It's beginning to taste a lot like Christmas...or so Kara Hastings hopes. Her new cookie business is off to a promising start, until a pesky stranger makes her doubt her success beyond the holiday season. Determined not to let him get her down, Kara takes him up on a slightly unrealistic challenge - to win this year's Holiday House contest...with gingerbread! Tripp Peterson is happy to take a break from his private equity firm for a few weeks and kick back in the sleepy town of Briar Creek, but his aunt, the town's innkeeper, has other plans for his stay. Hoping to drive a little more traffic to the inn, she's decided to enter the annual holiday decorating contest, and she thinks her business-minded nephew is just the man who can help. It wasn't exactly what he had in mind for Christmas, but then either was falling in love...with the competition.