The pumpkins had barely been put away, and yet the Christmas season was already in full swing on Hallmark. There has always been an unspoken rule in my family: the Christmas season starts on December 1. Until then, the music is kept on my Dad’s favorite 80’s station, the mantel is kept bare and the cookies are frosted with pink icing instead of green and red. However, this implicit line has begun to blur over time. Starting with the Hallmark Christmas Movies.
It started as a family joke. We would make fun of the bad acting, predictable storylines and cheesy endings. But watching these movies has grown into something that defines my holiday season and brings me unprecedented joy.
The world often feels like a glass vase on a wobbly table, able to break at any moment. From hard tests to a divided society, sometimes it seems like just too much. These moments are when I turn to the comfortable predictability of Hallmark Christmas movies, every night at 8:00 PM without fail. They portray the same themes of true love and the importance of family that we have been learning since we were five years old. But these ideas are easy to forget in our current discourse.
Hallmark movies show the best of humanity, kind people and communities that don’t actually exist. They follow the same formula with the same actors and the same resolution. I can rely on them to deliver a sense of stability. So I encourage everyone to watch just one. And don’t turn it off when you think it is unbearably cheesy, but see it through to the end. I can guarantee that your day will be just a little bit brighter.
[Image via WJZY]
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