What's up with Hallmark Christmas Movies?

KC
by Katherine Cook1 view·Updated Dec 17, 2020
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A discussion on the origins and significance of Hallmark Christmas movies.

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  1. Hi, I'm Cat and my final video presentation will be
  2. over. Hallmark Christmas movies.
  3. Hallmark movies are cheesy, simple and melodramatic, and people just
  4. love to love them and hate them.
  5. They have created one of the most popular genres in
  6. Christmas films in America, with almost 70 million people watching
  7. in the last couple of years.
  8. For me, watching Hallmark movies with my mom and laughing
  9. at the ridiculously unrealistic plot is one of my favorite
  10. holiday pastimes.
  11. Hallmark movies have their origins in the Hallmark Hall of
  12. Fame, which began airing on various television networks on December
  13. 24th, 1951.
  14. The Hallmark Hall of Fame was the title of movie
  15. productions that were sponsored by the Hallmark Card company.
  16. The productions originally aired higher class programming like Shakespeare or
  17. the Opera, but they have slowly become synonymous with being
  18. family friendly and decent quality made for television productions.
  19. The Hallmark Channel itself originates from the combination of two
  20. Christian television networks, which combined in 1993 the newly combined
  21. network became known as the Faith and Values Channel and
  22. was later changed to the Odyssey Network.
  23. In 1998 the Hallmark card company bought Odyssey and rebranded
  24. the network as the Hallmark Channel in 2001.
  25. Hallmark has three channels to its name.
  26. The original Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies and Mysteries and Hallmark
  27. drama. They've also created Hallmark Movies now, which is a
  28. streaming service for all of their programs are available all
  29. the time.
  30. However, their Christian roots could still be seen in the
  31. way they make their movies.
  32. From their kind hearted characters and charming small town setting
  33. to their socially conservative, heteronormative romantic tales.
  34. The Hallmark Company actually has complete control over how their
  35. Christmas movies air made because they're written and produced by
  36. the Crown Media Family Network, which is actually owned by
  37. Hallmark. Whether this is seen is a good thing or
  38. a bad thing.
  39. Hallmark movies all maintain relatively similar characters, plots and setting.
  40. The main character is usually a middle aged woman played
  41. by a nineties B list actress from a large city
  42. who works too hard, and for some serendipitous reason, she's
  43. forced to go to a small town to celebrate Christmas.
  44. Somewhere along the way, she falls in love with a
  45. man and that snow covered, charming little town, and he
  46. helps you see the value in life.
  47. Very simple, very predictable, honestly, kind of charming.
  48. If you're a glass half full kind of person, the
  49. first thing I'll talk about is actually the behind the
  50. scenes work that goes into making Hallmark movies.
  51. Uh, the Hallmark Channel pumps out dozens of Christmas movies
  52. a year.
  53. There actually aren't enough winter months to film that many
  54. movies, so the best scripts are prioritized so they could
  55. be filmed in January and February, when there could be
  56. really snow.
  57. The rest of the movies.
  58. They're usually filmed during spring and summer months, with fake
  59. snow and actors and actresses sweltering in their winter clothes.
  60. Luckily, most Hallmark movies are filmed in or within driving
  61. distance of Vancouver, which is where Crown Media Productions is
  62. located. The interesting thing about that is that many of
  63. the movies end up being filmed in the same towns
  64. because there aren't that many charming little small towns within
  65. driving distance of Vancouver on become.
  66. Because there's so many films made each year, they get
  67. to reuse decorations and costumes.
  68. Eso they can make most of these movies with a
  69. pretty low budget.
  70. Another reused aspect of Hallmark movies is their cast.
  71. You'll generally see a lot of the same faces if
  72. you keep watching the Hallmark Channel.
  73. The channel champions a cast of B list actresses who
  74. are really popular in the nineties, like Candace Cameron Burger
  75. and Lacey Chipper Ah, Nde.
  76. Hallmark has actually made them kind of the figureheads of
  77. their channel.
  78. They do this because it appeals to their main audience
  79. base, which is white women, white women around the ages
  80. of 18 to 60.
  81. I will say the cast usually lacks ah lot of
  82. diversity, with a mere 18 to 24% having black leading
  83. roles, which is, honestly, pretty pathetic.
  84. But that will likely change after the recent work that
  85. the black lives matter movement has done in this past
  86. year. The one thing that Hallmark has been really good
  87. at is the way that they portray and treat their
  88. leading ladies.
  89. Uh, they apparently treated them really well on set, which
  90. is probably why they keep coming back to make more
  91. movies. But they also tend to portray strong, independent women
  92. in high paying corporate jobs and don't set an age
  93. limit on when these women confined love.
  94. Many of these actresses air well into their forties, and
  95. you never hear comments made about their biological clocks ticking
  96. away. Which is really nice considering how conservative the values
  97. and these movies can seem to be.
  98. Um, so with all of the reused characters, plots and
  99. setting, why are these movies so popular?
  100. Don't people get bored of them?
  101. The answer is yes.
  102. But also no.
  103. People return to these movies because they provide a sense
  104. of nostalgic comfort.
  105. You know what's gonna happen and even if they're surprises
  106. there, pleasant and welcomed.
  107. My mom and I always have fun guessing who's gonna
  108. fall in love and how and what the plot to
  109. us will be.
  110. If you could even really consider it a plot twist,
  111. Um, which were usually right about because it doesn't take
  112. a movie buff to guess what's really gonna happen in
  113. these movies.
  114. They're cheesy and unrealistic, and people are okay with that
  115. because they've accepted that these movies air form of escapism.
  116. People are able to escape from reality to a place
  117. where people are generally good.
  118. Money is never an issue, and there's always a happy
  119. ending. These movies serve a neurological need and society people
  120. turn to these movies because they receive secondhand validation and
  121. satisfaction by watching them, and they're actually proven to help
  122. relieve anxiety.
  123. Hallmark movies actually encourage people to be optimistic, and even
  124. if that optimism is fake, it's still positivity.
  125. And many people would do well to have more of
  126. that. Hallmark movies are so popular because they're easy, easy
  127. to make, easy to enjoy, not to mention how profitable
  128. they are.
  129. Even other production companies and streaming service's have started to
  130. get in on this niche form of movie making, like
  131. Netflix is Prince for Christmas or the Princess, which which
  132. have both added Sequels to their franchises In the past
  133. few years.
  134. Even one of my favorite podcast my brother, my brother
  135. and me have started doing a little Christmas bit called
  136. That's a Christmas to Me, where one of the guys
  137. reads the plot to to Hallmark movies and one plot
  138. he and his wife made up while the other two
  139. guys try and guess which one is the fake spoiler
  140. alert? They're usually wrong because it's so easy to make
  141. up one of these plots, but even with their subpar
  142. quality Hallmark movies, they're still enjoyable.
  143. They're like the Taco Bell of film.
  144. I know they aren't the best, but they're so easy
  145. that I still love wth.
  146. Um and I even crave them.
  147. And to anybody that hates them, they're definitely missing out
  148. on a one of a kind, guilty pleasure.
  149. Thank you.
  150. And have a merry Christmas.