jagough49 Review of A Christmas Tree Miracle

A Christmas Tree Miracle (2013)

Simple gifts lead to unexpected goodness

[10/10 · 23 December 2015]

Other reviews praise the film, briefly, or are scathingly dismissive. If you know some gritty details of the story you can make up your own mind. PLOT SPOILER!! I think "A Christmas Tree Miracle" is simply lovely. (But I think the original "Miracle on 34th Street" is a BEAUTIFUL film that ought to be watched every Christmas.) "A Christmas Tree Miracle" is a film of redemption, and the rediscovery of clarity and fundamental values. Structurally, the script has a deeply satisfying succession of gentle, touching moments of tiny good-deed now and unexpected natural-consequence later. It is about how to make sense of bad things and survive, and do good in the world. First we see, in black-and-white, a family in a church pew. A child's voice-over explains her family has nothing, but she knows this is going to be their best Christmas ever. Then we cut to the earlier beginning, in color. The family is squabbling as they line up, reluctantly, and distractedly, to be professionally photographed for their family Christmas card: mother-organizer, father-busting-to-finalize-a-deal-on-his-cell-phone, high-school-son-eager-to-meet-up-with-his-girlfriend, high-school-daughter-endlessly-texting-her-friends. The 6-year-old daughter is the only one smiling, as she clutches her cello. (Later we hear the father, David George – memorably, "the man with two first names" – has been estranged from his father for years; the mother did little to help her sister cope with their own mother's decline into old age, …) Rushing to get their children to school, the mother, Julie George, forgets to bring tinned goods to the school's Christmas charity drive. Fortunately the little girl, Nina George, has brought a can of peas, and written a marker-pen-message: "You will have a Christmas miracle". Later, the George family hurries to the young girl's school concert. She is scheduled to play the old Shaker hymn, "Simple Gifts", but the daughter, Nina, sees the other members of her family paying her no attention at all. She quietly leaves the stage without playing a note. In the ladies' restroom, the mother, Julie, overhears sobbing in a cubicle. She tries to help the distressed woman the wife of an obnoxious local senator who is at the Christmas concert to smoodge potential voters – his endless campaigning and conceited self-preoccupation has brought his wife to tears. Julie consoles her. Shortly before Christmas, David (the dad) goes to work. He is suddenly fired! He is told the owner is at his wife's funeral. Clearing his desk, he signs a copy of his family-photo Christmas card for the company owner, saying, "Sorry for your loss". Then, in a coffee shop, David overhears a shop assistant hassling an old man – buy something or get out. Could the old man be living on the street? He explains, with a radiant smile, it is cold outside. He wanted to get warm for a few minutes, and think. "Thinking is free, isn't it?" David GIVES the old man the cup of coffee he has just received, and the old man stays. Confident that he will soon get another job, David and Julie act and spend as if nothing is wrong. On Christmas day, the older daughter, Natalie, hates the brightly colored jacket she had asked for. "Give it away!" she says in ill-temper! But David doesn't get a new job. The children leave their expensive private schools and go to public schools. At the school lockers, Nick sees two nasty boys picking on a weedy lad. He warns them that his dad is a policeman (he isn't). The bullies leave. The victim is thankful: the bullies were not just taunting, they smashed his cell phone – again! – the third phone smashed! Nick gives him his own cell phone: has no use for it, and he doesn't know why he still carries it, because it "has no service". The bank forecloses on their double-mortgaged mansion in the swanky suburb. With no money coming in, David, foolishly, prevents Julie from getting a tutoring job: her salary would be like using a water-pistol on a house fire. He stubbornly claims it is HIS responsibility to care for the family. When they can't pay the next week's rent at their cheap motel, where they have relied on charity food, they are suddenly evicted in the middle of the night. Desperate, they go to their local church, and fall asleep. So far, overall, the George family (except for cheerful, innocent little Nina) have all been generally unpleasant. Deserved, or not, watching their social and financial humiliations has been rather harrowing, so far. But this is where the story turns. For the good. Unexpectedly. There are many heart-warming twists. They are woken in the night by a strange old man who is delivering an early Christmas tree to the church. He remembers David as the kind man who gave him a cup of coffee, months ago. He shows them where the church has charity food and offers them to come to live with him, and help him with his unusual job. He owns a huge Christmas tree farm, where he GIVES trees to anyone that needs one – because, he explains, he wants to GIVE people Christmas! This is not the end. It is a CHANCE for a new beginning. (This is not "Les Miserables", or "Oliver Twist", or any other GREAT work of literature with a central theme of redemption. But it is as good as "A Christmas Carol", and "It's a Wonderful Life"!) Yes, it is predictable, sentimental, … But it is well made, well cast, well acted, and thoughtfully scripted. However far-fetched some of it may seem – a Christmas tree farm that GIVES away its trees!!! – NOTHING happens that could NOT logically happen. There is no magic. No angels. No Santa Claus. No wishes that miraculously come true. But there is a kind of miracle, and an abundance of the good will that you would hope for in a GREAT Christmas film. John Gough – Deakin University (retired) – [e-mail]