A very Hallmark Christmas

Christmas is still a month away, but the Hallmark Channel’s season started on Oct. 27. This year, the cable network produced a whopping 33 original Christmas movies in response to overwhelming demand for the heartwarming holiday romance tales it has reliably delivered each year for the past decade.

“We have 82 million people come and watch the channel at least once during the Countdown to Christmas and Miracles of Christmas events,” Hallmark executive Michelle Vicary told USA Today. “We are No. 1 all fourth quarter.”

The movies, which air on the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, all follow a romantic comedy formula in which the main characters meet early on and find love amid the traditions of the holidays. Viewers are almost guaranteed the lead actors will ice skate, build a gingerbread house, or wrap presents—maybe all three at some point during the movie.

Hallmark has made its Christmas movies as much of an icon in American holiday culture as sugar plums, silver bells, and sleigh rides by delivering wholesome, happy content to the underserved market for family-friendly TV. On the major broadcast networks, family-focused series such as Last Man Standing and This Is Us are some of this season’s most successful shows. They’re just now figuring out what Hallmark has known all along.

“As an actor, I am leaning into Hallmark because it’s fun to sit with my seven-year-old and show him what I do for a living,” actor Kristoffer Polaha wrote for The Hollywood Reporter.

One thing you probably won’t see Hallmark couples doing as they celebrate Christmas, though, is going to church. The movies rarely if ever mention religion or faith. They still at least use the word “Christmas,” but Hallmark defines it as the season of snow, bows, ornaments, and turkey dinners without referencing a humble birth in a dirty stable.

For Christians looking to balance Hallmark’s sugar with some substance, two movies stand out among the crowd of Christmas classics old and new. The Nativity Story (2006) captures the personal cost to Mary and Joseph of becoming Jesus’ parents while bringing home the significance of Christ’s birth to the entire world. And A Charlie Brown Christmas teaches that the hope of Jesus brings joy in a way presents and pageantry can’t.

The Queen of Soul praises the King of Kings

In 1972, Aretha Franklin spent two nights at a church in Los Angeles recording one of the best-selling gospel albums of all time, and she let director Sydney Pollack document it on film. But Pollack flubbed aspects of the production, Franklin objected to its release, and Warner Bros. shelved the film.

Three months after the Queen of Soul’s death, her family viewed the documentary Amazing Grace and agreed to let producer Alan Elliott release it. Franklin was 29 and at the height of her fame when she recorded the album of the same name. She sang from the pulpit at New Missionary Baptist Church with a gospel choir behind her and a congregation of fans in the seats.