On to the next episode, Strawberry Shortcake Berry Merry Christmas!
It opens in winter with Strawberry finishing trimming the Christmas Tree. Apple Dumpling wants a new red wagon as the other one fell in the fudge river from the previous escapade. She shows off pictures of her friends, Angel Cake, Orange Blossom, Ginger Snap and Huckleberry Pie, and gives us a refresher to each character's personality and what they do. She says she'll have a hard time finding gifts for them, as well as her pets Custard and Pupcake. Oh, and Pupcake nearly knocks over the Christmas Tree. Time for a song!
She sings about what she wants to get for her friends, and after the song ends, Custard points out her hitting the high notes tends to put strain on her ears. Custard notices Strawberry's shopping list on the bottom of the ground, but Pupcake bumps into a stool and a blanket falls on his face, causing him to run around blindly and accidentally tear up the shopping list. Whoops! Sighing, she throws away the list and picks up the cloth, saying she could shop without a list and sew the blanket back together.
Custard decides to make it easier for Strawberry by saying she wants nothing, and Strawberry hopes that she'll change her mind. Custard just wants to sleep to New Year's Day and hopes to take hibernating lessons from bears. Honey Pie Pony drops by and tells her she's an expert in hibernating thanks to her travels. Custard knows she can't do this as she's a pony, and Honey Pie proceeds to talk about her adventures, boring Custard within 3 seconds of telling them while she tries to go to sleep. Honey does catch Custard's attention for a moment by telling her about the Cats from Cat-Man-Do, but Custard gets frustrated that she has no clue what the heck she's talking about. So Honey Pie tells Custard to close her eyes, take a deep breath, and think beautiful thoughts, though in Custard's case, "Any old ugly thought will do." Ah, Custard, you loveable cynic... Pupcake tries to wake her up, but no success. Also, Honey Pie almost hypnotized herself to sleep.
Strawberry still spends hours trying to come up with gifts for her friends, but nothing's even coming up, especially for Huck. All of a sudden, her friends come by with gifts and to help her trim the tree.
The first gift is from Ginger Snap, who naturally brings cookies, but she's not happy with the regular circle shape as she's misplaced her cookie cutters. Orange Blossom brings some Sugar Plum Cider, but she used plums instead of apples as she couldn't find any. Angel Cake brings some, well, Angel Cake (The actual dessert), saying it's her personal favorite. Gee, I wonder why...
Strawberry tells everyone that they came early and never got a chance to do her Christmas shopping, so she leaves with Honey Pie Pony to do just that and tells everyone to go make themselves at home. Honey Pie says she knows a perfect place to do some shopping and heads for Holiday land. When they arrive, they naturally sing about the town, which basically seems to be always Christmas there.
The first store they stop is in is Sugar Plumdales, where the Sugar Plum fairy offers her some plums and asks how she can help. Strawberry pulls out a pic of Orange Blossom and wants to know what gifts she can give her. The fairy presses her for more info on Orange, but Honey wants to know why. The fairy tells her that if they know more about her, it'll be easier to find an ideal gift for her. Honey immediately decides on saddles for Orange, except she has no horse of own and is a human. Getting back to matter hand, Strawberry tells her that Orange loves gardening, making Sugar Plum cider, and all kinds of fruit. The fairy hands her a small plum tree in exchange for some strawberries as they're out of season in this town. After making the trade, they go to Candy Cane Mart while the fairy stuffs her face with the berries she just got.
They decide to get a gift for Ginger Snap, and Honey Pie yet again insists on a saddle. Strawberry rightfully says that's more of a perfect gift for you. Actually, there were some in the previous store she was in, I don't know why she didn't just buy one then and there...
Anyway, they point out how there's nothing but Candy Canes here. Oh no, really? Eventually they hear someone screaming for help and find the source of the voice - a small elf named Candy Candy Clerk who climbs out of candy cane pile. Yes, he has too much candy in his name, he even points this out to them. Anyway He tells them that someone flipped a switch on the Amazing Candy Cane Machine causing the store to overflow with candy canes. Strawberry says that reminds her of Ginger Snap's Amazing Cookie Machine and he vows to give her a perfect gift if they help him out.
They step inside and the room is overflowing with candy canes left and right. Getting an idea, Strawberry asks for help from the other elves and they hop onto Honey Pie pony's back. She then stands on top of the elves, somehow not squishing them in the process, and notices the switch is stuck on high. Yeah, it's one of those problems, though the elves are freaking small and probably got thrown by accident they were trying to turn it on, so I'll let it slide. They turn it down to medium, which doesn't really help at all, then turns it to low, solving the problem. In turn, Candy gives Strawberry cookie cutters for Ginger Snap, and a red wagon full of candy canes. The best part is that she doesn't need to trade any strawberries.
Honey Pie Pony is worried that Strawberry might not get any gifts for herself, but Strawberry says she like giving gifts to her friends as opposed to receiving them, because Good Feels Good. Next up, Holly Woods, where they plan to get something for Angel Cake. Honey Pie is still focused on saddles, sadly, and says she can be half girl and half pony, as she seen these types of ponies on her travels. Honey Pie does tend to exaggerate things, but given what we've seen so far, centaurs might not be far off. Or maybe they are...
Anyway, they hear voices like last time, which turns out of be the angels on top of the trees. Well, just one angel, because that's all I see. And Strawberry just remembers that she needs to get Custard a present in the hopes of changing her mind about presents. The angel suggests a sleeping willow, but Strawberry says that'll make Custard sleep even more. She then suggests an alarm tree, but Strawberry says Custard hates it when someone wakes her up. The angel is having a hard time until Strawberrt informs her that Custard is a cat, so the angel says she'll need a cat tree to scratch on. They go through several animal-shaped trees (Which seem to have really clever gardeners working on them, apparently) until they find a cat tree which is, well Shaped Like A Cat Tree. The angel also gives Strawberry an angel ornament for Angel Cake. And Honey Pie is still suggesting a saddle for Custard. My goodness...
Speaking of Custard, she still hasn't woken up from her nap and Pupcake is still trying to wake her up. Meanwhile, Strawberry's friends are full from Ginger's cookies. Oh, and there's also a snowstorm and her friends are getting worried about her. In other words, nothing special happening here, so let's go back to Holiday Town!
Honey Pie still won't shut up about saddles, and Strawberry says that giving a dog a saddle would be as a ridiculous as Pupcake giving her a bone for Christmas, to which Honey says that would be pretty silly. Good. Could we please stop with the damn saddles now? They're currently in a town called Carol Lane, and it's nighttime. Some carolers walking up to Strawberry and she then the idea to get a collar with bells for Pupcake. Howeverm Honey Pie is a forgetful ditz and can't remember where the store that sells them are. That is, until they find a building shaped like a bell.
Carol Carol runs the place, and... wait, are these people nutcracker dolls or something? Anyway they're looking for a bell and Honey Pie asks if there are any saddles or horse accessories with bells. However, there's none in sight, but suggests a big elephant bell for her. Honey Pie passes, and Strawberry finds a collar with bells for Pupcake and trades some strawberries for it.
They still haven't got anything for Huckleberry Pie, and Strawberry gets really worried about this. At the risk of promoting Ship Tease, I say really wants to save he best for last. Are you sure he can't be her boyfriend? Then again, Huck seems to be well liked by the girls... Anyway, they proceed to Holiday Town's northern outskirts, though Honey Pie warns her the trip is dangerous because it's near the north pole and there's slippery ice everywhere which means you could possibly fall into a bottomless pit. Honey then tells the story about a purple-tailed reindeer named Ralph who slipped onto some ice, fell into a crevasse, and was never heard from again. Strawberry decides to chance it and pull through for Huck. Atta girl! Honey Pie warns her that those who go there seldom return, though she confuses it with the outskirts of New Mexico.
It's official. Honey Pie Pony is a Cloudcuckoolander. I love it! =D
They try their hardest to get through the storm, but the weather is getting windier and colder by the second. In fact, a strong wind blows Strawberry off of her feet at one point. They feel they'll never make it in time until a cloud of magical dust transports them away to a house. When they wake up, they're in Santa's workshop. And we find the magical presence that saved them there. None other than the big guy himself, Santa Claus. Time for a song about she's excited to meet Santa Claus!
After the song ends, she starts crying because she feels guilty for not getting Huck anything for Christmas, but Santa assures her that she'll find one for him. In the meanwhile, he asks Strawberry what she wants for Christmas, but she seems more interested in giving Huck a gift that get one for herself. Honey Pie meanwhile sits near him and starts asking him for horse-related items like saddles, reins, hay, and carrots. Strawberry decides to leave and Santa does as well, as it's almost Christmas Eve. Strawberry does tell him that meeting him for Christmas was the best Christmas gift ever and she gives him a big hug and leaves.
On the way back, they wonder if they'll make it in time for Christmas and get a present for Huckleberry Pie. They see some elves having a snowball fight, giving strawberry an idea. She decides to make a huge pile of snowballs for Huckleberry Pie. Er... that doesn't look like a good idea, Strawberry. Anyway, they head back home and arrive at nightfall. Strawberry notices that the snowballs melted during the trip back and the gifts are now wet, much to her sorrow. She cries, but it's a more appropriate time for it, at least. Still, snowballs? She has snow at home, just use that instead!
Back at home, she tells everyone about her trip and that while she did get them gifts, but they got wet an apologies to everyone, but they forgive her and tells her that all that matters is that they're together and it's time for a heartwarming song about friendship. I'd pull the sappy card, but it's a Christmas special so I'm giving it a pass. After that song, Orange Blossom tells her to stop joking about the presents getting wet. Strawberry says she's not until Orange finds the presents under the tree. It was basically the gifts Strawberry got in Holiday Town for her friends.
Custard, upon hearing Pupcake's bell finally wakes up and sees the cat tree Strawberry got her. Custard changes her mind about presents and says this was worth waking up for, which means her cynicism is shattered yet again. Also Pupcake gives Honey Pie Pony a bone. Wow, I was not expecting a Brick Joke here. Strawberry tells her you need to think about others when giving gifts. Speaking of which, Strawberry gives Honey a new saddle. Maybe that'll shut her up now. Oh, and Strawberry gets a gift of her own. Remember that blanket that Pupcake accidentally tore to shreds? It's a new blanket with her friends on it. And after that journey, she decides to sleep with it, but not before looking out the window and learning Santa was responsible for saving her hide.
And so far, this is already looking good. I can see what I was clearly missing out on. This took a little longer than normal, though, but it was worth it. As for as if this is something you'd watch for Christmas, it's one of the better Christmas movies, with the only boneheaded thing being the gift for Huckleberry Pie (Snowballs? Really?). But all in all, it's still pretty good.
I'll update with the next episode tomorrow.
