My Christmas Family Tree is a 2021 Christmas film broadcasted and distributed by Hallmark Channel as part of its Christmas film schedule in 2021. It is directed by Jason Bourque and stars Aimee Teegarden, Andrew Walker, and James Tupper in leading roles, with the supporting cast including Kendall Cross, Georgia Mae Orchard, Colby McClendon, Lisa Paxton, Aadila Dosani, and Kapila Rego.
Vanessa Hall (Teegarden) is a New York-based social worker working for a non-profit foster child placement service, having taken up the job in the part of also being motivated by herself being a foster child after her mother died when she was 9. One day, under the advice of her friend, DeeDee (Dosani), Vanessa takes an ancestry test on the internet, discovering that she has a positive paternity test, revealing that her biological father is a man named Richard Hendricks (Tupper), who lives in Barrington, Connecticut with a wife, Pauline, and three children, Caitlin, Aiden, and Emilia. Deciding to contact her father and alongside arranging for a stay at his house for the upcoming days of Christmas, Vanessa also meets with a family friend on Richard's side, Kris, the only other non-family to be attending Richard's Christmas festivity, who is willing to give her a ride to Barrington for the stay. As Vanessa begins to stay and grow close to her newfound relatives, she discovers that there are differing accounts of each others' interactions and memories of Vanessa's mother, whom she refers to as "Patty" whereas Richard recalls her as "Trish". Furthermore, Vanessa discovers from a phone call that she may not even be related to Richard, putting further complications into her Christmas reunion as well as a budding attraction towards Kris.
The film provides the following tropes
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Richard's children with Pauline are initially shown to be this as they, especially Aiden and Emilia aren't too excited about Vanessa's arrival and presence in their father's household. Eventually, over time, Vanessa proves to be a positive influence towards her newfound family and the kids soon start to warm up and get along with her to the point of seeing Vanessa as a Cool Big Sis.
- Cherubic Choir: Emilia serves as one for her school as part of its Christmas schedule and faces self-esteem over the matter of whether she is able to keep up with making a good performance singing for her school choir. Vanessa helps out in motivating and improving her confidence just in time for Emilia to give out a commendable performance for her audience.
- Christmas Special: This film is one of many Christmas films by Hallmark Channel scheduled for 2021.
- Foster Kid: Vanessa became one after the death of her mother, having to be sent away into another family to be taken care of. That said, Vanessa does note that she did like their company and keeps in contact with them, even whilst missing her mother greatly.
- Good Parents: While Caitlin, Aiden, and Emilia can be demanding, Richard and Pauline do manage to prove themselves to be adequate guardians for them and care for them, much like any parent would be expected to. On an additional note, Richard is also affable to Vanessa upon their first interaction and, even when she felt that she wasn't Richard's daughter, he still insisted on treating her as one regardless.
- Long-Lost Relative: Vanessa herself is one, discovering her parental relationship only recently and setting up a plan to meet her father and his new family from there. Seemingly subverted when Vanessa gets a call that there was a false connection that was meant to be for another Vanessa Hall which was supported by how she and Richard remember Vanessa's mother by different names, but it's eventually revealed, through a card, that her name was Patricia, which confirms that Richard is indeed Vanessa's father.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: This trope is the main point of contention between Vanessa and Richard, as the only way they found out about one another was by an online DNA test on Vanessa's part. They get along, but they have wildly different perspectives on Vanessa's mother, and it doesn't help that Richard was once sent to fight in the Iraq War whilst leaving Vanessa's mother behind, and once he came back, he tried to find her, to no avail. In the end, the only real piece of evidence to prove their paternal relationship was a photo of the mother in which she had a striking resemblance to Vanessa.
- Missing Mom: Vanessa's mother died when the former was only nine. Despite her mother being dead for at least 21 years, This is a plot point as there is a long time gap between her death and Vanessa and Richard meeting each other for the first time, so their memories of her, whilst fond and memorable, are also quite hazy and this leads to the two of them having different interpretations of Vanessa's mother, including her name.
- Nice Girl: All of the female characters count, though Vanessa sticks out on the account of being quite polite and accomodating towards others to the point of volunteering to help them out in times of need, which eventually works in having her be accepted by her newfound family, even when she starts having doubts about her parentage.
- Nice Guy: Richard and Kris are both supportive, caring, and friendly people. In fact, when he found out about Vanessa for the first time, Richard was more than open in inviting her to his home for the Christmas festivities and Kris being willing to help Vanessa out in working to fix up problems involving Christmas props and taking her out in ice skating, which contributed to the two developing a romantic attraction with one another.
- Oh, Crap!: Vanessa has one when she gets a call stating that her DNA test got mixed up with another Vanessa Hall, which effectively cripples her confidence and self-esteem in the second half of the film and struggles to deal with the fact that she may be a visitor to the Christmas invitation of a total stranger whom she mistook to be her father.
- Red Herring: The name of Vanessa's mother turns out to be this. When they first meet, Vanessa and Richard genuinely get along but find friction when it comes to the topic of the mother. While they still get along, they have different memories and thoughts about her, especially regarding the name as Vanessa knew her as Patty whereas Richard remembered her name as Trish. The call about Vanessa getting her DNA results mixed with someone else who shared her full name seems to gravitate on Richard's perspective [p until he discovers an image of the mother where she bore a strong resemblance to Vanessa as well as a note that revealed her actual name to be Patricia, meaning that "Patty" and "Trish" were nicknames.
