There’s just something about a Hallmark Christmas movie that makes my heart melt. Yes, the writing is awkward. Yes, it’s incredibly cheesey. Yes, it’s completely hard to believe that people are lounging in their homes with the cutest outfits on and not in old pajama pants and a T-shirt that has seen better days. But, Hallmark Christmas movies are some of my absolute favourite movies.
When there are so many movies that are trying too hard, Hallmark is what it is. There is no trying to impress, no pretentious feeling plot, no stop and think moments. They’re there to get you into the Christmas spirit, to lift you up from a bad day, or a bad week, to bring you and your friends together for some wine and hot chocolate and snuggly nights spent on the couch watching movies that feel good. And, if you feel bad about watching them, give my article on why you shouldn’t a read.
Every Hallmark Christmas movie has a happy ending. While most movies have some sort of happy ending, Hallmark Christmas movies are always the happiest. They get what they always wanted, or never knew they wanted, and suddenly everything falls into place. Is this what happens in real life? No. That’s why it’s a movie. That’s why they’re so beloved and watched by so many. We need happy endings (pardon the double entendre) in our lives because life doesn’t have a magical happy ending.
Life isn’t fixed when you fall in love. It isn’t fixed when you move to a small, beautiful, wintery small town. It isn’t fixed when you quit your job to explore your passions. In a Hallmark Christmas movie, it is. It gives you hope for what can be, even though, deep down, you know it won’t work out that way. At least, not right away.
While some may look to Hallmark Christmas movies as bullshit that leads us further down the path away from feminism, I call bullshit on that excuse. They’re wholesome movies in a way that grown-ups, mostly grown women, can relate to. We all yearn to be happy and loved and feel safe. That may look different for everyone, but it’s safe to say that people want those three things. Hallmark Christmas movies give you those things. They make you feel happy, loved, and safe, even as you’re rolling your eyes at how the two characters just happen to fall into one another’s arms while baking cookies.
They’re the fairytale endings that we aren’t supposed to like and strive for because we are strong, independent women. But, doesn’t everyone strive for a fairytale ending? That ending may include a killer career and independence, but it may also include someone who loves and cares for you (hetero or otherwise), even if that includes friends who turn into family or family that turns into friends. It can also just mean falling in love and living happily ever after, because in a world that should be equal and feminist, it’s okay to want those things, too.
Fairytale endings aren’t real life, so why not escape for a couple of hours where everyone gets that fairytale ending, that perfect life, the white picket fence without the Stepford vibes. Get off your high horse and grab a peppermint hot chocolate and indulge your inner princess (or prince).
