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I started watching because I wanted in on the joke. So I clicked on a Hallmark Christmas movie, and sure enough the most formulaic, sappy, saccharine story I’d ever seen played before my eyes for one hour and 24 minutes. I clicked on another one. Then another one, all trying to figure out the strange feeling coming over me. Was it … satisfaction?
That was two Christmases ago. For a while, I pretended it was a joke, my Hallmark-ness, but I wasn’t fooling anyone. So this year, I found myself becoming so excited for Christmas that I had to install a brake, which was: no Hallmark movies until after Thanksgiving.
Which is now, and I’m frankly out of control. On Black Friday, I immediately signed up for the new Hallmark-Plus streaming channel and entered the predictable-feelings factory that always ends with the main characters sharing a kiss.
Soon, I was deep in subreddits trying to find the best ones from the past, parsing the various genres, where I discovered Hallmark movie factions. Was I a time-travel romance kinda guy? Or a royal princess who finds Prince Charming in flannel in a small town kinda guy? Or the career woman who finds magic and romance in a small town after she comes to shut down/write about/redevelop the local Christmas fair/Christmas tree farm/Christmas whatever kinda guy? I think the latter, but really all of them.
It’s hard to keep up, because they drop a new one every day in December, perhaps every minute. Just this week, I’ve plowed through “Christmas Land” and “Christmas Getaway,” which were aaaamazing, as well as “Melt My Heart This Christmas,” which I thought was just so-so until everyone got all nice and kissy at the end and I clapped.
Then came the nostalgia hit of “A 90’s Christmas,” where an overworked, lonely big city lawyer gets transported back to her childhood home, and, wouldn’t you know it, realizes she should have married the guy next door; and the adorable “Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story,” because nothing is more adorable than Bills fans.
Kurt Vonnegut said that a good story should have an ending that is both surprising and yet inevitable. Hallmark movies skip the surprise; you’re just waiting for the inevitable, which is that the holiday festival will be saved, the couple will fall in love, and it will be the best Christmas ever.
Do I smell fresh-baked cookies?
Sure, the characters are caricatures. The women wake up in perfect makeup and manage to stay trim despite subsisting on fresh-baked cookies and hot chocolate. The men wear flannel and drive vintage pickups and, oh, hey miss, do you need help with that flat tire? Why yes, I am the owner of the hardware store that you’ve come to foreclose on, but that’s no matter, I’ve got a wrench in the truck next to my dog and we’ll get you back on your way.
It feels like this is the part where I’m supposed to say it’s indefensible to watch such cookie-cutter shlock when there are so many other things I could be doing with my time, so many truly great films I could be enjoying. But those require an effort that a Hallmark movie does not. I can pop one on at night when I’m winding down, that window when I would typically tell myself I’m going to read a book but instead end up doom-scrolling on my phone, and that soft Hallmark nostalgia will lull me into feeling all is right, that everything I need already surrounds me, and a princess could suddenly appear from Zelarnia (not a real place, I checked, but definitely the real plot of “A Royal Montana Christmas,” which I also just watched) to change everything in one hour and 24 minutes.
And yes, when I recently mentioned to my wife that I wanted to get a sherpa-lined coat, she thought she was calling me out when she accused me of wanting to look like a Hallmark guy. Wanting to? No, honey, I am a Hallmark guy.
Now let me help you with that flat tire. By calling AAA.
Meanwhile, in Vermont: Can a charming holiday festival of miniatures give a big boost to a struggling downtown? Christopher Muther takes a look.
🧩 6 Across: Fury | 🥶 27° Freezing wind chills
Draining, underpaid, and vital: Massachusetts hospitals are struggling to hire sitters, employees who keep a constant watch on patients with mental illness, substance abuse problems, and other conditions. Nearly half the state’s sitter jobs are vacant, and the consequences of not having enough can be dire.
Win some, lose some: The Supreme Court’s conservative majority will let Texas use Trump-backed congressional maps meant to boost Republican candidates in next year’s midterm elections. (Texas Tribune) Meanwhile, a grand jury refused to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Trump foe, after a judge threw out the administration’s earlier mortgage fraud case against her. (NBC)
Brian Walshe murder trial: Walshe’s lawyers say he didn’t know about his wife’s affair, so it couldn’t have been a motive for killing her. The man she had it with testified yesterday, and the trial will resume today.
What year is it? The FBI arrested a Virginia man it says planted pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national party headquarters in Washington before the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. His motive remains unclear. (AP)
Burned out: Morale among Massachusetts teachers is among the lowest in the country. More support staff, greater flexibility, or higher pay could improve it, educators and administrators say.
Public disorder: The authorities charged a Connecticut man with participating in the October “street takeover” that disrupted Boston’s South End. He faces charges including burning a police car and unlawfully possessing fireworks.
Sacred ground: Northeastern University’s Matthews Arena, a humble building in a humble neighborhood that hosted presidents, music legends, and sports stars for 115 years, will shut down next week before being demolished and replaced.
MBTA incidents: An apparently homeless man pushed a woman onto Green Line tracks at North Station, injuring her. And the MBTA is investigating after an Orange Line train opened its doors before fully reaching Roxbury Crossing, injuring a man who exited while one of the cars was still about five feet off the ground.
The peacemaker? At the newly renamed Trump Institute for Peace in Washington, the president hosted the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and declared an end to the two countries’ decades-long conflict. The reality is more complicated. (Axios)
First Amendment: The New York Times sued the Pentagon in a bid to overturn media rules that effectively banished most mainstream journalists from the building. (AP)
E-bikes: A 13‑year‑old Stoneham boy’s death on an electric dirt bike last month is part of a growing concern. Yet Massachusetts’ public-safety laws haven’t kept pace with the danger, Natalia Barron Cervantes, Cassandra M. Kelleher, and Peter T. Masiakos say.
Spotify Wrapped: The music from our youth can cut through the fog of dementia. So save those end-of-year personalized rundowns for your future caregivers, David Amorim writes.
Marco Werman: International news is America’s secret weapon, says the longtime host of GBH’s “The World.” Federal cuts to public media put that at risk.
By David Beard
🍿 Streaming picks: Trying to stay warm inside this weekend? George Clooney’s “Jay Kelly,” “Mad Men” (with a new home) and a Shaq basketball competition show are among Matt Juul’s dunk-shots.
📺 While you’re here: The 100 best TV episodes of the century. (The Ringer)
🎄 Family-friendly holidays: These picks offer an advantage for grown-ups: They won’t stress you out.
💌 Love Letters: How do you get over an ex?
🐀 Killing rats isn’t enough: Securing trash and compost goes further to control the rodents feasting in congested Cambridge and Somerville, officials tell us, and zap boxes and high-tech traps also are still needed to prevent broader infestation.
📷 2025 in pictures: 100 stunning photographs that defined the year. (AP)
🧩 Are crossword puzzles changing? Is that a Megan Thee Stallion clue? You betcha. Here’s what’s happening.
Reader Yolette Ibokette wrote the following on the case of two mothers and the killings of their children: “It’s so nice to have Yvonne Abraham on Starting Point today. I’m happy she addressed the cases of these two mothers. I feel similarly that their mental illness contributed to the horrible acts they committed and should be considered in their cases.”
Thanks for reading Starting Point.
This newsletter was edited by David Beard.
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Billy Baker can be reached at billy.baker@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @billy_baker.