jagough49 Review of The Tree That Saved Christmas

The Tree That Saved Christmas (2014 TV Movie)

Heartwarming story of fresh hope and love

[9/10 · 19 December 2015]

This family-orientated Christmas movie begins like "Silver Bells", that other great Christmas novel and movie about a Christmas tree farmer and a city photographer. It begins with a vignette about Molly, a girl (who wants to be a writer), and Lucas, a boy (who wants to be a photographer) finding ONE Christmas tree in the girl's family's tree farm, and choosing it to be "Molly's tree". But the tree is spindly, and growing too close to the farm access-road. It is about to be cut down – "weeded" – to give other trees room to grow. Molly saves it, just in time, binding its saw-cuts with tape and tree-balm. Twenty years later Molly (played by Lacey Chabon, the former youngest child in the TV series Party of Five) lives in New York, still writing quirky, unpublished short stories, working as an under-appreciated gopher for a workaholic publisher, a widower who is neglecting his two young-teen daughters. Used as an occasional baby-sitter, the daughters really like Molly. Meanwhile, back in Vermont, Molly's parents have been struggling with hard economic times, fallen behind in payments on a second-mortgage on their Christmas tree farm, and the ruthless, embittered local bank manager is scheming with money-grubbing developers to foreclose, and destroy the farm, to make an Eco-friendly golf resort. Nasty man. His son, Molly's old school friend, gave up his dream of photography to work for his father. But when Molly and her brother (now an architect) come home for, possibly, the last Christmas on the family farm, Molly's banker-photography ex-friend realizes he should never have broken up with Molly, and the loss of the tree farm will damage the whole community. Meanwhile, also, Molly's New York boss comes to Vermont because his daughters prefer spending time with Molly than spending the holidays in a tropical paradise resort. The scene is set for the local community to be rallied by Molly and her brother, for old emotions to rekindle, for a knight in shining armor, and for … Like the best family Christmas movies, this is predictable, sentimental, romantic, and full of satisfying happy endings. It may not be among the truly GREAT Christmas movies, but it is certainly (in my opinion) a good one that will stand years of re-watching!