Is it me or does there seem like there is a lot more death in this year’s Christmas movies? We don’t really need to be giving everyone dead parent trauma in order to make someone a single parent. Divorce is a thing, you know.

This is the first Christmas Angie (Samantha Cope) is celebrating without her mother. She enters a Christmas tree decorating contest to honor her mother’s memory. Also entering the contest is David (Ross Jirgl), Angie’s recently-widowed high school sweetheart, and his daughter, Gabby (Eliza Donaghy). Will all three of them be able to find the Christmas spirit again?

Love At The Christmas Contest was so boring. The whole plot centered around this tree decorating contest but we didn’t actually see any tree decorating. They talked about it. Awards were given. But we didn’t even get a montage of people decorating their trees. It would have been great to see Angie and her friend, Blair (Triana Browne), decorating their bee tree and giggling while David helped Gabby decorate their tree. There was so much potential lost there.

And I’m really over all of the death. We haven’t even reached the middle of November yet and it feels like everyone’s parents or wives have died. I guess that is this year’s theme. Death. Maybe it’s the networks’ way of sorta addressing the pandemic without actually addressing it. No one ever gives a reason why their loved one has died. They are just gone. If that this what is going on, it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the Christmas movie season. We still have a lot to go.

Sadly, I can’t recommend watching Love At The Christmas Contest. It is sad and boring. I never thought I would see a move that actually made me want more montages. What the heck, Great American Family?