A Christmas in Tennessee

Cutting short her French pastry training, divorced Allison Brentley and her adolescent daughter Olivia Brentley moved back to Allison's hometown of White Pines, Tennessee - nestled in the Smoky Mountains - when her father fell ill, and upon his subsequent death, Allison took over running the struggling family business, Rocky Top Bakery, working alongside her mother, Martha. Feeling like her ex-husband not only abandoned her but more importantly Olivia, Allison has sworn off dating not wanting ever to put Olivia in that position again. Overhearing her mother talk about the bakery's struggles, Olivia, as her Christmas wish from Santa, asks for more people to come to the bakery to buy what she considers the world's best cookies so that her mother won't have to worry about money. Olivia may have gotten part of her wish when a kindly, motherly woman and subsequently her husband come into the shop and loving the cookies ultimately place an extremely large order for a Christmas party, Olivia in turn truly believing the pair to be Santa and Mrs. Claus. Allison's financial worries may also be solved when Matthew Gilbert and his assistant Rebecca Rowe come to town. Matthew and Allison's immediate attraction to each other is dampened on Allison's side when she learns the reason for they being in town: representing a real estate developer, they want to buy up much of the town center, including the town square and the bakery, to develop the town into a world class ski resort. The more Matthew tries to break through to seal the deal against Allison's adamant refusal in wanting to retain the town as she knows it, his job on the line if he fails, the more Allison can see underneath the business veneer a man with small town values like her own. As Allison comes closer and closer to taking a chance on love again, an Allison/Matthew happy ending is threatened by the business aspect, especially as behind the scenes Rebecca will do anything to prove her place to the company president, Jeff Mulligan.—Huggo