- I wanna give Merle, a wonderful Christmas surprise.
May have been a little stressed, I won't lie.
We have a few hours to get this place ready.
(suspenseful upbeat music)
- Aww.
- [Aria] Did You like it?
- [Merle] Yes, I liked it,
are you kidding me I've been sobbing uncontrollably.
(funky upbeat music)
- Happy holidays, everyone I'm Aria.
And if you don't know me,
the one thing you should know
is that I do love the holidays.
I do love giving gifts
and this year I wanna give something really special
to my girlfriend, Merle.
Who, I've been dating now for a little over a year.
Honestly, Merle had a little bit
of a rough time as of late.
Obviously we're all going through the stresses
of the pandemic, but in her case in particular
she's had a bit of a,
not so fun time,
particularly with her apartment.
Long story short
Merle went back home
to spend some time with her mom
and the person that she'd left
in charge of her apartment
turned out to be a complete animal.
Who let in roach infestation fester.
Among other terrible things
including potentially animal abuse
but whatever.
Terrible stuff,
terrible guy,
terrible situation for Merle.
And hopefully I can make things a little bit better
by giving her a wonderful Christmas surprise.
Okay, so surprises.
What are we gonna do for Merle?
I think one of the first things that comes to mind for me
is I wanna give Merle
a perfect apartment Christmas makeover.
Because obviously with the roach infestation the apartment
it hasn't been the most fun place to live.
So I think brightening it up with some holiday decorations
that would be perfect and very holiday miracle.
I wanted to fuse the place with a holiday spirit.
So maybe I can
maybe hire a Santa Claus off of Craigslist.
Although I don't know if it's really COVID safe
for her to sit on Santa's knees.
Nor do I really
want her to be sitting on the knee of some strange old man.
Ooh, maybe we hire some carolers
for safer like a social distance caroling session.
Agh See, okay, it's coming.
It's coming.
We should have a meal that night.
Then we get one of Merle's favorite dishes.
Annoyingly I think one of Merle favorite dishes
is from a place in New York.
Maybe I can write them.
Maybe they could ship a dish over.
Ah, is it safe to ship food across the country?
It is right.
We'll find out.
All these surprises aside,
I think honestly something
that would be very heartwarming
and special as if Merle got like holiday messages
from people like from viewers.
So what I'm going to do
is I'm going to go
into my Instagram settings and hide Merle
from being able to see my stories
and then post an Instagram story,
asking for people to send in video messages
for Merle for the holidays.
And hopefully it will be pretty heartwarming.
Hey everyone.
So I'm planning a huge holiday surprise for Merle
and I'd love to have your help with it, If possible.
She can't see this story.
I hid her from it.
Basically, if you could send
in holiday video messages for Merle.
I'll compile them together,
edit it and show it to her.
And hopefully, she'll love it.
Basically all these surprises need to take place over
the course of one day.
However, parts of them do involve needing Merle out
of her apartment, which
a little tricky considering
you know, we're in a time where we're expected
to stay indoors.
So, I think what am gonna do is I'm gonna call one
of Merle's best friends, Rachel Gaewski.
Who is another producer at Buzzfeed as well.
And maybe know she can get Merle out of the house
for something vegan.
Rachel Gaewski.
She's single gentlemen.
Oh, Rachel, hi.
I need your help.
Pulling off a Christmas miracle.
A Christmas surprise for Merle.
- Oh my gosh.
Yes, and it involves you needing to get her out
of her apartment, next Monday, if possible.
I need her out of her apartment.
So if you could, I don't know,
just plan something.
What do you guys normally do?
Out of the department in these times?
- I could um...
I could call her
And I'll just be like,
"Hey, do you wanna work
from my apartment today?"
And we can put a little, "Love Islands"
on in the background.
- Oh, that's what will get her.
The "Love Island" is what is girl real needs.
- I've started watching "Love Island"
because of you guys.
- Ah, we love it.
It's a real treat of a show, Chris and Kim.
Okay, great.
So yeah.
Invite her over, do a little work session.
And then just at the end of the day
we'll just get her back to hers.
And the Christmas miracle will have been
will be ready for her.
- Ooh this is so romantic.
A it's a real treat, Rachel.
Do you wanna say anything
to the tinny gentlemen suitors out there
that may be watching?
- Oh, gentlemen suitors.
I'm looking for a suitor.
A Christmas miracle for Rachel Gaewski
ladies and Gentlemen.
- It would be a Christmas miracle
if I found a man on a dating app.
- The irons are in the fire right now,
I think let's get the ball rolling.
(sinister upbeat music)
You know what?
Since this probably is the best time of year
to try and make wishes and dreams come true.
I'm gonna reach out to one of Merle's favorite actresses.
if not her favorite actress, Sherilyn Fenn
who played Audrey
and her favorite show, "Twin Peaks"
to see if maybe she'll record Merle,
a holiday message as well.
It's a crazy long shot.
I don't even know how to reach out to her.
So I'm gonna try Twitter
and we'll see how that goes.
(suspenseful upbeat music)
Okay, So the day
of the big surprise is now here.
I'm a little stressed.
Merle is out of her apartment.
I believe Rachel texted me.
Rachel picked her up
and they're doing their work from home day.
Socially distance thing together.
And so I think that's going to give me
at least a few hours to do the transformation
of the main part of her apartment.
And then hopefully the other surprise is kind
of just like fall into place after that.
However, I'm very excited about all of the surprises
and the fact that my good buddy Jack is coming
to help document this whole thing.
I see a criminal over there.
I see...
Look at this festive, festive criminal.
- Air hug.
- [Aria] Thanks so much for coming for this man.
- Thanks for having me dude.
What are we up to here, man?
What are we doing?
Merle is out of her apartment right now.
And so basically we need to transform the entire place
into like a festive winter Wonderland
before she gets back just a few hours.
So that's a little stressful,
but I want it to look good.
I want it to look as over the top
and as Christmas-y as possible
luckily we do actually have a guy coming.
A guy called Dr. Christmas.
I don't think that's his legal name.
He's coming by with a crew to do like a,
a safe Christmas transformation.
It's like I said, they do it for a living.
So hopefully him and his crew
can make that transformation happen
in the short amount of time.
First things first let's just go into Merle's place.
Check it out,
and make sure everything is looking good.
That she's somehow not secretly still here or something.
- [Jack] What if she's still home?
- I don't know man.
Since Rachel said she's with her.
(keys jingling)
(buzzer beeping)
There we go.
(keys jingling)
Okay.
(keys jingling)
Merle.
She's not here.
The kitty is here though.
Hi Genevieve.
Oh, she's resting this up.
So this is her space.
Right now It's 11:30.
So Merle probably will be working with Rachel
at least hopefully till the end of the Workday.
Maybe sooner Dr. Pranga is coming shortly.
- [Jack] Doctor of what?
- Dr. Christmas.
He can do it in the afternoon, right?
- [Jack] Yeah, bro.
He's Dr.Christmas.
(suspenseful music)
- Do you want me walking into the scene
is that what you want?
- No you get in the car.
I'll come up to you.
Just kind of how we greeted each other earlier.
Hello, Dr. Bob.
- Aria.
- We're excited for this magical transformation
you've got planned.
I hear you've worked many, a porn set before.
(Dr.Christmas chuckling)
- Well, I haven't worked a porn set
I've decorated one.
(Dr.Christmas chuckling)
- [Bob] Hi everybody,
I'm Bob pranga.
I'm Dr. Christmas.
Basically, I bring Christmas to your front door.
- [Aria] Wow.
It's fantastic.
You can hide a body back here.
- How do you know we don't?
Today, We're going to be helping my buddy Aria out
in romancing a little bit more of his girlfriend Merle.
Apparently she doesn't know that Christmas
all of a sudden is going to be dumped in her living room.
(Dr.Christmas chuckling)
The things that guys won't do to keep their ladies,
I'm telling you.
(sinister music)
Because it is a modest sized department.
We're gonna try to give you
as much bang as we can in here.
We're gonna go in there and doll up the place.
Probably a little bit over the top
because I think he really wants her to be overwhelmed.
So I brought all kinds of things.
Ranging from nostalgic Christmas
to over the top glitter.
And hopefully she will like it.
- [Aria] You exited for this transformation?
- Yeah.
- [Bob] Good job.
Big yeah.
- [Aria] Yeah, big yeah.
- [Aria] Is this your world, Dr. Christmas?
- Is this my world?
- [Aria] Is this your world?
- Oh no.
I very seldom ever show up.
- Up till, I can feel like Merle might just show up
out of the blue.
So let's come and give her a quick call.
(phone ringing)
- Hi, handsome.
Hi, my love.
I just got ,
just got a quick moment on
the shoot with Jack right now.
I just wanna give you quick call to see
if you are,
you're still not home, right?
- No, no, I'm at Rachel's right now.
I'm just hanging out, doing a little work.
- Do you know what time you're planning on being home?
- Well, we just started a new episode
of "Love Island.
(Merle chuckling)
We watching it, in the background.
So I don't know.
Maybe finish this
and then Rachel could just drop me off afterwards.
Probably like 40 minutes or something.
- Oh yeah.
Well, why don't you?
- Are you okay?
Like what is going on?
Are you good?
- Yeah, am just...
Jack did some weird driving turn
he's gone done,
oh God
He scared me for a moment there.
Dude, drive safer Jack.
- [Jack] Jeez, what the hell?
- That way Rachel doesn't have to drop you back off.
If you're fine with it, we can pick you up
and get some food on the way back home tonight.
- I mean you are really selling me on Jacks driving skills,
but yeah, you can do that.
(both chuckling)
I'll see you in a little while.
- All right.
Love you.
- Love you, bye.
- That was like,
it's all over the place.
- [Jack] You-
(buzzer beeping) suck, bro.
- I didn't think what I was going to say
until I called.
It's 4:30 right now.
The sun's going down.
So I think it's a bout a good time to go pick up Merle.
Cause I think we're pretty much set to go.
Yeah.
- [Jack] Yeah.
- Yeah.
Alright.
I think I see
a beautiful tall woman there.
How did work with Rachel Go?
- [Merle] Fine,
It was fine.
I mean,
we had "Love Island" on in the background
so that was great.
- [Aria] That's fun.
Jack and I had a nice day.
Hi, Jack.
- [Jack] Hmm.
- [Aria] He almost ran over an Asian man.
- [Merle] What?
(both chuckling)
- if it's okay, Jack.
Jack just needs to come into
to use the restroom if that's okay.
- [Merle] Yeah, yeah, no problem.
- [Aria] I don't know why I'm asking for Jack.
(all laughing)
What are you gonna do tonight with Keeley Jack?
- [Jack] She's in Newport.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Aww.
Oh my God.
(suspenseful upbeat music)
- [Merle] What?
There is a train in my apartment?
Aria.
- [Aria] Yeah.
- Oh my God.
(suspenseful upbeat music)
This is so cute.
A polar bear.
- [Aria] Yeah.
- Okay, Aria.
This is like really out of control above and beyond.
- [Aria] I just wanted to transfer the space.
Cause I know you haven't been back here for a while
so I figured you have a little Christmas cheer
to make up for the weeks of stress and anxiety.
- Oh, you have a real talk.
Is this for me?
Or is this for you?
Because you love Christmas.
- It's 50, 50.
- Yeah, there it is.
(Aria laughing)
- I love it.
This is really, really sweet.
I mean, it's also hard, like being away from home.
This was a very thoughtful
and time intensive
and let's be honest insanely over the top surprise
but really, really thoughtful.
I have not felt like comfortable in my apartment
in a really long time.
So as wild as this is
it, actually, I just think It's so sweet.
- There's more surprises though.
- What the hell is this now?
What can you possibly have?
Is it alcohol?
- [Aria] So...
- I can't even imagine what else you can possibly give me
at this point.
(paper shuffling)
- What do you think is in there?
- I really don't know.
Am scared.
(paper shuffling)
Is it garlic?
It's garlic.
Is this "Shien?"
Oh my God. - How did you know?
How did you know?
- Cause I saw the chili oil.
- Yeah, they mailed a full kit for you.
- Are you kidding me?
Okay, this is easily the best part of this entire surprise.
This is so incredible.
Are the noodles in here?
- Yes, those are in there.
- This makes me so happy.
(paper shuffling)
I haven't had these in so long.
(Aria chuckling)
I haven't had these in two years.
Oh, that is gonna make me cry,
which is so stupid.
- She does love these noodles.
- I love "Shien."
It's legitimately my favorite food in the entire world.
- Well, this is a great ad for them.
I ain't paying for this.
(both laughing)
- [Merle] I can't even tell you how happy I am right now.
Aria, you could have all this insanity without any of this.
I would have cried
because this alone is just such an amazing surprise.
But the fact that you made
this like insane Christmas experience moment
I appreciate it.
And I love you.
Thank you.
And I don't know how you keep doing it.
You were the best gift giver of anybody I know.
(dramatic upbeat music)
Mmh.
(Merle clapping)
It's so delicious handsome.
I'm gonna eat the whole portion,
all by myself.
- [Aria] We got one other surprise.
It's obviously been a rough year for most people
but it's been a pretty hectic time for you specifically.
And so I just wanted
to recap all this stuff off
with a little collection of small Christmas gifts
from other people.
- No, I can't look at this.
This is going to make me cry.
I'm already crying.
I don't even know what it is.
(soft upbeat music)
- Hi, Merle.
- No.
- This is Sherilyn Fenn calling
and reaching out to you because, Oh my gosh
you've been going through so much.
I can't believe it.
With the roach infestation.
- This is insane. - Am literally having
construction done at my house right now.
There was a leak and the floors buckled.
So it's crazy to be doing this.
I have-
- Stop, oh my God I can't do this Aria.
I love her so much.
- You are a big "Twin peaks" fan.
So I always say-
- Ooh my God.
- Thanks for being part of our secret family-
- Ooh my God.
- and all that good stuff,
sticking around, watching us for all these years.
- I cannot handle this.
- And well just..
(Sherilyn blowing a kiss)
- This is insane, there is more?
- Happy holidays.
- Hi, Merle.
I'm Glenn.
And I just want to wish you a happy holiday season.
- Oh, my God.
- I just want to say that.
I love you Merle.
Thank you for everything that you create
and share from food to sustainability,
to sexual health.
I imagine it can't be easy putting everything
out there online and being so vulnerable.
So I just wanted to make sure
that you knew that you were really appreciated
and that you've made a big impact on my life.
And I'm sure lot's of many others as well.
So thank you so much.
- I think you put out
such beautiful thoughts and emotions into the world
, and I'm just so grateful to know
that you're there and that I can watch your videos
and feel connected to the things that you talk about.
- I can't handle this. - Always make me smile,
fix me to get to do.
And you're fearless.
- Me and my Merle Kiki-
(Merle screams)
wish you Merry Christmas.
- Oh my God, she made it.
She made the cookie.
- Oh my God, what?
♪ Merry Christmas ♪
♪ And pour the Sauvignon ♪
♪ And remember ♪
♪ This is your candid world ♪
(Merle laughing)
♪ Merry merry merry merry ♪
♪ Christmas ♪
- What?
- [Aria] Did you like it?
- Yes, I liked it.
Are you kidding me.
I've been sobbing uncontrollably.
There are tears all over my laptop.
(both laughing)
- Well, are you happy?
- I am insanely happy
I can't believe it that was so nice.
That was so sweet.
I'm still crying.
That was so sweet.
Thank you so much.
Everybody was so nice.
I don't ever get to see
like the faces of the people that follow me.
So it was so nice.
I'm like, I'm so happy.
I can't even, I don't even know what to say.
Thank you so much.
It was so nice.
(both kissing)
- There's still one more surprise.
- No.
- There can't be another surprise.
- One last surprise.
(elevator door opening)
(Merle wow)
♪ Fa la la la la la la ♪
♪ It is the season to be jolly ♪
♪ Fa la la la la la la la la ♪
♪ Don we now ♪
♪ Our gay apparel ♪
♪ Fa la la la la la la la la ♪
♪ Troll the ancient yule-tide carol ♪
♪ Fa la la la la la la la la ♪
I mean, this was like above and beyond.
Any expectations I could have had for Christmas.
This year has been shit for everybody.
So I think it's just like a little extra love.
A little, little surprise goes a really long way.
Although I could not believe you got Sherilyn Fenn.
That makes me want to, like
I don't even know, pull my hair up.
Also seeing all the messages
from people that follow me was like, unbelievable.
I feel like I never actually get to see these people.
So that was meant a lot to me.
♪ Oh holy night ♪
♪ The stars are brightly shining ♪
♪ It is the night ♪
♪ Of the dear Savior's ♪
- All right, guys
whether or not who you celebrate Christmas,
Hanukkah, Kwanzaa
whatever you celebrate.
Hopefully we can all end this year
with a bit of love.
Positivity and-
- Being kind to each other. - thanks.
Yes, that's better.
Yes.
Give thanks.
[ Both] And being kind to each other.
Thank you all, as always
and happy holidays.
(Christmas caroling)
- Ho, ho, ho.
(both chuckling)
- I don't know, that was good.
That was better than what I was good.
I didn't know what to do.
That was good.
(Aria laughing)
- So good.
- That was good
Merle.
♪ A thrill of hope the ♪