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The Shark Tank Christmas Pitch That Ended in a Buyout Offer No One Saw Coming

A Shark Tank pitch took an unexpected turn with Barbara Corcoran's surprise buyout offer.

By Jordan Major

Edited by Andrea Basse

Updated Dec. 13, 2025

Not every Shark Tank holiday pitch is about finding an investor. Some are about finding an exit.

During the December 10 episode titled "Cash or Coal," one festive presentation quickly veered away from cheerful entertainment and into a rare, high-stakes discussion about control, valuation, and whether a founder should sell outright as a way to eliminate some money stress.

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The business proposal

What began with singing Dickens-style carolers ended with one of the most unconventional offers of the season, a proposal that forced the entrepreneurs to rethink what success on Shark Tank could actually look like.

Founder Kenyon Ross and his assistant Jessica Harris run The Christmas Carolers, a business that provides live professional performers for corporate and residential holiday events across 14 U.S. cities. The founder was seeking $250,000 in exchange for a 20% stake, positioning the business as a scalable seasonal service rather than a novelty act.

Ross leaned fully into the theme with a cheeky warning to the Sharks. "I would not want to be visited by the ghost of missed opportunities," he said. "So do not let this opportunity pass you by." It landed as playful holiday banter in the moment, but the line would later take on a very different meaning as the negotiation veered into territory few founders expect when they walk into the Tank.

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Business model and seasonal revenue

Kevin O'Leary immediately leaned into his self-described Scrooge persona. "Ebenezer owes me royalties. I am the Scrooge of the modern age," he joked, before zeroing in on the issue that would define the pitch. "Talk about seasonal business. How many weeks does this actually bring in revenue for?"

Ross explained that their busiest stretch runs from early November through December, with most bookings coming from corporate parties and office events. He added that all customer demand comes in online and pointed to the company's hundreds of social media followers, a claim that drew sarcastic applause from the Sharks and underscored concerns about whether their digital reach was actually driving meaningful scale.

Ross then broke down the pricing model. The Christmas Carolers charge about $700 for the first hour, with discounted rates for additional time, and most events average two hours. When Daniel Lubetzky asked how that revenue is split, Ross said $230 goes directly to the performers.

O'Leary pounced on the margin discussion, quipping, "Why do you not just give them a lump of coal," a joke that masked a more serious concern about how much profit was left after labor costs.

Valuation and growth potential

Ross and Harris said they wanted to expand from 14 cities to 50 and were seeking a Shark's help to accelerate growth that would otherwise move slowly. Despite running the business for years, Ross still had not paid himself a salary, and Harris worked part-time. Last year, the company posted roughly $50,000 in net profit, a figure that made the proposed valuation difficult to justify.

They shared that the business began in 1996 and has generated just over $1 million in lifetime sales, prompting Daymond John to joke, "I could have said that if I worked at Red Lobster." The line landed because it highlighted the central problem facing the pitch: nearly three decades of effort had produced limited scale.

The Sharks were unconvinced. "This business is not worth a million dollars," O'Leary said bluntly. Daniel Lubetzky followed with a comment that summed up the panel's skepticism. "I think your predictions are quite achievable as long as we are talking about them in another dimension." He concluded that the business was not investable on its current terms and stepped aside.

An unexpected buyout offer

At that point, the pitch appeared to be heading toward a familiar Shark Tank ending, polite, comical feedback followed by no deal. Then Barbara Corcoran shifted the conversation entirely. She said she wanted to make an offer, but not the one the founders had come in expecting. "I would like to buy you out of the business," she said, instantly changing the stakes of the negotiation.

Corcoran proposed a total of $250,000, structured as a $125,000 purchase price for full ownership and a separate $125,000 loan to fund operations. Ross would leave with cash in hand and remain involved, but the company itself would belong to Corcoran.

Barbara then explained the reasoning behind the move. "What you are lacking here is not your heart. It is social media," she said. She pointed to her own holiday entertainment business, Hire Santa, which she said surpassed $16 million in sales under the direction of a social media-focused operator.

"There is money to be made here, but the magic is in social media," she added, framing the deal as a way to plug The Christmas Carolers into a system that already understands how to scale a seasonal service business quickly.

A deal struck

Ross and Harris were not ready to give up the company outright. They countered with an offer of $125,000 for 51% of the business. Corcoran pushed back with a revised structure, offering $125,000 in cash plus a $125,000 line of credit in exchange for 70% equity.

Under the terms, Harris would receive 10% and Ross would retain 20%. After a tense pause, the founders agreed to a final split that left Ross with 30%, significantly more ownership than Corcoran's original buyout proposal.

Bottom line

A charming holiday performance ended with a lesson in business reality. Corcoran sees untapped demand in premium holiday entertainment with The Christmas Carolers and believes the company's biggest limitation was not concept, but scale.

With her successful social media-driven blueprint from Hire Santa, she may be right about using social media as leverage to put more cash in your pocket.

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