Festival of Trees

It's Festive Friday and Alonso is here to help review another Christmas movie we missed from 2024, Festival of Trees.

ABOUT FESTIVAL OF TREES:

Jacquie's future as a designer could rest on winning the annual "Festival of Trees" competition, but coming up with the perfect design means she needs to remember what Christmas is really all about.

AIR DATE & NETWORK FOR FESTIVAL OF TREES:

November 24, 2024 | UpTV

CAST & CREW OF FESTIVAL OF TREES:

• Kate Miner as Jacquie Miller
• Greg Perrow as Brandon Holliday
• Josie Davis as Alice Stewart
• Sarah Hayter as Heather

BRAN'S FESTIVAL OF TREES SYNOPSIS:

The movie kicks off with a local morning show doing a story about the Festival of Trees. They bring on designer Alice Stewart, who has won the festival for the past few years. Jacquie is at home watching it, rolling her eyes.

Jacquie wants to compete in the Festival of Trees this year. First, she needs a sponsor, so she goes to pitch Lowery & Lowe. He says he needs to run it by his other teammates and asks to keep her portfolio—which happens to be the only one she has.

At the opening ceremony for the Festival of Trees, it becomes clear that Alice and Jacquie know each other—and they definitely don’t like each other.

While she hasn’t officially been accepted into the competition, Jacquie gets to work. She bumps into Alice’s assistant, who shames her at every turn, then informs her that Lowery & Lowe is sponsoring Alice this year. That means they won’t be going with Jacquie.

While processing that news, a guy comes up and asks her for advice. She’s not in the mood and just hands him her entire basket.

She’s feeling really down, and it only gets worse—she gets a call from the committee with bad news. They cannot accept her design due to plagiarism. Jacquie is shocked—she worked so hard on it. Apparently, someone else submitted the exact same design before she did. She has until noon tomorrow to submit a new design.

So Jacquie and her assistant Heather go searching for inspiration and end up at a Christmas tree farm, where they bump into the guy from the shop. His name is Brandon, and he owns the place. He encourages her to make a tree that speaks to the everyman, not just the uppity elite.

To spark ideas, Jacquie visits the children’s hospital that the Festival of Trees benefits. There, she meets a little girl named Rachel. Rachel shares what she loves about Christmas, which inspires Jacquie to create a tree completely inspired by the children. Each kid will get their own ornament based on their likes and interests. Jacquie and Heather head down to the hospital to interview the kids.

Later, Jacquie goes to pick out her own tree to get into the Christmas spirit. Brandon delivers it, and they spend some time together—the sparks are flying—until he takes a call and says, “I’ll be there in 15 minutes, honey.” Assuming he’s already in a relationship, she decides to call it a night.

The next day, when Jacquie goes to show Rachel her ornament, she’s surprised when Brandon walks in. Turns out, Brandon is Rachel’s dad—and “honey” was who he was talking to the night before!

Festival time arrives, and Jacquie’s tree is a masterpiece. She notices Alice has stolen her old design, but she doesn’t care—she likes hers more.

Brandon and Jacquie admire the tree together when she realizes it will be auctioned off, meaning the kids won’t get their ornaments. Heather tells her to let it go—they’ve already done something amazing.

To her surprise, Jacquie ends up winning! She and Brandon celebrate with a kiss. Her business takes off. They head to the hospital to give the kids the drawings of their ornaments, only to be shocked when they see the actual tree there. And the good news keeps coming—Rachel has been given the all-clear!

The movie ends with snow falling and another kiss.