Struck by a soft blue bolt of lightning that gives her mysterious powers, a fir tree that becomes a Christmas tree teams up with the family's Irish Setter to work wonders in the house that leave the baffled family members scratching their heads ... in gratitude. And when Christmas is over, the magic really happens!

SYNOPSIS:

“Anne’s Forever Christmas Tree” is a 39-page short family fantasy that's perfect for animation. True to its title, due to her magical powers and a fierce winter storm in the final act, the family’s Christmas tree lives forever literally, but also figuratively in the hearts of the family members.

I have adapted it into a 52-page children's book with 23 colorful illustrations that is selling nicely online now. The cover art is below.

A fierce storm opens the movie, with the inciting incident on the first page a mysterious, soft blue lightning bolt that gives a tall fir tree her magical powers and eyes, a nose, mouth and ears, and the ability to talk (with the voice of a teenage girl).

As a farm family takes the fir toward its house to become their Christmas tree, the family dog, Lucky the Irish Setter, and the tall fir strike up a friendship. Lucky names her Chris. “You’re gonna be a star,” Lucky tells Chris. “Like in the sky?” asks Chris. “Yep only better. You’ll see,” responds Lucky.

The script does not get bogged down in telling the story of the magical acts by Lucky and Chris linerally. Instead, it moves from the forest scene to New Year’s Day, causing the audience to wonder “hey, what happened during Christmas?”

In the country, there are no Christmas tree pickups, and Chris learns from Lucky that she is going to be taken out and put in the family garden for the winter, as is the family’s ritual. “I don’t like that ritual one needle!” declares Chris.

When the day comes for Chris to be taken out and placed in the garden, the co-protagonist little girl of the house, Anne, 13 is frightened that the other trees around the garden will bully the Christmas tree, “like the bullies do at school sometimes.”

Not to worry, her dad tells her. “The Christmas tree can just tell them what it was like being a Christmas tree, something they will never know because they stuck outside rooted forever.”

Later, as night falls, the tall trees around the garden awaken from their winter’s naps and indeed do begin bullying Chris, with Lucky coming to her defense.

As the night progresses, in a flashback, Chris tells the story of how she and Lucky chased away a burglar who was stealing the family’s Christmas presents and helped Anne’s sister, Sue, deliver her baby all alone in the freezing house during an ice storm.

The flashback ends as the sun rises and all of the trees apologize to Chris and Lucky, and are truly envious and jealous of what she and Lucky accomplished to help the family.

With Lucky yelling, “No! No! No don’t leave me!” and Chris yelling, “Please all remember me!”, a fierce windstorm lifts Chris up into the sky and she disappears.

Her seed cones fly all over the world and hundreds of little fir trees grow everywhere. In the final scene, Anne is running through a lush green meadow, sees a tiny fir sapling shooting up through the grasses, kneels down and says, “It is...By golly, there's another one. Hello, my...my forever Christmas tree.”