TWELVE TREES OF CHRISTMAS: Saving the Library, One Cliche’ at a Time

Lifetime’s latest holiday movie, Twelve Trees of Christmas, wants to be a heartwarming tale of people coming together in the spirit of the holidays, but it doesn’t quite hit the mark.

Cherie Jamison (Lindy Booth) is a children’s librarian at quaint public library housed in a mansion in New York City owned by the Shaughnessy Foundation. She’s dedicated to her job and community. She wears adorable vintage-inspired clothes and lives in amazing apartment on a librarian’s salary.

Tony Shaughnessy (Robin Dunne) is the grandson and heir of the Shaughnessy legacy who doesn’t feel a connection to the neighborhood. Now that the $1-per-month lease has expired on the mansion, young Tony intends to evict the library and raze the building so his firm can erect condos on the site.

Naturally Cherie is heartbroken by this news. She just so happens to live in the same building as Tony, although she’s only ever seen him in passing. Not one to stand on ceremony, Cherie tracks down her neighbor and appeals to him to save the library. But Tony is focused on his plans, his chance to build his own legacy, and cannot be moved. Even by the pretty girl a few stories below his penthouse.

Cherie then appeals to Grandmother Shaughnessy, but even though she loves the community, she won’t take the project away from her grandson. Somehow this leads to Cherie coming up with a tree decorating competition for patrons to show what the library has meant to them. Her hope is that she can convince Mrs. Shaughnessy to judge the contest and remind her of her emotional ties to the library.

This isn’t the weakest plot I’ve seen in a Christmas movie, but it’s close and it appears that the writers knew it because they’ve thrown in not one, not two, but three budding romances, a pair of busy parents who learn a lesson from their adorable daughter, misapprehensions about money and class, and some heavy-handed lessons about the importance of real books and reading and getting kids excited about both.

Booth and Dunne are adequate actors, but compared to the rest of the cast they’re superstars. I cringed during several scenes with other actors who apparently haven’t progressed much beyond their high school drama clubs.

The core of the movie is a sweet story and it could have been a quirky, charming, romantic tale. Instead, it’s a mediocre holiday movie with a modicum of romance and a little bit of style in somewhat unique setting. I couldn’t help thinking that the folks over at The Hallmark Channel would have done it better.

Twelve Trees of Christmas premieres Saturday, November 16 at 8/7c on Lifetime.