The Hallmark Feel
Plus Tia Mowry's new Christmas movie, a Lindsay Lohan/Jon Hamm link up, and more.
Earlier this fall, I began working on a reported feature for Thrillist on what a Hallmark holiday movie is supposed to look and “feel” like. It was an examination of the culture of Hallmark holiday movies, featuring a breakdown of film locations/destination trends and an interview with a Hallmark screenwriter.
Unfortunately, that story was not able to run, as Thrillist as we once knew it was shut down. One of my great friends (not my editor) was among the staffers who lost their job. Thrillist has done tremendous work expanding their brand and scope of content throughout the years, so this shut down is both a major loss for the journalism world and for readers interested in unique angles on “travel” content.
With that said, I’ve decided to publish my original story in this newsletter as the story of the week. It’s a little long, so I encourage you to read it when you’ve got a lunch break or some downtime. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed reporting on it.
Where the Christmas Magic Actually Happens
In Jingle Bell Run, one of the latest Hallmark holiday movies, two Chicago-based adults compete in a Christmas-themed game show competition that takes them around the country. From Chicago’s Lincoln Park to the streets of Brooklyn to barn dancing in Abilene, Texas, the two not only learn more about each other, they also learn about various Christmas traditions and locations throughout the country.
Jingle Bell Run is sweet and wholesome (and quite good), but it’s also a different Hallmark holiday film than what you might have seen in 2017. While Hallmark Channel staples like quaint, indistinguishable, questionably named New England towns and tame heterosexual couplings still comprise the majority of films within the genre, the channel has made a concerted effort in recent years to diversify. So what does a holiday Hallmark movie town look like in 2024? Well, it can look like a lot of different things.
An analysis of Hallmark's explicitly located holiday films across 2023 and 2024 reveals a significant shift toward real-world settings, with a strong emphasis on both domestic and international locations. Of the 21 films with specified locations in their press-release descriptions, the East Coast dominates domestic settings with eight movies (38%), concentrated heavily in the Northeast corridor from Pennsylvania to Connecticut. The Midwest follows with six films (a little over 28%), notably featuring multiple Chicago-set stories and expanding into Minnesota and Kansas City. The West Coast maintains minimal representation, with just two films (9%) set in major cities in Denver and Seattle, respectively.
Most striking is the robust international presence, with five films (a little under 24%) set in European locations spanning from London to Vienna, suggesting a growing interest in global storytelling. These numbers mark a departure from Hallmark's traditional preference for made up small towns, with major U.S. cities and international destinations now comprising over two-thirds of location-specific holiday films.
This evolution toward real-world settings marks a significant departure from how Hallmark holiday movies first captured audiences' attention. The genre was first popularized through the Hallmark channel, which more or less defined what a Holiday romantic comedy should look and feel like: quaint and lovely, with mild hijinks and chaste romances. "I think there's a hopefulness. I think there's a wish for good things,” says Gary Goldstein, a screenwriter who crafted Hallmark holiday movies like 2022’s Lights, Camera, Christmas! and 2018’s Royally Ever After.
"I think there's a hopefulness. I think there's a wish for good things.”
- Gary Goldstein, screenwriter of Lights, Camera, Christmas! and Royally Ever After
There’s also a wish, at least amongst viewers, for good visuals.
Think warm and lush set pieces, with an abundance of red and green decorations around every corner. It was easy to imagine the movies taking place in small yet mighty New England states like Vermont or Connecticut. No far off galaxies or ventures through the North Pole. Most movies included a light coating of snow on the ground. Many had pretty town squares with tree lightings, village festivals and major dances central to the plot. Homes were expansive, with massive living rooms featuring multiple Christmas trees and garland around every mantle. Everything was within walking distance.
All of it was lovely and all of it was indistinguishable enough to feel real. In the end, they reminded viewers of a not-experienced yet familiar version of what Christmas once was and should be. Unsurprisingly, these familiar elements applied to the naming conventions of Hallmark movie towns, too.
While viewers have become familiar with towns bearing seasonally evocative names like Evergreen and Mapleton, the process of naming these fictional locations involves more than just creating a cozy atmosphere. Screenwriter Gary Goldstein explains that each town name must pass through rigorous legal clearances, leading to an interesting pattern of modified real-world nomenclature.
"Everything has to go through legal clearances... whether it's the name of a town, a name of a character, the name of the business," Goldstein says, noting that writers often have to adjust their original choices to meet legal requirements – for instance, changing "12 Oaks" to "10 Oaks" or "North 12 Oaks."
This results in a particular pattern among Hallmark movie town names: they often incorporate familiar elements like numbers, cardinal directions, or natural features (Pine, Oak, Mill, Glen), combined in ways that evoke small-town Americana and satisfy legal requirements. They feel both familiar and fictional, as if they could exist just one county over from any real American small town.
The formula proved to be a success for the Hallmark Channel, which, according to Adweek, saw its ratings double over the 2010s decade. Other networks, which typically slowed down during the holiday season after November sweeps, began to produce their own films within the genre, to questionable success. Now, holiday rom coms, once a blip on our seasonal radars, have grown into a three-month juggernaut of movies across broadcast, cable, and streaming channels. In 2023 alone, 116 movies premiered. However, with second-rate networks like Pure Flix and Great American Family (along with streaming behemoths like Netflix) getting into the Christmas movie game, Hallmark has begun to differentiate what a holiday movie town should be.
"After so many Christmas movies [have] come out, you have to have some things that are different,” says Goldstein. “I think there's been a great effort to try to expand the stories and keep them timely."
“How can you emotionally relate to what [these] characters are going through during the holidays in the same way that we—as non characters, as real people—have those same feelings?”
- Gary Goldstein
Most notably, Hallmark has jumped into the real world. This applies to the races, genders and sexualities of their main characters, like in Friend’s & Family Christmas, co-written by Goldstein and featuring a lesbian romantic plot, or in 2022’s Holiday Heritage, which focuses on Kwanzaa. But it also applies to the settings of the movies, too, situating these magical and romantic fairy-tale films into the very real cities, states, and countries of their viewers.
“[The movies should have] all of the trappings of Christmas that we love and that people come to see, but then, with each movie, its own unique spin on it,” says Goldstein.
Hallmark holiday movies are no longer just set in the main characters’ carbon-copy “hometowns.” No, they now explicitly name places like Mystic, Connecticut or Nantucket. And there isn't just a love for the local football team; they wrap entire films around the love of the Kansas City Chiefs.
But most significantly is the change in how viewers see locations that often signaled fairy-tale romances or “weak values,” like The Big City. The latter, once the setting Hallmark movie characters were trying to get away from, has now found its place in the sun. This year alone, three films—Trivia at St. Nick’s, Hanukkah on the Rocks, and the previously mentioned Jingle Bell Run—take place in Chicago, a very real, very not-made-up city.
Other big cities also get their time in the spotlight this year, including New York City (A Carol for Two), Seattle (Happy Howlidays), Kansas City (Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story), and Philadelphia (Christmas on Call). This continues an ongoing trend from the start of the 2020s. Past big city locales include London, Denver, New Orleans, and Salt Lake City. They’ve even honed in on boroughs, featuring Harlem (A Holiday in Harlem) and Queens (A Royal Queens Christmas) in 2021.
Hallmark has expanded across continents, too. A recent surge in European locales doesn’t show any sign of stopping. Viewers received five European-set options in 2023, including France, Scotland, England, Norway, and Germany. This trend continues in 2024, with four new films taking place in Europe. These include Austria (My Sweet Austrian Holiday), Ireland (‘Tis the Season to Be Irish), Finland (The Finnish Line), and Iceland (The Christmas Quest). Whether this is the result of European tourism boards remains to be seen. But it does show how real locations can inform storytelling.
Rather than setting films in cookie-cutter small towns, screenwriters can now think big and place their movies in real-life settings that feel just as magical as the places one may conjure up on the page. Escapism doesn’t have to mean fantasy land. Previous European films often revolved around regular American women falling in love with secret princes from made up kingdoms whose names ended in “—ovia.” Now, viewers can see Europe as a real, modern continent of people just like them.
From big-city jaunts to traditional European holidays to homey Midwestern retreats, the Hallmark holiday movie of today is more visually and geographically rich than ever before. Yet despite these geographic changes of what a Hallmark movie should look like, what one should feel like—the heart of the film—remains consistent.
"Holiday movies really come down to the emotional component,” says Goldstein. “It's not so much tugging on heartstrings or anything. It's more like, how can you emotionally relate to what [these] characters are going through during the holidays in the same way that we—as non characters, as real people—have those same feelings?"
The power of love, the importance of community, the beauty of old (and new) tradition—all of those elements are still visible in the Hallmark holiday movies of today. And that’s because, in the end, that’s what Hallmark holiday movies are actually about.
The Hallmark holiday movie town—whether it's the city, country, or something in-between—is fully engulfed in the visual beauty of what makes the holiday season so special. But the Hallmark movie town should not look and feel like any singular place, at least anymore. Now, it is more vital to embody a visual spirit of Christmas, one that permeates every town square and fireplace and city block imaginable.
See
A Very Merry Beauty Salon: This one premiered last week, but I haven’t gotten a chance to catch it. Still, Tia Mowry Christmas Films are usually some of my favorites, so I feel like this one will be good. Plus, it features her Sister Sister co-star and on-screen boyfriend, RonReaco Lee, which makes A Very Merry Beauty Salon the perfect seasonal reunion (something of a specialty for holiday romcoms). Now streaming, Lifetime.
The Santa Class: I’ll always hold a special place in my heart for the Christmas romcom subgenre I like to call “Secret Santas” (aka Santas in disguise helping couples come together). This one appears to be a riff on the subgenres tropes, featuring a struggling school for aspiring Santas. Dec. 14, Hallmark.
Hanukkah on the Rocks: After reading the description for this film , which takes place in Chicago at a dive bar transformed into a holiday-themed pop-up bar, I’m extra excited. Seems like my November 22 newsletter was especially relevant. Dec. 13, Hallmark.
Finding Mr. Christmas: OK, I haven’t seen the finale episode, but after being thoroughly disappointed by who they sent home in episode 7 (the second front runner, in my opinion), do I even want to finish? Now streaming, Hallmark+.
I really loved my friend Katie’s latest newsletter, which examined how holidays and politics are intertwined. And the manager she speaks of in the newsletter who worked with her in writing and editing hundreds of articles on holidays? Yep, that was me. This final point from Katie really articulates things perfectly: “Every holiday is political, created, invented, and tweaked. We create the days we celebrate and, in that celebration, we may be able to create a better world.”
Chicago’s NPR affiliate, WBEZ (where I worked more than a decade ago), wrote this great feature on how Illinois has turned into a holiday movie cottage industry.
Plus! There’s this!
Gifts of the Week
Cosmic Gemstone Mini Gift Set: Astrology Tea & Gemstone Wellness Tea: I really enjoy the thoughtfulness that goes into gifts like this one. Customized for the zodiac sign of your choosing, you’ll receive a sampler pouch of Astrology Tea, traveler jar of Gemstone Wellness Tea for specific month, and an Opalite Moon Tea Strainer. $55, Magic Hour.
HADEN Heritage Black and Copper Electric Tea Kettle: And to accompany it, why don’t you gift a beautiful electric tea kettle? I used to be anti electric kettle until I got one, and now I can’t imagine living with out it. $79.95, Crate and Barrel.
The Full Body Float Kit: If you’re looking for more relaxation-oriented gifts besides a massage, consider this set from 100 Senses, which has created a “floating” bath product that helps you easily drift away. $168, 100 Senses.
And one final thought … until next time!