I have made it to the end! Well, the end of the Lifetime 2021 Christmas movies at least. Writing Around The Christmas Tree is the last of the Lifetime (and Hallmark!) Christmas movies on my list. There are a few Netflix movies left, though I have to see if Netflix hasn’t removed them from the service. I will be so glad when this second Christmas is over.

Mikaela (Krystal Joy Brown) is a romance writer who is suffering from some writer’s block. She decides to reopen her late mother’s writers workshop at her father’s bed & breakfast. Somehow, non-fiction writer Levi (Curtis Hamilton) manages to snag an invite to the workshop. It seems that Levi wants to write a book about Mikaela’s mother. Will Levi use Mikaela for information or will something more come out of the workshop?

Jake Helgren wrote this movie, along with a number of other Christmas movies. I’m not sure if he’s a terrible writer overall or if it’s just his Christmas movies that suck. Though I noticed that he tends to direct the movies that he writes so maybe the problem is that he has no one to tell him his stuff is just not good.

For example, there are only a few tolerable characters in Writing and they are barely used. The amazing Dawnn Lewis plays Sharon, a cookbook writer who is having problems finishing her latest cookbook. However, we mostly only see Sharon interacting with Mikaela’s father, Irving (James Black). Then there are the two gay assistants, Keifer (Gavyn Michaels) and Mitchell (Max Emerson). They are mostly used to shove the plot along when Helgren can’t figure out how to make it organically move forward.

The worst character, though, is Olive (Meg Steedle). Olive writes musicals. But her personality is harsh and abrasive and she keeps throwing herself at Levi, even though it’s obvious he’s not interested. I cringed every time she appeared on screen.

I don’t know that I would say Writing Around The Christmas Tree is worth watching. After all, we don’t even get to hear the stories any of the characters write. We only hear a couple of poems. I really wanted to like it and I was sadly disappointed.