In Defense of the Hallmark Christmas Movie
I’ve seen my fair share of Hallmark (or Hallmark-style) Christmas movies, most of them chosen for the laugh/cringe/entertainment/camp factor and over-the-top Christmas spirit rather than the quality of the film.
Let’s be real, some of those movies are just not good. How many girl-meets-boy-in-an-African-safari or girl-meets-boy-and-oh-look-it-turns-out-he’s-royalty or girl-meets-boy-while-renovating-a-home-she-won-in-a-suspicious-looking-giveaway-in-New-Zealand movies can you possibly watch anyways? Unrealistic would be the first word that comes to mind, with cookie-cutter coming in at a close second place (I do think I should get bonus points for the festive reference, though).
Photo: Pinterest
I sit in my critic’s seat as someone who loves movies with beautiful cinematography, historically accurate costumes, unique film styles or plot lines that keep me on the edge of my seat. I used to love walking out of a movie theater into the warm sunlight after watching a nail-biter of a film, feeling particularly grateful for the normalcy of my life. Naturally I don’t love how seeing mass panic and disease on my screen reminds me of the life we live during this pandemic, and I won’t even dive into the additional factor that I’ll eloquently call “that panicky feeling you get while watching a movie character sit in a crowded indoors restaurant/not wearing a mask/being around maskless crowds/swap spit with a stranger.” It’s disconcerting, to say the least.
But, I had a conversation with a coworker today about a ridiculous Hallmark movie that she watched that involved a woman falling in love with a mannequin who comes to life, and realized that, in a year filled with jarring realities, there is an infinite amount of joy to be found in these cheesy, predictable, low-budget films. In my mind, entertainment has always been about escapism and immersing yourself in someone else’s stories. What better excuse to embrace that than a less-than-stellar year?
This is the year that I, the girl whose favorite movies tell tales of high-stakes poker games and Agatha Christie mystery tales, will be defending the Hallmark movie. I can find entertainment in most movies, sure, but the idea of something that we as a society have categorized as a guilty pleasure can become a model of simple joy that brings hope for the future is a new angle I’ve only recently discovered. Hallmark movies are not complicated, or unique, or particularly deep, but they remind me of what the future can look like. Reminiscing about cheesy holiday traditions through Christmas rom-coms has taken on a new level of depth as they play out better days on our screens - days where we could, and will eventually, travel and visit family and go to concerts and spend long hours catching up with friends and family in person.
Hallmark movies are simple, and hopeful, and a good reminder that when this is all over I could decide to don a coat and matching ear muffs, go ice skating with a crowd of Christmas shoppers, sit in a cozy cafe, and maybe bump into a beautiful stranger. But, in the meantime, if you’re not looking to think extensively about dark, twisty realities or face the harsh, hard-hitting truths of our day-to-day lives for a short 2 hours, may I offer a trifling, trivial, uncomplicated Hallmark movie?