I told you. These things are formulaic. But with the right characters and actors, it can still seem fresh.
Does this one? Let’s find out!
Upstate…somewhere…is a little town called Cookie Jar. It is home to Aunt Sally’s Christmas Cookies, a little factory that makes delicious cookies and treats only at Christmas. People flock to the town, which lives for Christmas, and enjoy the cookies.
Meanwhile, Hannah (Jill Wagner) had lost that Christmas feeling. She’s not a complete Scrooge but she’s just not into the holiday. Especially when her boyfriend Gavin (Jim Thorburn) keeps pushing for her to attend his law firm’s Christmas Eve party. She says it was stuffy the year before and just not something she’s interested in. He asks her to consider going for his sake and she promises to think about it.
The next day, Hannah meets up with her sister Kelly (Chelsey Reist) for lunch…I guess. They don’t really do much eating. Kelly pushes her sister about whether or not Gavin proposed but Hannah doesn’t seem keen to the idea. They then notice a story on the news that involves Hannah’s company, Whole Foods. Rumor is that the company is going to buy Aunt Sally’s and Kelly remembers their trips to Cookie Jar as children. She says Hannah should run that account but Hannah says she can’t just go and demand it from her boss. She then heads back to work after promising Kelly to help make Christmas cookies.
Hannah preps her team for their presentation about flavored chocolate milk when she is called into her boss’ office. He explains that they are indeed trying to buy Aunt Sally’s but the employee who was brokering the deal just defected to their competitor. So he needs Hannah to take over and to seal the deal by Christmas. She agrees, noticing that the company is almost insolvent. Hannah figures they’ll agree, though she is a bit concerned about the plans to mass produce the cookies in Buffalo (so I guess it’s Upstate New York?) and sell them year-round in every grocery store, rather than just at Christmas in select stores so you have to apparently go on a scavenger hunt to find them.
She takes a train up to Cookie Jar, where a handsome cabbie takes her to the local bed and breakfast. He knows about the sale and Hannah is surprised. Because you didn’t learn about it from the news. Anyway, the owner of the bed and breakfast, Betty (P. Lynn Johnson), welcomes her and mentions the sale as well. Hannah is still surprised.
Really?
Up in her room, Hannah is surrounded by Christmas. Kelly wants to come up there but Hannah only intends to stay there long enough to close the deal. She promises to be home in time to make cookies with her sister, like she agreed to do.
Betty points Hannah to a nearby café, where she meets Brooke (Tiera Skovbye) and her little sister Bonnie (Amelie Eve) as well as running into the cute cabbie from earlier. Brooke has been accepted to Princeton and wants to be a doctor. She tells Hannah she’ll come back to practice in Cookie Jar because it’s home. Hannah realizes that the town means a lot to these people.
She then also talks with Betty, who reveals she was friends with Aunt Sally. Betty also used to work at the factory, making the icing. And only the icing. The recipes weren’t written down so she had to remember them. And it also allowed them to add some love to each cookie. Hannah is touched. She then turns in for the night.
The next day, she is surprised when the cabbie who picks her up introduces herself as Ed and apologizes for not picking her up the day before. Yet she doesn’t say anything. She just lets him take her to the factory, where she gets a tour before meeting the new owner, Aunt Sally’s nephew.
Jake (Wes Brown, who when I put in his name to tag this on blogger, popped up as a tag I already used. He was Gaston last season on Once Upon a Time. Small world!) is also the person who picked her up the day before and who spoke with her in the café. She had no clue. Which I call bull. This is a trope that is getting harder and harder to pull off in this day and age. I cannot believe that Hannah, a professional who is determined to succeed and is shown to be attached to her cell phone, DID NOT GOOGLE THE MAN SHE IS SUPPOSED TO MEET. She didn’t do any research on him? Bull. Bull. Bull. Writers, if you want to have one love interest fool the other for a while, you’re going to have to really come up with something good. Not a scenario that is easily defeated by the fact your other love interest would’ve known to do a damn internet search.
Anyway, Jake is kinda a dick to her as he even refuses to sit down and properly talk to her. They end up doing a walk and talk throughout the factory. Hannah tells him that his company is in serious trouble and that her company’s offer is a good one. He doesn’t want the factory to close or move to Buffalo but Hannah says that it’s easier for her company if it does. Jake says he has another offer but is quiet about it, of course. Hannah gets him to agree to meet her in an hour, to give her time to talk to her boss. She says he owes her because he tricked her and didn’t tell her who he was the day before.
No, he doesn’t. Because you were the one moronic enough not to do any goddamn research beyond what your boss handed you.
Sorry. That’s just really getting to me.
Hannah meets up with Jake and says she’s been authorized to sweeten the deal. Jake notes that it’s not with the factory staying in Cookie Jar. She says it’s not but that it’s still the best offer he’ll get. He says he’ll think about it and asks her to give him to Christmas Eve.
So Hannah gets to stick around Cookie Jar for a bit longer. Which means going to their different holiday events. Like decorating the town tree. Bonnie sings and is adorable. Then everyone eats as Hannah gets to know Jake better.
Pretty much, the rest of the movie is Hannah bonding with Jake as she experiences more Christmas traditions in the town. She helps Bonnie build a snowman and then goes sledding with the little girl and Jake. Hannah is also recruited to judge the gingerbread house contest and she helps Jake and Bonnie with the sledding contest. She’s becoming more and more part of the community, feeling a connection with Jake.
Of course, she has parts of her life back in New York (I assume) to deal with. Gavin is still pressing her to go to his Christmas Eve party despite knowing she hates it and her sister is looking forward to baking cookies with her. And her boss wants her to close the deal ASAP. They all then get the same idea—to go to Cookie Jar themselves!
Gavin arrives first, finding Hannah dancing with Jake. He gets all aggressive and chases Jake away, feeling foolish when Hannah explains that he was the person she was negotiating with. Gavin then gets down on one knee and proposes. Hannah says no, she isn’t ready and then hurries after Jake. He hands her a signed agreement, explaining his backup—a company in Canada—fell through. She takes it and tries to explain her relationship status but he just drives away.
She prepares to head home with Gavin, who asks her to put on the engagement ring to try it out. And you know, pretend to be engaged to him at the party. Because he being married is a big deal to the partners so if he wants to advance his career…Hannah tells him off and he says he should’ve known…No. No. Gavin is a dick and should not be the one breaking up. Hannah should not apologize. She should toss his ass on that train and never look back.
Once the train pulls out, Hannah is surprised to see her boss. He says he was coming up to close the deal because she couldn’t. She tells him she did and produces the contract. Her boss is like “Well, I’m stuck. Guess I’ll miss all these parties I didn’t want to to go to.”
Why does no one in this movie want to go to a Christmas party? Geez.
At least the people of Cookie Jar do. Hannah gets ready for their party as Kelly shows up, determined to celebrate the holidays with her sister. Hannah, though, is even less in the Christmas mood as she’s depressed about Jake and feeling guilty for destroying the town she’s come to love. But at the party, Kelly helps her find the solution. She gets up on the stage and tells her boss that they only own the name “Aunt Sally’s Christmas Cookies” because the people own the recipes. They won’t be able to make the cookies everyone loves without them. So the boss agrees the factory can stay and puts Hannah in charge.
She then reunites with Jake and the two share a kiss.
Yay!
So, yes, I had a few problems with it. They had a natural conflict—Hannah is the person who is going to convince Jake to sell when he just wants to protect his employees and the cookies. Adding Jake hiding himself when it would be easily blown apart by a simple Google search was pointless and stupid. Brown and Wagner had chemistry and sold the relationship. It didn’t need anything more, conflict-wise.
Otherwise, it was a cute romance between a woman, a man and also an entire town. Watching Hannah fall in love with Cookie Jar and its people really made this movie standout to me. Bravo!
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