I doubt Hallmark Channel knew this would go this far, but when they started making Christmas movies each year, they have become a big part of the holidays. Almost the equivalent of the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials of my childhood.
The movies seem interrelated. Many appear to be in the same town (in Canada). As the meme goes: “The plot of every Hallmark is about a career woman who is too busy for love but has to move to a small town where a handsome local bachelor teaches her about the true spirit of the holiday. It begins to snow and they kiss. There is also a dog.”
As you know HCMU films are fairly cookie cutter (pun intended) so making a BINGO board for your next viewing party is fairly straight forward. I came up with 75, just as many numbers as on a BINGO card. Pull out any BINGO card and a copy of this list and play along!
Fire up the chestnuts, chill the egg nog, put on the comfy PJs and play along with the OMC HCMU BINGO.
OMC HCMU BINGO
- Single Mom
- Single Father
- Christmas Cookies
- Christmas Decorating
- Christmas competition of some kind
- Decorations discovered in the attic or a barn
- All the lights work (no reference to knotted up lights or dead lights)
- Product placement of coffee
- A main romance and a secondary romance from the main couples best friends, coworker, etc.
- Meddling parents
- Elderly Couple finding love
- Widow/Widower
- Carolers (dressed in matching Victorian garb)
- Use of public domain song Jingle Bells
- Use of public domain poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
- Awkward realization by the main couple that everyone they know has been plotting to get them together
- An elusive, small, thoughtful gift being more appreciated than a big exciting gift
- Background actors dressed as elves (because doesn’t everyone?)
- Trees are lit but have no ornaments or garland (easier to move around the set from one room to the next)
- Picking a Christmas tree at an outdoor lot
- Hot Cocoa
- Interrupted Kiss
- Spontaneous Snow
- Snow Angels
- First Full Kiss occurs in the last five minutes of the film
- Some awful generic title (It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas could have been named: Christmas in the Rivertons, A Dual Mayor Christmas, Love and Holly in East and West Riverton, etc.)
- Lead leaves their current significant other
- Lead is dumped just before the holidays
- Carrying around a hot chocolate
- Christmas program
- Tree lighting ceremony
- Christmas Winter Wonderland festival
- Always a misunderstanding. Only hearing one side of a conversation and the main character leaves abruptly (This is called the “Three’s Company complication.”)
- Scene dressing up formally
- The man’s jaw drops after seeing the woman dressed up
- “I’m only home for a few weeks…”
- “I inherited a small town inn but I have to be there right away?! But I have a big corporate deadline looming in the city…”
- Big city gal or guy who never has time ends up having to visit or “deal” with something in a small town.
- Dog or a cat
- Always a favorite diner or coffee shop everyone goes to.
- It’s supposedly cold and/or a snowstorm is imminent. Yet the main characters don’t have their coats closed and you can’t see their breath.
- They make Christmas cookies with hardly any cookies on a pan.
- Any scene of a character exiting or entering a taxi
- Airport
- Any running of one character after another character
- An unusually wise speaking child
- Shopping on a little town main street instead of a mall
- An elderly man resembling Santa Claus IS Santa Claus
- An old home or hotel that needs to be fixed up in time for the holidays
- Putting ornaments on a tree
- A shot of a fireplace with a roaring fire
- Someone casually picking up a baked good to eat
- Any visual of a candy cane
- If anyone in your viewing party tears up, you get this square
- A missing relative arrives just in time for Christmas
- A missing relative is actually one of the main characters that didn’t reveal themselves until Christmas night
- The word “Believe” anywhere in writing on screen
- Lacey Chabert
- Patrick Muldoon
- Jonathan Bennett
- Out of focus colorful Christmas lights in the background of a shot
- Colin Ferguson
- Cameron Mathison
- Any reference to Dolly Parton
- Any has-been actor in a senior character role
- Big city shots from the sky during credits
- Any recognizable Christmas carol during the opening credits
- The sound of a Jingle Bell in the soundtrack
- Corporate big shot is closing a local business (factory, lodge, tree lot)
- Kids play matchmaker for the couple
- Parents/Older characters play matchmaker for the couple
- Lead couple actively do not like each other at first meeting
- Lead woman’s boyfriend is all work and no romance
- Lead woman has to choose between family and career
- Secret identity of character (he’s a prince! The caretaker owns the lodge!)