Christmas in the Pines

I'm surprised I didn't see any reviews blasting the setup to the story where both leads must stay in the cottage each is trying to buy since "possession is 9/10ths of the law". That really bothered me and I could argue how impossible it is for several more sentences, but ... get over it. This premise is poorly orchestrated, but OK figure out in your mind something more plausible and move on.

I also thought the animosity disappeared a little too abruptly, but that's OK too.

What was nice about the movie is how most of the story leads into displaying something closer to the real meaning of Christmas which is more about giving unselfishly than about possessions. There is a triple stroke twist, but I saw the first part of that coming since nothing else would make sense. All in all the ending was one that left viewers feeling satisfied.

If it was a "cottage", where did everyone sleep? That many people would stretch some large family homes.

I wasn't impressed with some of the production values. There were some moments of overacting, but otherwise the acting ranged from mediocre to OK. The sets were cheap. But the most annoying was the background music. Background music is just that - background. It should not call attention to itself, and several times it competed with dialogue.