Food Network Dishes Up a First: A (Real) Family Christmas Movie on discovery+

And there is another first for this movie: It marks the acting debut of Ree Drummond. Food Network's The Pioneer Woman shows up as the owner of the town bakery.

As the title broadcasts, this is a Christmas film. Not surprisingly it adheres to the narrative structure people know and love: Uptight woman visits a charming small town during the Christmas season. In this, Molly (the character's and actor's name) is initially almost a parody of Los Angelinos. She hasn't eaten a carb in ages and is all about image. The character sees herself as self-made because she is head of marketing for a hotel chain -- but daddy is the owner.

She's superficial and snobby in the beginning. As the genre mandates, she travels to a snow-covered picturesque town, Peppermint Hollow. Molly cute-meets a handsome man, a genuinely decent fellow, and some drama unfolds, but nothing that invades your psyche, and all ends well. That's not a spoiler; it's the Christmas movie formula. They're successful for a reason: They work.

While Candy Coated Christmas hits every trope, the delight is the father and daughter duo. "Years ago, I was able to do a handful of episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful," Molly told MediaVillage over a Zoom with her dad. "But I was never on screen with him, never even in the same scene with him. So yeah, it was pretty special, to say the least, because I've spent so much of my life on a set with him and seeing what he does. And he's visited me and seen what I do, but we've never been able to do that together. So, it was a first."

Molly's manager had called her about this movie. When she met with the director and producer, she asked who they were casting as the father. No one had been hired yet, and Molly gently suggested her dad. They had thought of him but figured his soap work would keep him away from a three-week shoot in Utah.

"Look, I would have moved to Utah to do this, if that's what they needed" John said. "It's so lovely that they responded to Molly saying that, and that they were excited about it. I was so grateful, and it was so much fun. It's something that we've always wanted to do."

Reflecting on behind-the-scenes moments, John laughed as he admitted stumbling over their characters' last name -- Gallant.

Shooting a Christmas movie means winter coats and scarves, and it was 100 degrees when they filmed. "It was brutal," Molly said of the layers of wool clothes in the heat. "We had a lot of flies flying around, which was such an interesting thing that I've never had to deal with. We had this scene where I had to walk up to the dinner table holding a plate of pancakes or something. There were flies on them, and it was late at night, and I was delirious. I could not stop laughing, and the camera was on me, and everybody else was looking at me. And they just were laughing, which was completely unfair because I had to keep it together."

Naturally, Molly's character comes to embrace the true meaning of the season. "I love when a character has a long way to go," she explained. "I also really love playing the heart of someone, especially someone who's a little hard to love on the surface. So I love the idea of being this spoiled, self-centered girl who was only that way because that's what she was used to in her life, and then going to a place that was out of her comfort zone and meeting people who are just sweet and live a simpler life than hers.

"There's just such a beautiful arc of the story and such a through-line with her father," she continued. "He also has an arc, and he's the one who advises her to go to her mom's small town and do this. It's almost like he knew how special it would be for her to feel closer to her mom. So, there are a lot of good, warm and fuzzy feelings in this movie. But I think that's the common thread with all of these Christmas movies that everyone loves."

"I was giddy about [doing] this with her," John concluded. "It was so much fun, and it was easy. It wasn't like we were doing scenes where you're tearing your hair out, like what happens on the soap. A lot of times, it wasn't a big dramatic thing. It was just really nice. It was relationship-based."

Candy Coated Christmas streams on discovery+ Friday, November 19.

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