Christmas in Soapland 2012

Since there are only four daytime soap operas on the air, I can condense my Christmas in Soapland to one post this year. Here are my quick summaries of what happened to the denizens of Genoa City, Los Angeles, Port Charles and Salem. Due to what happened in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012 the episodes were pushed back a day, so most soap towns celebrated Christmas Day on Boxing Day instead.


On "The Young & the Restless", we saw both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday US aired episodes (December 25, 26, & 27 2012). Sharon (Sharon Case), Nick (Josh Morrow), Faith and Noah (Robert Adamson) spent Christmas Eve together, and she reads "The Night Before Christmas". Their late daughter Cassie is mention and it is a good day. Billy (Billy Miller) and Victoria (Amelia Henlie) discussed leaving town for the holiday to spend it in Jamaica. Victoria convinces them to stay in town and see her parents on Christmas Day. Jack (Peter Bergman), Phyllis (Michelle Stafford), Adam (Michael Muhney) and Kyle (Blake Hood) are working, and Jack shares how he plans on combining Jabot under the Newman umbrella. Chloe (Elizabeth Hendrickson) and Kevin (Greg Rikkart) get into an argument at Michael (Christian LeBlanc) and Lauren's (Tracy Bregman) home. Kevin and Chloe are fighting over how they will be losing their home if they can't come up with the money. We also see Paul (Doug Davidson) who explains how Christine will be moving back to Genoa City soon.

On Christmas Day, Victor (Eric Braeden) gives Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) plans to the newly redesigned ranch, while Nikki gives him the Bible he thought was lost in the fire. Nikki and Victoria join Billy and Victoria for Christmas. It becomes awkward when Victor attacks Billy when they are left alone for a moment. Earlier Sharon told Adam that he should go see Chelsea (Melissa Claire Egan) as Sharon cannot be with him. Chelsea and Adam get along until she finds out that Sharon pushed him to see Chelsea, though they are able to finally mourn together over his miscarriage. Nick and Avery (Jessica Collins) wake up together, after he spent the evening with his former wife Sharon. Meanwhile Nick's other ex, Phyllis spent some time alone with Jack. They talk about old times, and he gives her a family Christmas heirloom ornament after spending some tense moments with her sister Avery and daughter Summer (Hunter King), Phyllis returns to Jack and they kiss. Summer kisses Fen first on the cheek, but he calls her on it, and she kisses him with vigor. Kevin and Chloe make up over their argument, and she supports him though wishes he would do something legal to be able to pay their bills. Kevin mentions how a cop is looking for Noah, and perhaps if they find the money they will get the reward solving their financial problems. Michael confronts the cop as he is out of his jurisdiction, on his way out of the coffee house, he runs into Jamie who was beaten at the group home. Cane (Daniel Goddard) and Lily (Christel Khalil) spent time with Neil (Kristoff St. John) and they spoke about the twins. Jabot's newest employee Tyler visited with them, which frustrated Cane. Tucker (Stephen Nichols) asks his mother Kay (Jeanne Cooper) to dinner, while wearing a santa hat. Jill (Jess Walton) tries to get them to be civil to one another and shares the news of Kay's health scare with Tucker.

On "The Bold & the Beautiful", the majority of the holiday celebrating was on the December 26, 2012 episode. Eric (John McCook) left his family to be alone on the holiday and goes to a Celtic Woman concert to feel closer to his late wife Stephanie (Susan Flannery). Pam (Ally Mills) is left at the Forrester Mansion to occupy everyone while Eric was out of the house. While outside, Pam saw a bluebird and due to what her sister said, she knew it was a hello from the great beyond. All of Eric's biological children were at the party with their love interests if they have one: Rick (Jacob Young) with his girlfriend Caroline (Linsey Godfrey), Kristen (Tracy Melchoir) with her husband Tony (Paulo Benedeti), Felicia (Leslie Kay) and Thorne (Winsor Harmon). Marcus (Texas Battle) his adopted son from when he was with Donna (Jennifer Gareis) was also there with his new wife Dazyee (Kristolyn Lloyd). Thorne and Felicia convinced Pam to tell them Eric's location by threatening to destroy all of her lemon bars. Taylor, Thomas and Steffy were off screen volunteering in Stephanie's name, while Hope and Liam weren't seen. At Bill (Don Diamont) and Katie's (Heather Tom) home, the two were together with their son Will. Bill told a story to the baby about what a bad businessman Santa was. They had a good holiday together. At the end of the show, everyone who was at the Forrester Mansion joined Eric at the concert. They all listened to the concert and thought about Stephanie. The show ended with a Merry Christmas that must have been pre-taped with Susan Flannery, with a bluebird as Stephanie gave holiday cheer, and then there was a quick shot of cast/crew with a holiday greeting. In that way, this episode seemed very traditional.

On "General Hospital", a group of carolers was in the hospital and the show began and ended with them. Christmas only lasted one day (Thursday, December 26, 2012). We also saw Lucy (Lynn Herring) crash the Q's Christmas as she tried to bargain her way into getting money from them. Lucy, as Alan's former wife, had some say in who would control ELQ as those with Edward's shares were deadlocked. She was in the kind of Christmas outfit only Lucy would choose, and for once it seemed Monica (Leslie Charleson) and Tracy (Jane Elliot) were on the same side as both wanted Lucy gone. AJ (Sean Kanan) wanted to take advantage of the situation to get ELQ as did Tracy. Michael (Chad Duell) spent a short time with his mother Carly (Laura Wright), but spent the bulk of the holiday with Starr (Kristen Alderson). Michael shared what happened to him in prison with Starr and they made love for the first time. Meanwhile AJ and Sonny (Maurice Benard) both believed Michael went to the others' home. Carly ended up hanging out with Todd (Roger Howarth) at the Crimson office, as she was alone as both Josslyn and Morgan were out of town. Connie (Kate Sullivan) crashed Sonny's holiday party, which caused a lot of awkwardness. Ellie (Emily Wilson) was invited as Spinelli's (Bradford Anderson) date, but he left due to an urgent call from Maxie (Kirsten Storms). He brought Maxie to the hospital, as Olivia's (Lisa Locicero) premonition about Maxie having a health problem came true. We only saw Lulu (Julie Marie Berman) and Dante (Dominic Zampronga) reaction to the situation after the holiday. Trey (Erik Valdez) and Kristina (Lindsey Morgan) were there with Alexis (Nancy Grahn), though TJ and Molly were off screen volunteering.

This episode had the long holiday credit crawl, which just made me miss One Life to Live as they used a recording of Kristen Alderson singing from when she was on that program.

On Days of Our Lives, Christmas lasted two episodes: Tuesday December 25 and Wednesday, December 26, 2012. The Horton ornament ceremony brought out a lot of new faces. Gabi (Camila Banus) was the newest person to get an ornament being Nick's (Blake Berris) fiance. Hope (Kristian Alfonso) who was out of town even watched from a computer screen. It was nice seeing Sonny (Freddie Smith) and Will (Chandler Massey) be treated like any other couple as they kissed under the mistletoe. We also got to see Doug (Bill Hayes) and Julie (Susan Seaforth Hayes) as they were finally no longer on a cruise. In the town square, Brady (Eric Martsolf) and Kristen (Eileen Davidson) shared a moment, as she presented her holiday gift to him. He had no idea that she researched the perfect gift. There was always an odd moment when Brady introduced Kristen to Nicole (Ari Zucker). EJ (James Scott) and Nicole spoke and she wanted him to wish his kids Merry Christmas as they are the only kids she'll ever have. Sami (Ali Sweeney) spent time at the Brady Pub with Rafe (Galen Gerring), and he shared how he found the penguin that Sydney wished to get for Christmas. Most of the characters including John (Drake Hogestyn) and Marlena (Deidre Hall) were at Eric's (Greg Vaughn) mass. We also saw the Hortons, plus Kayla (Mary Beth Evans) and Abe (James Reynolds) at the hospital, as Jennifer (Melissa Reeves) read the Christmas story that Tom used to read, little Theo and Kayla's son Joey were also there, while Victor (John Aniston) played Santa. EJ, Kristen and Chad (Casey Dedrick) spoke to Stefano (James Mascolo) on a video conference. Once everyone left, Brady went back to Kristen's bed. Lucas (Bryan Datillo) convinced his mother Kate (Lauren Koslow) and sister Billie (Lisa Rinna) to go with him to the Hortons, and they agreed as Bo and Hope were out of town. Kate was able to talk to her Lucas's dad Bill over the phone. The episode ended with Maggie (Suzanne Rogers) breaking the fourth wall and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

Things I wondered about were that Eric's service was a Catholic Mass and many people at the service weren't Catholic. In many cities they have non-denominational Christmas services with both Protestant pastors and Catholic priests, it is too bad that they didn't go that route with Eric's service. With Maggie's speech I felt like Days was trying too hard and trying to cut down on the criticism how some people who aren't Hortons have Christmas ornaments. Due to the holidays, I haven't been able to see if this was a successful tactic or if it riled up some viewers even further.