A CHOOSE-YOUR-OWN romance

See if you can create a holiday movie that out-smarms Hallmark’s cheesiests

The people who make Hallmark’s heartwarming holiday TV movies openly admit that there’s a certain check-the-box formula to the process. It’s the rare genre where repetition and predictability — along with a sugar high of an ending— are totally welcome.

So that has us thinking: Why don’t we take a crack at creating our own? After all, the folks who write the scripts for these festive flicks reportedly earn $50,000 to $60,000 a pop (plus residuals).

To craft a do-it-yourself Hallmark Christmas movie with all the trimmings, simply choose one item from each of the following categories and string them together in a sustainable ta narrative. For filler, toss in a cookie-baking k scene, a frantic sled race or a bloodless snowball fight.

Now grab an eggnog-based cocktail and get to it:

1 Pick a leading lady

To start, you'll need a vaguely familiar actress — preferably someone from a TV series once available on VHS and who isn't currently committed to “Dancing With the Stars”:

■ Lacey Chabert (“Party of Five”)

■ Candace Cameron Bure (“Full House”)

■ Maureen Mccormick (“The Brady Bunch”)

■ Danica Mckellar (“The Wonder Years”)

■ Holly Robinson Peete (“21 Jump Street”)

2 Give her some character

Now assign some attributes and maybe a career path. She can be ...

■ An unlucky-in-love big-city ad exec

■ A jaded, commitment-phobe writer or reporter

■ A romance-starved wedding planner

■ The Grinch-like CEO of a toy company

■ A single mom at a crossroads in life

■ A disheartened lawyer stuck with the wrong guy

3 Provide an idyllic, Christmasy setting

Sorry, Bedford Falls has already been taken. These are the choices you're left with:

■ A quaint, snow-covered hamlet in Vermont

■ A quaint, snow-covered hamlet in Colorado

■ A quaint, snow-covered hamlet in upstate New York

4 Set the wheels in motion

■ Inheriting her grandpa's run-down Christmas tree farm (or corner store, or local newspaper)

■ Stranded in a blizzard while trying to get home for Christmas

■ Butting heads with a former high school rival (or long-lost crush)

■ Freaking out over her entry in the town's gingerbread-house contest

■ Meeting an angelic stranger who knocks some sense into her head

■ Inexplicably becoming the governess to a princess

Your main character needs to encounter some unforeseen obstacle. So now she finds herself ...

5 Make that love connection

Worried that your story is getting too sappy? Just go with it and have your leading lady fall in love with ...

■ A sensitive, outdoorsy type in plaid flannel

■ Her old crush (and/or an abandoned puppy)

■ The family she once walked out on

■ A single dad and his adorable kid

■ Life in a quaint, snow-covered hamlet

6 Tack on a cheeky title

Viewers judge a holiday movie by its name. Have some wordplay fun along these lines:

■ “A Turn of the Scrooge”

■ “Where There's a Will, There's a Sleigh”

■ “The Plight Before Christmas”

■ “Will Yule Love Me Tomorrow?”

■ “It's a Blunder-ful Life”

■ “All I Want for Christmas is Hugh”