It’s that time of year again -- time to trim the tree, hang the mistletoe, and go to our local theater to see what Hollywood is giving us in its new crop of emotional, heartfelt seasonal movies that we all love.

This Christmas, brings another attempt, this time with a little twist.

This Christmas, released and produced by an indie company -- Rainforest Productions, and Screen Gems, a subsidiary of Sony Pictures, is something new and uncharted territory for Rainforest. Traditionally, many Christmas films are released and financed by bigger distribution companies such as Walt Disney, including the ever popular Santa Claus series with Tim Allen. But here we have a seasonal movie, which may entertain with a bit of a twist on the holiday.

Christmas is always the best time of year for box-office success, mainly because families turnout together to see those holiday films that evoke such a feel-good spirit. Perhaps the execs over at Rainforest Productions and Screen Gems got that memo.

The task, however, with This Christmas, for its production team, will be to differentiate their film from other traditional Christmas movies with the hope of drawing a new wider audience. Lovers of the holiday genre will expect to see the elements of tradition including laughter and joy and some format of family togetherness.

But, moviegoers are usually intrigued to see something different. That may be the gift of This Christmas. Its marketing suggests a more true-to-life story than most in the way it connects conflict and family arguments to the underlying love and warmth associated with this time of year.

Combining the two, realism, with traditionalism, may give This Christmas a level of authenticity that is rarely seen in most holiday films - which can only help when the numbers start to roll and the user comments blossom. If the film does find success, we could expect to see more indie filmmakers less afraid to venture out and explore producing new material in this genre.