Need I say, I loved this movie. On my personal rating scale I gave it 4/5.
Jill Wagner rarely disappoints and Wes Brown was great as her protagonist/love interest. I really enoyed their scenes together. The entire cast worked so well together that they seemed to really be citizens of Cookie Jar, yes that is the name of the town.
For corporate executive Hannah it was supposed to be an easy assignment, drop into town, get the contract signed and be home well before Christmas Eve. The problem is that the conglomerate wanting to buy Aunt Sally's wants to close the factory and move the whole operation to Buffalo where shipping would be less costly and more efficient.
But Cookie Jar is nothing without Aunt Sally's Christmas Cookie factory. For the town, if there is no Aunt Sally's there is no more Cookie Jar. As a sub-story, a local teenager who is Yale bound to become the doctor the town needs will no longer be able to go to college without the cookie factory. Another indication of just how important the factory is to the town. In addition almost everyone in town is either working there now or worked there in the past.
Jake, is the nephew of the real Aunt Sally and inherited the factory when she died. Jake, who knows how important the cookie factory is to the town, wants to renegotiate the contract, adding a clause that would insure the factory stays in Cookie Jar.
As Hannah gets to know the town and it's residents, she begins to realize that this town needs the factory. The town takes Christmas very seriously, and welcomes Hannah as one of them and involves her in all the Christmas festivities.
There is even a boyfriend in the mix who expects Hannah to go to his company Christmas Party so he can impress his fellow executives and when it appears that she will miss his party, he travels to Cookie Jar and arrives just in time to "save" Hannah from being kissed by Jake.. He proceeds to get down on one knee (a Hallmark staple, does anybody really do this amy more?) and proposes to her in front of the whole town. Imagine his shock when she turns him down and he reallizes that Jake was not just trying to kiss Hannah, she was letting him kiss her.
Jake had resisted signing the contract because he hoped that the Canadian Company he had been negotiating with would partner with Aunt Sally's, saving both the factory and the town. His hopes are dashed when the Canadian Company withdraws from the negotiations. Jake witnesses the oh so public proposal, but not her refusal and he is faced with the realization that not only is he not getting the girl, there is also nothing he can do to save Cookie Jar. Jake reluctanly signs the contract after making one change in the deal, he wants nothing for himself, instead he insists that all proceeds from the sale should go to the people of Cookie Jar.
While Hannah's boss is bragging that he will put Aunt Sally's cookies in every store, Hannah remembers one important detail. She announces to the crowd that Aunt Sally's may have been sold, but the recipe was not included in the deal. Because there is no recipe, the recipe only exists in the minds of the townspeople, every empoyee memorized the part of the cookie production that was their specific job, but no single employee knows the whole recipe. Hannah states that without the people of Cookie Jar there are no Aunt Sally's cookies.
Needless to say Aunt Sally's remains in Cookie Jar, Jake remains at the factory and Hannah remains in Cookie Jar as the company representative keeping an eye on the overall operation.
The nice thing about Hallmark movies is that you know what to expect and this movie has it all; they make snowmen, they toboggan, they do gingerbread houses there is a potential love triangle. But in the end it all works out like it was supposed to.
Jill Wagner rarely disappoints and Wes Brown was great as her protagonist/love interest. I really enoyed their scenes together. The entire cast worked so well together that they seemed to really be citizens of Cookie Jar, yes that is the name of the town.
For corporate executive Hannah it was supposed to be an easy assignment, drop into town, get the contract signed and be home well before Christmas Eve. The problem is that the conglomerate wanting to buy Aunt Sally's wants to close the factory and move the whole operation to Buffalo where shipping would be less costly and more efficient.
But Cookie Jar is nothing without Aunt Sally's Christmas Cookie factory. For the town, if there is no Aunt Sally's there is no more Cookie Jar. As a sub-story, a local teenager who is Yale bound to become the doctor the town needs will no longer be able to go to college without the cookie factory. Another indication of just how important the factory is to the town. In addition almost everyone in town is either working there now or worked there in the past.
Jake, is the nephew of the real Aunt Sally and inherited the factory when she died. Jake, who knows how important the cookie factory is to the town, wants to renegotiate the contract, adding a clause that would insure the factory stays in Cookie Jar.
As Hannah gets to know the town and it's residents, she begins to realize that this town needs the factory. The town takes Christmas very seriously, and welcomes Hannah as one of them and involves her in all the Christmas festivities.
There is even a boyfriend in the mix who expects Hannah to go to his company Christmas Party so he can impress his fellow executives and when it appears that she will miss his party, he travels to Cookie Jar and arrives just in time to "save" Hannah from being kissed by Jake.. He proceeds to get down on one knee (a Hallmark staple, does anybody really do this amy more?) and proposes to her in front of the whole town. Imagine his shock when she turns him down and he reallizes that Jake was not just trying to kiss Hannah, she was letting him kiss her.
Jake had resisted signing the contract because he hoped that the Canadian Company he had been negotiating with would partner with Aunt Sally's, saving both the factory and the town. His hopes are dashed when the Canadian Company withdraws from the negotiations. Jake witnesses the oh so public proposal, but not her refusal and he is faced with the realization that not only is he not getting the girl, there is also nothing he can do to save Cookie Jar. Jake reluctanly signs the contract after making one change in the deal, he wants nothing for himself, instead he insists that all proceeds from the sale should go to the people of Cookie Jar.
While Hannah's boss is bragging that he will put Aunt Sally's cookies in every store, Hannah remembers one important detail. She announces to the crowd that Aunt Sally's may have been sold, but the recipe was not included in the deal. Because there is no recipe, the recipe only exists in the minds of the townspeople, every empoyee memorized the part of the cookie production that was their specific job, but no single employee knows the whole recipe. Hannah states that without the people of Cookie Jar there are no Aunt Sally's cookies.
Needless to say Aunt Sally's remains in Cookie Jar, Jake remains at the factory and Hannah remains in Cookie Jar as the company representative keeping an eye on the overall operation.
The nice thing about Hallmark movies is that you know what to expect and this movie has it all; they make snowmen, they toboggan, they do gingerbread houses there is a potential love triangle. But in the end it all works out like it was supposed to.