Christmas Under Wraps

It was 2014. On November 29, a massive 5.8 million viewers tuned in to watch the “Queen of Christmas,” Candace Cameron Bure, in Christmas Under Wraps - a record-setting night Hallmark still hasn’t matched since. With just 15 films in that year’s Countdown to Christmas (a number that doubled within three years), this movie helped spark the boom.

Set in a small Alaskan town, Dr. Lauren Brunell finds unexpected community - and romance - with pilot, electrician, and all-around awesome dude, Andy Holliday. It’s classic Hallmark formula… and it works.

Rene and Rich agree on the film’s best moment and what they’d rewrite, but clash over the top supporting character - and whether Lauren and Andy’s relationship can last in Alaska. Things heat up when Rene calls Rich’s MVP pick “illegal,” and Rich doubles down on his claim: this is the most important Hallmark Christmas movie ever.

And one more thing… That’s Garland for Ya!

We keep it fun, keep it real… and keep it Hallmark Christmas.

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/foreverhallmarkchristmas

Email: ForeverHallmarkChristmas@gmail.com

*** Not affiliated with Hallmark Media. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Welcome everyone to Forever Hallmark Christmas. That's right, the movie review podcast where we review nothing other than Hallmark Christmas movies coming to you every Thursday. Uh my name is Rich, and as always, I'm joined by my Hallmark partner in crime, Renee. How's it going, Renee? I'm good. We're uh we're here to talk uh a little 2014. We're gonna go back 12 years and talk about Christmas under wraps. You ready for it?

SPEAKER_00 0:33

I'm ready.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

All right, let's get a little uh Hallmark news out of the way uh as we always do. 27 weeks until the estimated start to count down to Christmas 2026. And uh my favorite uh person on Instagram would like to follow Hallmark Enthusiast24-7, gave us a little tidbit about a new 2026 movie currently uh shooting in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Uh the movie is called Double Con Christmas, and here's what it's about. A single mom runs a thriving catering business, but struggles to make time for family or romance. A surprise Christmas ski trip, secretly arranged by her mother and an old friend, upends her plans and just might rekindle love. And attached to this movie are actors Victor Webster, Amanda Schuel, and one of our favorites, Barbara Niven. Oh, I love her. Yep, she's great. So uh something to look forward to. We've had a couple uh 2026 movies on the radar, and I'm sure we're gonna have more and more every week. And Renee, another news topic, and I know this one is gonna be huge for you because I know you were a massive fan of the Hallmark series The Good Witch.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Uh, I know you said that's what actually got you into watching Hallmark in the first place. And uh just recently, James Denton and Catherine Bell were at a convention in Orlando doing a kind of a panel QA, and they started talking about this series coming back to life. And apparently if I read it in one place, I kind of say, oh, I'll take it with a grain of salt. But when you start reading two, three, four different uh, you know, uh online platforms that are talking about this same thing, you you might have a little something uh that's making a little more sense, maybe a little more truth behind it. And apparently, word is there are discussions underway within Hallmark and the stars about this series possibly returning. So I am daring to hope on this one.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Yes. I want this one.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

No, not exactly Christmas, but the Good Witch returning would be huge for a lot of Hallmark fans. It's something I didn't watch, but if it does come back on James Denton, Catherine Bell, I'm all in. I'll tune in. Thank you. It's great. I loved it. All right, let's talk a little bit about Christmas under rats. Uh so this movie, 2014. It stars Candace Cameron Beret and David O'Donnell. There are six writing credits on this movie, but the script was written. Wait.

unknown 2:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Wait a second. It's Beret? Oh Candace Cameron Beret. I've been saying burr for years.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Candace Cameron Beret. I always think it's Beret, but. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Well, we're gonna have to Okay, I'm gonna leave this in because I think this is hilarious for people. All right.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

I'm sure everyone will chime in. Uh all of our massive uh thousands of listeners will chime in and let us know whether they're right or wrong. Please chime in. There's six writing credits, uh, but the screenplay was written by Jennifer Notis Shapiro. Uh our quick little holiday hook here: a big city doctor takes a reluctant job in a tiny Alaska town, only to discover great neighbors, unexpected romance, and a Christmas secret. The whole town is sworn to protect. I like it. This movie has an IMDB rating of 6.2. And Renee, FHC uh tells us this is what in our uh our own scoring system?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

It's a 7.5, which is pretty solid, I think, for a Homer movie.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

So a few fun facts about this movie. Didn't really speak with any writers or producers, but uh uh the town uh of Garland, Alaska uh isn't a real town. Uh this movie was actually filmed in Utah, mostly around the Salt Lake City area, the cities of Payson, Heber City, Cottonwood Heights, all those uh mountains and snowy scenery uh were meant to make us think we were in Alaska, but it really happened out there in Utah near Salt Lake City. Uh and it was actually filmed in August and September. So obviously a lot of the snow that we saw uh was artificial. I mentioned Garland itself as a fictional town. Uh so there is no real Garland, Alaska. I read in a couple spots, can't really confirm this. There was an original working title for this movie before Christmas underwraps. Originally, they were looking at Northern Lights Love for a title of this movie, but again, can't really confirm that. But saw that in a couple different places. This movie does have somewhat of a sequel, A Cozy Christmas Inn from 2022 on Hallmark. Takes place in the same town of Garland, brings back some of the uh the characters from the original movie in 2014. It stars Jody Sweeton as the female lead, and David O'Donnell is back as Andy Holiday in that movie. So kind of a pseudo-sequel from 2022.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

And that's funny because they were in the show together. They were, of course. They were sisters in full house.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yes. That's cute. All right, Renee, last week I made a very bold statement that this was the most important film in the history of Hallmark Christmas movies. Did you think I was crazy? I thought you were out of your Hallmark mind. Yes. 2014, there were 15 Hallmark Christmas movies. This movie had 5.8 million viewers. Wow. Yes. And I just want to put that number into context. If we go back to 2022, three wise men and a baby. I'm sure we all did that super popular movie. Hallmark advertised the heck out of that movie for months. Everybody was so ready to see it. I know I watched it with my wife and my two daughters. That movie did 3.6 million. Okay. Christmas Underwraps, 5.8 million. A lot of kind of former Hallmark executives that I've seen do interviews and stuff about this movie have said it was because of Christmas Underwraps that Hallmark said we need to start really ramping up our Christmas product every year in terms of the number of movies. And I'm going to give you an example of what I mean. So 2014, I mentioned this movie comes out, 15 Christmas movies. Following year in 2015, 19 Christmas movies. 2016, 24 Christmas movies. And the big jump into 2017, 33 Christmas movies. So this movie comes out 5.8 million viewers in 2014. Within three years, they've gone from 15 to 33. So when I say this might very well be the most important movie in Hallmark Christmas history, that's what I mean. It's just it was just absolutely amazing how popular and how many people watched this movie.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

The other astounding thing that you mentioned, and I won't say her name, but that you got one of your daughters to sit down and watch a Hallmark movie, which blows my mind. I did indeed. Yes, they're there. Because one of them does not like Hallmark movies at all. Alright, Renee, what do you think of this one? Uh I thought it was very cute, very Hallmark. It's classic, cozy, uh early Hallmark feel, a strong hints of Christmas magic, which you know me. I love the Christmas magic stuff. Didn't go over the top. It was subtle enough to go like, huh, is magic happening or not happening here? But definitely was happening. I love the small town setting, snowy atmosphere, warm holiday spirit everywhere. Um helped that movie along a lot. It had you know a slight plot twist, but it was not uh unforeseen. Uh I liked it a lot. It was a very and it had an emotional appeal to choosing a simpler, happier life. Uh, I liked it.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yeah, uh I this was very like you say, it was very Hallmark. Uh there's kind of that formulaic uh Hallmark movie from 12 years ago. Lots of cheesy dialogue, but it had a plot and a storyline that really moved along well. I liked the pacing of the movie. You had Hallmark's number one actress at the time, Candace Cameron by far the number one actress. Uh, she was the queen of Hallmark at the time, and she was leading the way this movie. I think you had really good supporting characters. You had great visuals of what, of course, was supposed to be Alaska. Um I think this movie is much better than a 6.2 rating that IMDB currently has it at. I think it's just kind of that warm, cozy, not have to think too hard kind of Hallmark film. So, yeah, those are kind of my overall thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

I'm with you. Yeah. What'd you like about it? I wrote down so many things, you know. The the little hints about the Christmas magic. Of course, seasonal cookies. I love seasonal cookies. Who doesn't? Beautiful scenery. Her mother being genuinely caring about her. I thought her parents were very elegant. The whole some people don't like this, but I like a whole town being warm and interconnected and everybody kind of in your business. Um, you know, I like I like that sort of stuff. I like it when everybody knows what's going on in a small town. None of us live in a small town, so we might not really like it if we live there. But I I romanticize those sort of things. The mysterious Christmas elements with Rudy in the festival, um, and the the Christmas tree decorating scene. Uh so many things I liked. And I won't, you know, I won't spoil the ending yet, but the one of the the ending was really, really cute, and I really enjoyed that. And the sweaters and color palettes that they use, lovely.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

So uh yeah, I liked a whole bunch of this as well. First of all, I'm gonna start off with the name, and I'm gonna take a little grief on this. Uh Renee, I really like the uh the town of Garland, Alaskan. And I know uh I made fun when we watched the movie Christmas Cookies, how cookie jar was the silliest name ever, and you have too many cheesy Christmas names uh in in some of these older movies. But I really like the name Garland, Alaskan. I think I I I got a little defense here uh because there are a bunch of Garland, there's there is not a single cookie jar in the United States town really called Cookie Jar. There's a bunch of towns called Garland. You're recent, including Garland, Texas, with a quarter million people. So I think I'm in safe ground saying Garland's a cool name for a town, especially in this movie. Uh, I did like that we got two mid-movie kisses here, um, the Midnight Picnic and in her cabin. I like when we always get a mid-movie kiss. Like you, I like the whole Santa Christmas magic. Is it is it true or is it not true? That whole little storyline that lingered over the entire movie. Uh, I loved Frank the Cookie Monster, uh, always uh eating the cookies. And I really like the character of character of Andy. I mean, Andy is a really cool guy when you think about it. So he's always driving the cool red truck, which we love in Hallmark movies. He's like a handyman, the talented electrician. He's a trained architect who went to school for architecture. He's gonna take over his dad's business someday. And do you know how hard it is to be a pilot in Alaska? I mean, that's like one of the most demanding pilot jobs anywhere in the world. So, and he's a really cool guy. I decided to throw that in there as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Yeah, he's supremely talented. And then there's other Hallmark movies where they have a one guy who plays a lot of roles in a town, and that's kind of cute. And I also have to mention, like, I like Patty at the diner already ordering for her and knowing her order and ordering in the fat-free milk for her. Yeah, Hattie. Oh, Hattie. Hattie. Oh, I'll be darn. Hattie. I gotta check my hearing apparently. And Frank's voice was great. Yeah, Bill Murray's brother. I loved him in you know, Groundhog's Day. His voice to me, every time I hear him, he just makes me smile. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

He was Lou the Caddyshack master. That's right. Crazy. Yeah, Bill Murray's brother, Brian Doyle Murray. So great job. All right, so we always keep it real here and say if we can find anything to rewrite about this movie. And I only have one. For the most part, I thought it was written pretty well. I mean, for Hallmark, it just kind of moved along well, though. And it's the last literally 10 seconds of the movie. I love the fact that we had the whole is this Santa? Is this the North Pole? They kept throwing little tidbits about there in the whole movie, and you know, and Lauren, Dr. Lawrence even doubting herself, is it real? Is it not? I think they should have ended the movie with still that little cliffhanger, like not knowing. And of course, we didn't get that. We got the sleigh silhouette across the moonlight, flying and the big ho ho ho coming from Frank, basically spilling the secret that, yeah, you know, yeah, the Santa Magic is real. I think they should have ended the movie without that. So if you're still watching this in 2026, you'll say, What do you think? You you think it was or wasn't? But they kind of spoiled it at the end there. So if I had to rewrite this movie, I I would have I would have cut that part out and just left the whole question still lingering out there.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Yeah, I had pretty much the same thing. I said I would lean into like having more magical mysteries in it. The mystery side gets taken away at the end, and I agree with you. It should have been kept mysterious. I I thought a little bit more romantic tension for me would have been helpful. Just a little bit more, not too much to fix. You know, because Lauren was planning to leave pretty much all the movie. Yeah, she's always there. I'm glad she changed her mind, but yeah, I agree with you 100%. The mystery side of should have been kept a mystery at the end. It kept us thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

I think it was the number one moment of the movie.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

You know what I'm gonna say because it's my number one uh on my life list, bucket list is the flight to see the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights. Uh it's a romantic, it's such a huge romantic grand gesture. I mean, take a girl out on a plane to go see the auroras, that's pretty yeah. You know, you're gonna get that mid-movie kiss at that point, I think. Um I like the call with her parents where she chooses happiness over prestige and money. I always like those real moments. And uh I like the scene at the little fair that they're having. That that feeling of we have everything we need here in Garland. I think that's lovely. Sometimes I like that, you know. You know, people tell me, why don't you go move out of California? I have everything I need here in California. I I have the mountains, I have the beach, which I don't go to either that much, but I have everything I need here in California, and that's how I I've got the same feeling with Garland. Like you have everything you need there, it's nice.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

I I picked the exact same moment. I don't know if they necessarily had to fly uh to see the northern lights. I think Andy could have driven in the truck, but I guess flying added a little bit more even uh special to it. So yeah, even with the horrible green screen of the Northern Lights, and it was bad. It was really a cool moment to uh to take somebody to see the Northern Lights in that that midnight picnic there. And I love the call, I like the name of it too, a midnight picnic. So yeah, that that too was my my favorite moment.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

You definitely have to have a lot of uh, you know, when we watch Hallmark and when we read stories, it's suspension of disbelief is important sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Absolutely. And I think maybe in 2026, they maybe could have cleaned that up a little with uh today's technology and uh and made the uh the screen not so quite uh you know front and center there. But uh yeah, but it we it was it was a really cool moment.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Yeah, it is 12 years ago, so we gotta keep that in mind as well.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

So I mentioned uh this I I really liked one of the movies. The parts about this movie I really liked is is the the supporting characters because I thought there was a bunch of really good ones. And I kind of kept going back and forth. In the end, my favorite one was Hattie, who owned both the diner and the general store. Uh just such a bubbly personality, uh, just trying to make uh Lauren happy, whatever she needed. Um yeah, I liked I liked Hattie when all of sudden done. Frank was a great character as well, but I'm going with Hattie.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Yeah, I went with Frank, but Hattie, now that I know it's Hattie, was uh she was lovely. I I really enjoyed her. I like seeing her. But Frank, I did like, unless you want more Hattie for pure town energies, but uh he's working hard to make Christmas Eve happen. You know, he just wants to get through it and he eats a lot of cookies, which I find very relatable. I like them a lot.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

All right, we have our fun little section here where we say, Are we sure about something in the movie?

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Anything you got? I wrote down two. I said, you know, a town that remote would really only have one doctor option available. You know, I find that one, but I get it, it's a plot. It feels a little convenient, but it's needed for the plot. And the other one is Handy should have been snagged up way sooner in that town. I mean, he's quite the catch. He's a good looking guy, he has skills, he's talented, everybody knows him. I don't see how that guy is still single and not have you know, I would have loved to see like a little another lady comp competing to try to get his attention or an ex or something like that. But uh that's the was a very simple are you sure is that was ripped for me.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

I I already mentioned I I really liked Kirk. He's a really good catch indeed. I wrote down two as well. The first was, are we sure that uh Y can get like a hundred different kinds of flowers in Garland, Alaska, but the town doesn't have any fat-free milk?

SPEAKER_00 16:26

So I didn't even think about that.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

I don't I don't know how Y gets like all these different kinds of flower varietals, but uh yeah, uh up there 300 miles north of Anchorage. But uh he he seems to do it, and yeah, but we can't get any fat-free milk, are we sure about that? And my other big are we sure I noticed because now a long time ago I worked up in Alaska for an entire summer, and I remember I was there in September, and I remember the days getting shorter fast, like you were losing five minutes of daylight every day the closer you get up to the North Pole. And I started waiting, I go, wait, this is taking place right before Christmas. I go, isn't it pretty much like dark in Alaska, pretty much for the majority of the day? Because she's waking up at 6 30 in the morning and it's like bright sunshine out. And I started going, okay, let me see, 300 miles north of, of course, I do my research, 300 miles north of Anchorage, which Andy says Garland is, puts you right around the town of Fairbanks, the second largest city in the state. In winter solstice, which is December 21st, the sun rises around 11 a.m. and sets around 3 p.m. Wow. So of course, my are we sure is are we sure there's that much sunlight all the time there in Garland? I guess we have to uh again just kind of keep an open mind and have a little bit of fun with the uh uh with the Hallmark storyline here. I get it. I'm I agree with you. All right. Would the couple last 12 months? You want to go first? Do you want me to go first?

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Sure, I'll go. Okay. For sure. I we gotta be in agreement with this. They found happiness, she found a new career, not a new career, but she found this is what I like. It had the Christmas spirit, right? She's giving back to a community, a small community. She decided to instead of making all this money that she can make a difference here. And making a difference in people's lives and giving is the spirit of Christmas and being in service to others. She loves the town of Garland she's in. They already love her. 100%. I think they're gonna go all the way. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Okay, we're we're sort of in agreement. Okay, I should have known. Okay, and listen to me out. Okay, so they're gonna make it, but they're not gonna make it in Garland. Okay, they're they're gonna leave Garland, they're gonna head back down to the lower 48. And Andy's gonna follow her, and who knows? Maybe we can teach why to take over the the business someday there up there in Garland or something. But okay, she has been training and studying to be a surgeon basically her entire life. She says at 10 years old she knew what she wanted to do. So start, I want I'm gonna I'm gonna spell this out for you. We're putting in roughly the fifth grade. So fifth grade through high school and everything is about eight years. Then you have another eight years of undergrad in medical school. That's 16 years, five years of surgical residency, 21 years she's been studying to become a surgeon. I don't think she gives that up. She's so smart, she's still driven to be a surgeon. I think they're gonna make it, but I don't think they're gonna make it in Garland. She's she's not gonna give up those those 21 years of studying and training to be a surgeon. She's gonna come back down, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, wherever. Maybe Andy becomes a commercial pilot for Alaska Airlines. But they're gonna make it, but they're not gonna make it in Garland.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Andy's the next Santa. They're not leaving Garland, dude.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Okay, we're gonna we're gonna have to agree to disagree on this one. I don't think she gives up 21 years of studying and training. Uh for she's been in Garland for what, a week or two? Yeah, I I again I think they're gonna make it because I think they're great together, but I I do think they're gonna leave Garland to make it happen. In Hallmark World, they're staying in Garland. So the mistletoe meter, we rate the kisses, and we had three of them. We had two uh two mid-movie kisses and then the one at the end. Uh I'll break them all down one by one. So I gave the Northern Lights kiss a C because we got like one second in the camera panned up to the Northern Lights. I think it was probably better than a C, but we just didn't see it. Um, I I wish they would have kept on camera, maybe on them for two or three more seconds. And I I think it was probably a better kiss, but I had to put a C just because we didn't see anymore. But the kiss in her cabin and and the kiss at the end of the movie were both good, solid, sweet. I think they were both B's. And considering I think that first kiss was better than we saw on camera, I'm I'm gonna give the all-around kisses a B.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

I'm pretty close to you. It's weird that you're ranking them higher than I did. I ranked the mid-movie kisses to a C plus. Again, I thought it would be nice to see a little bit more of it. And that's and that last kiss was uh it's okay, solid. I gave that one a B minus. So my overall kiss for the movies was a B minus.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Jeez, that's three weeks in a row that I've been higher than you. And like the first month that we did this podcast, I was brutal on the kisses. I mean you were way higher. But I'm getting soft. I'm gonna have to uh I'm gonna have to get a little more serious here on the kisses. I'll let you go first. Who or what won the movie?

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Oh CCB, all the way. She totally won. She carries the movie, her charm, her likability, and and the town of Garland itself for me won the movie between uh Candace Cameron and the Town of Garland. That it's perfect. It's like Hallmark comfort viewing. I I loved it. She was great.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

So for me, this is a no-brainer. Who or what won this movie? The Hallmark channel won this movie. 5.8 million viewers, and this just led to the enormous amount of Christmas movies we've gotten over the past years. I don't know if there would be literally as many podcasters out there doing Hallmark podcasts. Uh people on Instagram talking about it. It wasn't for this movie. So to me, this is the biggest I gotta call I gotta call you out here though.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Okay, go ahead. Who won the who won the movie if you didn't know how many people watched the movie?

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Oh yeah. I think it is probably Candace Cameron because she was the queen and that's what brought people to the viewers. But again, I mean, when all said and done, it's the Hallmark show. This that they they are the biggest winners of this movie.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Yeah, I don't look at it that you know, I don't look at it as I look at it, I watch the movie, not the ramifications afterwards. I look at who won the movie, you know, the movie itself. Yeah, Hallmark won overall for sure. But you know, I think it's because you had that information. I didn't have that information when we were ranking the movie, you know, talking about who won the movie. So I would I think I would like to keep it, you know, to be to you know to be real, we have to keep it as who won the movie, the movie itself.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Alright, rating. You want me to go? Yes. I'm sticking to my Hallmark channel, won the movies. I'm okay with that.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

We it's good to have a little conflict.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Alright, I gave this one uh a cozy 3.75, and Renee, that's Garland for you.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

I did it, I gave it a 3.5. So that's odd that you're yeah, 3.5. It was solid. Solid for me. You're on deck. What are we watching next? I have the next movie is A Ghost of Christmas Always. Here's the hint. There is a ghost, and it's during Christmas time.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

I'm ready for a ghost of Christmas always. Uh let's let's do it next week.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

So where can people get a hold of us?

SPEAKER_01 22:47

People can get a hold of us forever. Hallmark Christmas at gmail.com. Send us an email. Let us know uh what movies you'd like us to review, what you think of the podcast, anything we could do different, what you liked, what you didn't like, let us know. We don't have a single email yet, so you can be the first one.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

And and please let us know. Is Rich out of line by going with his who won the movie section this week? Because I gotta believe people are gonna be on my side on this one.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Okay, is it the Hallmark Channel versus Candace Cameron? We'll find out. And uh Instagram forever, Hallmark Christmas is where you can find us.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

For the love of Hallmark.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

For the love of Hallmark