Podcast in a Pear Tree: Christmas Movie Reviews · Aaron Lee Harvey, Danielle Espino, Samantha Gifford

Some Wise Tidings and a Conscious Uncoupling

·26 min·10 clips

Danielle, Aaron Lee, and Samantha open by saying there were not many new Christmas films that weekend, though they still have plenty to cover. The releases stretch across Hallmark, Great American Christmas, Disney Plus, and Netflix. The conversation quickly wanders into the season at home, including their Christmas tree already being up early. It looks beautiful, but also a little like it came from a department store, without the personal ornaments that make a tree feel lived in. That sparks a joke about wanting one fancy tree and one nostalgic tree someday in a big mansion. The movie talk settles on Merry Little Xmas with Alicia Silverstone and Melissa Joan Hart, then shifts to the Hallmark time-travel story built around a printing press. The panel lays out the setup: the characters are trying to make a sale, holding onto the printing press, and getting thrown through a lightning storm to 1945. In that past, Joy is running the store after World War II. Natasha, Candace Cameron Bray's daughter, plays the younger grandmother, and they agree she does a very good job. The whole thing starts bringing Back to the Future to mind. They keep circling the problem of changing the past, with Candace's character trying to improve her grandmother's life and then realizing those choices could mean she might not exist. Danielle says the movie was great, and the group moves on to Disney Plus's Joy to the World. The episode closes with the three of them talking about writing a Christmas movie for GAC and making the case that if a movie is set in the city, it should actually be shot in the city.

As heard by us

A holiday-movie panel at its best when a printing press gets launched into 1945.

Danielle, Aaron Lee, and Samantha spend the hour moving through a light week of Christmas movies across Hallmark, Great American Christmas, Disney Plus, and Netflix, with the season already crowding in from the start.

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Why you'd press play

You want a holiday-movie recap with tree talk, a time-travel mess, and a panel that can laugh while still tracking the plot.

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