M Pantelidis Productions,
Sarah Lancaster, Eric Johnson, Colin Mochrie, Greg Calderone, Inga Cadranel, John Bregar, Marqus Bobesich, Rishma Malik
Elise (Sarah Lancaster) is a financial wizard who is expecting a promotion. She hates Christmas from all the years of spending the holidays on the streets of Manhattan selling Christmas trees for her family’s Christmas tree farm. When she is called into the office for her big promotion, to her surprise she is let go in a downsizing move. Finding a new job at this time of the year is hard, but when she finds her father has been hurt and unable to work selling the trees, she takes his place, much to her dismay, selling trees in front of the department store where they have sold their trees for year. But the store was just bought by a big conglomerate run by CEO Gary (Colin Mochrie) who has his own reasons for hating Christmas and wanting the tree lot closed down using all the devices in his reach.
This clever new Christmas movie from Hallmark Channel is a fresh new look at the old issue of losing yourself in your career and work, and forgetting the simple things that are most important. This is a good story, and it’s very well told. I always thought there must be something really special about Manhattan at Christmas time, although I’ve never experienced that. I’ve had the opportunity to spend Christmas out in the wilderness with Christmas trees and snow and a fireplace, but I’ve never spent the holidays in the city. The closest was when we got to travel to Pittsburgh each year to drop off the donation to Children’s Hospital when Jack Bogut was broadcasting from the front of the big department stores. We got to pick up our Farkleberry treat and enjoy the city decorated for the holiday. Shopping at the big Gimbels or Kaufmann department store downtown was a neat think for a young kid. Well Manhattan looks really fabulous in this film, and makes me wish I could once see Times Square or Rockefeller Center in December. Maybe someday. But I really enjoyed this story. Elise is such a nice person who has just lost her way a little bit and needs a little prompting and some luck to find her way through. Meanwhile, Colin Mochrie did an awesome job as the Scrooge-like CEO who had to find a soft spot somewhere somehow. There’s a charming love story, and some other side stories that made this interesting as well. I highly recommend checking out Hallmark this season to catch his one, as it’s a really nice Christmas story with something for everyone.
[Click here for the Hallmark page for this film.]
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