I enjoy bad television.

i don’t mean legitimately bad television, rather television that knows it’s bad, but pretends to be good in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way.

During Christmas, that means lots of time spent with the various Hallmark channels. I can’t believe I just wrote that! Mary Michael and I have even come up with our own rating system, obstenibly to entertain ourselves in the midst of all the terrible goodness.

These movies are problematic on several fronts.  Similar plots, similiar settings (apparently it snows in every small town in the weeks leading up to Christmas), Canadian actors straight from central casting and 90s TV stars playing damsels in distress, a striking lack of diversity, and no one shopping for or decorating a Christmas tree until two days before Christmas are all good places to start.

A lot of cheesy goodness.

What does the popularity of these films say about us? I read the other day that the last two years have seen viewership for these films skyrocket. In the era of Trump, they have provided the perfect anecdote to the cynicism and divisiveness we are experiencing.

I don’t think that’s the main reason though; themain reason we love these films is:

Love Wins. Always 

Every single Hallmark Christmas movie ends with love. A new couple. A reunited family. A saved mountain lodge. Love wins every single time.

During a time when we experience “God so loved the world” in the very tangible way of Emmanuel- God with us, we are drawn to a spirit of hope. We need reminders that despite any evidence to the contrary, that love is with us and does have the first and the last word. That each of us has been made in the image of a loving God.

This is the crowning contribution of each and every Hallmark movie- Love Wins. In the darkness of winter, this truth provides us with some  light. 

I gotta run, Mingle All the Way is starting.