The Christmas Tree

A well-made and entertaining little film, its real value is as a glimpse of a Britain almost disappeared. As a child of the 60s I find it fascinating to revisit a world I'd almost forgotten - Zodiak police cars, children wearing anoraks, wide open carriageways and a smaller, simpler world seen through the eyes of Enid Blyton-esque scalliwags with a lot of 'pluck'. Priceless.

Modern viewers will find it hard to believe their eyes. Three children hitchhiking to London. Their parents, when they find out, look slightly worried, maybe. One of the children, aged about 5, steps in front of a vehicle to persuade ithe driver to stop. They get in a car driven by two men who it turns out are bank robbers. Then they end up on a military firing range, from where they are given a lift in an Army lorry then passed, by Army personnel no less, to a random lorry driver. The 5-year old wanders off. Thus was made after the Brady-Hindkey case. It is unbelievable in its attitude to what even in 1966 must have been real risks to unaccompanied children. Bizarre. Yet reviewers on this page are calling it 'charming', which is also bizarre.

Some kids promise to get a proper Christmas tree for the patients in the children's ward of a London hospital. This film follows their adventures on the way.

This is a charming little film, not atypical of the CFF's output. It smacks of Enid Blyton, yet is set in more real and believable situations. For anyone of the right age and/or from that part of the world it is something of a nostalgia-fest, with scenes of 1960s Britain that are not quite lost forever.

Locations I recognised were Hambleden weir, Hambleden village, and Round Hill, Aldershot. Hambleden weir and the village are virtually unchanged, and the enormous (30' tall, forty ton) statue of Wellington (which was originally erected on Hyde Park corner) still sits atop round hill in Aldershot. It looks OK in the film but had lapsed into a poor state more recently and was refurbished in 2004. It is no longer mainly surrounded by open heathland. Sadly you can't wander between the horse's legs as the children do. Where I grew up there was lots of heathland used by the Army and for the most part they tolerated the local kids (who treated the whole area as their own playground) rather well.

All rather charming and jolly; 8/10 from me.

BEWARE OF BOGUS REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. TRUST ME THIS FILM IS TERRIBLE. NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 400 Christmas MOVIES. I HAVE NO AGENDA. I AM FARE.

In this film a boy promises his friends that he can deliver a huge Christmas Tree to the London's Children Hospital by 6pm on Christmas Eve. So he makes a bet and doesn't want lose. So the next day he steels his family's Christmas Tree and his off to London which happens to be over 30 miles away. So how does a child get there without much money. With the help of his brother & sister he sets off on a journey that brings the viewer huge smiles. Running under an hour you will never be bored.

This film is much better than the average Christmas Movie! I have seen over 300 of them and this is in the top 10!

Buy it! Then loan it out to people. Its a film that everyone should see.

Up till the 1970s many cinemas in the UK had a children's Saturday morning show.This would tend to comprise of a couple of shorts and a feature.Now sometimes this feature would be a western with Roy Rogers or a comedy by Laurel & Hardy.Sometimes it would be a feature by the Children's Film Foundation.This was an organisation which was I recall financed by the National Film Finance Company.The leading roles were always played by children.Some went on to a career as an adult such as Dennis Waterman.The adult actors appeared for scale.Directors at a loose end also worked for scale and included the likes of Michael Powell.Some of these films are now being shown on Talking Pictures and are quite entertaining.