I have a theory. But to prove it, I need to ask you a quick question: What’s your favorite holiday romantic comedy?
Is it “The Holiday”? “While You Were Sleeping,” perhaps? “You’ve Got Mail”? Maybe “Moonstruck” (which is very much a Christmas movie)?
All those holiday romantic comedies have been cemented as classics. They might be the most popular holiday rom-coms of all time.
But what else do those holiday romantic comedies have in common? They only happen to take place during Christmastime.
Beyond the timing, there are no overt, cliché Christmas themes: none of the leading men work at Christmas tree farms, there is nary a Santa Claus to be seen. No one has to save Christmas.
Instead, they simply require us to watch two people fall in love during the Christmas season, lit by twinkling Christmas lights and surrounded by the haze of softly-falling snow.
And that’s a very good thing, as I will now passionately argue. Let’s get into it.
Christmas rom-coms need to be fantastical, but realistic enough
There a few key components that make a romantic comedy great — but the most important factor is a compelling and fantastical, but just realistic enough romance.
When I spoke to Billy Mernit — author of “Writing the Romantic Comedy” and a story analyst and script consultant at Universal — for another story last year, he briefly touched on this concept.
We weren’t talking specifically about Christmas rom-coms, but he mentioned the rom-coms of the ’80s and ’90s, which is arguably when some of the best Christmas rom-coms were made.
Mernit said, “Those movies in the late ’80s into the ’90s ... it’s almost like you’re in a realm of wish fulfillment fantasy, where reality doesn’t intrude much.”
He continued, “So there’s a level of realism that keeps things credible, but at the same time, we’re still in a world where marriage is the ultimate goal.”
So what’s the wish in Christmas rom-coms? Love found at Christmastime? OK, sure — a lot of people think that Christmas is romantic. But the obstacles have to be grounded in realism and logic.
Let’s take one of the most wild examples: “While You Were Sleeping.”
In “While You Were Sleeping,” Lucy (Sandra Bullock) saves a handsome man, Peter (Peter Gallagher), from getting hit by a train after he falls onto the tracks.
While visiting him in the hospital, Peter’s family mistakes Lucy as Peter’s fiancé and embraces her as one of their own. In the meantime, she falls in love with Jack (Bill Pullman), Peter’s brother.
On the surface, that plot sounds absurd. But what grounds it is the realism of Lucy’s situation — single and without family, she often feels a deep loneliness during the holidays and yearns for a place to belong. Who hasn’t felt the same?
As Mernit told me, “What makes a really good rom-com good is that it’s about something.” I would add that it has to be about something realistic and universal.
The fact that “While You Were Sleeping” just happens to play out to the backdrop of Christmas adds to the romance. Even I’m willing to admit that there’s something a little romantic about Christmas — the Christmas lights, the snow, a cozy fire.
Sprinkling in these elements, instead of throwing fistfuls, enables us to see a just realistic-enough romance play out through red-and-green-colored glasses.
Christmas rom-coms can’t just be about Christmas magic
There’s something about Christmastime that makes us more willing to embrace whimsy and magic — which some holiday rom-coms lean a little too heavily on, throwing realism completely out the window.
And so, for many Christmas rom-coms, logic and realism simply does not apply. Let’s look at one of the most divisive Christmas rom-coms of all time: “Love, Actually.”
You’re telling me that Jamie (Colin Firth) fell in love with Aurelia (Lúcia Moniz) and got engaged without having a single conversation during which they understood each other?
And that the freshly married Juliet (Keira Knightley), when discovering her new husband’s best friend Mark (Andrew Lincoln) is in love with her, kisses him?
It’s just too much, even compared to “While You Were Sleeping.”
There are a plethora of goofier, more Christmas-leaning romantic comedies, like Netflix’s “The Princess Switch,” “Falling for Christmas,” “A Christmas Prince” and much more.
Instead of crafting a realistic love story, films like “Love, Actually” or Netflix’s “A Christmas Prince” pack in as much Christmas magic as possible, sacrificing more important rom-com components in the process.
Is there something appealing about these ridiculous holiday romance films? Of course — one of my favorites is “The Spirit of Christmas,” where a big-city lawyer falls in love with a handsome lumberjack ghost.
But are they actually good? Not really.
Look, far be it from me to tell you what to watch. If you absolutely love “The Princess Switch,” I applaud you.
I’m thrilled whenever someone watches a rom-com, any rom-com, a genre which I think is criminally underrated and undervalued.
But if you’re wondering what Christmas rom-coms I’m watching this year, trust that I’ll watch “While You Were Sleeping” at least twice: once on my own — maybe once with my friends — and definitely once with my mom.
Because “While You Were Sleeping,” at least in this author’s estimation, is the greatest Christmas rom-com of all time.