If you've ever scoffed at the treacly looking Christmas movies churned out annually by the likes of the Hallmark Channel and Netflix, refusing to become an old cat lady (or lad) sobbing over a rom-com, take comfort that "old" isn't the only demographic that these type of films are now appealing to. In an essay for the New York Times, Amanda Hess confesses that, despite once feeling that such holiday fare was too "sentimental and anti-feminist," she now realizes programming has been tweaked to appeal to her own age group. It's now "sprinkled with millennial bait" and features "weathered stars from nostalgic childhood properties and crib plots and vibes from touchstone films." She admits that she's become "softer," even acknowledging that, "as I neared the end of Our Little Secret, a Netflix Christmas movie starring Lindsay Lohan, I actually cried."
Hess says she's apparently "aged into the bad Christmas movie," noting that, due to the daily grind and recent stressors, she simply can't take in more sophisticated programming at the moment: "What I've been looking for, instead, is a totally uncompelling new television show—one that expects nothing from me, and that gives me little in return." She adds, "The bad Christmas movie's beats are so consistent, its twists so predictable, its actors and props so loyally reused, it's easy to relax drowsily into its rhythms." In other words, it's become a comfortable, noncommittal form of escapism, playing "through the winter like a crackling fireplace in my living room"—despite the fact (or perhaps because of it) that movies like this "are nominally unique but still near identical." For those not of the Christian faith, no worries: "There are now bad Hanukkah movies ... and bad interfaith holiday movies," too. More here. (More Christmas movies stories.)
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