Ease up on the holiday cheer

Re “What we all need now is a little Hallmark Channel,” Opinion, Dec. 25

All I can say after reading columnist Virginia Heffernan’s homage to the Hallmark Channel for running holiday movies to get us all into the Christmas spirit, whether we want to be in it or not, is this: Please, have mercy.

Forgive me if I sound like a Grinch ( it’s not intentional), but I would like to thank all the TV and radio stations that do not go completely whack- a- doodle over this most joyous of seasons. The decision makers at these media wisely determined that there are other viewers and listeners of all age groups who do not want to be bombarded with Christmas cheer all day, every day.

The Hallmark Channel began running holiday movies before Halloween ( really? Halloween?). Likewise, the playing of Christmas music all day on certain radio stations, starting just after Halloween, is in my estimation crossing right on over into holiday hysteria.

I will say, though: If the Hallmark Channel is able to lure away even one Fox News viewer per season, it’s doing something right.

Jacqueline West Inglewood

In this time of extraordinary partisanship, rising white nationalism, rampant disease and the denigration of the very concept of common good, I can’t blame Heffernan for taking comfort in Hallmark’s Christmas movie f luff. Personally, I seek escape in televised sports.

But as a gay man, I should remind her that the Hallmark Channel has been as consistently homophobic as the Republican Party. It’s recently produced film in which a gay couple is included doesn’t abrogate years of stereotyping or just plain ignoring LGBTQ people.

So now I’ve had my say, and I can go back to watching some mindless, homophobic sporting event. Anything is better than Fox News.

Thomas Bailey Long Beach

I loved Heffernan’s article. The Hallmark Channel has diversified.

She neglected to mention this year’s film “The Christmas House,” in which a gay couple is presented as normal, beloved and accepted members of a large family. When their adoption is finalized, everybody celebrates with Hallmark- toothache sweetness.

Gay people adopting kids being seen as normal as a Hallmark Christmas card? It’s about time.

Charles Griffis Los Angeles