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. Later when Julie Pine steals the note pad and reads "Stay away from the Pines," is spelled correctly.

It turns out there are, in fact, people who don’t want to watch the same film with a different name five times a day! However, as our viewing habits change, and we demand the content we want streamed 24/7 the made-for-TV Christmas Movie is evolving. Darn it if James daughter Julie Pine (Jonna Walsh) and her new found love in Rick Spruce (Nick Ballard) who is Dave Spruce's nephew is going to be ignored merely on a decades old dispute between the two (2) tree farm owners.

In the Capulet corner we have James Pine (Tom Kemp), recently widowed and just about holding it together. The production values are pleasing on the eye, the scenery has an authentic Christmassy feel and the photography doesn't try to do too much while not being claustrophobic. They all die” — at once referencing both the fictional couple and their legendary American real-life counterparts. But only the two grumpy old men know what the feud was about, and each of them angrily refuses to discuss it.

The festively-named Holly (Sarah Fischer) stands in for Benvolio, whilst the strong and dependable Bear (John MacGregor) plays an equivalent role for Julie (the opportunity for an ‘exit pursued by’ joke was sadly missed). So there are two families who own Christmas Tree farms next to each other and due to a fire that took out seven years worth of crops they've been at each other's throats for as long as the kids can remember. So much so, the Julie's dad says to her at one point "I thought I had raised a daughter who understood the values that this family holds. John Stimpson, 2017) — also known by the less Bardtastic title The Spruces and the Pines — is a classic made-for-TV Christmas Movie. The family surnames are really hokey (the Spruces and the Pines) and much like the Hatfields and McCoys who owned adjoining farms, so do the Spruces and the Pines whose livelihood depends on the Christmas season when their Christmas trees bring in the majority of their annual income.The course of true love never did run smooth, and our plucky heroine grapples with major setbacks (lost cookie recipes, missing baubles, or run-away puppies) on her way to the inevitable happy ending in the snow (not a euphemism — these are family-friendly films all the way! When respective heirs Julie Pine and Rick Spruce unwittingly fall head over heels for each other during the holiday season, they must keep their growing romance a secret or they'll risk a Christmas blow-up that could destroy their relationship, their businesses, and any hope at bringing the feud to an end once and for all. Still saw it anyway, with it being one of the films as part of my Christmas film completest quest and one of the films watched during the much-anticipated and needed Christmas period. 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 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?

Enough parts are amusingly light-hearted and there are some heart-warming and charming moments without being too saccharine. Although a simple story line, I am quite sure that there are literally millions of men and women who have lived the rest of their lives regrettably for listening to their closest loved ones (fathers, mothers, aunts, or uncles) and for years wondered to themselves ".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”. While the Romeo and Juliet story is not new and has been done many times, it is a slightly different approach to a Christmas story.