I love holiday movies! I am quite certain that I am one of the reasons there are thousands of obscure holiday-themed movies and specials all over the cable television channels from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. You can blame me, I can take it. I couldn’t tell you the names of most of the movies I’ve watched in the past few weeks–but I take up my spot on the couch with a pot of tea, nestled under a quilt, with a box of tissues nearby and watch to my heart’s (and my cats’) content.
My teenagers, on the other hand, worry that their mother’s decidedly “un-chill” and dorky behavior might somehow and someday rub off on them. My son, who fancies himself a young Oliver Stone or some other hipper, younger, movie aficionado asked me how I could watch such things when they all basically have one of two plots. “Two plots? I don’t think so…”
According to the fourteen-year-old, and the only male in the house (unless you count my eldest daughter’s Beta Fish, who is named Taylor after her love interest two years ago–I don’t know if he’s actually a male, but that is the gender we’ve assigned him), all holiday movies fall into two basic categories: 1. Christmas After All, and 2. Opening Your Heart to Love. I’m not making these things up, these are his classifications and have become part of our family holiday vocabulary, as in: “What are you watching, mom?” and then I’ll answer, “It’s Opening Your Heart to Love.” We don’t need the official title, just the general category.
After a long and heated debate, where I came up with various other categories that really turned out to be sub-categories, such as Christmas Wedding (OHTL), Taking over the Santa Business (could be either OHTL or CAL, depending on the plot), and Doubter Learns to Believe Again (OHTL)–I had to concede that he was right. Every holiday movie, whether it was a cherished classic or a new cable movie full of television actors, can fit into one of those two predictable plots.
I don’t care. It doesn’t really matter to me what the critics say, I’m settling in under my quilt by the light of the tree and watching my holiday movies. Besides, I have nothing against either Christmas After All or Opening My Heart to Love…