The holiday season is known for gift giving, extreme decor, and, well, romance movies.

At this time of year we’re inundated with movies about pairing up and every year the holiday programming starts earlier as networks and streamers try to pull ahead of the pack to draw in the audience. If the holiday movie explosion of recent years is any indication of how we perceive the holidays in America, finding romance seems to be up there with tree decorating and snow.

There are so many holiday romances out now, it’s become a separate genre in the screenwriting world. Writers who've never written a romance script are now trying their hand at it, some even thinking it can't be that hard.

Side note: as a Christmas romance novelist and screenwriter, I'm here to tell you that it isn't as easy as it looks, and for many reasons. It's hard to write a good romance script, make the chemistry work, hit all the beats. Don’t let this stop you, though.

Living in a holiday romance world for a month is a fun headspace. When it’s done and optioned or greenlit, you get to completely overhaul your precious script from countless producer notes and hand over a story you hardly recognize to advance into pre-production — if it goes further. There are hundreds of holiday scripts being shopped now, the snowball gaining snow as it rolls down entertainment mountain. 

Regardless of supply and demand (and the demand is high for low-budget holiday romances that can be filmed near Vancouver with a small cast), finding romance at the happiest time of year has become a thing. Did kissing under the mistletoe start this trend when, long ago, someone decided that a parasitic plant that drains water and nutrients from its host was a good symbol for romance? Because being caught under a sprig of mistletoe is a popular trope used in holiday movies with no sign of it becoming an overused gimmick.

Another trope is family pressure to find a mate during the holiday season because apparently, this happens IRL. Single adults have to endure family suggestions to find someone to share their lives with or at the very least, to stand under the mistletoe with and kiss. I believe this might be because warm and fuzzy emotions take over as the season approaches. Let’s face it: we’re nicer at this time of year; kinder, more giving. It’s easier to open our hearts to romance when we've softened to the idea of peace among humankind. During the holidays, we are more likely to let that hurried mom check out in front of us in the store lineup or allow the car in the next lane to merge, or even pay for someone's coffee in the Starbucks drive-thru. It's not only a holly, jolly time but also a time to fall headfirst into the spirit of camaraderie. Along with this, romantic love finds a way into many a heart and many a script.

A florist, who can’t seem to fall in love, returns home during the holidays to help resurrect her great aunt's almost-bankrupt flower shoppe only to find out that a real estate developer (who happens to be very handsome and single) has bought the whole downtown with plans of erecting a mall.

For years, variations of this basic storyline have worked beautifully, Hallmark at the forefront of the trend. Purchased from a Christian television channel in 2001, Hallmark inherited an audience of church-going types. Cut to 2015: Mariah Carey directs and stars in a Christmas movie for Hallmark and Winterfest is born, giving life to seasonal programming. Cut to now and the phenomenon of the holiday romance movie has extended to almost every network and streamer that produces their own content — Lifetime, Netflix, BET, Hulu, Peacock, Prime Video, Disney+ and many more.

When I first started writing Christmas romances aimed at the Hallmark market, you couldn’t even imply that someone was divorced. They had to be widowed and even then you couldn’t mention the death or sadness because emotions needed to stay in the middle of the road, leaning toward happy. Now, not so much, as streamers are coming aboard the holiday train.

As more networks and streamers market to their particular audiences, the face of the holiday romance is changing to be more inclusive. In the past, especially with Hallmark movies, people of color have been cast as best friends and side characters, solely relegated to supporting roles. Last year The Christmas Yule Blog on Lifetime showed us how a Latinx family celebrates the holidays in New Mexico; this year Eight Gifts of Hanukkah debuted on Hallmark. Content is going beyond Christmas and the traditional two-parent, heteronormative, white family. Casting on shows, such as Gloria Calderon-Kellet's With Love (currently streaming on Amazon Prime) are becoming more racially diverse, and romantic leads are being written for LGBTQ+ individuals and even people over the age of 50. 

Some movies have characters drinking alcohol, smoking, divorced, and even having one-night stands. In 2019, Last Christmas with Emilia Clarke showed a lifestyle that historically, we wouldn't see in holiday programming (until the character began her journey to change). In Love Hard, Jimmy O. Yang tries to get his crush to fall for him at Christmas when she discovers he is a catfish and not the handsome man she believed him to be. 

A Castle for Christmas stars two beloved actors in their fifties: Brooke Shields and Cary Elwes are the romantic leads. This year’s Miracle in Motor City has a Black-led cast. In Single All the Way the main character is not only gay but surrounded by a family who supports him wholeheartedly. No one tries to fix him up with a woman, nor does he have to hide his sexuality like in last year's Happiest Season. While there is much work to be done, the face of the holiday romance is changing to include all lifestyles, cultures, and more inclusive storylines. 

We need these movies because it's the holidays and nearly 2022, yet we're still dealing with a worldwide pandemic, many of us not traveling, mingling, or visiting family as we try to stay healthy and safe. This not only means we have more time to watch content but that we need to get our warm, fuzzy feelings from fictional re-creations of families gathering over the holidays; movies where problems are no worse than a Christmas tree too big to fit inside the house or a snowstorm and power outage postponing the town square festival. We are eating up this content after what we’ve been through. The trend toward holiday romance movies is seeing no sign of slowing with happily-ever-after endings more popular than ever.

If you’re a screenwriter and have ever wanted to approach writing one of these movies, this might be your time. Who knows, you might have the unique life experiences or angles to write that romance with your own spin and see your movie in the first wave of the new trend next year at the holidays.

If all you need is love and love makes the world go-'round, you can’t go wrong with a holiday romance.