I have to admit that I started to watch this crapfest during the first week of May this year. I couldn't STAND it. Who would say that a week before Christmas is a HOLIDAY? Yes, folks, a voice emanating from a radio said that it was a beautiful HOLIDAY morning. Moments later it is revealed that it's a week before Christmas. This writer by name of Alison Sweeney must be brain damaged.OK, I'm going to put a season 9 DVD from MARRIED WITH CHILDREN to scrape the sugar off my brain.If you think for a moment that this is Holiday Fare, fuggedabowddit. "IT'S A BUNDYFUL CHRISTMAS" is far better.

One of the problems with most of these amateur detective series is that they always make it seem like the police are doing practically nothing. Actually this series is better than most in that regard. Mike is often ahead of Hannah. But sometimes not.In this episode (if you will), Hannah discovers what appears to be a key clue which Mike acknowledges is helpful. If that's true, Mike is a poor detective. One of the first things modern detectives do is canvas for that particular clue.Other than that, this is still a decent story. There is some romance too, in the form of a potential love triangle. The characters are appealing, especially Alison Sweeney as Hannah. While none of these actors will win an Oscar or Emmy, the acting is good enough to enjoy the story.

I re-watched the whole episode, and the killer only was featured for less than 1 minute at the 31-minute mark, and for another 30 seconds at the 59-minute mark. No one can solve this mystery, because the killer was such a peripheral unimportant character. Sorry, but awful writing. This makes me not to continue watching the series. Doesn't hold a candle to the Garage Sale Mystery series.

I enjoy Joanne Fluke's cozy mysteries including the Hannah Swensen novels set in Lake Eden, Minnesota. Now I suspect The Hallmark Channel cranks out TV films on the cheap and definitely by the barrel full; but if you are filming a movie set in a Minnesota winter, the set shouldn't look like summer in California.As for the story, a couple has opened up a Christmas tree shop, and Hannah supplies cookies to their site, The Crazy Elf. As Hannah drops off some cookies she notices that the owner, Larry Jaeger, seems to get involved in a fight. Then Courtney Miller, Larry's partner is observed getting upset when the bookkeeper drops off the results of an audit. Hannah stops by the tree lot at night to pick up a check and discovers Larry's dead body on the floor with his hand clutching an envelop with Hannah's name on it. And there is a complicating revelation: local radio personality Dr. Love is actually Larry's wife; and he had disappeared on her and thus she was never able to serve him with divorce papers.So Hannah is on the case going from place to place with cookies in hand to "bribe" people into giving her privileged information. And of course Hannah is romantically torn between the town dentist, Norman Rhodes, and detective Mike Kingston. And while both "boyfriends" would prefer she stop looking for murderers, there's not a chance she will. So you need a clue: things aren't always black and white.For the romantics: Norman gets a peck but Mike gets a KISS.