Christmas in a Cup

#Hallmark

The Spruces & The Pines

“There is no burying the hatchet, the feud doesn’t end until one of us dies.” Ahhh conflict resolution in Christmas movies.

Here we have the Spruces and the Pines, both of them own Christmas tree farms right next to each other. They have been in a bitter feud ever since a fire burned both of their crops nearly 30 years ago.

Rick Spruce is the nephew of Dave Spruce, owner of Spruce farm. Rick is from Texas except his southern accent doesn’t start until halfway through the movie. The lessons finally kicked in?

Julie is the daughter of James Pine, and she has come home for the holidays to help her Dad out. They are mourning the loss of her Mom who died the Christmas prior. So rare that both parents are alive in these movies.

Rick and Julie meet and flirt. She teaches him how to make “Christmas in a cup” aka pine needles in hot water. I tried this with my Christmas tree and it tasted like I was drinking dirt.

They fall in love. Yes this is a modern Romeo and Juliet except without the whole taking poison thing.

“Sometimes time doesn’t heal wounds, sometimes it lays them bare,” so says the wise café owner they go to for advice. Turns out they need a miracle to bring the two feuders back into being friends. Guess what. Christmas is the season of miracles. So Hallmark says.

You know what would be a miracle? If pine needles in hot water actually tasted good.

Rick and Julie try to mend the feud, guess what it doesn’t work. Dave and James act like they are 12, each getting very angry when they learn that Julie and Rick are dating.

“I mean maybe this wasn’t meant to be,” Julie says after her Dad gets real mad. Turns out Rick and his changing accent wasn’t that romantic. Insert a long dry kiss here and a “goodbye Rick” Now insert a very bad song. Insert sad shots of each of them gazing out over their respective farms.

Julie is real sad. She goes through her moms stuff. She talks to a picture of her mom while crying. Then she finds the Christmas tree topper (that looks like a Christmas Tree Shops special), with three letters enclosed.

Pause. If you were leaving letters for your family after you passed would you put them somewhere where it would take them a year to find them? Turns out you would. Because using the “I have died but this is my Christmas wish” ask really helps to bring people together.

Back to the movie. Julie delivers the letter, one to her Dad, one to Dave. Turns out the letters are the miracle that was needed!

“Home isn’t where you hang your hat, its where you hang your heart.” I wonder if the people who write these movies used to write motivational posters.

James delivers a blue spruce to James, ordered by his deceased wife. He brings the tree in, they decorate it together. The music starts sounding really inspirational.

They apologize and hug it out. Everyone laughs. Hot chocolate is consumed. The tree is decorated. Everyone lives happily ever after. Unlike Romeo and Juliet.

B- (The closer to Christmas we get, the more generous I am)

Holiday Movies so white scale 9.99

Predictability scale 10

My thoughts:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6764496/