I love a good Hallmark movie as much as the next gal, but sometimes I get jealous that I’m not living the life in those movies. I want to be the hotshot magazine editor in New York who has to go back to her crumbling hometown to save it with nothing but Christmas spirit. I wish I were the girl in the small town with a silly albeit Christmas-themed name who runs the local bakery and tries again with her childhood sweetheart when he comes home for the holidays. I understand the appeal of watching them. It is an escape from our mundane lives.
But it’s okay if the plot of those movies isn’t your life right now or ever.
It’s easy to envy the lives of Hallmark protagonists, but these movies aren’t realistic. They kiss hot people while snowflakes trickle down. Their wardrobe is impeccable, and they always seem to have a poetic confession of love in their back pocket. My skin isn’t clear and glowing like Hallmark veteran, Danica McKeller. With portrayals like that, it’s easy to look at our own lives and say “dang, this sucks.”
One movie coming out on the Hallmark channel this year, One Royal Holiday, is about falling in love with a royal. According to my research, most of the available royals are either too old, too young, or taken, so there’s no way I’m going to end up a princess by the New Year. Based on the rules that Meghan, Harry, and the rest of the royal family must follow, I don’t think I would want to be a royal.
You don’t need to romanticize the narrative given by Hallmark movies that your true love is from your hometown. There’s probably a reason you didn’t date the jerks from high school then, so don’t fall for them when you get back home just because they’re hotter, “wiser” and available now. They aren’t better than their 16-year-old selves. There are better men out there than the ones back home.
If your life were a Hallmark movie, your career path and calling would be clear. Women in Hallmark movies seem to always have their life together, but there’s nothing fun about that! The most fun times in life are changing your mind, finding a partner who’s right for you by going on a million dates, moving to another city on a whim, or quitting your job once you’ve had enough of your overwhelming boss. When you don’t make mistakes and try again, life is awfully boring. Hallmark women seem to have perfect lives and while that may be fun and easy, there’s no room to learn from your mistakes and grow.
Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”
So, stop comparing your life and story to the fabricated ones in Hallmark movies! You are doing your best.