Holiday in Santa Fe
Reviewed by Lisa Sue
After watching so many of these, one tends to blend them all
together. Rarely does one of these movies stick out, or set itself apart. The
draw of this particular movie is Slater himself, Mario Lopez. Casual readers of this
blog will know we have a soft spot for Slater. It is really quite
inexplainable, not actually being a Saved by the Bell Fan. But combine romance
and KFC? And you have a fan Mr. Lopez. And kudos for this movie, that while the
plot may be by the book the setting isn’t. With Santa Fe as the backdrop, there
is no snow fight and everything is more colorful than the typical New
Englandish type Christmases we’ve come to expect in these movies. Plus learned
some interesting facts about Santa Fe; It is the second oldest city in the
country, after St. Augustine and it is the state capital with the highest
elevation. To those who say TV doesn’t teach you anything, they just aren’t
watching closely enough. There are pearls of wisdom being dropped left and
right, if only you have the open mind (and eyes and ears) to find them.
So what’s the situation and set up of this movie? Well,
there is the Ortega family, brother Tony runs the business end and sister
Maggie is the artist behind Casa de Milargo, which is a local family owned
Christmas shop. It was their mom’s store, but she recently passed leaving the
pressure of the annual Winter Fest art piece to fall squarely on Maggie’s
shoulders. Their mom was a beloved local artist, her Christmas ornaments are
widely collected and even attracted the attention of the big corporate giant
Warm Wishes. While alive, mom Milargo Ortega resisted the urge to sell to the
corporate behemoth but now that she is gone brother Tony wants to at least hear
out the Warm Wishes proposal which leads us to the other half of the romance,
enter workaholic Belinda Sawyer. Her directive is to make this acquisition, with the spectre of a huge promotion with access to the Warm Wishes Cabo vacation
resort and a hot yoga room dangling in front of her. Bestie/co worker Kevin is
really on Belinda to close this deal so he too can lay out on the beach at
Cabo. Tony is interested in the deal as the store has been relying on the
collections of mother Ortega, and how much longer can that be sustained? Sister
Maggie thinks Warm Wishes is everything their mother disliked; but hasn’t
produced the next Christmas ornament/ decorative piece to get the store moving ahead. The plan is for Maggie to unveil her masterpiece at the Winter Fest, which not
only is meant to save the store but also be a tribute to their mother. With
little to no pressure on Maggie, it is of little wonder the artistic muse is
eluding her, and with only days away the piece is (shocker!) incomplete.
We will pass the time with Tony showing Belinda the delights
of Santa Fe at Christmas. Instead of the snow themed activities, we are treated
to a ham toss. Which is exactly as you
think it is, a ham is tossed and measured and at the end of Winter Fest the
person who tossed the ham the longest will get…a ham. First off let us say what
a loss of an initial ham that is constantly being tossed. Next if this isn’t a
cured ham I presume after a while they must replace the ham being tossed, or
otherwise it will get a little ripe? To which the people tossing the “heavier”
ham have complete grounds for disqualifying the results of this ridiculous
abuse of perfectly good ham. But rest assured both Belinda and I are completely
all in for this, because I predict that by the end of this movie not only will
Belinda have a man? But a ham to boot! So while the ham toss is unique, they
then add in a hot chili eating contest. Are we really expected to believe that
Slater is losing both a ham toss AND a hot chili eating contest to Belinda? Thus the magic of movies people, and the ever present need to willingly suspend
disbelief. And instead of ice skating, they do roller skating, which is really just
an excuse for the cast to show us their dance moves. We do appreciate that this
movie has unique Christmas traditions that at least make it stick out from
other Christmas Movies. And I do have to ask, why Holiday in Santa Fe? Is that
more alterative than Christmas in Santa Fe? Cause the shop is totally
Christmassed out with a singing Cactus Santa's and other tchotchkes.
So the premise set, the characters met. What happens? Tony
and Belinda fall for each other, starting with the non business diner that
included margaritas (boo hiss the movie didn’t take the time to Christmas up
the drink). Turns out though that Tony doesn’t just want a buy out, he wants a
partnership between Casa de Milagro and Warm Wishes. He has the research to
show that making the products locally in Sante Fe will be good for the bottom
line, and then with Maggie on as creative director there is no stopping them!
Well, evil mean boss Mr. Rogers is on Christmas vacation and isn’t taking
Belinda’s calls to change the deal. But Belinda really does believe in Casa de
Milargo, and believes in Maggie who is just in need of some confidence that she
really does have her mother’s gift. The rift happens because Tony thinks
Belinda had no intention of bringing up the new partnership to the big wigs and
so in a flash Belinda loses her man AND potentially her job. But she believes
in Maggie, she believes in Casa de Milagro and convinces Mr. Rogers to come out
to the Winter Fest unveiling. At the big climax, we see the Christmas tree she Maggie
created. Maggie isn’t her mother, but she is true to herself and the piece wows
Belinda…and Mr. Rogers. Who realizes that he isn’t always right, and that a
partnership with Casa de Milargo would be better than just an acquisition that
would cheapen the Milargo name. So family wins again, Belinda done got a
man…and leaves with a ham. And they all lived happily ever after!
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