Hallmark For All Seasons

“Gingerbread Miracle,” starring Merritt Patterson and Jon Ecker, aired on October 31 during 2021’s Countdown to Christmas on Hallmark Channel.  It was filmed back in August in the Burnaby and Langley areas of British Columbia, Canada.  The movie was set in Colorado.

Michael M. Scott directed, having been in charge of many popular Hallmark and Lifetime movies over the years, including one of my all-time faves, “Window Wonderland.”  The credits attributed three writers for this movie, Tracy Andreen, Emma Claire Martin and John Benjamin Martin. Andreen brought us two of my favorites, “Christmas Getaway” and “Snow Bride,” while this is if a first writing credit for Emma Claire Martin and the first rom-com attribution for John Benjamin Martin.

This movie poster is weird, but I don’t hate it.  Regardless of the photoshopped gingerbread underneath actress Merritt Patterson, there’s no mistaking that this movie is about gingerbread!

Music: The opening credits had a great song that I’ve already purchased!  It’s Christmas Time by Devin Jay Hoffman, Holiday Rogers & Skip Armstrong.

In a nutshell

I liked this one a lot more than I thought I would.  I’m not big into the gingerbread movies, in general, but this one was well written and well acted.  Overall, really enjoyable and ends up high on the list!

The Plot of “Gingerbread Miracle”

Two old friends from high school work together over Christmas to sell his uncle’s Mexican bakery, famous for its magical gingerbread cookies that grant wishes. 

Actors & Chemistry

I love Merritt Patterson.  I always know that I’ll enjoy the movie when I see she’s the lead.  She’s very good in these movies.  I also thought Jon Ecker was great.  I’m not familiar with him as I haven’t watched any of the shows he has been on, such as “Narcos,” “Firefly Lane,” or “Chicago Fire.”  I thought he was great. Jon Ecker has some serious Wes Brown vibes and I like that.  They could easily play brothers in a future Hallmark movie.

I thought the chemistry between the two leads was really good.  Sometimes Alex fell into mildly petulant jealousy, but the immediate renewed attraction between Alex and Maya was well played.  I just think that a smart woman would have noticed that mildly petulant Alex was acting that was because of jealousy, and tried sooner to figure out why he was jealous.

Tropes

The movie STARTED with a baking scene, y’all.  Then we had CGI snow and a front porch on the family’s house.  Three tropes in under 1 minute.  Is that a new record?

Maya’s family had a cute dog. She had a GREAT large scarf that went down to her knees.  Maya and her sister went Christmas tree shopping.  We had a trip and fall meet cute, which we’ve not had for a long time.  Later on, Luis and Alex decorated a tree.

There was a Christmas market complete with reindeer games.  Maya and her friend Brooke went ice skating, and followed it up with some empty coffee cups.  And then at the end of the movie we had snowfall start when they had their first kiss.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

An apartment like Alex’s does not exist in NYC unless you are pulling in $300K/year because that’s the only way you could afford the rent all by yourself.  And if he truly is a grunt attorney only reading reports and reviews, then he’s not making $300K.

The entire movie people kept biting into cookies with the frosting side down.  IS THAT A THING?  I cannot even handle the idea of frosting side facing down.  You’re risking losing the best part (the frosting) should it become separated from the cookie.

The gingerbread race is a fun idea, but that course was NOT good.  First, if you want the race to be fair, you have everyone go in a straight line with the obstacles laid out THE EXACT SAME for each runner.  They had the obstacles side by side, which meant that some runners had to run farther to get to the same obstacle as a competitor.  But, that didn’t matter because the decoration stations were all timed, so as long as everyone was at that table by the time to timer ran out, they were all even steven again.  So strange.  GREAT idea, but poorly executed.

In my mind, if you both know you like each other, and want to kiss each other, but don’t, and you both feel VERY SAD about that, then PERHAPS YOU SHOULD FIGURE THINGS OUT.

Feelgoods

All the feels seeing the Rockefeller Plaza ice skating rink with my old office building in the background (over 20 years ago I worked in the Atlas Building).

HALLMARK LOBBY WAS BACK!!!!  I first noticed this lobby being used in Hallmark and Lifetime movies back in 2018.  I always love when it comes back again.  The lower half of the photo below is from a Lifetime movie when I first realized it was used a lot.  Up top is from “Gingerbread Miracle.”

I was also happy to hear the sound of “I Saw Three Ships” which is a highly underused Christmas song. It was played during last week’s Christmas Sail, which makes sense since the movie is about a boat, but I appreciated hearing a few measures of the song in this movie as well.

Re-watchability of “Gingerbread Miracle”

I will totally watch this one again.  I liked everything about it.

The Ranking

“Gingerbread Miracle” cracked the Top Ten for me!

1. The Santa Stakeout (air date: Oct 24) – 730 pts – weighted score: 122.3 (85.8%)
2. You, Me and The Christmas Trees (air date: Oct 22) – 716 pts – weighted score: 121.3 (85.1%)
3. Crashing Through The Snow (air date: July 10) – 705 pts – weighted score: 118.1 (82.8%)
4. Boyfriends of Christmas Past (air date: Oct 23) – 673 pts – weighted score: 116.1 (81.5%)
5. It Was Always You (air date: Feb 27) – 668 pts – weighted score: 114.2 (80.1%)
6. The Christmas Promise (air date: Oct 30) – 675 pts – weighted score: 114.1 (80.0%)
7. Gingerbread Miracle (air date: Nov 5) – 671 pts – weighted score: 114.0 (80.0%)
8. Christmas In My Heart (air date: Oct 23) – 675 pts – weighted score: 113.9 (79.9%)
9. You Had Me At Aloha (air date: June 5) – 675 pts – weighted score: 111.4 (78.1%)
10. Sweet Carolina (air date: May 15) – 648 pts – weighted score: 110.1 (77.2%)
11. Taking a Shot at Love (air date: Jan 2) – 641 pts – weighted score: 108.9 (76.4%)
12. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (air date: Mar 27) – 636 pts – weighted score: 108.5 (76.1%)
13. Right in Front of Me (air date: Apr 18) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
14. As Luck Would Have It (air date: Apr 10) – 638 pts – weighted score: 107.7 (75.5%)
15. Her Pen Pal (air date: June 19) – 636 pts – weighted score: 107.1 (75.1%)
16. The Baker’s Son (air date: June 13) – 637 pts – weighted score: 106.3 (74.6%)
17. South Beach Love (air date: Oct 9) – 615 pts – weighted score: 105.8 (74.2%)
18. Love Strikes Twice (air date: Oct 2) – 608 pts – weighted score: 105.2 (73.8%)
19. Christmas Sail (air date: Oct 31) – 606 pts – weighted score: 105.1 (73.7%)
20. Christmas in Harmony (air date: Oct 29) – 605 pts – weighted score: 104.8 (73.5%)
21. A Winter Getaway (air date: Jan 23) – 620 pts – weighted score: 104.4 (73.3%)
22. Coyote Creek Christmas (air date: Oct 30) – 614 pts – weighted score: 104.3 (73.2%)
23. Love, For Real (air date: July 31) – 607 pts – weighted score: 103.6 (72.7%)
24. Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone (air date: Oct 1) – 595 pts – weighted score: 103.0 (72.2%)
25. Mix Up in the Mediterranean (air date: Feb 20) – 590 pts – weighted score: 102.5 (71.9%)
26. Advice to Love By (air date: Oct 16) – 599 pts – weighted score: 102.2 (71.7)
27. Two For The Win (air date: Jan 16) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
28. Taking the Reins (air date: Sept 28) – 574 pts – weighted score: 101.2 (71.0%)
29. Raise a Glass to Love (air date: Sept 18) – 590 pts – weighted score: 100.7 (70.7%)
30. Chasing Waterfalls (air date: Mar 20) – 570 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
31. Roadhouse Romance (air date: Sept 11) – 571 pts – weighted score: 100.2 (70.3%)
32. Sweet Pecan Summer (air date: ) – 576 pts – weighted score: 97.3 (68.3%)
33. Sand Dollar Cove (air date: June 26) – 557 pts – weighted score: 96.8 (67.9%)
34. Hearts Down Under (air date: Apr 24) – 547 pts – weighted score: 95.2 (66.8%)
35. Fit for a Prince (air date: Mar 6) – 546 pts – weighted score: 94.6 (66.4%)
36. A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
37. Finding Love in Mountain View (air date: ) – 504 pts – weighted score: 89.5 (62.8%)
38. A Little Daytime Drama (air date: Aug 21) – 511 pts – weighted score: 87.7 (61.5%)
39. Baby, It’s Cold Inside (air date: May 8) – 495 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.0%)
40. Playing Cupid (air date: Feb 13) – 466 pts – weighted score: 82.6 (58.0%)
41. Beverly Hills Wedding (air date: Feb 6) – 431 pts – weighted score: 80.6 (56.5%)
42. Journey of my Heart (air date: ) – 450 pts – weighted score: 76.0 (53.3%)
43. Snowkissed (air date: Jan 31) – 402 pts – weighted score: 76.0 (53.3%)

To see where this movie lands in my overall rankings of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!

What did you think of “Gingerbread Miracle”?  Comment below and let me know!