Every Hallmark movie has one (if not every) thing in common: they all end happily ever after. Whether it’s a Christmas wish coming true or a couple falling in love two days after they meet, Hallmark is always ready to end on a high note. The starring actress always “finally figures out what [she’s] looking for” and realizes “all [she’s] ever wanted has been here all along.”  All
joking aside, there is something people love about these movies even though they all have the same basic plot. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Hallmark movie as much as the next person, but there is something to be said about the patterns seen throughout the thousands of films Hallmark has made over the years. If you are a Hallmark lover, hater, or just like cheesy Christmas romance, this list of stereotypical Hallmark plotlines is for you. 

Small Town Charm

     The classic stereotype that can’t be beaten, I affectionately named “Small Town Charm” is the most overused but well-loved plotline of them all. A girl with a big city job and seemingly perfect life is finally visiting her parents for Christmas after years of working through the holidays. She takes time to get used to small-town living but eventually finds a new love for the simplicity of Christmas time. As she embraces the Christmas spirit, the girl begins to fall for the new guy in town, when back in the city she claims she was “too busy for love.” She also questions what is important in life, like if that big promotion she has been fighting for for years is what she wants. The story wraps up with the girl deciding to stay in her hometown and have the life she truly wants, and it doesn’t hurt that her love interest lives there, either.

Amnesia Accident

     This one is pretty self-explanatory. Usually, the main lead has the perfect big city life (do you see a theme here?) and stops in a small town after she feels she “needs some clarity in her life.” Within the first 15 minutes of the movie, she has an accident, leaving the main girl stuck in a mysterious small town where no one knows her name, and she doesn’t remember it, either. The locals always try to help her out. They give her a place to stay and call her Mary or Elizabeth until they figure out her real name. The people she stays with treat her like a part of the family. Their son even tries to help her get her memory back, but then falls in love with her in the process.

Secret Royalty Romance

     You either love these movies or, like my mom, you can not stand them. The story unfolds when a woman falls in love with the “nice guy” in town, but finds out he is hiding something from her. Time passes and she finds out that her boyfriend is actually Prince James, the future king of a foreign land no one has ever heard of. He apologizes for lying to her, but he did it because he wanted to know what it’s like to not be seen as royalty for once. He claims that “falling in love with [her] was never part of the plan.” The next step is for the couple to fly to Prince James’ homeland in the middle of nowhere for his coronation after his dad passed away. His widowed mother is skeptical of her son’s girlfriend and spends most of the movie trying to get rid of her until she realizes that there was no one else she would rather have as a future daughter-in-law.

Saving Christmas

     The small town of Evergreen relies on one thing: the local Christmas tree farm that keeps the entire community together. The owners of the farm are having financial problems, and are forced to sell their property to a developer from New York. His plan is to bulldoze the town’s beloved Christmas tree farm and replace it with a shopping mall, but the owner’s daughter won’t let her family’s livelihood be destroyed. The next week is spent by the town trying to convince the developer not to demolish the farm, but he doesn’t listen until he realizes the true meaning of Christmas. The movie ends with the developer standing up to his boss and advocating for expanding the tree farm instead of demolishing it. Thanks to the teamwork of the developer and the owner’s daughter, Evergreen’s tree farm is here to stay, and so is the town.

Enemies to Married in 120 Minutes 

     We all know this plotline: high school rivals are thrown back in each other’s lives to compete with each other in a holiday baking competition. After a baking debacle, they are forced to work together on the perfect Christmas dessert; they just can’t agree on what that is yet. However, once they spend a little more time together, they find out they make a pretty good team after all. After they win the competition, the next thing the viewers see is the six month jump to their wedding day where the couple is getting the happily ever after they deserve.

The Christmas Wish

     This stereotype can be both good and bad, depending on how it is executed. A woman is unhappy with her life and wants a change. She loves her family, but can’t help being discontent with her life the way it is. Some way or another, she makes a wish for “a different life” and wakes up the next morning with all of her dreams coming true. She has the perfect life: her own business, her dream house; everything is going great. Except for one thing: in this life she is not married to her husband. Naturally, after a life-altering wish such as this, the woman pretends everything is normal and spends the rest of the movie trying to win her husband back. By the end of the film, she realizes she does not need “a perfect life;” she already has all she’s ever wanted.

I’ll Be Home For Christmas

     This scenario is a little more unique than some of the others, but it is super cheesy nonetheless. All the leading actress wants is to finally travel home to her family, but there is one problem: a snowstorm prevents her flight from leaving the airport and she is stuck in Chicago once again for Christmas. Coincidentally, she runs into her high school sweetheart who is also heading home for the holidays. After refusing his help once or twice, she finally caves in and they start the long journey home by rental car. The next hour or so of the movie is spent with the two leads struggling to get home with every obstacle in their way, including a broken engine, being stuck in a Christmas village, and sneaking on a train as it pulls out of the station, but they persevere together as a team and finally make it home to their families just in time for Christmas day. 

Some Honorable Mentions:

• Brad is the main lead’s workaholic (soon-to-be ex) boyfriend. He is just an average guy who has his life together, but he easily loses sight of what is important in life. Brad loves to show up in the middle of the movie to “surprise” his girlfriend, but she realizes Brad is not the right guy for her. Brad does not have much of a role other than to be the guy that everyone is waiting for Lacey Chabert or Candace Cameron Bure to break up with, but he still is a notable character in many Hallmark movies.

• Chris Kringle is the jolly old man in town who loves to wear red and owns a massive toy company. He is adamant that he is “not Santa Claus” but no one ever sees him on Christmas Eve, and there is no question about his whereabouts because it is a “busy time of year” for his business. In the last five minutes of the movie, it finally dawns on the main lead that Chris isn’t just a jolly old man, and she finally figures out his secret. 

• All of the best Hallmark movies have a mid-movie misunderstanding, it is just the Hallmark way. There is always someone hiding the fact that they are writing a news story on a local business or one of the starring actors/actresses overhears one part of a conversation and takes it out of context. I wouldn’t have it any other way.