Romantic Christmas movies

This year, two Norwegian channels are showing American romantic Christmas movies, either produced by Hallmark or UPTV. One channel showed them all through November; the other has decided to show them all through December. Interestingly enough, there seems to be very little overlap, because I have been taping many of them and they are all different movies, albeit with similar themes and plots. It's hard to remember the names of the movies for exactly that reason, but they mostly have the following plots--girl meets boy but has no time for a relationship because her career takes up most of her life (Hallmark and UPTV are not anti-feminists), but circumstances are such that they either run into each other randomly from time to time, or they are friends who don't want to ruin the friendship by pursuing romance, or they end up working together on a project, or boy pursues girl in a focused slow way in order to win her over, or both figure out over the course of the movie that they belong together. Whatever the plot, the endings are pretty much the same--boy and girl end up together and find happiness. They are feel-good movies for the most part, and perfect TV watching right before bedtime--nothing too heavy, violent, or deep.

You might think that I am going to criticize these types of movies--but you'd be wrong. I rather want to praise them, if for no other reason than that they add a certain lightness/goodness to a world filled with the opposite. They are reminders that the majority of ordinary people go about their ordinary lives, working, meeting a potential spouse, raising families, visiting parents and good friends. I'd rather watch two young adults find love and happiness than watch two adults destroy each other and their marriage and children, even though the latter can absolutely be good drama and provide the potential to learn from the tragedies of others. I'd rather watch the characters in these movies struggle to remain decent human beings in the face of unfairness and injustice. Many of them take the high road in circumstances that would cause others to take the low road. They may not be the most realistic of movies. But if you asked most couples how they met, I bet you'd find that many of them have some interesting stories to tell of love found, love lost, and love found again. Sometimes love is lost for good; these movies deal with that aspect as well. Friendships get them through those times. And I can relate, because friendships are very important, married or not. My mother used to tell me that I should never give up my women friends, even if I married. And I never have. One of the nicest of these Christmas films that I saw this past week dealt with just that--three close childhood friends, two of whom moved away from their hometown in order to pursue careers, and who end up returning to live there after the third friend gets divorced and is in danger of losing her house--a house that holds special memories for these friends. It's a touching movie, with a title that doesn't do it justice--Christmas on Holly Lane--you'd never know that it really is about the blessings of friendship to get you through the tough times. I really liked it.

Some of my favorite films thus far are, in addition to Christmas on Holly Lane:

• A Shoe Addict's Christmas (2018)
• Christmas Perfection (2018)
• Christmas Getaway (2017)
• A Perfect Christmas (An Unexpected Christmas) (2016)
• A Puppy for Christmas (2016)
• Just in Time for Christmas (2015) 
• The Spirit of Christmas (2015)
• A Christmas Kiss (2011)

I'll add to the list as I happily plow my way through the list of taped films during the next few weeks......

Update December 2021--here are some new films that I've enjoyed:

• A Dream of Christmas (2016)
• A Heavenly Christmas (2016)
• Christmas in Vienna (2020)