How to Write a Hallmark Christmas Movie
Spot the genre in 7 easy steps — and make it better
Allow me to present the genre of Hallmark Christmas movies in 7 easy steps and a suggestion
(some things never change, so I’ve revised and updated from 2019)
With the holiday season upon us, it seems time to refresh our knowledge of the romantic Christmas movie genre, whether Hallmark or Lifetime. For the greater good, I forced myself to watch a lot of Christmas movies. It was tough, but somebody had to do it.
In truth, I’m confessing again my shameful secret — that I’ve watched those movies for a few years now. The feminist me blushes as I admit the truth. I’m well aware of how they reduce women and men to caricatures, insist that women value family and marriage over work or adventure, idealize small town life and demonize big cities. Until recent years, they also insisted on white-only leads and male-female-only couples. And so much more.
But, like other comfort TV (Midsomer Murders or House Hunters International or English soccer— fill in the blank with your own fave), they also make life seem simpler for the moment, tug at the heartstrings or our love for family or friends, and assure us that everything works out at the end.
So on to the hallmarks of the Hallmark Christmas movie!
1. The hard-driving heroine
An attractive young woman (usually with long hair and carefully curled waves) leads a busy life in the big city, working too many hours but on the rise in her profession (architect, lawyer, designer, chef — no teachers that I can remember). She is unmarried, of course, though she may be engaged to a big city workaholic guy.
2. Her quest
Something happens to call her home to the small town she grew up in (she inherits her aunt’s B&B, tries to save her father’s Christmas tree farm from bankruptcy). Or she is sent to a small town for her job (she’s assigned to buy up the land for their new resort, has to decorate the boss’s vacation house for Christmas, is planning the wedding of the century). Very occasionally, workaholic woman already lives in small town, but the genders in that version have been largely reversed in more recent years.
In any case, big city workaholic arrives in Podunk town with a job to do.
3. The setting
The Podunk town is inevitably charming. Its main street is filled with thriving local stores (the town bakery, small bookstore, coffee shop) and bustling with locals on the sidewalks, all greeting each other with smiles. There is snow on the street and at the curbs, but never enough to make the sidewalks slippery or the streets unsafe to drive (or even to cover the tops of cars usually, my partner would want me to point out). Any major snowstorm waits until our heroine and her new love interest are safely ensconced in a cabin in the woods, alone.
4. The love interest
He (until recent years, always he-and-she) is the local boy, tall and handsome and good with his hands (in a handyman kind of way, not a handsy kind of way. This is Hallmark, after all). He might be fixing the porch railings on that B&B, or hauling Christmas trees to customers’ cars, or carving wooden gnomes in the barn. He works with his hands, not his brain. He likely has a daughter, a cute young 6- or 7- or 8-year old girl in pigtails whose mother died tragically of cancer or in a car accident. Having learned the true meaning of life, he’s happy with his small-town life, its slower pace, and its values.
5. In sharp contrast to our heroine’s current fiancé and life
Our Hallmark heroine either resists all close human interaction in favor of her ambition or has an equally ambitious fiancé. He stays behind in the big city (at least in the first hour of the movie) for work. If she has no current love interest, it’s usually because she’s been hurt, or her parent died when she was young, or she’s afraid to get close to anyone again. If she has a fiancé, he’s usually just like her at the beginning — ambitious, working too many hours, thinking only of making money and getting ahead. Their (separate) apartments in the big city (never a house) are always streamlined contemporary stainless steel and glass with lots of leather furniture, with huge walls of windows showing city lights and a kitchen that no one seems ever to have cooked in.
6. Her revelation
Current fiancé arrives in small town as a surprise (or early), only to discover that our heroine has meanwhile fallen for the local handsome handyman — a fact she often has not yet realized. Thanks to handyman’s influence, and all the townspeople she meets (usually including at least one older woman with gray hair and a rounder body who offers wise words about what’s really important in life — or a similar man who is clearly secretly Santa), our heroine has begun to change her values. She learns the joy of baking Christmas cookies together, of saving the historic building rather than tearing it down, of putting family ornaments on a Christmas tree, of playing in the snow with Love Interest’s delightful little girl. She has learned to slow down and value human connection over human ambition.
7. The resolution (and kiss)
What happens next??
Surprise!!
Poor dumb fiancé, who did nothing wrong but fit into our heroine’s old way of life, gets kicked to the curb. Often abruptly. Sometimes he does something that makes us glad she dumped him, but just as often he’s an okay guy who just wants different things. The things she used to want.
Something happens to let our heroine stay in the small town. She takes over the family Christmas tree farm or B&B, buys the local bakery, gets a job in the big city nearby, or follows her dream to the writing or crafting or house decorating she has always wanted to do and becomes a small-town entrepreneur.
And of course she and the Love Interest hook up. Well, no, they don’t. They kiss, which seems to be the same thing in a Hallmark movie. Often they kiss as the very last scene, with snow falling gently around them and music rising to greet them. Or maybe in front of the family room Christmas tree with delightful daughter and wise old family members looking on.
And they live happily ever after.
Presumably
Are you surprised? Yeah, I didn’t think so
What doesn’t happen
Our Love Interest doesn’t move to the big city with our heroine so that she can take that big promotion she was offered. Usually, his work doesn’t change at all, unless his gnome carving saves the family tree farm from bankruptcy. He never goes to work for her new venture, as far as I can find.
Until very recently, our Love Interest is not African American, or Latino, or Native American, or anything other than snow white. The best friend might be a person of color, but we learn nothing about her except that she listens well and advises our heroine to follow her heart
And our heroine definitely doesn’t fall in love with the local handy-woman, leading to the two brides softly kissing at the end
Suggestions for your own version
The genre is badly in need of an update in so many ways. After all, every genre changes as the world in which it exists changes.
So let’s have more Hallmark Christmas movies with same-sex couples.
And trans-gender characters
And couples of multiple races and identities.
And heroines and Love Interests who weigh more than 100 pounds.
And live with disabilities
And older than 25. Heck, maybe even older than 55! or 65!!
Let’s see the couple work out creative solutions for maintaining purposeful jobs while staying together. Let’s hear them discuss how they’re going to pay the bills if she quits her job to make Christmas cookies.
Let’s recognize the economic realities of small towns and show the townspeople struggling to make jobs for the heroine (or their college-educated children) to return to.
Everything can still end happily at the end. I don’t want to take away the guilty pleasure of a simple story that shows everything will be okay.
But new Christmas movies could reduce the guilt part with a few tweaks to fit the genre into the current world. That’s what genres do.
The leading character can still have long hair with their waves curled just so. And the snow can still look pretty without being slippery. And the movie can end with a kiss.
Gotta have the kiss (it is still a Hallmark Christmas movie, after all)
Let me know when your new improved version is set to air. I’ll be on the couch in a cozy blanket, eager to watch.
