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little towns out there. Thankfully, the Rouses readership lives in so many of them. And if there isn’t enough time for all the holiday magic, Hallmark has found a way to deliver the same idealized world in slightly different forms. The channel has branched way beyond December (though that’s when it matters most, I believe). There’s Valentine’s Day , Spring into Love , June Weddings , and Fall Harvest , among others. Maybe — just maybe — the world we want is doable year-round. Ultimately, after all, the Hallmark holiday movie is a genre all its own (even if it is not on Hallmark, or isn’t restricted to Christmas). Each appeals to us with a pretty straight forward message: What if things weren’t so bad? What if we were a little nicer to each other? Worthier questions are hard to find. Delivered with a high level of artistry and oftentimes filmed locally — watch those movies with joy in your heart, and tell your friends. A guilty pleasure that is not.

while there, falls in love with Christmas — and an old flame — all over again. Hard as it might be to believe, Christmas in Louisiana was not a sequel to 2017’s Christmas in Mississippi , in which Holly, a big city photographer, returns to her hometown of Gulfport to help celebrate an annual Christmas festival, and while there, falls in love with Christmas — and an old flame — all over again. Lafayette got some love in 2018 with The Christmas Contract , in which Jolie, a big city web designer, goes back to her hometown, where her parents run an annual Christmas Market. While there, she falls in love with her best friend’s brother. That very same year in that very same Lafayette, on Amazon Prime Video, Hometown Christmas sees Noelle, a big city doctor, returning to her hometown to help resurrect an annual Christmas festival. While there, she falls in love with an old flame. It would be hard to overstate how huge 2018 was for Lafayette. In Christmas Cupid's

Arrow , a college professor signs up for a dating app and meets a charming attorney named Josh. (Quite an outlandish plot for this kind of movie, but it’s a Prime Video produc tion, which is like the Rose-Art crayons of Hallmark movies.) I think Hallmark movies have more than one bit of magic working for them. The real holiday miracle is that these movies are filmed in Louisiana during the summer, and nobody looks like they are in 80% humidity. If that’s not a holiday miracle, I don’t know what is. It might seem like I am making fun of these movies and the cookie-cutter plots, but I am not. I celebrate them with the absurd exuberance that our hero’s hometown celebrates Christmas. These plots are a comforting escape from the everyday battles of modernity. Somehow, there is always that pillowy snow. The towns tend to be generic (though not you, Lafayette, nor you Poncha toula!) but exemplars of the world we want. One problem the network ran into a few years ago is that there are only so many cute

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