What is it about a lushly decorated set, some steaming mugs of hot chocolate, and a little light romantic intrigue that just makes a movie feel so right around the holidays? From It’s A Wonderful Life to Lifetime’s ever-expanding slate of holiday films, movie viewers are often in search of cinematic comfort food around the holidays, and Hollywood is happy to oblige.
But why is that so often the case? Why don’t we mind that so many holiday films—especially on cable—follow almost the exact same story beats, save an ornament factory here and a “but something’s missing” big city podcast producer there. And why do we so often return to the same well of holiday classics come December, even if we’ve seen them a million times before?
To get to the root of these questions for our Why We Love series, we consulted a list of holiday movie experts, including actors, podcasters, screenwriters, and academic experts versed in the field. Lifetime’s EVP and Head Of Programming Amy Winter sat down with us to talk about why the network makes such an investment in Christmas every year.
From the acting perspective, we’ve got Dash & Lily’s Troy Iwata and Dante Brown and Christmas On Wheels’ Tiya Sircar dropping knowledge about filming their snowy scenes. Jeanine Mason told us what it was like to sit near Dolly Parton for her role in Christmas On The Square, and Ben Lewis weighs in from his perspective as the star of Lifetime’s first LGBT-centric holiday movie, The Christmas Setup.
