A Star-Crossed Christmas

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Inevitably one child of a family falls in love with a child of the other family, and they are under a lot of pressure to break up due to old grudges. Know the difference: it’s our family name”, and urging the grieving widower James Pine to “be a good father and keep […his daughter] in line”. With Christmas fast approaching, and the snow starting to fall (at least here in the Swiss mountains) my thoughts have turned to hot chocolate, cosy blankets and made-for-TV Christmas movies.

But Rick has not grown up with the on-going feuding, which he thinks is nothing to do with him, or Julie, and he persists, and wins Julie around.His first Christmas without his wife and childhood sweetheart set to be scuppered by a missing family heirloom — the star for the top of the tree. They all die” — at once referencing both the fictional couple and their legendary American real-life counterparts. The only characters I enjoyed (apart from the soldier because we respect the troops) were side characters Bear and Holly, who’ve been having a secret inter-feud triste of their own for months without making such a meal of it. But the audacity of a cookies- and-cocoa Christmasification of Romeo and Juliet make this film essential festive viewing for any Bardophile.

But all is not cookies and cocoa in this sleepy backwater — with the recent death of Julie’s mother (what is it with Shakespeare and missing mothers? The feud between the families begs an explanation, especially since they're selling two different products and therefore, aren't truly in direct competition. The premise for 2017's 'The Spruces and the Pines' didn't entirely grab me at first or make me go wow. It doesn't take long to find out the feud is still going strong and appears to have gotten a little harsher in the time she's been away.

By contrast, balsam firs, while belonging to the large family Pinaceae, are not members of the genera Pinus, but belong to the separate genus Abies. Dave Spruce too gets in on the allusions act: “Pines are soft and thin, the branches bow under the slightest weight.

In case we are under any doubt that we are in Romeo and Juliet territory, Bear laments that Rick and Julie’s relationship is doomed to failure: “Ever heard of the Hatfields and the McCoys, Romeo and Juliet?Rick has been promised the opportunity to take over the spruce Christmas tree farm if he likes the work. Meanwhile, the younger generation engage in hilarious pranks — hanging Christmas trees upside down and defacing signs with silly string. But only the two grumpy old men know what the feud was about, and each of them angrily refuses to discuss it. Time and location aren't divulged, and none of the actors ever behave as if there's a chill in the air. In the Montague corner we have Dave Spruce (Ken Cheeseman), and his hapless out-of-town nephew Rick (Nick Ballard), drafted in to help with the Christmas rush.