Christmas in Evergreen: Letters to Santa
Stars: Ashley Williams, Holly Robinson Peete, and Barbara Niven, Jill Wagner and Mark Deklin.
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Synopsis (via Hallmark)
When Lisa (Wagner) takes a last-minute Christmas trip to her hometown of Evergreen, she finds that the historic general store has been closed. Using her skills as a professional retail designer, Lisa decides to keep local tradition alive and help the good people of Evergreen bring the store back to life. As Lisa charms a local contractor named Kevin (Deklin) into working with her, the pair find themselves facing one surprise after another as they restore the store to its former glory. When the staff at the Kringle Kitchen temporarily accept the store’s beloved ‘Mailbox to Santa’ for safekeeping, the townspeople find and rally around a mysterious 25-year-old letter that never made it to the North Pole. As old traditions are made new again, Lisa finds herself falling for Kevin, the traditions, and the town of Evergreen.
Thoughts
The sequel no one wanted starts off with the storybook opening list last years. I remember nothing from last years movie, so I hope they aren’t expecting me to remember any characters.
We starts off in a Christmas store with TV movie VIP Andrew Francis (Oliver, maybe a gay character?) and his business partner, Lisa is from Evergreen and is heading back to her hometown from Boston. On her drive into town, while sillily singing Christmas music, Lisa stop to help a handsome stranger with his truck. (Love the gender role reversal.) They have great chemistry.
Lisa is surprised to come home and find Daisy’s Christmas store closed and Daisy died last year. She spent a lot of time there when she was a kid, and wished to have Christmas like in Evergreen every year. Good thing Barbara Nevin’s Kringel Kitchen is across the way so Lisa can meet up with all the people from the last movie and meet Kevin, the handsome stranger whose trunk broke down.
Lisa meets more people in the town, she goes to the hotel and who is there? Kevin! Is he following her or is she following him? In a Lifetime movie this situation would be less cute/funny and more CREEPY! Luck for you dear reader it is a Hallmark movie.
Lisa meets even MORE People in the town. Ezra (Mayor), Holly Robinson Peete (Principal), and others! Since Lisa is in town and knows no one, she offers to stages Daisy’s store to sell it quickly. Good thing she has all that experience. She asks for the towns best contractor to help her and it is, of course KEVIN!
They start working together to restore Daisy’s store. Shopping for decor for the store, errands to the hardware store, and of course… Christmas Tree shopping. Lisa and Kevin get to know one another and both realize that they avoid being in Evergreen for the holidays because of past family drama. Lisa finds a letter that Kevin wrote when he was a kid, when she shows him. He kind of goes cold to her.
The buyers shows up early (She is a POC, so that is good) she pokes around the store. She isn’t interested and the other buyer dropped out. It is just too close to Christmas and seems like selling the store isn’t going to happen.
Lucky for them, Oliver and Lisa’s friend Polly could be a potential buyers, but the townsfolk of Evergreen come together to make Evergreen as Christmassy as ever to win over Polly. They put a mailbox to Santa outside the store, get merchandise (from local vendors) to sell at the store (Conveniently available at Hallmark Storefronts everywhere!), and Oliver even comes to help, which rubs Nick the wrong way. Lisa is trying to make is clear she is feeling Kevin, but Olivers is all up in their business and a great teammate to Lisa. Plutonic friends are a thing at Hallmark, but gay BFF’s? Not so much.
Ice skating happens and a getting ready montage.
Lisa and Kevin don’t know where they will end up, but they are falling for one another. They almost kiss but are rudely interrupted.
Ashley Williams shows up makes a small cameo. I can’t remember anything about her character or why she matters. She is wearing the same red coat, so I guess that is all that matters.
The store is ready for it’s final showing and Kevin and Lisa are considering staying in Evergreen. They almost kiss again and a RUDELY INTERRUPTED. TWICE! The showing goes great and Polly loves the store, but she is not going to buy it. Polly wants to hire Lisa and Oliver at her store??? But, Oliver and Lisa decide to buy the store and stay in town? Kevin took a job out of town because he heard about the offer from Polly somehow. WTF, Kevin.
Another flashback happens and Kevin and Lisa realize they knew each other when they were kids. Church bells ring and a candle processional happens through the town. Christmas in Evergreen is one of a kind. Too bad it is extremely boring.
Side Note
Minority Report: Evergreen has added some more POC’s. The white people of the town try to set up the POC’s with each other because, you know interracial dating is not at thing on Hallmark.
Sometimes when I visit a small town, I have no idea what everyone is talking about. This is what this movie was like.
4 Million people watched this movie. Up .6 million from last years movie. Not sure why this resonates with the people. Please explain!
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Overall rating
🎄(1 Christmas Trees)
🍷🍷🍷🍷 (4 glasses of wine required)
*Photo Credit: © 2018 Crown Media United States, LLC
