Stream It or Skip It: ‘You, Me and the Christmas Trees’ on Hallmark, a Literally Sappy Holiday Romcom with Danica McKellar

Hallmark kicks off their Countdown to Christmas lineup with You, Me and the Christmas Trees. It’s the kind of cozy holiday romcom that fans of this phenomenal Christmas tradition know and love—but is it worth watching ASAP or should you wait to catch half of it on a Saturday night airing before this year’s Lacey Chabert movie?

YOU, ME AND THE CHRISTMAS TREES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Hallmark all-star Danica McKellar plays Olivia, an arborist in Connecticut who’s cultivated a rep as The Christmas Tree Whisperer. Benjamin Ayres (last seen in 2020’s Cranberry Christmas) plays Jack, the owner of Avon, Connecticut’s long running Connor’s Christmas Trees. But the tree farm’s fourth generation may be its last. Jack can’t figure out why all of his trees are dying! It’s a good thing that Olivia works just a few hours away—and she really doesn’t want to go home to her mom’s super uptight Christmas gala. Sure, she’ll spend some time trying to get to the root of Jack’s tree problem—and that’s it. Jack and Olivia will discover nothing else—certainly not feelings for each other and the meaning of Christmas.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Every other Hallmark holiday movie—which is exactly why you’re watching it. This one checks all the boxes: tiny town, overbearing parents, a broken engagement, a sensitive single man, a career-driven woman, a scene where the leads sip cocoa and the guy acts like he doesn’t know he has whipped cream on his nose, etc.

Performance Worth Watching:  I mean, you gotta give it to Jason Hervey’s turn as rival tree lot magnate Dwayne Colson. He’s aggressive and he’ll stop at nothing to make sure one of his trees lights up the town on Christmas Eve! Plus, the Wonder Years reunion between McKellar and Hervey is a gift all on its own.

Memorable Dialogue: When Jack accuses Olivia of hedging her bets, she replies: “I’m all about evergreens. I don’t do hedges.”

A Holiday Tradition: You, Me and the Christmas Trees can’t go 5 minutes without introducing a new tradition. The first line of dialogue mentions the annual Christmas Gala, and then there’s the annual Christmas Eve tree lighting (the 100th!), the annual Christmas craft fair, a PJ All Day tradition, an annual Christmas cocktail competition, a Christmas ornament tradition stretching back to the 1920s, and the annual gift exchange game with incorrect rules. You cannot trade an item after you open it! You have to choose: steal an item or open a new gift!

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: We are off to a good start because You, Me and the Christmas Trees is a great title for a movie about two people whose entire careers revolve around evergreens.

Our Take: This is how you do it. The 2021 offerings start off with a film that gives you all the fluff you want from a traditional Hallmark movie with trace elements of modernity that make it feel fresh. The film’s setting is Avon, Connecticut, which is a real place, and all the interiors have a cozy, classically Christmas vibe. The town has the kind of jam-packed holiday schedule that we expect from these movies. Does Avon really need a last-minute Christmas craft fair every year? Does the cocktail competition need to be its own annual event? Yes and yes. And there’s even a meet cute wherein Jack accidentally rear ends Olivia while they’re both on their way to meet each other. It’s a love tap that leads to love and sap!

But YM&CT (as real Hallmarkies call it) offers something just a teensy bit unexpected as we watch Olivia and Jake do their falling-in-love thing. For one thing, Olivia is not an uptight career woman who left her small town for the big city. In fact, her career is exactly what draws her to Jack and it’s Thing #1 that he loves about her. You gotta love it when a Hallmark holiday movie interrupts the first romantic near-kiss with the female lead shouting, “This is what we can use to bond the nutrients together!” Olivia is a big brain (you bet there are beakers in a barn in this Hallmark movie) and Jack’s the sweet, kinda simple one. He just loves Christmas trees, okay?

Hallmark courtships can become grating real fast, especially if they’re built on some sort of deceit or if the guy is wildly possessive or if there’s just no chemistry. McKellar and Ayres are a treat together onscreen, playing their scenes with a real affability and grounded charm—the kind I always appreciate seeing in these movies. My only complaint: why is everyone in Avon waiting until the week before Christmas to buy a tree?!

Our Call: STREAM IT. This is the Hallmark movie formula done right.

Stream You, Me and the Christmas Trees on Hallmark