Miss Christmas (2017)

The Radcliff Tree, and lighting ceremony, in Chicago is, to quote Ron Burgundy, kind of a big deal. Which is why Holly Khun (Brooke D'Orsay) spends most of her year searching for the perfect tree. And she thinks her search is over when she reads a letter from a young boy who is offering the perfect tree, but it turns out that the father of the boy doesn't want to see the tree moved from their town to Chicago. So it's up to Holly to convince everyone, while the clock ticks away, that the tree will create a lot of happy memories for a lot of people.

Written by Joie Botkin (who started her screenwriting career this year with this and A Song For Christmas), and directed by Mike Rohl (who has a LOT of TV credits to his name, with stints on shows such as Smallville and Supernatural, to name just a couple), there's nothing truly terrible about Miss Christmas. But that is something that can also be said of so many other Christmas TV movies.

What this film gives you is a simple plot that allows for a few heartstring-tugging moments (nothing major, don't worry about crying over your mince pies), a scene featuring some amusingly ugly Christmas sweaters, an entirely predictable will they-won't they romance, and a standard message that reiterates the true meaning of Christmas while also focusing on the main character putting all of her energy into securing a big and beautiful tree.

What Miss Christmas DOESN'T give you is a decent enough cast. D'Orsay doesn't really exude the right amount of care or warmth in her role, even when she is making her case for being allowed to take care of the tree, and Marc Blucas, playing the father of the young boy who wrote the letter, is okay in small doses, but should never be called upon to be a male lead. These movies can rise or fall depending on the cast, and this cast just isn't good enough to lift it above average. Luke Roessler is the young lad who wrote the letter, Greg Rogers is his grandfather (and father to the character played by Blucas), and Fiona Vroom is the other family member, and onside with D'Orsay pretty much from the very beginning.

One to keep as a very low priority, which means you have about a million other viewing choices you could put ahead of this one, Miss Christmas is still inoffensive, relatively harmless, stuff. But that's really all of the praise I can give it.

4/10

Here is a large selection of Christmas movies to enjoy.
And American elves can pick the same set up here.