Summary

• Hallmark Christmas movies thrive on cheesy and predictable tropes, making them comfort watches during the festive season.
• The inclusion of specific storylines and tropes in Hallmark Christmas movies brings familiarity and comfort to viewers.
• Hallmark Christmas movies often feature former child stars, making it a common career move for them and appealing to nostalgia.

The many Hallmark Christmas movie tropes are why the channel's original films have become a popular holiday tradition. The attraction of Hallmark Christmas movies is arguably that they're cheesy and predictable, and it's thanks to the many tropes throughout that Hallmark movies new and old have become comfort watching for so many during the fetive season. They’ve become so successful that other networks like Lifetime, Ion and Netflix have copied the genre. What makes Hallmark Christmas movies so fun to watch, is that they come with a very specific set of storylines and tropes that viewers can expect to see in almost every single one.

Hallmark Christmas movie tropes go beyond average romantic comedy plots and are the ones viewers often only see during the holidays. Especially with something as lighthearted as holiday romance, audiences get a lot of comfort out of familiar tropes being played with in refreshing new ways. That can even be a way of spreading equality, with the new Hallmark movie The Holiday Sitter finally letting LGBT+ characters take part in the cheesy plot lines and guaranteed happy endings they have historically been excluded from. No matter what subgenre of the Hallmark Christmas movie genre is a person's favorite, they all present similar tropes and themes that make them heartwarming.

25 Meet-Uglies Are Becoming The Norm In Hallmark Christmas Movies

A Clumsy Or Uncomfortable First Encounter Is The Standard

Romantic comedies have long made use of the concept of a meet-cute. Two characters, very obviously fated to be together, meet in a seemingly random way and a connection instantly forms. A meet-ugly involves that first meeting, but the connection tends to be more hostile. They can simply be on opposite sides of an issue, or they might literally meet-ugly with one of the pair actually running into the other or injuring them by mistake.

Hallmark's Christmas movies have featured these sparsely over the years, but meet-uglies have become a trope in recent releases. There are movies like Never Kiss A Man In A Christmas Sweater, in which the woman actually hits the male love interest she meets with a Christmas tree and sends him to the hospital. There's also Project Christmas Wish, in which the two main characters get off on the wrong foot when they don't see eye-to-eye on the fate of a small town.

24 Many Hallmark Christmas Movies Feature Former Child Stars

Moving Onto Trope-Filled Festive Tales Is A Common Career Move For Young Actors

There's a difficult hurdle that child stars have to beat to find success in their adult acting careers, but Hallmark makes that a little bit easier by frequently casting former child stars in the leading roles. Whether that is for the actors' sake or to cash in on nostalgia, Hallmark Christmas movies are full of familiar faces, and the return of a child actor is definitely a Hallmark Christmas movie trope.

Some of the actors that audiences are most likely to see in a Hallmark Christmas movie include Lacey Chabert, Candace Cameron Bure, and Chad Michael Murray. Though Bure eventually broke ties with Hallmark, her Full House co-star Jodie Sweetin can be seen in A Cozy Christmas Inn, and other former child stars like Peyton List and Tamera Mowry-Housley starred in their own 2022 Hallmark Christmas movies too.

23 Dogs Bring People Together In Hallmark Christmas Movies

Animal Companions Are Guaranteed Romantic Catalysts

Dogs may be man's best friend, but according to Hallmark, they're also pretty great as wingmen. Often, the perfect couple needs some motivation to meet and spend time with each other, especially if they dislike each other from the start. This is where a run-away or troublesome dog tends to shine, and one of the most beloved Hallmark Christmas movie tropes is a romance that starts because of a faithful animal companion.

Generally, this trope involves a Golden Retriever or a similarly well-loved breed, and the utopian world of the film means nobody ever has dog allergies. This year, Hallmark is releasing A Royal Corgi Christmas, but other classics include the A Golden Christmas trilogy and The Christmas Shepherd. It's not just dogs either, as cats also become romantic catalysts in festive Hallmark movies like Nine Lives of Christmas.

22 Hallmark Christmas Movies Encourage Well-Meaning Meddling

Intervening In The Romantic Lives Of Others Is A Common Hallmark Movie Trope

Matchmaking is one of the most popular Hallmark tropes in general, but it definitely has its place in Christmas movies as well. In some cases, this falls to the children of single parents, but that's an entirely different trope. More often, it falls to coworkers or friends of the main character to find them a romance for the holidays.

The idea is always either that the main character has been single for so long that their friends are worried about them, or that they're in a relationship with the wrong person. The matchmaking is always well-intended, and almost always works out perfectly. Even Santa Claus gets in on the matchmaking sometimes, as there's literally a Matchmaker Santa movie.

21 Christmas Brings Creativity In Hallmark Movies

The Festive Season Always Unlocks An Artistic Spark

Christmas movies often focus on characters who are artists or creative, and Hallmark Christmas movies definitely aren't exempt from this trope. The female leads, in particular, often have the kinds of jobs that involve baking, singing, dancing, or decorating. This often factors in either while they try to win a competition or save a school/town program.

Any movie can feature music, but the number of Hallmark Christmas movies that make art central to the plot and characterizations means that there is a direct connection between Christmas and arts and crafts. Perhaps it's because Christmas is often a time for wishes, not practicality, but the idea of making a comfortable living by following a ion is an incredibly common part of movies like In Merry Measure and A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe, where the characters learn to follow their hearts in their careers and their love lives.

20 Hallmark Christmas Movies Often Include Someone Changing Their Career Path

Romantic Leaps Aren't The Only Pivotal Moments

Because so many Hallmark movies feature a character from a big city coming to a small town (another popular trope), or someone returning home for the first time in years (another trope), there are a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies that also feature many big non-romantic life decisions for the central character. One common Hallmark Christmas movie trope is that a main character will also make a career change in addition to starting a new chapter of their love life.

That often involves one of the main characters making a big career change, like taking over the family business they had initially abandoned, or finding that their ion lies somewhere completely unexpected. The Christmas Bow, for example, sees a formerly ionate violinist rekindle her love for music, and Heart of the Holidays features a woman leaving her big city job by the end of the movie for life in her small hometown.

19 Losing A Parent Adds Emotive Depth To Hallmark Christmas Movies

Processing Grief Is A Common Theme In Hallmark's Holiday Films

It's rare for Disney princesses to have both parents, and that's just as true for heroines in Hallmark Christmas movies. To explain why the female lead is resistant to falling in love, she often has a heart-to-heart with her father about how losing her mother prompted her to build up walls and keep people out.

While the grief is often secondary to the romance aspect, it's still incredibly common as a way of developing the characters. Movies like The Christmas Train use the loss of a parent to prompt the characters to explore life, but for others, it's more subtle, with the missing parent inspiring their child's love of the holiday. Either way, it's uncommon to find a Hallmark Christmas movie with all four parents.

18 Hallmark Movies Love Main Characters Coming Home For Christmas

Heading Home For The Holidays Is The Start Of Many Seasonal Hallmark Romances

One of the most common holiday movie tropes in the Hallmark Christmas movies, even in some of the best ones, is the return to the small-town home like in Picture a Perfect Christmas. The set-up of this common festive plot thread is inevitably the same — the main character has left home and become successful in their choice of a career somewhere else and likely hasn't returned in years.

When the central character returns, plenty of attention is paid to the things that they loved about their hometown, and the soon-to-be love interest they left behind who hasn't changed a bit. There's also usually tension with their family that is smoothed over just in time for the holiday celebration and a romantic happy ending.

17 In Hallmark Movies It Always Snows On Christmas

No Hallmark Characters Are Limited To Dreaming Of White Christmases

Hallmark Christmas movies are all about the idyllic setting with plenty of snow on the ground. It doesn't seem to matter where the fictional small town or big city in the movie is, either. There's always snow on Christmas in Hallmark movies. This trope is so prominent because it's literally a rule. Hallmark Christmas movie writers have discussed that they are prohibited from writing any movie that even suggests that Christmas might come without a perfect snowfall (via EW).

16 Hallmark Movies Emphasize The Importance Of Christmas Traditions

The Formalities Of The Festivities Are Always Celebrated

In a Hallmark Christmas movie, one of the leads has to love Christmas, while the other can be more resistant to it. This gives a good excuse for a montage of the couple decorating, ice skating, baking cookies, and playing in the snow. Through these traditions, the couple grows closer and each of them realizes how much magic has been missing in their everyday lives.

Assuming they then separate for part of the movie, there's something visual to represent the time they spent together. Whether the traditions are classics or unique character quirks, they do a lot of the story work while prompting audiences to think about their own Christmas activities. 2022's We Wish You a Married Christmas is a great example, with married couple Becca and Robby rekindling their marriage with some holiday cheer.