My wife Sierra loves Hallmark Christmas movies. She has Hallmark Christmas movie sweatshirts and coffee mugs. The TV at our house is filled with recordings of her very favorites. So many days when I get home from work, she’ll be watching one of them. They just make her feel better, and I understand that. I would go so far as to say that their shared love of Hallmark movies was a major bonding agent for my wife and mom. It’s fun when they get together and discuss them. Oftentimes they can’t remember the movies’ names, but one will start describing the plot, and the other will immediately say “I love that one!!” It’s amazing. In the spirit of Christmas, and a feeling of kinship with my wife, we watched the 2016 Hallmark movie CHRISTMAS LIST. 

CHRISTMAS LIST opens with a redheaded girl and her puppy making a list of the things she wants to do for Christmas. It’s simple stuff like decorating a real Christmas tree, making a gingerbread house, caroling, and taking a picture with Santa. Her mom walks in and tells her that real Christmas trees and gingerbread houses are way too messy, and she just cleaned the house. Cut to 25 years later and there’s mom straightening up the home of Isobel Gray (Alicia Witt), who’s now a successful fashion designer in San Diego, and whose boyfriend, Brett Bishop, is the owner of the company where she’s employed. Her mom surprises her by bringing her childhood “treasure box” that she had found while cleaning out the attic. Isobel sees her old Christmas list and decides right then and there that she wants to make this the year she fulfills her idea of a perfect Christmas. 

Isobel searches the internet and finds Fall River, Oregon, which advertises itself as “the perfect Christmas town.” She books a couple of flights and a cabin in Fall River for her and Brett to spend their Christmas holiday. He’d rather go to the beach and drink margaritas, but he does reluctantly agree. The day before the trip, a problem arises in the South American portion of the business operation, so Brett tells Isobel that he will fly down there for a few days and then meet her in Fall River before Christmas. She’s disappointed but heads out anyway. The first night she’s in Fall River, Isobel heads out to buy a real Christmas tree. She grabs the perfect tree at the exact same time as Jamie Houghton (Gabriel Hogan), a local guy who’s helping his sister and nephew find a tree. Through a variety of circumstances, Jamie ends up taking Isobel and the tree back to the cabin and even helping her put up the tree. The next day she’s trying to make a gingerbread house for a local contest and ends up smoking up the cabin. The fire department shows up and Jamie is a volunteer fireman. With Brett still in South America taking care of business, Jamie takes it upon himself to show Isobel more of the town. Will Brett ever make it to Fall River? Will Isobel and Jamie continue to spend time with each other? Will Brett ever put Isobel over himself and his work? Will Jamie and Isobel fall in love? If you’ve seen a few Hallmark Christmas movies, you already know the answers. 

In full disclosure, after many years of watching Hallmark movies with my wife, I’ve developed some favorites of my own. They usually involve Alicia Witt, but not always. We chose CHRISTMAS LIST because it is one we both like. I enjoy the traditional Hallmark formula at work here. Isobel is heavily involved with her work, but she longs for something more simple. Her boyfriend cares about her, but he cares more about himself and his career. She meets a man who is kind, thoughtful, hardworking and very content with his simple life. This is all set in a beautiful Christmas town where the hot chocolate is warm, the diner serves huge portions of good looking food, the carolers are in the town square, and the snow is gorgeous. One of the reasons that Hallmark movies work on me is that I too long for simpler times. As I’ve gotten older, my life has gotten more and more complicated, and I’m often too “busy” to really focus on the things that bring me the most joy. The Christmas season is a time when I really try to focus on my family and our blessings. It helps when we leave behind our stresses and our troubles and meet up at our family cabin (pictured below) for a couple of days. My favorite Hallmark movies are always about the main character getting his or her priorities in order. It may be oversimplified, but it’s something I have to work on constantly. The fact that the main character will also fall in love with someone who shares those values is secondary for me. That’s just the real whipping cream on the hot chocolate!