Oh Christmas Tree!

Last year, Hallmark presented a new Christmas movie with a father selling Christmas trees on a NYC sidewalk...and he had a disgruntled son that ran away. I don't think that movie could have been made any worse! Watching it once was more than enough!...........With that awful movie and the increasing numbers of awful Christmas movies Hallmark has been presenting between last year and this year, (2014) "Fir Crazy" surfaced to be at least "likeable.".......It did not have anything enticing or special or magical. But with its 2 "Bah, humbug" characters, it remained focused on Christmas with a nice plot that flowed.....None of the players were annoying.......No blaring, annoying "background" music and/or singing to overwhelm the players' dialogue (as Hallmark Christmas movies are notorious for having). And I have watched this movie several times.

A woman in advertising finds herself unemployed and dumped on the same day. She ends up working on her family own Christmas Tree Lot after her dad can't run it and her mom must take care of him. However she has bad memories of the lot and really doesn't want to be there.

At the same time she is working the lot she looking for a new job. She also meets a man who is seems to be buying lots of trees.

This is AN ABOVE AVERAGE HALLMARK MOVIE. It is heartwarming. Its also not as cliche ridden as most of there films tend to be.

This film is about a woman who doesn't have happy memories of Christmas. Her childhood was spent on a tree lot in a New York Winter selling trees with her parents. Years later she finds herself back on the lot selling the trees for her parents after she loses her job.

Now the more things change the more they stay the same but this time she has to fight the owner of the store her tree lot is on because he thinks the lot is harming his business.

Cute story. Well meaning. Very Enjoyable.

HAPPY Holidays. Tis the season to be JOLLY. It's the most WONDERFUL time of the year. Really? Fully the first 1/3rd of this movie (commercial TV screen time 41 minutes) was a total downer. One bad thing after another. Pile on Elise. And there was more of it later in the movie.

Meanwhile, it really didn't seem like Elise and Darren spent much time together, and certainly not much alone time. Even then I would say the chemistry was just average. A lot of the screen time was either the unhappy corporate world, or grumpy Gary, or the tree lot.

Sarah Lancaster has a nice smile that she showed off plenty, but beyond that, she wasn't charismatic or energetic. Eric Johnson did the best he could with the screen time he had.

My point is this. It's clearly a Christmas movie and a romance one also. So it would be nice if the bulk of the movie was one or both, with a heavy dose leaning toward the romance side. That was not even close to how it worked out.

There is a really sweet scene when Elise delivers the tree to the pregnant couple. The couple describes their happiest Christmas moments and it definitely lightens things up. I found it to be the best scene in the movie.

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 HOLIDAY FILMS. I WATCH EACH ONE WITH AN OPEN MIND.

Last night I could not sleep. So I put on this film and I was delighted that I did! What I watched was this film called "Fir Crazy" and it is available on DVD on Amazon but on Amazon the film is re-titled "Oh Christmas Tree". In this film A Busy career woman Elise MacReynolds (Sarah Lancaster) has no time or desire to take part in Christmas festivities. However, a few twists of fate land Elise in the middle of her worst nightmare: unemployed, newly single, and running her family's Christmas tree lot for the dreaded holiday season. As the de facto representative of her family's business, Elise must navigate a contentious relationship with the lot's new landlord, Gary Dixon (Colin Mochrie), who thinks the MacReynolds' lot is hurting his business and wants them gone...fast. But, things are looking a little brighter as the newly single Elise has a budding relationship with Darren (Eric Johnson), one of her customers.

The film is a typical "Holiday" film from Hallmark and that is fine by me. If you are looking for a "Family Safe" film then you won't go wrong here! Boys will be bored but the film works. When the film was over I was smiling.