Rachel McMillan - A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Cover design by Studio Gearbox

Interior design by Dugan Design Group

Published in association with William K. Jensen Literary Agency

A Very Merry Holiday Movie Guide

Text copyright 2020 by Rachel McMillan, artwork copyright 2020 by Laura L. Bean

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97408

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

ISBN 978-0-7369-8171-2 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-8172-9 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data record is available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020018521

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Contents

I like to say I found them first, long before so many viewers began tuning in to the dozens of new made-for-TV Christmas offerings produced every year.

When I was on medical leave from my corporate job one fall, my channel surfing stopped on a showing of Secret Santa , a 2003 Hallmark Christmas movie starring Jennie Garth as a reporter trying to discover the identity of a small-town do-gooderand finding love in the bargain.

It was only mid-November, but the Christmas movie lineup didnt stop there. From Lucky Christmas to November Christmas to Holiday in Handcuffs , I found a series of warm hugs during a trying time, retreating into a snow-globe world of love and gingerbread houses.

Christmas has always been a passion of mine. As a little girl, I begged my minister father to have the congregation start singing carols as early as November 1 (sadly, my plea didnt work), and I lined up my teddy bears and dolls for a Happy Birthday, Jesus party in the middle of August. So the traditions, music, snow, and tinsel I had always loved and now found in those films comforted me. No matter what I was feeling on any given day, I could always return to a safe world where the most difficult concern was whether there would be snow by Christmas or the towns cookie factory would find a last-minute benefactor on Christmas Eve. (Spoiler alert: snow always appears by the end of the movie, and the factory will always be saved. In a world of uncertainty, a Christmas movie ends happily, without fail.)

These movies became my friends, and I soon learned that they were broadcast again and again in between new offerings launched every year as early as October 1 and through Epiphany in early January.

From that autumn onward, I discovered Christmas movies could calm me and give me a warm glow even through family health scares, after challenging days at work, during illness, or just when experiencing a case of the blues. I never leave home without a digital copy of A Very Merry Mix-Up downloaded on my laptop in case of emergency .

But Im not the only one who loves these films. In the last five years especially, this genre has become a cultural phenomenonwith what seems like at least 90 percent of the North American population tuning in. Channels such as Hallmark, UP TV, ABC Spark, and Lifetime produce dozens of new holiday movies every single year. Now streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime have followed suit. Major publications such as Cosmopolitan, the Washington Post , Entertainment Weekly , and NPR have studied this trend that finds G-rated TV series, such as When Calls the Heart, and the latest Candace Cameron Bure or Lacey Chabert Christmas film rivaling broadcast networks, including HBO and AMC. Today, the launch of a new holiday-themed flick airing as early as October 26 can garner nearly 40 million viewers.

People love these predictable festive movies because they provide what daily life in our tumultuous world cannot: a feeling of wholesome goodness and consistent portrayals of values, hope, and faith. We know love will always win and goodwill will always prevail. We know the rising corporate marketing star sent to her hometown to spy on the local hat factory at Christmas will choose the honest and hardworking community she finds there rather than the trappings of posh clothes and the penthouse apartment she inhabits in the big city. Christmas movies are every good and pure thing lacking in a culture determined to scorn morals, traditional values, family ties, and the hope of chaste, true love.

The viewing stats of these increasingly popular films say silently what society isnt saying aloud: For all of the contemporary focus on throwaway relationships and the love of money, greed, and materialism, a desire for the ideals of Christmas remains.

For a few months a year (not to mention most Friday nights and Hallmarks annual Christmas in July), everything is all right. The cookies are baked and decorated, the fire is roaring, the perfect Charlie Brown tree is selected from the neighborhood tree farm with the kind owner, the hot chocolate is rich, and the turkey is cooked.

With this opportunity to join in the worlds collective love for such a Christmas, then, lets do it. Lets own it! Find the Christmas sweater you inherited from your great-aunt and add a few extra marshmallows to your hot chocolate. Make watching holiday movies you DVR year after year and the film premieres youve not yet seen special events and a tradition.

This book will help you do all that and more. Its a celebration of Christmas movies and Christmas movie lovers curated by a Christmas-loving woman who knows these made-for-TV films are one of the reasons we call the Christmas season the most wonderful time of the year, while also believing they can kick-start everything from tree decorating to cookie baking.

Start with the chapter that most clearly identifies your favorite aspect of the holiday. Unlike the repetitive song, theres no right or wrong way to approach Hallmarks 12 Days of Christmas Movies. Try out a few new film offerings and recipes. Establish fun new traditions with your family and friends. Designed as an emblem of everything we love about Christmas movies, this book will perhaps inspire you to get creative, become passionate, and be full of the holiday spirit as you play with its ideas and add some of your own movies and traditions to create Christmas memories youll never forget.

Your Christmas Movie Lovers Kit

flannel pjs or a festive onesie or robe