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| Photo by New Line, Warner Bros., Miramax, RKO, 20th Century Fox/courtesy Everett Collection |
I now consider myself well informed on Christmas movies and have distilled the plot lines as follows:
1. Small town beats the city every time
2. The girl will fall in love with the 'home town' boy
3. If he has children, the lead man will be widowed
4. If she has children, the lead women will usually be widowed
5. The children are all perfectly behaved and encourage the relationship with a new potential 'step'
6. Christmas is magic. Fairies and elves do exist, as does Santa
7. Americans in movies can put up hundreds of extremely complex decorations in record time
8. The lead man will have a talent such as wood working or some other art
9. If the lead (male or female) has an ex who shows up, they will want to get back together and the new lead love interest will catch them kissing
10. It will end happily ever after at the last minute, usually on Christmas day
11. Song written for the films (where a character plays them on guitar/piano) are usually terrible
12. Setting the film in a real snow scenario is a lot better than the fake snow - especially as the poor cast are usually sweating in the fake (warm) settings
I think that's enough - so with that information above, I think all of us could write a Christmas movie script easily! I haven't found one yet with anything but a heterosexual love story.
The benefits of watching Christmas movies that are so formulaic that you can guess the plot in 5 minutes? Simple - escapism, feel good, and some pretty scenery.
CHALLENGE!
I am going to give it a go (watch this space) so if you can, write a 1,500 word Christmas story including at least three of the the above points.
Ready? OK - go! And if you want to share them, send them to me and I will publish here.
Fun links
- 62 best Christmas movies
- The worst things about Christmas (Telegraph, requires subscription)
- Good Housekeeping's Christmas play list
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