Morning Jolt: The Story of Those Hallmark Movies

Hope you had a wonderful holiday. Good luck if you're heading to the malls to return something; this is traditionally the second-busiest shopping day of the year.

How Hallmark's Christmas Movies Took Over Television

Hopefully your recent holidays were full of family gathering in the kitchen or around the table, presents under the tree, and peace on earth and goodwill toward all men and women, or at least everyone in your family. Or perhaps your recent weeks featured a workaholic young woman falling for the handyman widower who's rebuilding a small-town orphanage or youth center, a precocious child asking probing questions about your love life, or a man who resembles Ed Asner named "Nick" or "Kris" and who claims to be the real Santa, and you realized you were living in a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie. (I think Mary Katharine Ham put together the most definitive list of clichés.)

What you may not have known is that these syrupy, predictable, quasi-nostalgic ...

December 26 2017

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The Story of Those Hallmark Movies Jim Geraghty Hope you had a wonderful holiday. Good luck if you're heading to the malls to return something; this is traditionally the second-busiest shopping day of the year. How Hallmark's Christmas Movies Took Over Television Hopefully your recent holidays were full of family gathering in the kitchen or around the table, presents under the tree, and peace on earth and goodwill toward all men and women, or at least everyone in your family. Or perhaps your recent weeks featured a workaholic young woman falling for the handyman widower who's rebuilding a small-town orphanage or youth center, a precocious child asking probing questions about your love life, or a man who resembles Ed Asner named "Nick" or "Kris" and who claims to be the real Santa, and you realized you were living in a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie. (I think Mary Katharine Ham put together the most definitive list of clichés.) What you may not have known is that these syrupy, predictable, quasi-nostalgic ... READ MORE 'He Looked Up': A Franciscan Friar's Gift to Us Kathryn Jean Lopez 'He looked up." The homilist at Father Andrew Apostoli's funeral Mass was describing what was different about the Franciscan friar's life — radically so, when you think about, if you focus on... 2017: The Year in Books Tevi Troy 2017: The Year in Books ADVERTISEMENT The Bipartisan Failure of the Individual Mandate Jay Cost Seemingly lost in the news of last week's big tax-cut victory for the GOP was the repeal of the individual mandate — the Obamacare provision that required Americans to have health coverage or... A Christmas Story; or, Why You Should Support NRI John O'Sullivan Editor's Note: As part of National Review Institute's End-of-Year Appeal, NRI fellows are sharing words of wisdom and inspiration. Today, John O'Sullivan gives an inside account of NRI's... It Says Here . . . Aloïse Buckley Heath Editor's note: A Christmas story by the late Aloïse Buckley Heath is an NR tradition. You know that house where, the night before Christmas, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse?... ADVERTISEMENT Snow and Steel: The Battle of the Bulge, 1944-45 Peter Caddick-Adams "[Caddick-Adams] illuminates the Battle of the Bulge until he has run out of facets. He layers context and connections with an inclusive style. Both the reader who knows nothing or little of this battle and the maven steeped in Bulgeiana will come away...educated and sated. Snow and Steel is a treasure." - Michael Dolan, Senior Editor, World War II Magazine LEARN MORE Christmas Lights Winter Solstice at Stonehenge ADVERTISEMENT Follow Us & Share 19 West 44th Street, Suite 1701, New York, NY, 10036, USA Your Preferences | Unsubscribe | Privacy View this e-mail in your browser.