December 8, 2023 
NEW YORK, NY—Promising to be one of the Hallmark’s most anticipated releases of the season, “A Blacksmith for Christmas” is sure to be an instant holiday classic among middle-aged moms hiding out from their children everywhere.
Starring Vanessa Veda (the “Who Dat?” franchise, “The D-List”), and Scott Peggy (“Punch-able Chin”), the film will premiere the week before Christmas as part of the network’s annual Countdown to Christmas lineup.
Callie (Veda), a former horse-obsessed junior rider from a wealthy family, is still traumatized by the last ride of her Big Eq career, where she chocolate-chipped into the in-and-out at a major final, popping off her champion Warmblood and ripping the seat of her Tailored Sportsmans. For the next decade, Callie is forced to relive her long, mortifying walk back to the in-gate, and vows never to go near another horse again.
That is, until Callie—now a successful appraiser for an esteemed New York auction house—is sent by her boss to visit the town of Tinsel, North Dakota just days before Christmas. There, she is asked to evaluate a treasure trove of artifacts that may have belonged to the Lewis and Clark expedition. Unfortunately for Callie, the only way to reach them is a horseback trek into the North Dakota backcountry, where she’ll be guided by the local blacksmith, Ben—a hard-dipping, Bud Coors Light-drinking, former rodeo star with no love lost for East Coast Uptown girls or antiques.
Appalled by Callie’s designer wardrobe and metropolitan pretensions (A hair brush in her saddle bag? The greenhorn!) the two instantly clash, while Callie ribs Ben for his dirty nails, constant mumble-talking, and “walking away” from his rodeo dreams (What a wimp!).
Little does Callie know that Ben, through no fault of his own, was actually pinned under a deranged bronco when a rodeo clown failed to do his job and spend three weeks in traction. But things begin to change after Callie’s horse comes up lame and the pair is forced to hunker down in an abandoned miner’s cabin with a winter storm fast approaching.
Soon, Callie begins to see a different side of Ben after he reveals the truth of his rodeo past and then strips down to his muscliest man T-shirt to repair her horse’s shoe over an open campfire. It isn’t long before the former nemeses begin to bond over their shared love of Etsy and the Aquaman movie franchise, and the unexpected life events that made them give up their respective passions for horse sport.
Will Callie and Ben make it through the storm and back to Tinsel in time for Christmas without killing one another? Or maybe—just maybe—will this country blacksmith and big-city appraiser discover that they have more in common than they think? Find out this month on the Hallmark Channel!
Check your local listings. Or don’t! (Really don’t.)
More satire from Nina Fedrizzi
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