Yes, Hallmark Christmas movies are cheesy

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Yes, Hallmark Christmas movies are cheesy. Here’s why we still love them.

So what is it about these cheesy, mass-produced films that make them so irresistible?
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The Hallmark Channel will debut 22 new Christmas movies this winter, down from 33 last year, bringing the grand total to more than 150, each of which take about three weeks to make and are rebroadcast year after year.

Despite how formulaic the movies are, audiences eat them up. The Hallmark Channel posted record numbers for viewership during the Christmas season last year, reaching more than 72 million viewers and skyrocketing The Hallmark Channel to the highest-rated station for its primary demographics (women ages 25 to 54 and 18 to 49) during the holidays.
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The films are an escape. For example, there are no political tensions or even signs of socio-economic differences in Hallmark movies. They whisk viewers into a completely upper-middle-class, almost entirely white world. The Hallmark Channel is, for the first time, releasing four movies with African-American leads this year,
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“apolitical in a way that people who blanch at the idea that all art is political call apolitical”—the channel has clearly staked out where it stands in the “War on Christmas.” Viewers will never hear anyone in a Hallmark movie say “Happy Holidays,” though they also can’t expect any signs of Christmas being about anything beyond cozy fireplaces, time with family, decorating trees and giving gifts.

In a comfortable world with no diversity, there are no conflicts, and thus nothing to worry about.
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I am craving some apolitical, cozy, relaxing movies. Bonus points if they’re about Christmas.
 
Seen multiple Hallmark Christmas movies in the past with family or friends. They definitely provide “an escape” but I find they often for myself as a guy (and these movies aren’t really tailed to a guy anyway usually) are temptations to emotional chastity.

I assume the case is the same for women, these movies challenge emotional chastity because they present a situation that is so beyond perfect and realism, that we start to crave this false reality and it makes our own reality depressing.

Not saying the movies are bad, but at least from a guys perspective, they are so far from reality they make reality start to suck lol
 
They remind me of the G-rated romance stories that used to run in “Good Housekeeping” when I was a kid and my mom had a subscription. Usually about a nice girl who isn’t particularly looking for love and then just happens to meet a man who is very nice.

I’m not sure why everything has to be about “diversity”. Many people live in a pretty homogenous community or neighborhood, this includes people who are not white as well. You don’t need to see diversity in every single TV show, movie, book or article in order to be a generally tolerant person.

Also not sure why wanting to watch a Christmassy movie automatically makes you some kind of enemy of the people these days.

Pretty much ALL television that isn’t a news broadcast is an “escape”.
 
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I’d make the same argument from a different angle. The Christmassy films seem to be closer to real life than most of the news broadcast nonsense.
 
I’ve only seen one, The Magic of Ordinary Days, which is so good I bought it. It"s about an unwed pregnant girl during WWII who has an arranged marriage to a farmer. It’s very well done… rated 7.8 on IMDB.
 
I have actually been watching them this year for pre-Christmas as an escape from all of stuff I don’t want to watch on tv. There is always a happy ending. No violence. No politics. Yes, everyone lives In a beautifully decorated close-knit community, and has a perfectly decorated home, but it did inspire me to put out some decorations, despite the fact that my “children” will probably not be home this year for Christmas.

Edit: I am actually watching one now. ☺️
 
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My wife and daughter are watching one right now. First time for both of them. My daughter said the priest at college gave a sermon that went through the whole plot of a Hallmark Christmas movie.
 
Irishmom2 said:
Edit: I am actually watching one now. ☺️
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The one with Lori Loughlin? Beautiful, successful woman goes home for Christmas and reignites her love for a long-ago ex? (the women in my house love her shoes, BTW)
 
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GospelOfMatthew said:
challenge emotional chastity because they present a situation that is so beyond perfect and realism, that we start to crave this false reality and it makes our own reality depressing.
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Did you not read his post…?
 
GospelOfMatthew said:
I assume the case is the same for women, these movies challenge emotional chastity because they present a situation that is so beyond perfect and realism, that we start to crave this false reality and it makes our own reality depressing.
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And yet people still use Facebook.
 
No, the one on the Hallmark movies and mysteries channel, One upon a Christmas Miracle.
 
Not sure I buy that definition, but whatever. I am married and have a family. I am not fixating on chick flicks or daydreaming. I just like a happy ending. There is enough real life going on.
 
CrangesMcBasketball said:
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Maximilian75:
Did you not read his post…?
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I did, and I’m not sure how Hallmark-brand escapism presents a challenge to chastity.
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I think it’s because the movie shows a perfect man and the (female) viewers will start to view the men in their real lives as being less attractive in comparison and while away their days fantasizing about the perfect man.

The problem with that is that those of us who really are perfect are already married.
 
I’d agree with you on that. I like a happy ending too.

In the real world, after many many many years, I have found we can all make our own happy endings.

If you pay attention to those movies, you will see the signs of just how the protagonist in the movie “engineered” that happy ending.

Maybe it’s a lesson for us all.
 
Yes, exactly, Stephie! There is a little message for me in every movie I have watched.

Christmas in Angel Falls is on now. I recommend it! It was the first one I watched this season!
 
Not to a reasonable extent, certainly not.
And being ‘emotionally unchaste’ may not even be a sin, but rather a metric to look at for the sake of ourselves and stability
 
Oh boy, a new buzzword for a new “sin” I’ve never heard of… :roll_eyes:
maybe it’s better that my college Newman center was a washout when I was in college, if they just sit around finding new things for you kids to worry about…can’t even watch a cheesy movie in peace!

Most people who watch a few escapist feel-good movies or read a few romance novels aren’t going to turn into emotionally obsessed fantasists over it. Anything can become a problem if you overindulge, but it’s not a “temptation” unless you have the mindset to overindulge in the first place. It’s like saying that spending time in a bar is a temptation to alcoholism. For a percentage of people it is, for a whole lot of people it’s not.
 
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