Review: You, Me & The Christmas Trees, W Network/Hallmark

Benjamin Ayres and Danica McKellar

First let me just say, You, Me & the Christmas Trees is not in any way a Christmas-themed parody of You, Me, and Dupree, at least not as far as I could tell. Instead, what this is is a cute little romcom starring Benjamin Ayres as Jack, a guy who runs a Christmas tree farm with suddenly sick trees, and Danica McKellar as Olivia, the arborist who goes out of her way to help him in the name of science (...and love?). It’s entertainment as light as the fluffiest snow and I’m here for it. 

Right off the bat, a character says to our science lady Olivia, “I guess that’s why they call you the Christmas Tree Whisperer!” To which she responds, “I’m an evergreen specialist.They don’t become Christmas trees until someone decorates them.” Mind. Blown. I’m joking, but also kind of not? I guess this is the scientist equivalent of someone asking a sketch comedian how their skits are going. People calling Olivia the Christmas Tree Whisperer is an ongoing joke that grows old pretty fast (just like the sick trees!), but is mentioned so often I wondered if maybe this was the working title of the film. Anyway, when Olivia gets a call from a distressed Jack about his sick trees, she leaps at the opportunity to assist him because she loves science, but also doesn't like her family very much, which I appreciate. On her way to meet Jack to talk trees, Olivia gets in a fender bender in a roundabout (small towns and their roundabouts!) with none other than—you guessed it—Jack. Your imagination can pretty much take it from there. 

Other than the fact that using an ampersand in the title like that low key annoys me, I enjoyed this. I don’t think I’ve seen this exact story before, and having seen my share of struggling Christmas tree farms in the 40+ of this type of movie I’ve watched, that’s saying something! Most of all, however, I really appreciate that Danica McKellar is using her status as a made-for-TV romcom queen to subtly push her women-in-STEM agenda. Having her character be a scientist felt natural for the story and honestly it was refreshing to see a character in that field just in general! I’ve seen what this kind of movie thinks being a journalist, baker, or fashion designer is like so many times, let’s see how they think science jobs work! 

Sadly for me, they don’t really up the ante with any totally over-the-top villains like a needlessly rude farmer or a mean person from the city, which is usually territory rife with lols. But we do get a random The Wonder Years reunion in the form of our human antagonist (the main antagonist here is nature), played by Jason Hervey, aka Wayne from The Wonder Years. His character is creatively named Dwayne, and his only goal in life is to usurp Jack as both the guy who uses the most hair product, and who has the most popular Christmas tree farm in town, I guess? We’ve all been there! 

I like when there’s a fun parent side plot, and here Jack’ mom brought us the character of her love interest Harry, who at one point, when the family is (weirdly) watching the leads flirt, just goes “What’s going on?” in a very sincere way. So often in these, for some reason, everyone in the whole town is very invested in the couple, happy to see a side character who has no clue. 

Even though it is, of course, centred around Christmas, You, Me & the Christmas Trees doesn’t go for the same “family is everything” vibe a lot of other seasonal romcoms like this have. (Don’t worry though, the characters do still love mentioning how many generations their family has lived in a State for!) Something about it feels a little more grounded and like, practical? The Christmas season isn’t overly romanticized in the usual way, and I can actually get behind the tradition at stake. The leads have chemistry as unfunny, but kind of endearing, dorks and they really care about the same thing (trees) just in different ways, which I think helped the romance development feel relatively natural—even though it does take place over only a few days. 

You, Me & the Christmas Trees is pretty much exactly what you think it’s going to be, so if you’re trying to decide between this movie and any other Christmas movie like it, I say, don’t hedge your bets—just go fir it! (Full disclosure, if you hated those puns you may want to reconsider, this movie is pretty pun-heavy. But if you didn’t mind, you’re pretty much guaran-treed a sweet but not too sappy time!) 

FAVE LINES

• “I told you how I felt about your crops, not about you.” 

• “I’m all about Evergreens—I don’t do hedges.” 

WTH(allmark): PET PEEVES

• The very first, needlessly slo-mo scene; where a young Olivia is climbing a large tree trunk unassisted and gestures with both of her hands off the tree and doesn’t fall off somehow. 

• At one point Jack says he’s born in September, but later he shows Olivia an ornament with a picture of him as a baby “from the year I was born”. But the baby really looks like a toddler, not three months old! I lost sleep over this.
  

You, Me & The Christmas Trees premiered October 22, 2021.
Stream on the Global TV app and on STACKTV