It’s the most wonderful time of the year: time for Hallmark and Lifetime Movies to play Christmas movies 24/7. Sitting by a fire in cozy pajamas while drinking hot cocoa and watching the same cookie-cutter formula characters fall in love in hundreds of Christmas movies. What’s more festive than that?
The general formula for these movies starts with either the male or female lead going home for the holidays and then reconnecting with someone from their past. This connection from their past brings back the joy of Christmas and reminds them why they used to love Christmas. Other essential parts of these movies include nostalgic scenes putting up extravagant Christmas trees while eating impeccably decorated cookies, walking through small towns perfectly decorated for Christmas and time spent in the snow.
The love for these movies has increased throughout the years. This holiday season, the Hallmark Channel is releasing 40 new Christmas movies, an increase from 37 being released last year. Lifetime is releasing 30, a significant increase from the 18 they released last year.
The CEO of Crown Media Networks, the parent company of the Hallmark Channel, William J. Abbott, said in a 2018 interview with Glamour that he credits the rise in popularity to how streaming has changed the way millennials consume media.
Michelle Vicary, the Hallmark Channel’s executive VP of programming and publicity, also credited the 24-hour news cycle.
“I think people can only take so much,” Vicary said to Glamour. “We purposely look to be an escape. We try not to be issues-oriented in terms of creating polarizing conversations because there are places to get that. We are a place that is a haven from that. We’re just a different conversation.”
This escapism is the biggest reason we seem to love these movies. Instead of having to deal with real-world issues that make us feel helpless, we get to focus on predictable, easy to watch movies that remind us of the idealistic joy we hope for.
It feels like we get further and further from the classic joys of Christmas every year. Instead, it has turned into a monopolized holiday that makes us obsessed with consumerism and buying more than we need.
You could argue that Hallmark is one of the companies that changed our minds and made the holiday more about consumerism, but their movies are sperate from that aspect of their company.
The movies are there to give us these classic joys and we can come together and drink hot chocolate and decorate a tree together. These movies make us feel warm and enveloped in a sense of joy and coziness.
Graphic: Mars Hogue/ The Johnsonian
