Homer rents out the Simpsons home through Airbnb. Mary Tannenbaum (Ellie Kemper), a producer for the Heartmark Channel, comes to Springfield to smooth out some problems in the filming of a Christmas movie in the middle of summer.
Mary's staying in Bart's room, "the Bartholomew Suite." Bart, annoyed, will go stay in his treehouse, except Homer has rented that out to the movie's sound guy.
Mary has gotten the movie back on track, with help from Seymour Skinner (Harry Shearer), the elementary school principal who works as a carpenter during the summer. Seymour makes several gazebos. Mary and Seymour fall in love.
Bart, annoyed by having to sleep in the same bed as Lisa and Maggie, resolves to sabotage the Christmas movie. Bart pushes the dial on the fake snow blaster to the highest setting, trapping Mary and Seymour in a gazebo, where they huddle together "for coolness."
Once they're able to get out of the gazebo, Bart shows the townspeople footage from Lisa's behind-the-scenes documentary in which Mary characterizes the people of Springfield as backwards bumpkins. It now looks like Mary has ruined the Christmas movie she was supposed to save.
In a heart-to-heart conversation with Marge, Mary reveals the tragic reason she hates Christmas. Lisa helps get the movie completed after all. Mary's surgeon fiancé shows up and forces Mary to choose between him and Seymour. Mary chooses Seymour, but Seymour says that's the wrong choice. Mary goes back to the big city with her fiancé.
This episode provides examples of:
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Mary keeps having negative encounters with Skinner that highlight their growing attraction.
- Brick Joke: It's established early in the episode that Heartmark's target audience is made of women not under 18. When the Simpsons watch the movie in the end, the only one to like it is Marge, who fits the description.
- City Mouse: Mary and the big-city film crew in small-town Springfield. Most clearly seen when the diner crowd laughs at her Overcomplicated Menu Order.
- Crush Filter: Mary first falls for Skinner when she sees him pouring water on himself to keep cool... and imagines romantic music playing as he half-unbuttons his shirt and suddenly gains a six-pack.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The titles of Hallmark Christmas movies are spoofed in both the title of the episode and In-Universe with the film being made, A Christmas Ornament for Christmas. At the end Marge, the only family member who enjoyed the movie, happily sits back for another film, A Christmas Stocking for Christmas.
- Dramatic Drop: When Marge finds out that Mary's father (in his last few seconds of life) can be seen in the trailer for Jingle All the Way, she drops her wine glass in shock.
- Episode Title Card: One of the few episodes to have one. It appears in the style of a Christmas movie as the film crew arrives in Springfield.
- Fanservice: Seymour's Sexy Soaked Shirt. His abs has been exposed after pouring himself with water to cool down while half-button his shirt.
- Fictional Holiday: Springfield's Lettuce and Tomato Festival, which celebrates, according to Skinner, "two oft-eaten but seldom celebrated workhorses of barbecue season".
- Filling the Silence: Unlike most episodes of the show, almost every moment of this episode has music playing, regardless of whether or not there’s dialogue.
- Freudian Excuse: Mary's dislike of Christmas movies comes from her father being an extra on Jingle All the Way and dying during the shooting of a Retail Riot scene.
- Guest Star: Ellie Kemper as Mary Tannenbaum, Chris Parnell as Mary's husband, and Richard Kind as the movie director.
- A Hallmark Presentation: Parodies this.
- Hypocritical Humor: Homer decides to profit off the movie by making fake snow out of anything white he can get his hands on and sell it to the production crew. When he actually sees the movie, he complains about how fake the snow looks.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In a very Played for Laughs example, Skinner, who is seemingly attracted to Mary, is nonetheless downright irritated when she tries to dump her high-earning professional fiancé for him and harshly tells her off.
- Jaded Professional: The director couldn't care less about the movie he's making, as it's just like all the others he's done for Heartmark.
- Love Triangle: Mary, Skinner, and Mary's surgeon boyfriend. She stays with her boyfriend because Skinner begs her to.
- Movie-Making Mess: Mary is specifically sent to Springfield because of problems with the movie being made there. It gets worse when Bart, sick and tired of the crew staying at his house, turns the snow machine full blast and wrecks the set.
- No Name Given: Mary's surgeon fiancé, consistently referred to as such even by the caller ID on her phone, as well as the movie's director.
- No OSHA Compliance: When the crew run out of fake snow, Homer grabs anything white he can shred up to look like snow, including bags of asbestos. This factors into how Skinner and Mary get Snowed-In, as Skinner's attempt to punch his way out by hand leaves welts and scratch marks on his arm.
- Only One Finds It Fun: Marge is the only one in the family who enjoys Heartmark's Christmas movies. When the rest of the family complains, she shoos them out of the TV room so she can enjoy them in peace.
- Plot Allergy: Skinner turns out to be allergic to... whatever's in the fake snow, which doesn't help matters when he and Mary get stuck in a huge pile of it.
- Quirky Town: Springfield has always been this trope, but the residents really play up their quirkiness to charm Mary and the crew.
- Romantic False Lead: Mary's fiancé is set up as one, as she develops feelings for Skinner. Defied when Skinner shoots down the idea, saying that of course she should stay with her handsome doctor boyfriend. A line from said boyfriend implies this is a regular pattern for Mary.
- Snowed-In: Mary and Skinner get fake-snowed inside the gazebo. Skinner tunnels out with a shoehorn and pulls her out after him.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: Bart presumably utters some profanity when Homer tells him that his treehouse has been rented out to the movie's sound effects guy. We don't know what Bart says because some random sound effects from the treehouse cover up Bart's words.
- Strictly Formula: About a third of the episode is commenting on the standard Christmas movie story structure as a form of Conversational Troping with a bit of Genre Blindness since this episode is also structured like a Christmas movie.
- Take That!: Many to Hallmark Channel's Christmas movies:
- The director repeatedly mentions how all their movies use Recycled Plots.
- The film's two lead actors keep accidentally using the character names from the last Christmas movie they were in. Mary tells the director they can just re-dub the real names afterwards.
- Impressed with her work, the director tells Mary that the movie "just might be good enough to fold laundry to".
- When Lisa points out the inaccuracy of having summer produce and people wearing shorts in a Christmas movie, the director tells her that "so long as the attractive white people make with the closed-mouth smooches, nobody's complaining".
- After the town rebuilds the movie's set, the director exclaims, "We're gonna be able to finish this piece of crap after all!"
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Homer rents out parts of the house, including his own bedroom and Bart's treehouse, for the film crew to stay in. Bart is furious at the number of unwanted guests occupying every corner of the house, and his confinement to Lisa's room.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: It's apparently an American town that can pass off as a small Canadian town passing itself off as a small American town.
