During the holidays, there’s nothing quite like curling up on the couch or in bed with a Christmas movie. They make us feel warm and fuzzy, and like everything is going to be okay. And it works, because that’s how we want to feel at Christmas.

However, Christmas movies always seem to follow the same, not-so-subtle format. You know, the big city Scrooge goes home to Small Town for Christmas, falls in love with a new guy or girl, remembers what Christmas is all about, and then everyone lives Happily Ever After.

Of course, there are variations on this theme, and even outliers sometimes. Finding one of these is refreshing. Still, it seems that no other movie genre follows a format in the slightest. Good movies are the ones that keep an audience on the edge of their seats with plot twists that they don’t see coming. If such movies were predictable, no one would want to see them because people would probably complain that all movies are the same. It would definitely get boring after awhile.

Who decided that Christmas movies should have their own formula, and who decided what that formula should be? I’d like to know.