A Hallmark Christmas Movie is not critically acclaimed in any way whatsoever. Instead, it's more of a feel good romantic comedy with a holiday theme. If you've never seen a Hallmark Christmas Movie, don't worry each movie is pretty much the same. They all follow the same generic plot line. I'm going to break down the plot of what (almost) every Hallmark movie follows. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Hallmark Christmas Movie Formula.
Now the first thing you need to know about what makes a Hallmark Christmas Movie a Hallmark Christmas Movie is the casting. The casting is crucial! Now you won't find an A List actor to star in the film. Normally it's a D List star or someone you've never heard of before. Think of people you've either seen on Dancing With The Stars or who you expect to make an appearance in the near future. Hallmark always has a go to star for each movie, I refer to them as their ringers. Stars like Candace Cameron Bure, Lacey Chabert, Lori Laughlin and Danica McKellar are basically Hallmark royalty. There are other actors and actress but those four are the faces of Hallmark and have starred in a majority of the movies. Now for the rest of the cast, you have the love interest, the family members, friends, co-workers, and towns people. Now most of these are played by nobodies as well. But sometimes, the love interest may be notable but most of the time he's just a pretty face.
Now that we have the cast all picked out, let's get to the basics of the plot. The story always takes place during, you guessed it, Christmas time. Literally the week of or the week before. The main character is typically a big city girl with some sort of cut throat career, sometimes you'll have a writer, a business woman, a doctor or veterinarian, or some other cliche profession. But what the real takeaway from her profession is that she's typically in line for a big promotion. But first, she has to relocate to a small town to help the struggling town and prove she's worthy of the promotion.
Now while she's struggling to get adjusted to small town life she meets her love interest by some chance of fate. Whether that's by bumping into them accidentally or having some sort of argument, she has no idea this is who she's supposed to fall in love with. Things will typically start off rocky, since they're so different. Small town boy and big city girl never works right? WRONG! They end up spending more and more time together, because (you guessed it) he's the person she's supposed to help while she's in the small town.
Things start to look up after that chance encounter, he helps her get adjusted and she helps him with the business. While they're working together, they also start to form a friendship and do things together outside of work, You'll find them participating in cliche Christmas activities, like baking cookies, building a snowman, ice skating, decorating the Christmas tree, etc, etc, etc. You get the point right?
Their connection starts to grow and slowly but surely they're falling in love. The main character is finally used to small town life and slowly starts to forget about her old life. But wait! Her boss calls, and offers her the promotion, she's headed back to her old life. She tells her love interest and they're both sad realizing things would have never worked anyways. When she's finally back in the city and has everything she thought she wanted, she has an epiphany. She leaves her promotion to go back to the small town realizing all she ever needed was true love. So she makes it back to the small town just in time to celebrate Christmas and participate in some local tradition. She runs back to her love interest tells him everything she just realized, they kiss, then it starts snowing. BAM the movie is over and the credits roll.
There you have it, now you know the plot of every Hallmark Christmas Movie ever made and every movie to come. That's two hours of your life you just got back, and yes they are all two hours long including commercials. Now not to trash Hallmark, their movies are really enjoyable. Predicabale and cliched? Yes. But still enjoyable! Sometimes all you want to do is watch a cheesy holiday movie during this time of the year.
In fact, someone actually created a Hallmark Christmas Movie drinking game. The game itself follows the Hallmark Christmas Movie Formula, which goes to show just how predictable they are. I know I'll be participating in this game this year! Adding fun elements like the drinking game or trying to predict the plot based on the title really shows what a Hallmark Christmas Movie is supposed to be about, fun times and celebrating with your friends and family.
This year, I've already watched a fair share of Hallmark movies and I'm not ashamed at all. In fact, I can't wait to catch some of the new ones I've missed out on this year like The Christmas Train and Christmas in Evergreen. Also be on the lookout for some other new Hallmark Christmas movies that will premiere this month, there are still seven new ones left to air!
There are just about two weeks left until Christmas, so what are you waiting for? Let's get to watching!
Until tomorrow.
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