And this is a Deck the Hallmark podcast synopsis!

"Navigating Christmas" originally aired November 17th, 2023. And it went a little something like this...

Melanie is at a company Christmas party, rockin a sparkly AF dress, complaining about her ex-husband.

Her son Jason is supposed to go with his dad Max on a Christmas ski trip but bails. Jason, who was already a grumpy goose is even more grump now and just really takes it out on his mom. He's like, “all you ever do is boring work stuff - this Christmas is gonna suck.”

To prove she's not boring, she books a trip to a lighthouse. THAT'LL SHOW HIM!

It is on St. Nicolas Island which sounds festive. She hops on a boat and immediately gets seasick. A guy named Peter comes up and tries to help her. Peter looks unbelievable. I'm not entirely convinced he didn't just walk out of a Marvel movie.

They finally get to the Lighthouse and it doesn't looks as magical and Christmassy as the pictures made it look. Plus, there's a book that instructs them to decorate for Christmas.

She tries to call the owner but no service. So the guy who drove them takes her to where the owner would normally be at this hour - a restaurant called Roost. Turns out the owner is Peter! HE makes it clear – “you're the lighthouse keeper. I hate Christmas but we need to decorate it for the Christmas festival.” Jason is P'd all the way O'd and to make matters worse, his mom finds the paper he is gonna plagiarize.

After overhearing that Melanie is having a hard time, Peter comes over to help decorate and we get a decorating montage!

Jason takes a liking to this girl, Sarah with the cool hair, and they immediately start hanging out together constantly including winning the Christmas party competitions.

Peter then helps Jason with his essay and talk about how their dad's both suck. Jason and Sarah go out on a boat at night by themselves and snuggle under a blanket and watch fireworks - you know, as high schoolers do.

We find out that Peter is behind on his property taxes and that's unfortunate. Melanie tells Peter the REAL reason that Jason’s dad canceled is cuz his dad is starting a new family, complete with baby. Peter and Melanie then dance at the barn dance. He goes to drop her off and almost kiss, walk away, then she pulls him back and they 💋kiss💋!!! Jason watches all this transpire and gets a little grumpy about it.

Sarah comes over for dinner and so does Peter so I guess it's a double date and I hate it.

IT's time for the Christmas lights to turn on and Jason is happier than a 9 year old who somehow has never seen Christmas lights before. But then a guy comes up and asks Melanie if he's Peter's wife and tells her he's excited to buy the lighthouse.

Melanie gets mad at Peter and is like, “you used us to decorate to help your sale.” She tells him that his dad would be disappointed. He tells her that she's a bad mom for not telling Jason the truth about his dad. Jason hears this and decides life isn't worth living so he steal's Sarah's boat and goes out into the middle of the water to freeze to death.

The town looks for him and Peter spots him after he goes to the top of the lighthouse. Melanie decides she wants to buy the lighthouse and they can run it together I guess and they kiss at the top of the lighthouse.

Peter then give Melanie a lighthouse snow globe which seems like a lot of snow globes for one year.

And that my friends was “Navigating Christmas!"