Open any streaming service and search for ‘ Christmas ‘. You are immediatelygreeted with dozens of posters. Videoland has fifty titles with the word’Christmas’ and Netflix has more Christmas films than there are December days.
The world of Christmas movies is full of car breakdowns, snow storms, miraclesthat must be performed to save businesses, miscommunications and spontaneousamnesia. It seems like writers throw a few standard situations into a Santahat and pull a few out for each film. You would think that after the twentiethfilm in which a secret European prince appears, the audience would have hadenough. But no, with each iteration, the magic of the Christmas movie formulaonly seems to grow. Predictability is not a weakness here, but the wholepoint.
Dozens of new Christmas movies are released every year. Who makes these? Manyof the Christmas movies on Dutch streaming services come from Hallmark. Theycan be recognized by the typical posters with two main characters smiling atyou. Hallmark not only sells greeting cards, it is also an American TVchannel. Their Christmas offer is traditionally broadcast during the so-calledCountdown to Christmas, which starts in October.
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When it started, in 2009, it was only five movies. This year the channel hasforty. It’s a lucrative trade. According to Forbes is estimated to earn anestimated $350 million during the holiday season just from commercials on thechannel. According to Business Insider they are made for an average of twomillion euros each in about two weeks. That is a lot for Dutch standards, butin America it is dirt cheap.
Due to the low number of shooting days, the use of a limited number oflocations and little to no special effects, Hallmark keeps production costslow. The fact that cost savings mean that not everything is always well puttogether often leads to great hilarity online. But that has become part of theappeal. Hallmark also often works with the same actors who each year have adifferent Christmas adventure in a small snowy town.
Secret Princes
One of the most popular storylines in the Hallmark universe follows the(secret) European prince, where an American woman either takes a job in apalace in a made-up country or meets the undercover prince in America.Hallmark has made more than ten since 2011.
With one exception ( A Winter Princess 2019) it is always a male fictional_royal_. The fictional lands have names like Cordinia and Landora and seeminspired by ‘Genovia’, the fictional kingdom from The Princess Diaries thehit film from 2001 in which an American spontaneously finds out that sheherself is a European royalty.
Netflix is also fishing in the prince pond. In 2017 they came up with AChristmas Prince set in fictional Aldovia. Other American TV channels such asLifetime and ION also have a stable of royal Christmas films, which are placedon the Dutch streamers. Videoland features from this genre, among others ARoyal Christmas Ball (2017), A Christmas in Royal Fashion (2018) __and ARoyal Queen ‘s Christmas (2021).
The Secret Prince is just one of many repeated storylines within the Christmasmovie universe. The films on Videoland include at least three snow storms,four cars that unexpectedly come to a standstill and five successful women whotrade their life in the city for a Christmas existence in the village.
Viewers would have been turned off long ago with most other film genres. Butwith Christmas movies, the popularity comes precisely from the simplicity.Viewers want the same movies every year, with a little variation. Thisphenomenon is so striking that countless scientific papers have been writtento explain it.
Psychologist Pamela Rutledge enrolls Psychology Today that Christmas moviesare successful because they simply make us happy. She describes happiness intwo types: hedonic and eudaimonic. For example, hedonic happiness is a goodcup of hot chocolate. Rutledge defines eudaimonic happiness as an experiencethat gives people purpose. According to the psychologist, viewers experienceboth forms of happiness when they watch Christmas movies. As a viewer, we knowexactly where the story will end up, and it’s always in a place we want to be.We want that assurance that the world will be all right. The movies give useasy solutions in difficult times.
Dutch Christmas Franchise
Dutch producers are also increasingly venturing into Christmas films. Netflixhas with The Claus Family (2020) the first major Dutch-Flemish Christmasfranchise. The third film in the series was released this year. In addition,has Modern Love Amsterdam (2022) on Prime Video a Christmas episode andcoming Goofy Women director Will Koopman this year with a Christmas film. __
Although Koopman is not familiar with the Hallmark phenomenon, she does seethe power of the fixed elements in Christmas films, she says on the phone: “Ithas to meet a number of things. It must be nice and fun, there must be one_love interests_ in, a Santa Claus, Christmas tree, that’s part of it. It canall start crazy, but it has to end well.” But Koopman also emphasizes the needfor originality. She is not yet allowed to say how she combined the two in herown film. Koopman himself recognizes the power of repetition during theholidays. “I watched every Christmas Sisi. It’s wonderful, to withdrawcompletely into your world for an hour and a half. Warmth and love, you justneed it.”
Much needed escapism, that’s what it’s all about in the end. The Christmasindustry also knows that people are not always looking for challenging pearlsof cinema. Millions of viewers therefore get exactly what they want:predictability and a happy ending.