Small town Christmases, hometown hunks, and women in their 30s who have been just too wrapped up in their careers in event planning or publishing to find true love.

Without even mentioning movies or a certain cable television network, you already know where this conversation's heading.

How could you not? Search for the keyword Christmas on your favorite

new site starting any time after the late summer, and no doubt the top result are about this

year's lineup of made-for-TV Christmas romance movies. And every year, that lineup grows and

grows and grows. 2020 brought a whopping 40 new Christmas movies from one network alone,

and dozens more from its closest network, cable, and streaming competitors.

And most of them sticking to that timeless tale of girl meets boy,

girl loses boy, and at some point girl and boy make a gingerbread house,

or decorate a tree, or have a snowball fight that has them tumbling to the ground and

almost smooching before getting interrupted at the last second. But rest assured, all plot

threads will be resolved and everything will culminate in a chaste kiss under a gentle snowfall

right before the credit roll. Made for TV Christmas movies are nearly as old as TV itself, but the last two decades

have introduced a dramatic change to Christmas TV entertainment and, by extension, to Christmas

itself.

Is all of this a fad or a trend?

And if it is, have we reached the peak yet?

Or are we witnessing the start of something bigger?

A lasting change in the kinds of stories we most closely associate with Christmas

in the ways we want them told.

Cast your minds to a snowy, bucolic scene and some kind of unlikely scenario

where opposites are thrown together only to find true love amidst the magic of the Christmas season

...