It's (ALMOST) the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

CHRISTMAS SEASON 2017 IS ALMOST UPON US!

On October 27, The Hallmark Channel begins its Countdown to Christmas! So this blog will be thawed out and start publishing again.

To get started I will review some basics:

Christmas Movie Basics

If you are new to TV Christmas Movies, there are few things you should know. First of all, these movies are more "Sharknado" than "Jaws", the acting can be pretty wooden, the characters can be two dimensional, and the plots can be a little fluffy. However, they are always a good romp, always worth a laugh or two (even if you are laughing at the movie not with it), and they always have more Christmas Spirit than one of Santa's helpers hopped up on sugar cookies. 

There are 6 basic Christmas Movie plots

1) Plagiarizing Dickens - this type of movie steals all or part of Charles Dickens' Classic, "A Christmas Carol". It is a story of a miserable lonely person who hates (or ignores) Christmas. Through some supernatural visitation they see that the Christmas Spirit exists and by the time the credits role they are helping Tiny Tim walk again. - "God Bless Us, Everyone!"

2) It's a Wonderful Copyright Infringement - About 20 minutes into this kind of Cheesy Christmas Movie, you will realize that this is a movie basically lifted from Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life". The protagonist has a crisis in their life and through some magic or heavenly miracle, they see what the world would be like without them. - Every time you hear a bell ring, someone steals a movie plot.

3) Christmas Heals a Broken Heart. This movie plot is so easy to do that several mainstream movies like "Love Actually" have used it to great financial success. This type of movie has a protagonist (or several) who is lonely/getting over a past love/widowed/abandoned/orphaned and the magic of Christmas brings them together with the person they need (lover, parent, pet dog, etc.) usually on Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning.

4) Christmas Competition- The background for this Christmas Movie is some kind of competition: Tree decorating, House decorating, Christmas Singing, Christmas Pageant, Cookie Backing, etc. The competition usually becomes so important to everyone that they lose sight of the real meaning of Christmas (until the end when everyone smiles and sings Silent Night and realizes that Christmas is about Love"0.

5) Christmas Saves the Town (or store, or library, or school, or assisted living facility or amusement park or toy company). Once upon a time in America there was a town or some other time honored institution that brought happiness and joy to the world. As less and less people know the "real" meaning of Christmas, the institution has faded a bit. Some rich evil Marty McHumbug decides to buy the land the institution is on and turn it into something awful like a strip club or a car dealership. The town (that has seemingly ignored this institution for many years) comes together to save it and put an end to the evil developers plans. 

6) Santa is REAL! This plot line actually works best with one of the other movie plots, using the REAL Santa as the magic in any of the above plots. But it also can be a stand alone movie. The title says it all - Santa is real and in the modern world - AMAZING!

Lifetime, Hallmark, and ABC Family (the major dealers for us Christmas Movie Addicts) take elements of these plots and mix and match them into a nearly endless quilt of possibilities.