Favorite / Funniest Hallmark / Lifetime Christmas Movie Tropes

[DisneyAuntie12]

I can't get enough of these! So unbelievable and yet so addictive. Obviously there's the small town girl who moved to the city, the Big Bad Corporation, and the old high school sweetheart who runs a cafe. Also:

- The "stressed" single parent who talks about how hard it is to raise a child alone, even though their child seems to be entirely self-sufficient and perfectly behaved, and only appears in their life at all during key holiday themed moments, like being picked up from play practice.

- The female lead who walks around town downing Christmas cookies, granny's apple pie, the local cafe's Famous Peppermint Brownies, and endless mugs of hot cocoa, who still weighs about 80 pounds.

- The town children who are absolutely enthralled and delighted by Christmas trees and never once roll their eyes, say this is boring, and ask for an iPad.

- The "unlucky in love" female lead who meets a handsome, fabulously wealthy, perfectly attentive actor / sports star / business mogul who is smitten with her, but can't be bothered to date him and instead sighs and says "Well, he lives far away so... it would never work. I'll just go back to the city."

- The Christmas decorations that cover every surface including the kitchen cabinets - like the silverware drawer and the shelf with dinner plates is strewn with holly and lights... mysteriously without a wild mass of electric cords visible anywhere.

Feel free to add on!

 

[easyas123]

What about gal/guy coming home from fast- paced -but -burned -out from Big City job to come home and help out at the family farm/bakery/restaurant/small town hardware store/bookstore/ski resort or tree farm (from bankruptcy at the hands of Local Bank bad Guy, or Evil Corporate Takeover)????

 

[DisneyAuntie12]

What about gal/guy coming home from fast- paced -but -burned -out from Big City job to come home and help out at the family farm/bakery/restaurant/small town hardware store/bookstore/ski resort or tree farm (from bankruptcy at the hands of Local Bank bad Guy, or Evil Corporate Takeover)????

Also, they are Very Stressed And Work Too Much, although mysteriously their job seems to consist entirely of taking a few weekly phone calls from their boss in the Big City.

 

[fla4fun]

It’s hard for me to pick a favorite trope because it really depends on the actors, their chemistry, and the writers.

For example, I really like A Timeless Christmas, about a man time traveling to the future. I like that the script really explores how he feels about the life and people he left behind, and you get to follow his emotional journey through to acceptance of his fate. There is good chemistry in the cast and you see growth in some of the secondary characters as well as the leads. I do not like Journey Back To Christmas, where it’s the woman who travels to the future. She just walks around saying she’s confused, and you don’t see any emotional growth in her character, or in any of the characters around her. She’s no more with it by the end of the movie than she was when it started. It comes across like a really bad amateur production, even though some of the people are known actors.

I have several holiday movies on my DVR that I would consider my favorites. Some have more believable basic plots than others, but they all have realistic actor performances, chemistry within the cast, and good writing so I don’t roll my eyes when they speak. There are probably only a dozen original ideas, which have been addressed here already. If done well, I like them. If done poorly, I don’t.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

There’s always the small town girl who falls in love with the perfect man who happens to be hiding the fact that he’s royalty

 

[DisneyHardin]

They gaze longingly into a snow globe and then it starts to snow just in time for Christmas.

 

[Biff88]

When it's evident early in the movie that an existing significant other is going to have to be jettisoned in order to make room for the new relationship, one of two things always has to happen. So, we like to guess right at the beginning whether they're going to make that previous person so obnoxious that you relish their misfortune, or if they're going to assuage our pity by finding someone else for that person.

The other thing we've noticed lately is that there seem to be a lot of references to "grand gestures". That may be the next thing that belongs on the bingo card.

 

[izzy]

I love the Holderness family’s take on Hallmark movies. They are spot on.

 

[moniqueand2]

The misunderstanding scene where guy/gal sees their crush at a restaurant or buying a Christmas tree, etc. with their sister/sister in law/boss and assumes he/she is married...hence delaying their getting together.

 

[PollyannaMom]

These are all spot on!

 

[RangerPooh]

The big bad corp who plans to take over main street, closing the business for a new business venture. Where the often female lead is running her or her families business, vocalizing their discontent with closing the mom and pops. The male lead who becomes connected to the female business owner rallies behind her in an attempt to stop his dad from being the grinch who closes main street.

While passing through a town they have never been to before, a stranger learns that they are connected to the community through A) a deceased parents memory, B) an ornament or holiday decoration that was thought to be lost, or C) a miracle job offer that keeps them in the community that has embraced them.

 

[ShirikiUtundu]

I like when the lead characters are called Holly, Noel, Eve, Chris, Nick, etc.