As
someone who has watched no shortage of Christmas movies in my life, I was
wondering what the ideal Christmas movie would look like. I saw on the internet
somewhere that someone made a massive collage of at least 100 different
Hallmark Christmas movies, every single one of which had a generic white woman
in a red sweater and a generic white guy in green sweater (because God
forbid women wear a “boys color” like green).
Every single one of those Christmas movies features mediocre actors with barely any chemistry and bad writing, so then what makes some of them better than others. Why is The Christmas Prince (on Netflix) better than The Princess Switch, or A Prince for Christmas or A Princess for Christmas (and yes these all exist and I’ve watched all of them)? I of course am a sucker for a good rom-com anyway, and adding the magic of the Christmas spirit to a rom-com can only make it better, which I guess is the market that all of these movies are going for. But yet, the Christmas movies of my childhood are the ones that stick with me the most and bring me the most nostalgia and warm fuzzy feelings about Christmas. I can remember watching The Polar Express on many a Christmas Eve, and the Jim Carrey version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a fricking masterpiece of both comedic and Christmas vibes. Even though neither of these have romance as a central plot line, they still stick in my brain year after year, just like the Heat Miser/Snow Miser songs.
I think the real reason that the old claymation movies and movies like The Santa Clause or Home Alone stick with me so much is because they are the stories of my childhood. I’ve always been a romantic, but I can guarantee that most of the Christmas romances that are made today are so similar and cliche that they just lose their individuality in my mind. Each of the Christmas movies from my childhood feel like they have their own stories, and they bring real memories. While I enjoy a Christmas rom-com, that void can be filled by many other regular rom-coms, most of which are 10 times better than the same Christmas romance that’s been made over and over.
The other conclusion I came to as to why some Christmas romances are just better than others is the writing. I like watching those movies with actors whom I’ve liked in other shows and movies, but even if I’ve seen them be great actors and have great chemistry in other movies, if the writing is dull and like every other movie, then I just can’t wrap my head around it sometimes. Would I still like to be in a mediocrely-written Christmas movie at some point in my life?
Absolutely. But one can only hope that I get someone other than a living Ken Doll as my co-star :).
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