Scare quotes because there seems to be only one with dozens of nearly identical titles. Like romance novels. I mean, how can people stand watching more than one?
My daughter and I are considering writing a few for next year.
i sure don’t! I’ve been seeing all those titles and had no idea there were so many!
Not me. Be sure and announce the ones you write, I’ll watch those.
My mother-in-law alternates between Shirley Temple movies and these. My ADD means that it’s almost impossible for me not to watch the damned things when she has ‘em on (which is ALL THE TIME).
I hate going to her house.
My GF watches them constantly. But she doesn’t really pay attention. She just likes them as sort of a white noise generator while she’s doing other things.
My brother-in-law’s wife’s mother watches them all the time. And by “all the time” I mean she leaves her TV on the Hallmark Channel.
My wife does, though primarily to sneer and groan at them when she pays any attention to them at all (she’s usually doing other things while she has them on for background).
The plots are all the same, and it’s not hard to figure out the twist before the first commercial.
My daughter and my best friend LOVE them and will compare notes about them.
My mother watches them on occasion.
I will amuse myself watching the last 15 minutes of various movies to see how quickly I can catch up on the plot.
My mother watches them all the time even though she jokes about how interchangeable they are.
Apparently they are in place to give out-of-work actors some kind of living. It’s like work-fare in Hollywood. 
me,i have seen then all at least once and can tell you the plot and ending before the first commercial
there used to be a difference between the two channels like hallmark channel were all the rom com type of stuff and movies and mysteries were all the dramatic weepers ……
Now they just alternate them ……it is odd to see someone who just a few years ago were in major Hollywood movies in them…like seeing Oscar winners in a corman flick after they won the Oscar …….
My mom does. She knows they’re silly, but she likes them. She used to watch soap operas back in the day so I think they’re filling that spot in her heart. She also likes “mindless” stuff that’s easy to follow and…well, those movies definitely have that.
She’s cool if I am there watching with her and I yell at the screen. She doesn’t get mad at me.
My wife is pretty much addicted to them. For her, they’re light escapism (and, yes, she recognizes that they’re very rote).
In fact, I’ve joked that I’m going to write a “Hallmark Christmas Movie Random Generator” program, like so:
Female lead (roll 1d6):
- Candace Cameron Bure
- Lacey Chabert
- Kimberly Williams
- Bridget Regan
- Lindy Booth
- Unknown blonde actress
Movies like these follow a formula not just traditionally, but enforced by the Producers. They will give the screenwriters strict page counts where each thing has to happen. You might think that takes some of the fun out of it, but they usually try to cram in some jokes and absurdities to mix things up occasionally. And the actors who do these movies are well aware of how cheesy they all are, it’s just a bit of a giggle and a paycheck for them.
I imagine that romance novels have similar restrictions, but not as strictly enforced, instead just adhered to by authors because they know how to do it and it’s what sells.
What exactly is the formula? I’ve never watched one of these movies.
I don’t know the formula, I was just told about it by someone who knew after I suggested they might be easy money for a beginner trying to break into the business. And though it’s good money for some, it’s actually far from easy.
From the posters, it looks like the same actor and the same actress are in every one of them. It also looks like they take the same insipid romantic comedy each year and just change the title.
My mother. Sometimes she’ll just leave the channel on ALL DAY LONG while she’s doing things around the house. I don’t know how anyone can stand them.
I leave the tv on all day. Sometimes muted or real low. I generally have CNN on. Today I have had TCM on. They are showing Philo Vance mysteries. So I understand the tv being company and soothing. But, I just can’t go the Hallmark channel.
A white girl – who may be blond, brunette, or even “ginger” – has been unlucky in love and is giving up on finding the Perfect Man, despite encouragement from her bevy of girlfriends who will always include at least one “ethnic” representative to show how openminded she is.
Because of circumstances, she meets a plasticky-looking “handsome” white man who Has A Heart Of Gold despite circumstances making it seem he does not, or despite his being unavailable because of (pick: his shrewish girlfriend, his overbearing boss/job, he’s a single father raising kids on his own, he’s got past trauma so he Doesn’t Believe In Christmas, he’s secretly the prince of a small country, roll again and pick two).
The two Meet Cute, but there is a misunderstanding. White girl thinks he’s a jerk. Plasticky man insists he isn’t interested. Because of circumstances, they are forced together on several Christmas-themed outings. Optionally, adorable children will have problems needing the two of them to fix. Once the requisite number of encounters – usually, about three – occur, the plasticky man will realize that he’s in love with the white girl, and will need to drop everything and rush off to Prove His Love (probably not by holding up a boombox outside her window, but something similar). White girl will realize she was completely wrong about plasticky man, whatever thing he ignored will somehow resolve itself despite his absence, and they will end with some heartwarming scene of the two of them in another Christmas-themed setting.
Then a few commercials, and the next interchangeable Hallmark Christmas movie will begin.