I really do pretty. And
the story behind them, the story behind it I thought
was really great too. Do you remember a Heidelberg Christmas
or a Heidelberg Holiday? I have not really exact title,
sob oh, I don't remember that, but I remember, you know,
she made those ornaments, but those were an actual artist.
(09:12):
Remember there was a whole not that there was a
whole thing, but like there was information about the artists
who actually made the ornaments. So I was like, is
that information available for this movie? I haven't found anything,
and neither have you. You said, correct. That bums me out
because I just thought they were so pretty, so pretty.
One of the highlights in this movie for me was
(09:33):
the female creative partnership between Bianca and Holly. It's an
absolute high point. Yes, it's this like relationship that pulled
me in. It was not the romance between Holly and Jack.
Like actually did not even care about that. I just
I thought it was compelling to give us a middle
(09:56):
aged woman who is in this artistic identity crisis, Like
I haven't seen anything like that on Hallmark. I thought
it was super relatable. I thought it was a bold
move in storytelling. I liked it. So I have some
thoughts on the character of Bianca and her story, but
I did love the moment at which her ice cold
(10:17):
heart does melt and she warms to Holly and takes
her under her wing, and they have that great scene
in their workshop where they're collaborating and she's going to
mentor her. I loved all of that very much me too.
Let's talk about Bianca then, okay, Oh, I thought you
had more to do well, it's all of my wishes. Oh,
(10:37):
it's in your wishes. Okay. Well, for me, I thought
Jennifer Wigmore as Bianca was perfection. She was giving full
Miranda Priestley, yes, with like a craft fair situation. But
what I like the best is, you know, we get
this very hard, rigid character and even her makeup. She's
(11:01):
wearing this very bold red lipstick, and then towards the
end we have this full softening and it's also reflected
in her look. She has this like lighter gloss and
I was like, kudos to the makeup department for going
along this, you know character arc. I thought it was
done really well. I liked Bianca. I'm interested to hear
(11:23):
your wishes. Okay. I also very much enjoyed Stephen Whosar
and Laura Vander have a hard time saying her name individually.
Like they're likable, they're watchable, they're romance didn't do it
for me. It was classic Hallmark pest to love pipeline situation. Right,
(11:44):
he's annoyed with her, she's plucky, they fall in love.
It was fine. That was fine. It was fine. And
my final like, which was a really funny line when
Jack's dad said he hired a social media manager quote
whatever that is ikey plus joke. I thought it was
really funny, mostly because it's like, very much reminded me
(12:07):
of my dad, who is a business owner, and he's like,
I'm not getting into that social media business. Nobody watches
that or nobody pays attention to that. I'm like, okay,
time marching on totally. I know my my mother recently
discovered Instagram and she's like, she's like, there's this guy
who dances. I'm like, oh, yeah, the one guy. She's like,
have you seen this guy who dances? I'm like, I'm
(12:28):
gonna need some more information, mom. I wrote that line
down as well. I also liked and I can't even
remember who said it, but I think it might have
been Bianca. She says, you're at a nine. I need
you at a four. Yes, yes, great line, loved it too,
really great. Are you ready to talk missions. Sure, I
have a long list. I apologize. Okay. First up, why
(12:50):
is jacksonming to Holly at the beginning? Like what he's
What is their backstory there? Yeah, it's unclear, right, Like
she's hungry to be in the fair, like to show
her stuff in the fair. Yeah, she keeps applying to
be in your fair. She's keeping you alive, dude, i'd
maybe be less mean. I understand maybe she's not the
caliber you want her to be, but you want people
(13:10):
to want you. Yeah. I didn't understand it. And it's
one of my least favorite like tropes. Sure me see this. Yeah,
the hydienx simeter was high in parts of this movie,
falling in heels, crashing into Jack, the many coats situation.
I'm spending the entire movie on edge waiting for a
major glass disaster, which happens. It was a major, but yeah,
(13:35):
I mean it was pretty minor in terms of what happened.
I was waiting for one of the priceless Banam snowflakes
to go flying across place. That's so funny, such a
weird spot in her showroom. Yes, yeah, so that scene
did worry me, and I thought that is what is
was exactly coming because she's like, don't touch anything in
my shop, and then she proceeds to touch everything in
(13:56):
her toop like, ma'am, you are there for one thing.
Don't go snooping around looking at shit you're not supposed
to be looking at. Yes, it still thought, Oh, she's
gonna break something and then that's gonna be a problem,
but it didn't go that way. Mm hmm. But yes,
in that scene, I was like, oh, God, stop running
through the showroom. You're gonna knock something over. Right. It
(14:17):
seems weird for them to be given the seal of
the season at the end of the season. I'm not
really sure how it's valuable now, Like season's over. What
next year you can be like I got the seal
of the season last year. Come it's worthless. Yeah, but
my my two big wishes. Look, I liked Bianca's transformation,
but I did feel like she was Miranda Priestley is
(14:39):
a great description. She's like a super villain here. She
can't be bothered to remember Holly's name. She tells her
to dress up, she gaslights her, like why would you
heels around glass? Do you have a death wish? Like? Come,
you told her to do that. That stuff is very
frustrating to me. Also, while I was very interested in
the resolution between Beyanca and Holly, I think I was
(15:01):
actively rooting against Holly and Jack getting together, so much
so that when I realized that the movie was almost
over and we still hadn't had a kiss or even
really a hint at romance, I started to dread it
and I felt like the final romantic moment was unearned. Yeah,
(15:22):
it was truly not even needed. Agree, not even needed. Well,
back to Bianca, I agree with everything you said, but
also on the flip side, I feel like Bianca was
feeling threatened by another artist who was doing similar work,
maybe even better work than her what she was currently
(15:42):
putting out. So I could see how she was like
internally angry, Yes, like everything. I was not viewing her
the way you were, as a woman at a crossroads,
and that does make me view her a little bit
differently that perspective. In addition, I, and this is one
(16:04):
of my wishes, I do think Bianca's outrage felt thin
like you're mad at Holly because she's an emerging artist.
Of course she didn't like she's under a pseudonym like
you haven't been very warm and welcoming. She's not gonna
tell you. Oh, by the way, I'm working under a
pseudonym in the in the Emerging Artist. Do you know
(16:26):
what I mean? Like, why would she tell her that? Right?
But it didn't make any sense to me, Like why
Bianca would be betrayed? Right, she didn't. She was unaware
because of great give me a break. It was super manufactured.
I agree. My other wish that I didn't really love
was the marketplace drama of like we might lose the
(16:47):
market storyline? Yeah, what are you doing with this space
year round? Like you might have to sell the land?
What the six weeks that the fair is not going on?
What's happening there? Yeah? Okay, So that's a good question
because like the Laguna Art Fair, right, like I said,
it runs in the summertime for several weeks and then
it runs in the winter time. But off season, I
(17:10):
don't know what the heck they do there. Maybe have events,
but other than that, I have no idea. I don't
know either. I wonder who owns that. Those are great questions,
but when they're in this position of needing to make
more money, it seems like, Okay, do something with this
the other ten and a half months out of the year.
Make it a pumpkin patch, make it an Easter egg punch.
Make it. But those are my only two wishes. Well,
(17:32):
let's talk to you to see that this was real snow. Obviously.
My question is I kept noticing that they, like the marketplace,
there's snow all over the marketplace and people are like
walking on top of like the pack snow. Now, I'm
born and raised in California, I don't know what that's like,
but I thought that they would be like, somebody would
(17:53):
shovel that so that you can walk without walking on
top of snow? Am I wrong? Well, I don't know.
I mean it seemed to be actively snowing through a
lot of this movie, so maybe it was hard to
keep up with. I don't know. It just seems dangerous
(18:16):
to be walking on top of snow, like thick snow.
I don't even know how to describe it, because it
doesn't snow where I live. Yeah, I mean people who
live where it snows are definitely walking on snow all
the time. Really, yeah, I mean things aren't automatically shoveled
at every moment, so yes, Oh, can you imagine your
(18:37):
pants are wet all the time. No, it would be miserable.
I would be I would hate it. You referenced earlier,
but Holly in those high heels. You thought it was
like too hygiene sye. But several times they showed her
like almost rolling ankle. Yes, I was nervous for her,
someone with thin bones like myself. This is watching a
(18:57):
horror movie unfold. It's like that is so painful. Yeah,
I was concerned for her. Crazy what else do you have?
I have a couple in the opening scenes where she's
bringing her her balls to the table of emerging artists.
They're just in a box, like with crumpled paper. I
was like, these are very fragile. Be a little more careful.
(19:19):
We get our third Taylor Swift reference of the season. Yeh.
She's like I was, I got you t Swift tickets
and I was like, my gosh, we've just talked about this.
I'm like another one, Like God, we need to put
that on a BINGO card because holy heck, who knew
I know? We need another pop culture touchstone in these movies.
(19:40):
Also in the final live stream. First of all, I
always have issues when they're like we went viral. I'm like,
your craft fares not going viral. People, I don't care
who you are, but they have twenty four thousand people
watching the final live stream, and my notes say I
think effing not. I apologize, but also no, I thought
(20:02):
it was funny too, because like, then all these people
start streaming into their craft fair and he's like, what's happening. Oh,
he's well, I guess you went viral here too. I
was like, nope, no, And there were waiting outside on
their phones happened to see it. Con I just it's
I don't like these we went viral moments. Yeah. Well,
(20:23):
I really thought about this a lot too. I was like,
who's interested in this? Well, I'm sure there is an
artist community that is interested in like glass blowing or
like these kraft fairs are whatever, but viral, I don't know. Look,
I might watch, like you said, like the Laguna Art Festival,
Like I might watch, you know, reels that they're posting
and be like, oh that might get me to go,
(20:43):
But those reels aren't going viral. They just might get
shared amongst the locals. Yeah. Well, what did you rate
mount my Heart this Christmas? I gave it three and
a half stars. I gave it three stars. You didn't
hate it as much as you said you did. I
didn't hate it at all. It just wasn't my favorite movie.
(21:04):
I think there's been worse. Oh absolutely absolutely. Hey, thank
you for listening to this episode of Girls Gone Hallmark,
a Bramble Jam podcast. If you love this podcast, we
love your five star ratings and reviews. As you heard
read at the top of this episode, go ahead and
leave them in the podcast app you're currently listening to,
and we will be back next time with more Homewark reviews.
(21:27):
Goodbye bye. All right friends, before we go, just a
quick heads up. You're about to hear some ads die.
Little gems help us keep the show running and the
Hallmark love flowing. So do with that info what you will,
(21:50):
Grab a snack, hit the skip button, or maybe just
maybe listen in and discover your new favorite product. Bye.
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