A Headbutt of Love
The Magical Christmas Tree is a 2021 American Tubi original Christmas movie/romantic comedy. It follows Pace Howard, a non-binary accountant living in LA whose employer-after being visited by the three Ghosts of Christmas-sends them out to find a magical Christmas tree in the hills of Los Angeles. There they meet Buddy, an elf and protector of the forest dead set on preventing them from chopping down the tree. At least.. at first.
The movie stars Socks Whitmore, Ky Mullen, Shane Ryan, Chris Spinelli Raven Miles and Jaclyn Malffugi.
This movie provides examples of:
- The Anti-Grinch: Stirling is a Scrooge-like character who after an offscreen change of heart wants to bring Christmas joy to everyone. It doesn't work out.
- Christmas Songs: We get a reggae version of Joy to the World at one point.
- Doorstop Baby: Buddy was adopted by two humans who found them on their doorstep, presumably left by elves.
- Endearingly Dorky: We first see Pace collecting stuffed animals.
- Everyone Is Christian at Christmas: Subverted to a point in the Muslim character who is forced to participate in a lot of nonsense.
- Geek Physiques: Pace, a nerd, is rather small and thin.
- Gift of the Magi Plot: In order to buy a chain for a pocket watch, Billis is given a razor by force.
- Ghibli Hills: The setting for most movie outside of Los Angeles.
- Hates Their Parent: Justified with Buddy; they were adopted into a human family who did not understand their elf heritage, and then forced them into conversion therapy. As such, their bad experience with not only their parents, but also the ill-treatment they received from humans, has made them distasteful of most humans.
- Head Butt Of Love: The poster shows this.
- I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: The second half of the movie has a lot of that.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: Alluded to in one of Stirling's speeches.
- Lewd Lust, Chaste Sex: The movie stops for a long scene of Buddy washing their face.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Buddy appears to be an elf and insists that elves are real. While there's nothing proving they aren't an elf, this is called into question multiple times - a park ranger insists they're simply a deluded homeless person, and Pace occasionally takes Buddy's insistence they're an elf with a grain of salt. Furthermore, Buddy was raised by Muggle Foster Parents who did not understand them and forced them into conversion therapy; Buddy insists it was because humans didn't understand an elf child, but there's also the possibility that they were simply a neurodivergent, queer child that believes they're an elf. The setting does have quite a few throwaway lines about other magical beings existing, such as ghosts (Mr. Stirling claims he was visited by ghosts who taught him the meaning of Christmas, but the office generally agrees he's gone off his rocker and is way too enthusiastic about the holiday), the park ranger briefly mentioning issues with goblins and leprechauns in the park, and Buddy briefly mentioning other elves (such as a Noodle Incident working for Santa and the Keebler Elves being commercial sell-outs) and cryptomining mermaids, but none of these are shown on-screen and could be a case of Unreliable Expositor.
- Muggle Foster Parents: While it's possible that Buddy may or may not actually be human, they insist that they're an elf and were raised by adoptive human parents. However, their parents were largely unsupportive and even forced them into conversion therapy, which has made them critical of humanity.
- Nature Spirit: Buddy the elf has the power to call down the wrath of the forest they protect.
- Non-Human Non-Binary: Somewhat subverted in that while Buddy is definitely non-binary they may or may not be non-human.
- Our Elves Are Different: They are genderless beings who live in the woods of Los Angeles protecting it. Or they're crazy homeless people. Not quite sure.
- Pointy Ears: Buddy the elf has pointy ears.
- Standardoffice Setting: An accounting and property management firm.
- Stepford Smiler: Ellering is the Depressed type. She's full of holiday cheer and is perhaps the most upbeat person in the entire office, but she's secretly dealing with the pain of her husband cheating on her then divorcing her. While initially she just slips occasional references to her recent divorce and insists on not going into detail about it, spending a day with her coworker Toma (who wants her to talk about it) finally gets her to open her shell and she has a full-on breakdown about how depressed she is and how she feels like she doesn't know the meaning of Christmas anymore. She thankfully gets better, after Toma helps her process her grief and tells her that the meaning of Christmas isn't just about other people - it's about being true to oneself.
- Trans Tribulations: Discussed. It's mostly off-screen, but Pace states they have no contact with their family because they treated them poorly; it's implied their parents were unsupportive of their gender identity, but this is never elaborated on. This may also be the case for Buddy (a nonbinary elf who had unsupportive human parents), as they were forced into conversion therapy, but it's not clear if it was because they really are an elf whose parents didn't understand them or because they were simply a misunderstood, neurodivergent or queer child.
