Every afternoon since mid-October, it's as if the familiar smell of hot chocolate escapes from our television screens. Invaded by snowflakes, illuminated by flashing red and green lights, teleported to a small American town… Broadcast on TF1, TMC, W9 or NRJ12, Christmas TV films relentlessly chronicle the adventures of interchangeable protagonists.
The recipe is proven: a young single and incorrigibly romantic woman, in her early thirties, leaves the big city where she works hard to spend the holidays with her family in the town in deep America where she grew up. By chance, she meets a childhood friend there, meets a young widowed father, and becomes infatuated with a local breeder (delete as appropriate). Everything opposes them, their relationship seems impossible, until the magic of Christmas occurs… They then kiss under the mistletoe and live happily until the end of the film.
From mid-October, Christmas on the small screen
Resolutely mawkish and devoid of suspense, these television works nevertheless met with indisputable success. On Monday October 14, My Christmas fairy tale attracted 1.20 million French people, or 21.5% of the public according to Médiamétrie, placing its broadcaster TF1 at the top of the audiences that day. And according to Julie Escurignan, researcher specializing in cultural industries, it is precisely their predictability that ensures these films are favored by viewers.
“In the twenty years since they invaded our screens, they have become a seasonal fixture, begins the researcher. We come back to them because they are neither violent nor divisive, they are aimed at the whole family and are based on universal values of solidarity and love. » Good feelings that “smell like sugar”, joyfully describes Mélanie Toubeau, who runs the YouTube channel “La mania du cinéma”. A fan of the genre since childhood, she describes a feeling of “comfort and disconnection” when she watches them, blanket on her knees and cinnamon-scented cookies within reach.
A comforting absence of suspense
The psychiatrist Marine Colombel (1) explains that “Knowing the end, knowing that it is positive, releases dopamine, the reward hormone.” She adds that “the festive atmosphere which characterizes all Christmas TV films takes us back to childhood, we associate it in our imagination with a form of joy and above all simplicity”. A bubble of security in which there is neither politics, nor war, nor poverty, which rages outside.
From this seasonal meeting, one actor in particular has made it his business. Originally an American Christian television channel, at least until the end of the 1990s, Hallmark Channel converted in the early 2000s to the production of romantic comedies in industrial quantities: more than 400 Christmas TV films, including 42 in 2023 alone! Productions which are exported as well as the famous greeting cards sold by the same company throughout the world, and particularly in France. It is therefore logically the representation of a “Anglo-Saxon Christmas, very festive and traditional, which often carries a conservative message” that our private channels broadcast as the holidays approach, describes Julie Escurignan.
After cinema and television, streaming platforms are joining the dance
The American chain, however, is no longer alone in this market. Born in cinema – the famous Mom I missed the plane, The Holiday or Love Actually are now cult – before arriving on the small screen, the vein is now exploited by streaming platforms. Netflix, above all, which «modernizes the genre, takes on values other than those of Hallmark, focuses more on diversity and develops production elsewhere than in North America, particularly in the Nordic countries”, deciphers Julie Escurignan.
A more diverse offering thus appears, which highlights other traditions. More endearing heroes, too, who give rise to sequels. There remains, however, the essential happy ending. And in the most recent productions as in the oldest, one invariable: the main character is the magic of Christmas.
(1) Get out of mental ruminationsMarabout, 2024, 256 p., €7.50.
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French productions
The Christmas Delivery Manby Cécilia Rouaud, 2024: While he is expecting his children for Christmas, Julien, a young divorcee on a fixed-term contract in a delivery company, must accept a replacement. During an incredible tour, he meets the beautiful Sarah… On France 2, December 25 at 9:10 p.m.
Santa at homeby Manu Joucla, 2024: Enzo, a home deliveryman, must go on a gift tour in the capital dressed as Santa Claus. However, he had promised his family to be present for once… On the M6 + platform.
Love at first sight at Christmasby Arnauld Mercadier, 2017: Charlotte Marton, a legal administrator disappointed by life, must close a French company in Sweden run by Martial, a business manager who introduces her to the spirit of Christmas. On the TF1+ platform.
