Why do we like trashy cinema during the Holidays? Phenomenology of Hallmark Christmas movies

The holidays are Hallmark Channel’s favorite time of the year. The network, whose name is licensed from Hallmark Cards Inc., the American company specializing in greeting cards, launched in 2001, followed in 2004 by its twin channel Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. It reached its peak in 2014 with the film Christmas Under Wraps, which drew as many as 5.8 million viewers. The main characteristic of the American network’s films is the total absence of problems for the protagonists (except the need to find love), set within a particularly clean, polished and sanitized environment where everything follows the rules of the romantic comedy in the most classic, modest and harmless manner — stories that, from October to December, gain the added layer of Christmas atmosphere.

The success of Hallmark Christmas movies

It’s no exaggeration to say that for an entire quarter of the year Hallmark Channel dedicates itself exclusively to Santa Claus: in 2024 alone, the channel produced thirty-two films, released roughly every week, filling a schedule whose advent calendar is noticeably more crowded than usual. Yet the audience responded without hesitation: according to Forbes, during Thanksgiving around 8.4 million people watched the network’s new releases, bringing the total number of unique viewers of its festive programming to 27 million.

The network has steadily gained viewers since the first Christmas film aired on October 18, rising from seventh place among the most popular channels during daytime — with an average of 387,000 viewers — to the third-most-watched cable network (behind only Fox News and ESPN). One of the reasons Hallmark movies continue to thrive is likely the network’s ability to offer, quite straightforwardly, a touch of trashy romance, even if neatly structured and integrated into an industrial television model.

Why do we love trashy Christmas movies so much?

To understand the secret behind the success of Hallmark’s Christmas films — now also landing on Netflix — one must dive fully into the works. The first thing one notices when watching a Hallmark film is the complete lack of anxiety about the fate of its protagonists. In an era when cinema has taught us that not all fairy tales end happily, for Hallmark’s heroines a happy ending is simply taken for granted. Heroines, indeed, because although the dynamic is often romantic, the female universe remains at the center of stories shot in only fifteen days and produced on a micro-budget of under one million dollars — films that do not aim to deepen character psychology or motivations, but rather to accomplish their dual mission: within the story (find love) and within production (finish shooting quickly).

The Hallmark cinematic universe has been criticized multiple times over the years: why, some online users ask, should an independent woman give in to the temptations of love and abandon her dreams? While the concern is legitimate, the heroines of these rom-coms must follow a formula that has worked for years, that yields a return far greater than the initial investment, and that is so naïve it is hard to believe it is meant to harm anyone.

Christmas movies to watch in 2025

Christmas 2025 brings yet another wave of festive film and TV releases. Hallmark Channel has already launched its traditional “Countdown to Christmas” with more than twenty new films, including Single on the 25th, She’s Making a List, Twelve Dates ’Til Christmas and Oy to the World! — stories blending romance, family dynamics and holiday magic, created for the network’s loyal audience. Streaming platforms are keeping pace: on Netflix, viewers can find festive comedies such as A Merry Little Ex-Mas, in which a couple rediscovers love after a breakup, Jingle Bell Heist, a rom-com centered around a Christmas-season robbery, and My Secret Santa, where a single mother dresses as Santa to earn money and find love.

Beyond these titles, the season also offers additional releases worth watching across different platforms, with storylines that play on classic romantic clichés, ironic reinterpretations of traditions and new snowy settings — in perfect Christmas style.

Once again, viewers of these romantic Christmas films can allow their level of critical thinking to drop to about 0.01%, giving themselves permission to simply switch off from the chaos of modern dating apps or the layered complexities of relationships found in Sally Rooney’s novels. To believe that sometimes love really can be this simple. Of course, to experience it one must be good-looking, come from a nice family, have a job that typically involves either cookies, flowers or cute animals, and own sweaters perfectly coordinated with those of one’s relatives. And, why not, have a fortune comparable to the owners of the Hallmark brand. But honestly, how hard can it be?