Count on Hallmark for the Warm Fuzzies

One weekend of Christmas shopping down and I am in good shape. I had my trusty list with me of things I needed to buy and I have to say that I am about 85% complete with my Christmas shopping. The store that kicked it all off for me - Hallmark.

I have long discounted Hallmark as a gift giving place because they have a lot of little knick knacks and cute things that I'm just not in the market for. It wasn't until I received their catalog in the mail last week that I started looking through it and thinking, 'That would be really cute.' So I was sucked into the ads and walked into my local Hallmark Saturday morning with a firm list in hand and came out with four additional items - but finally making a dent into the Christmas list for the nephews.

Hallmark always gives me the warm fuzzies - it's really a shame I don't need to go in there more often....but I guess that's why they have the Hallmark Channel. By day, they bring you such feel good programming like 'Little House on the Prairie' and by night, you get made for TV movies that really tug at your heart strings. I actually contemplated spending a whole day watching nothing but the Hallmark channel just to see what would happen to me....would I feel any better about myself, would I start to cry during all their movies? But we know it's impossible for me to sit in front of the TV for a whole day just watching the Hallmark channel - besides the issue of finding the time, I'm a notorious channel surfer - so that wouldn't work.

But before going to bed last night, I did switch on the old TV and surfed to see what I could find at 10PM at night. I was actually hoping to find 'The Year Without a Santa Claus' (AWESOME movie with some great tunes) on ABC Family since they do a lot of their holiday programming at night - but instead, I found 'The Christmas Card' on the Hallmark Channel. Not exactly the clay-mation I was looking for but it still sparked my interest because you had a good looking guy (that's always worth a pause in channel surfing), a good looking lady, a love story and Ed Asner.

I only watched 30 minutes of the movie but I believe I can tell you exactly what the plot is, what happens and the flaws I found. Basically, Cody (good looking guy) is a soldier in the war in Afghanistan (movie was filmed in 2006). He receives a card from Faith (good looking lady) during the war. She comes from a small town in California where her parents (Dad = Ed Asner) owns a mill that she helps run. This card has so touched Cody that he vows that he's going to make it through the war and find this woman that has gotten him through the war. He goes to her small town and is pleasantly surprised, I'm sure, that she's a tall, good looking blonde. Cody also befriends her parents and ends up taking a job at their mill. So Cody and Faith get to know each other and you can tell that there's an instant attraction. (sidenote: Cody, played by John Newton, is really good looking) There's just one problem..Faith has a boyfriend whom she also becomes engaged to one hour into the movie. So Cody must accept this, even though they shared a kiss in the woods that he doesn't regret, and decides he must move on and move out of the town (can't exactly stay in the town with the girl you fell in love with marrying someone else). Also - for some reason, he's living with Faith's parents....this is the disadvantage of catching a movie in progress because I'm not sure if he knows them from before the war or Ed Asner just took a liking to the boy and invited him to stay in their home.

Anyways - I didn't watch the last 15 minutes of the movie but I'm SURE, as Hallmark exists in your local mall, that Cody and Faith get together. You know why - because Faith's fiancee is a GEEK! In the 30 minutes I watched, I only saw him for about five minutes and let me tell you - he was ALL wrong for her. Faith is very close with her family and works at the mill. Her fiancee was ready to whisk her off to the city and said they could come visit but not only was she not aware of these plans (communication issues?), she was not prepared to move away. Also - with a side by side looks comparison between Cody and the fiancee, there was just no comparison needed - Cody won hands down...the man was an Adonis in comparison. So that was my major issue with this movie...if I were Faith, I wouldn't have had an issue choosing between my geeky boyfriend or Cody - Cody was sweet, humble and it didn't hurt that he was good looking. Boyfriend was controlling, condescending and not good looking. I was not sympathetic towards the boyfriend at all. In fact, I got angry with Faith for having such a hard time with her mixed feelings. After all, her parents LOVED Cody and were visibly and admittedly "in mourning" when Faith accepted boyfriend's proposal over Cody. What couldn't Faith see that her parents and I saw immediately?!

The other thing I had an issue with - albeit only a minor issue - was Ed Asner having a sleigh to ride around in. For those of you in the know, Ed Asner played Santa Claus in Will Ferrell's wildly popular holiday movie, "Elf." In that, he had a pimped out, flying sleigh drawn by eight reindeer. In this movie, where he was a regular, old mill-owner, civilian, he had a one-horse drawn sleigh - the sleigh was still pimped out with two benches that could hold up to six people (poor horse) and brake lights - because saying 'Whoa Nellie' to the horse is not obvious enough that you've stopped. So I'm wondering - does he have it written into his contracts that a sleigh has to be in the movie? Like pop stars and rock bands with their pre-concert demand lists - Ed Asner has a sleigh written into his contract.....hmmmm.

In conclusion, although Hallmark does give me the warm fuzzies, we need to seriously re-think some of these 'made for TV movie' plots - make them more believable. Did the story ultimately tug at my heartstrings and make me yearn for a love story like Alice and Cody? No.