Once Upon a Main Street

Beyond their mutual animosity stemming from their less-than-pleasant recent first encounter, it seems like Amelia Lewis and Vic Manning are always competing against each other, most importantly for a commercial property each wants to purchase in White Oak, Nevada for her/his dream store: hers a year-round Christmas store; his a chocolate shop. As each bid has its merits--hers all cash, his above asking--the real-estate agent must consult with the property owner who has the final say. Amelia and Vic separately have the same idea to discover the property owner's identity and make a personal plea directly to him: Elder Dubois, who lives an hour away in Castle Creek. They arrive there unannounced at about the same time to make individual pitches. Elder tells them that he is unable or unwilling to make a snap decision concerning the property. As Elder is all alone for Christmas for the first time since his wife recently passed and he's long been estranged from his young-adult daughter Marjorie, Amelia and Vic offer to help him with anything until he makes up his mind; he suggests that they chair Castle Creek Commercial Center's annual Christmas decorating competition. He and his wife always enjoyed doing that, but this year he hasn't the spirit without her. The competition, which is a bragging-rights-only one against the nearby town of Crystal, always seems to end up being a competition between Castle Creek's own merchants, which is probably the reason Crystal has won five years straight. The few things the Castle Creek merchants can agree on are the same Winter Wonderland theme year after year for ease, and featuring one merchant each year on a rotating basis. This year it's the pottery shop owned by the most outspoken and demanding of the bunch, Rowena Marson. In turn, Elder invites them to stay in his home rather than spending money on hotel rooms. In working on the decorating competition together, they must bring the merchants together as a cohesive whole--which means cooperating themselves. In the process, Amelia and Vic start to fall for each other. Could their emerging feelings be able to overcome their suspicions about each other concerning the property and the kind acts toward Elder, which could be seen solely as wanting that upper hand?—Huggo