Christmas cake (noun): 1) a holiday dessert considered stale the day after Christmas; 2) Japanese slang term for an unmarried woman over 25 ( as in "spinster" or "cat lady")

Petra Hanson’s autobiographical short film Xmas Cake—This American Shelf-life premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best Documentary Short. It was an official selection of the 2019 Mill Valley Film Festival, then toured the US in 2020 with LUNAFEST, the first traveling festival of films by and about women. 

The synopsis…

Xmas Cake is a post-feminist rockumentary about sisterhood, female aging, and owning your power on the global stage. 

This is the true story of Petra, a native New Yorker—knitwear designer by day, pop star by night (or whatever time it is in Tokyo). Her glittery pop band, Gaijin à Go Go, makes history as the first unknown foreign act ever signed to Sony Japan.

Under the spotlight, Petra faces getting older in a world obsessed with youth. Instead of buying into America’s own version of “Christmas cake.” she flips the label and stages the ultimate finale, marrying herself, and strutting into a future she's created—on her terms.

Led by Petra—storyteller, front woman, and filmmaker—the all-female crew blends original footage from New York to Tokyo with vivid ink animations, delivering a fierce, and liberating message that hits right on time.

Watch the film…

You're invited to a virtual private screening of Xmas Cake!

Watch it here: https://www.thebsider.com/private-screening

Password: xcake2022

Running time: 9:57

Xmas Cake, the Book is an autobiographical novel, a true rock and roll tale told rom-com-style with a subversive twist. It's the ride of a glittering pop singer—a ride that, like a dazzling firework, implodes on the descent, with a heartbreak, and other humiliations near her 39th birthday that ultimately send her spinning toward her unexpected triumph in finding freedom and fulfillment in a life she never expected. 

Meet Petra, a 30 something native Manhattanite navigating the corporate fashion grind as Y2K fears loom on the digital horizon. While her co-workers chase engagement rings, Petra drifts into daydreams about her freewheeling days in Tokyo in her twenties and her friend Yuki, whose tragic story fuels her rebellion and the question: Why have a wedding when I could have my own band?

With no experience but plenty of nerve, Petra dreams up a Japanese-themed ’60s garage band, Gaijin a Go-Go, and joins the New York music scene of the early 2000s. It’s all fun, fantasy and playing in dive bars, until her band accidentally becomes the bomb… in Japan. 

Overnight, Sony signs the band—making history as the only foreign ‘nobodies’ ever to land a deal with the label—and rockets them into pop stardom abroad. She’s got the glitter, the gigs, and the groupies, but is ill prepared for the toll fame takes, the crushing loneliness, and the emotional baggage she just can’t shake—like growing up in a basement apartment with a single mom who was there… but not really. We see her attempt new romances and reframe the question—Why not have a wedding AND a band?—as her longing for home and belonging hovers just out of reach. Almost there... but not really.

When her sparkling life goes up in smoke, Petra loses it all: her band, her fiancé, her job in fashion—everything she's built to avoid ending up alone and irrelevant. Starting over at forty is her worst nightmare, and and a painful reminder of Yuki, the friend who's suicide decades earlier demonstrated how many women faced singlehood after a certain age in Japan. The past cuts deeply into the present, but also tests Petra's resilience and shapes her shift in perspective. It’s not about what she lost; it’s about what she’s found: The freedom to heal herself, grow whole, and find her own uniquely empowered path—happily-ever-after—on her terms. 

The message…

Follow your dreams? Find success? Make history in a foreign country? Sure. But do it all as a single woman—and you still might end up a cautionary tale. Xmas Cake, the Book tells it like it happened, but refuses to become the punchline. Instead it’s a battle cry for every woman making a midlife pivot without a ring, a roadmap, or a Plan B—because sometimes reinvention is non-negotiable, self-care is survival, and owning real estate is the new romance. The payoff? A deeply earned, wildly joyful catharsis with a killer soundtrack—and a fearless role model proving it can be done. 

Comp titles...

Xmas Cake, the Book sits comfortably between Pamela Redmond Satran’s novels, Younger and Older, gone rock and roll. Like Younger, it explores reinvention, ambition, and the pressure on women to stay youthful, remain relevant and survive. Petra also has to lie about her age to compete on a global pop stage—until she ditches the charade, claims every year and reimagines what aging out of the fairytale really looks like. Where Younger seeks second chances and Older celebrates the freedom that can come with age, Petra's story asks: what if being single, over forty, and totally free is the prize?

In the spirit of No One Tells You This, the witty memoir by Glynnis MacNicol, Petra's story features a single woman over forty who refuses to bow to societal expectations and instead celebrates not settling for less. Like Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up by Alexandra Potter, where a middle aged woman rebuilds after losing a business and a fiancé, Xmas Cake, the Book explores the messy, liberating process of finding self-worth and joy, in a life that went off-script. And much like Miranda July’s All Fours, which captures the strange limbo of being “semi-famous” and female in midlife, Petra mixes the absurdities of fame, aging, and reinvention into something sharp, funny, and defiantly human. 

With a pitch-perfect voice of a complex GenX-er, Petra's story spins all the labels meant to diminish women—into inspirational gold. For music lovers, Petra's story also covers themes about the female experience in the global music industry. Much like Nobody Ever Asked Me About the Girls by Lisa Robinson, Petra reflects on the sacrifices and challenges she faces in her quest for "low-key" fame in a world dominated by men. And in the spirit of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, what if a music nerd akin to Rob Flemming also worked with fashion snobs straight out of Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada? Striking the same chords in different keys, Xmas Cake, the Book delivers sharp pop-culture commentary, transforming music and heartbreak into a lens for bigger questions of love, loss, and identity. All in the same breath, it takes readers back to a world where women raised on feminist ideals fought to carve out space in a culture not quite ready for them—serving up heavy issues with a wink, some glitter, sharp wit, and a very groovy playlist. 

Xmas Cake, the Book is a "coming of middle age" story for single women over forty, Gen X, Millennials, and parents of Gen Z daughters—and anyone who's ever felt the pressure of an expiration date in America.

Why now…

In a world that still celebrates The Bachelor and traditional happily-ever-afters, Xmas Cake , the Book offers a bold, subversive spin. It’s a fresh, liberating take for women—single or married—who’ve ever felt sidelined for choosing themselves over tradition. But more than that, it speaks directly to women and over 40 hipsters who still feel edgy, ambitious, a little weird—and who refuse to be cast as tired, frumpy, or finished. Set against the electric nostalgia of the post-Y2K era—now enjoying its own comeback, Xmas Cake , the Book is for every reader who’s been left out of the rom-com ending and is ready for a new kind of heroine: flawed, funny, and fully in charge of her own destiny.

Fans of Sex and the City and And Just Like That will love Petra, a sharp, fashion-savvy protagonist whose rock ’n’ roll story unfolds against the iconic backdrop of New York nostalgia—complete with her Devil Wears Prada style daily grind. Readers drawn to Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation or Jake Adelstein’s Tokyo Vice will be captivated by her neon-lit portrait of Japan’s pop-saturated underground. And while Lena Dunhams new Netflix’s series Too Much follows a single New Yorker abroad in a rom-com arc, Xmas Cake, the Book tears up the script: Petra doesn’t get the guy—she becomes the rock star who stages her own self-claiming encore.

Petra is a native New Yorker, writer, filmmaker, and former pop singer in Japan. Her leap from weekend frontwoman to international sensation was the twist that changed everything.

In 2003, her band, Gaijin à Go Go hit the global music scene, making history as the only unknown foreign act ever signed to the major label Sony Japan. They soon made appearances on NPR’s The World, and every highly rated national radio and TV program in Japan, including Fuji TV’s iconic Waratte Itamo, and Space Shower Video and Music channel. They've been written about in The Japan Times, Nikkei Shimbun, and reviewed by premier cultural magazines and taste makers of the time such as:: ブラウンズブックス (translation: Barfout!) From dive bars to international acclaim, their rise was as wild and unpredictable as the music they made.

Petra holds a BFA from Cornell University and The Fashion Institute of Technology. She is a scholarship winner from the Aspen Writers Foundation and a member of and a member of ASCAP (American Society for Composers, Authors, and Publishers). Her triumph in Japan inspired the story told on The Moth Mainstage, and her Tribeca nominated short film, Xmas Cake—This American Shelf-life, and her forthcoming autobiographical novel. She writes an ongoing newsletter and has also produced a live storytelling series and podcast, The B/sider—a movement to reimagine a meaningful groove in life “after hitting the top forty.” 

Currently bi-coastal, Petra balances her time between Brooklyn's edge, and Costa Rica's tropical vibrance, where she writes and leads aerial yoga classes. She still performs with her reunited band, with recent shows for The Mill Valley Film Festival, at the landmark Sweetwater Music Hall, and as a headliner at the Live at the Archway festival in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

Why Petra? 

Petra doesn't just have a story—she has the platform to launch it. She has already captivated large audiences with her acclaimed film, her band and live storytelling performances—now she brings that same fire to the page. This book is her next act: bold, entertaining, and built to leave a mark.

"I want to move the needle—to live in a world where a woman's worth isn't measured by youth, hotness, or motherhood, but by the richness of her life and full personhood. I wrote this story to offer a different kind of happily-ever-after and inspire the next generation to write theirs, too."

Petra Hanson

Her band, Gaijin à Go-Go, the subject of SpinStar, is still performing and can amplify a book launch with live shows that connect directly with fans eager to read the story behind the music. Don't let their off-beat charm fool you; Gaijin à Go-Go have earned serious accolades at home and in Japan—They've collaborated with world-renowned artists, producer Joe Blaney (The Clash/Prince/ The Ramones), guitarist Carlos Alomar (David Bowie) and Ursula1000, Konishi (Pizzicato Five), King Britt, and Skeewiff. They've toured with Puffy Ami Yumi, opened for Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (SOBs), and, ? and the Mysterians (CBGBs main stage). They’re evergreen fun and bring a vibe of “arty with a capital P” to every stage. 

Major cultural institutions have already said yes to Petra’s work: she has performed to sold-out crowds at The Moth Mainstage, and her award nominated film based on this story was selected by the Tribeca Film Festival 2019, the Mill Valley Film Festival and LunaFest. Petra appeared on panels and in post-screening Q&As across the country—building the media and stage presence that translates seamlessly into podcasts, author panels, and book events. 

Unlike the current wave of social-media–first authors, Petra has built her audience grassroots-style: through live performances, festivals, and storytelling shows. Along the way, she has forged lasting relationships with cultural leaders, communities collaborators, and champions that position her to promote SpinStar far beyond the page. Her Grassroots Platform includes a proven track record with:  

• Top Tier Film Festivals

• Music & International Eeach

• Women's & Midlife Networks

• Storytelling & Literary Allies

• Film & Media Connections