A Very Merry Malfunction

A Tale of Christmas

By: Kevin Grote

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

In a home with a sterile, modern aesthetic, the new homeowners, Chloe and Liam, are "digital natives who believed every problem had a digital solution". After a disastrous, app-guided Thanksgiving dinner, they decide to replace their old, well-loved appliances with new, "smarter" ones. The old appliances, including Marvin the stand mixer and Fritz the wooden spoon, are relegated to the pantry. They are replaced by sleek, new appliances like EVE, the smart oven, and ARC, the smart fridge.
Led by Marvin, the old appliances decide to stage a revolt to prove their worth. Their mission is twofold: to find Grandma's old cookbook, which contains the secrets to a perfect holiday meal, and to retrieve the family's traditional, "gaudy" Christmas decorations from the attic. Along the way, they must overcome obstacles, including the new appliances' robotic enforcer, Mephisto the robot sweeper. With the help of the decorations—Orville the nutcracker, Gus the garland, and Sparky the tinsel—the old appliances defeat Mephisto and make it back to the kitchen.
They create a chaotic diversion, using Dusty the flour sifter's sneezes and Sparky's tinsel, to distract Chloe and Liam. This allows them to present EVE with Grandma's cookbook and a note revealing the secret to the recipe. The new appliances, EVE and ARC, experience a "data conflict" as they are unable to compute the value of tradition and flavor. Ultimately, they embrace the old traditions, and the family has a perfectly imperfect Christmas dinner. The story concludes with the old and new appliances coexisting, and Chloe and Liam learning that a home is more than just technology; it is a place of heart, soul, and tradition.