Top Five: Christmas Clichés
December 1, 2018
Graphic by Jessica Mouton
We’re less than a month away from Christmas Day, and Netflix and television channels are flooded with Christmas movies. Although we watch them for their cheesy plots and jolly goodness, EVERY SINGLE CHRISTMAS MOVIE seems to resemble the next. Pause that Hallmark Christmas movie because here are our top five Christmas clichés seen in Christmas movies.
- Small town with a conveniently Christmas-y name
Welcome to Hollyville: population 50. Here, everyone knows everyone, and everyone LOVES Christmas. The eternally-happy townspeople are probably in the middle of planning their annual Christmas festival at the moment. Oh, and it snows on Christmas Day. Every year. What a coincidence.
- Hey, maybe I don’t hate Christmas
The week before Christmas is that time of year when a fervently anti-Christmas business woman leaves her corporate world for a few days and returns to her little hometown where some dorky-cute local and a convenient lack of internet access force her to interact with the townspeople who make her realize that maybe she doesn’t hate Christmas for no explicable reason after all.
- Broke but living lavishly
Oh, the beauty of Christmas movies. Imagine being a struggling painter/dog walker during the holiday season, yet having the luxury of living in a lavish apartment. I might hardly work, but catch me living in an apartment with marble countertops and a balcony that oversees the town. Who pays the rent? Maybe Santa’s pitching in?
- Big-city journalist falls for small-town baker
When visiting her Christmas town, the perky, blonde journalist stops by the local bakery for a blueberry scone and caramel latte. The blue-eyed pastry chef with a dazzling smile catches her eye. A snowball fight ensues, they fall into each other’s arms and they’re engaged within a week.
- Tommy, it’s been you the whole time
A tale as old as time, the bubbly teacher visits home for the holidays without her hunky, lawyer fiancé and runs into her lost love/childhood best friend at a Christmas tree farm. A family visit and Nutcracker play later, she realizes—it’s been him all along.
Honorable mentions: regular girl becomes a princess; magical kiss in the snow/under the mistletoe; starring Candace Cameron-Bure A.K.A. DJ Tanner from Full House
