Hallmark’s Christmas movies East Coast tradition
While the Hallmark Channel’s Christmas movies aren’t as timeless a tradition as singing carols or decorating trees, they’re certainly becoming one of the holiday’s cheesiest.
The channel has been producing its own movies since the early 2000s for TV and online streaming.
The Countdown to Christmas series is among the most popular — this year, the series had a whopping line-up of 40 brand new movies, which have been airing since late October.
And despite being renowned for unrealistic scenarios and over-the-top acting, Christmas fans eat them up each year. Muriel Jay Matheson of Charlottetown, P.E.I., said that because she’s retired, she sometimes watches one or two of the movies a day.
“My sister thinks I’m crazy, but that’s all right,” she said. “They are still entertaining to watch.”
For her, the movies get her into the Christmas spirit, as they often feature beautiful holiday scenery and decorations.
Even though every movie has a happy ending, they’re easy to watch because they don’t drag you down, Jay Matheson says.
“It’s escapism for people.”
CHRISTMAS MOVIE COMFORT
Keely Turner, who writes the Keelywood column for Saltwire Network, speculated that it’s these formulaic plotlines that make them so appealing.
“Every story is predictable,” she said.
“If I had to guess, the popularity is because it’s comforting.”
A typical Hallmark Christmas movie often includes at least one of the following tropes: a quaint small town, a no-good corporation, a rekindled relationship, someone hiding the fact they’re a royal prince or princess, or a Christmas pessimist re-discovering the true meaning of the season.
“(And) I suppose there’s something nostalgic about it because they always seem to cast actors who were popular in the ’90s,” Turner said, admitting the movies are much too cheesy for her tastes.
PART OF THE HOLIDAY ACTION
The Mah family, who are originally from Nova Scotia but are currently based in Ontario, can attest to how popular the movies are after being background actors in two of them: A Nutcracker Christmas (2016) and Season for Love (2018).
“They’ve gotten a cult following for whatever reason,” mother Beth Mah said.
While writing the movies
may be as simple as copyand-paste, for Hallmark to be pumping out more and more each year is nothing short of a miracle. One key to their success is that they’re not always filmed during Christmastime — A Nutcracker Christmas was filmed in August, meaning the snow was fake and there were a few hot days on set, Beth said.
“They had to keep fixing our make-up and hair,” she said. “And I’m wearing a big, ugly hat.”
They aren’t always told the plots of movies they background act in because it’s usually not necessary — they simply stick to the directions they’re given.
“(But) that genre is funny because the plots are exactly the same in every single movie,” father Frank Mah said.
Brothers Elliott and Edward Mah noted even though they aren’t big fans of the movies themselves, they’re fun to be a part of.
“They’re all very, very cheesy,” Elliott said.