The Christmas Tree

When "The Christmas Tree" was on, the phone rang. It was my mother. I had picked up the phone without really thinking. All I said was that the best Christmas movie ever was on and I could not talk right then and hung up the phone, not answering again, until the show ended. I have a big flowering crab that grows in front of my house that gives me so much pleasure during every season and I sometimes think of it as "Tree". I agree with others, why do they not replay this movie on TV? Release it, let us buy it. I would so love the opportunity to see it again. I have bought the book and it is nice, but Sally Field really brought the story to life.

simply put I am a huge fan of Christmas stories, GOOD Christmas stories. the year the Christmas tree was aired I was sick to death with the flu...... as i watched this beautiful movie with one of our most revered actresses Julie Harris it was so refreshing to finally see something different about one of the most popular Christmas events-we have ,the Christmas tree in Rockefeller square. What gives with not releasing this movie. I am so tired of the same old same old ridiculous Christmas stories that are being produced, silly...too romantic.....overly sappy... AND I LOVE SAP..... please please please....try to get this movie released,it should become a Christmas tradition. Sorry for the length of this, but I have been searching for this movie for years..... Thank you so much...David

Saw this on TV. A simple and beautifully told story of an young girl searching for love and her father. Like most children she has her "security blanket" which in her case happens to be a tree...... That beautiful tree is her confidant,her confort,her everything. So you can image her reaction when she is asked to give up this constant source of joy to be cut down and become the Christmas tree in the Rockefeller center. The story unfolds with such emotions by letting us know the life of the sister who adopted the Tree. Right until the end her roller coaster of emotions keeps us fixed and transfixed to the chair. Loved it and loved Julie Harris controlled acting.The sententially story of Cristmas without the usual HO HO HO. Recommended. Millie

Sure, it's sentimental. Sure, it's schmaltzy. But isn't Christmas, when you get that warm glow from thinking about the holiday season--in a Norman Rockwell kind of setting--just as schmaltzy too? I read the beautifully illustrated book and thought it would make a wonderful present for my sister who lives in Maine. After this made-for-TV film came out, I contacted her to find out how she liked the film--which I thought was wonderful. She just found it empty, not saying much, a disappointment.

But I think it was a very slender story to begin with and Sally Field has directed it with an eye for warm details and, yes, sentiment. And JULIE HARRIS gives the kind of performance she's famous for--simple, earnest, truthful. The tree had become something so close to her that she was reluctant to see it torn down to serve as New York City's famous tree at Rockefeller Center.

Unfortunately, the story details escape me now, having seen it only once the night it made its debut in '96 and expecting that it would become a rerun the way IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE did. No way. All of the performances were fine and although many would find it a bit hokey to make such a fuss over a tree that ends up in Rockefeller Center, it was done in a way that had a magic sort of appeal. Beautifully photographed with lush vistas of New England landscapes, it had a certain charm that tried to capture the warmth of the book.

Summing up: By all means worth seeing, if you can. I have no idea why it has simply disappeared from sight.

This movie has become a traditional part of my Christmas season along with the movie All Mine to Give. I was lucky enough to have taped it when it was shown just once the following year and then never again. Of course I have all the advertisements, etc. to skip over but it is still worth it. This is a movie that stays with you forever. No matter how many times I see it I am still left with the same haunting feeling. I can't understand why it is not rerun or sold on DVD. Every year I search for a store copy of this beautiful movie showing how the greatest joy can be had with just the simplest things -- a tree and a beat up old satchel.