Since the moment I was born, I have been a proud, self-certified movie critic and a less proud active Letterboxd user. I was lucky enough to grow up with parents who had seen pretty much every movie, and therefore, made my sister and me see pretty much every movie. During my Thanksgiving break this year, I watched six movies. Two in theaters, three on streaming services and one in 10-minute intervals through TikTok.
Even though I clearly enjoy movies anytime, anywhere, my favorite time of the year to turn on my TV is late November to early December. As the holidays round the corner, the channels of Hallmark and Lifetime release their new holiday movies and really come to life.
Whenever I tell people that my favorite holiday tradition is watching these types of movies, people tend to be skeptical, assuming that holiday movies are always a copy-and-paste of the same film over and over. However, every movie is always unique and sets itself apart from the rest. For example, two movies starring the same actress, Jana Kramer, could not be more different. Movie one, “The Holiday Fix-Up,” is about Jana Kramer’s character being an interior design influencer and getting hired by her family to renovate their town inn. The only problem is that the character’s contractor happens to be the boy from the past who broke her heart. But by the end of the movie, their spark is rekindled, and they even get their own hashtag. How romantic. In movie two, “Steppin’ Into The Holiday,” Jana Kramer’s character owns a dance studio that a former Broadway star’s niece happens to dance at, the former Broadway star being played by Mario Lopez. In this movie, her character is planning a dance recital, intending to raise enough money to take her students to see a Broadway show in New York City, and he helps her plan and choreograph and shockingly, they do fall madly in love. These movies are a perfect example of this genre because they show how diverse the plots can be while maintaining the classics of their channels: holidays, small towns and budding romances.
Despite my resistance to this fact, many do actually share many similarities. Last year, my mom and I both got fevers right before the holidays, and so all day, every day, we would lie on the couch and watch Hallmark and Lifetime movies. We ended up finding so many tiny similarities that we ended up making a Christmas movie bingo card. Picture this: a blonde girl with an unlikeable ex and an extremely impressive job manages to make her way to a small town. She and her sassy best friend walk around town and most likely enter a bakery, café or some sort of restaurant and meet a slightly uncanny valley hunk with a beard who ends up being her enemy and eventual lover. As our main girl talks to either an annoyingly immature or inappropriately mature child, no in between, she will realize how important she is to this guy and by the end of the movie, which will at most take place over three days and is always 127 minutes long, she will give up her flashy life in the city to live a small town life along with the love of her life. As you can see, that description can be paired to almost every holiday movie, and the cliche holds.
As a Brazilian Jewish woman, my biggest disappointment in this cliche was the consistent lack of representation. But, I have to say that in recent years, I have seen a noticeable shift toward more inclusive storytelling in both Hallmark and Lifetime. I believe that these channels have realized the importance of reflecting a wide range of experiences and backgrounds in their characters, and I have seen so many new movies incorporating people of different religions and ethnicities, helping these channels foster an even bigger audience than they had before. For example, in a new Hallmark movie, “Never Been Chris’d” (which I have to say is one of the best ones I have seen, so if I am mentioning it, I feel obliged to recommend), one of the main characters is Chinese, the other is Jewish and the main guy pretends to be a vegan for absolutely no logical reason. The film clearly caters to all different types of people. But this inclusion of actors and actresses from various ethnic backgrounds is so refreshing and has made lots of these movies more relatable for so many people, probably sucking many of them back into the world of Hallmark.
As someone who, again, prides myself on seeing most movies, I also pride myself on clearly seeing an insane amount of this type of holiday movie. When winter break rolls around, and I have some downtime, my parents and I will all crowd around our TV and watch these movies together. Holiday romance movies are definitely not for everyone, and my sister is one of those people who just does not get the appeal, because while my mom, dad and I could spend all day watching these movies, she always associates them with the cliche. But honestly, even though I have spent all this time arguing that no, they are all great and special in their own way, the thing that really makes these holiday movies is not the content of the film itself, but the people that you watch them with. The best entertainment in these movies comes from the commentary that you provide. So what I am trying to say is that the real magic of holiday romance movies lies in your hands. If you still think they are boring and repetitive, to each their own, but if you are willing to embrace the quaint towns and the cliches, I think that watching a Hallmark movie with your family and friends may end up being the most fun thing you do this holiday season.
