Pour some Rudolphtinis, spike some hot chocolate, or go the easy route of the writer and keep a bottle of wine on hand. It’s time (past time, really) for my Hallmark Christmas movie drinking game.
I warn you, if you follow all of these, you won’t last long.
Take a drink if you see/hear:
- No one wearing the winter clothing appropriate to the alleged location/weather
- Developers
- Layoffs
- Business trip
- Snowed-in
- No flights available
- Road trip
- Lead is a single parent
- Chicago
- New York
- Heavily decorated home/workplace
- Someone works for/owns/ has a friend or relative who owns/works for a Christmas related business
- One of the leads is a hardened businessperson
- One of the leads is a teacher or otherwise works a lot with children
- Royalty
- Takes place in a small quaint town
- One or both of the leads has a Christmas-y name (Nick, Holly, etc.)
- Scene at a Christmas tree farm (only one drink if that is the main setting)
- At least one of the leads has lost the Christmas spirit due to some prior heartbreak or tragedy
- Christmas deadline
- Down on its luck small business or non-profit
- The Christmas traditional event must be saved!
- The lead’s child’s other parent is MIA and not mentioned
- Elderly relative
- Snowball fight
- Christmas tree lighting
- Christmas pageant
- Ice skating
- Boss pulls a Scrooge
- Heartfelt chat in cold weather with no sign of being cold
- Alleged wisdom from the mouths of babes (actually boilerplate you see on decorations at Target)
- Winter/Christmas ball
- Country in Europe with English as the native language and looks like a fairytale
Take two drinks if:
- Faded TV star appearance
- Weird coincidences that might be magic
- Santa is proven real
- Animals with Christmas names
- Country that ends in -via
Drain your glass if:
- TV star you know from stuff you like is a lead
- Elderly relative dies
- Sequel
- The birth of Jesus is mentioned
You were warned.