Dustin and Belinda
Christmas Scavenger Hunt is a Hallmark Channel Christmas Movie that premiered in 2019. The film stars Kim Shaw as Belinda Phillips, Kevin McGarry as Dustin Cooper, Tom Arnold as Carl Phillips, and Jon Welch as Logan.Years after her ex-boyfriend Dustin cut all contact with her, Belinda has focused on her career in order to deal with heartbreak, and has a promising career in real estate alongside her new lover Logan. In order to secure a promotion, Belinda returns to her hometown for the holidays in order to seal a deal involving the foreclosure of an old textile mill that was converted into a museum, as well as see an old friend who's going to get married soon. However, she gets wrapped up in her town's annual scavenger hunt in the process, and this year, it's raising funds in order to save the museum. And to make matters worse, her randomly-chosen partner just happens to be Dustin, who's now employed at the museum...
Tropes:
- Career Versus Man: Belinda has to choose between her career, or helping to save a town landmark and reconnecting with her old boyfriend. In the end, she sides with the town, to the point that she quits her job and moves back in with her father in the end.
- Delighting in Riddles: All of the scavenger hunt items are presented as easily-solved rhyming riddles rather than just directly asking participants to take a photo of a specific thing.
- Doomed New Clothes: When Logan comes to town to check up on Belinda, he arrives just as she and Dustin are baking sugar cookies as part of a scavenger hunt task, and is asked to take off his suit and pitch in. However, he doesn't take off his silk tie, which ends up splattered with butter.
- Everyone Can See It: Despite most people being aware of Belinda and Dustin's past breakup, they keep pointing out how they make a cute couple as they accomplish the scavenger hunt's tasks.
- Poor Communication Kills: The reason Dustin cut all contact with Belinda and broke her heart turns out to be because his father was ill and he needed to take over the family business, but didn't want to tell Belinda out of fear that she'd give up her other dreams just to stay with him, which led to a lot more emotional pain than he had intended.
- Returning War Vet: One of Dustin's employees has a son that wants nothing more for Christmas than the return of his mom, who's in the military and stationed overseas. Since Dustin's father had done business with a nearby military outpost in the past, he's able to cash in a bunch of favors and have the mom return just in time for the holidays.
- Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Belinda's current boyfriend Logan is business-minded and prefers the city over the country, while ex-boyfriend Dustin gave up higher education in order to support his family's business. In the end, Belinda reignites her passion for hometown values and chooses Dustin over Logan.
- Second Love: In addition to Belinda trying to move on from Dustin by dating Logan, Belinda's father Carl turns out to be dating a restaurant owner a decade after his wife's passing and wasn't sure how to inform Belinda about it.
- Second Place Is for Winners: Belinda and Dustin fail to win the scavenger hunt, but while completing its tasks, they befriended a rich recluse that single-handedly pays to maintain the mill for decades.
- Shout-Out: When Belinda and Dustin bump into Belinda's father Carl with a female restaurant owner, Carl brags about her cooking and says she deserves to be featured on a show he can't quite recall the name of, "Diner... and Dives".
