I doubt Hallmark Channel knew this would go this far, but when they started making Christmas movies each year, they have become a big part of the holidays. Almost the equivalent of the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials of my childhood. 

The movies seem interrelated. Many appear to be in the same town (in Canada). As the meme goes: “The plot of every Hallmark is about a career woman who is too busy for love but has to move to a small town where a handsome local bachelor teaches her about the true spirit of the holiday. It begins to snow and they kiss. There is also a dog.”

As you know HCMU films are fairly cookie cutter (pun intended) so making a BINGO board for your next viewing party is fairly straight forward. I came up with 75, just as many numbers as on a BINGO card. Pull out any BINGO card and a copy of this list and play along! 

Fire up the chestnuts, chill the egg nog, put on the comfy PJs and play along with the OMC HCMU BINGO.

OMC HCMU BINGO

1. Single Mom
2. Single Father
3. Christmas Cookies
4. Christmas Decorating
5. Christmas competition of some kind
6. Decorations discovered in the attic or a barn
7. All the lights work (no reference to knotted up lights or dead lights)
8. Product placement of coffee
9. A main romance and a secondary romance from the main couples best friends, coworker, etc.
10. Meddling parents
11. Elderly Couple finding love
12. Widow/Widower
13. Carolers (dressed in matching Victorian garb)
14. Use of public domain song Jingle Bells
15. Use of public domain poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
16. Awkward realization by the main couple that everyone they know has been plotting to get them together
17. An elusive, small, thoughtful gift being more appreciated than a big exciting gift
18. Background actors dressed as elves (because doesn’t everyone?)
19. Trees are lit but have no ornaments or garland (easier to move around the set from one room to the next)
20. Picking a Christmas tree at an outdoor lot
21. Hot Cocoa
22. Interrupted Kiss
23. Spontaneous Snow
24. Snow Angels
25. First Full Kiss occurs in the last five minutes of the film
26. Some awful generic title (It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas could have been named: Christmas in the Rivertons, A Dual Mayor Christmas, Love and Holly in East and West Riverton, etc.)
27. Lead leaves their current significant other
28. Lead is dumped just before the holidays
29. Carrying around a hot chocolate
30. Christmas program
31. Tree lighting ceremony
32. Christmas Winter Wonderland festival
33. Always a misunderstanding. Only hearing one side of a conversation and the main character leaves abruptly (This is called the “Three’s Company complication.”)
34. Scene dressing up formally
35. The man’s jaw drops after seeing the woman dressed up
36. “I’m only home for a few weeks…”
37. “I inherited a small town inn but I have to be there right away?! But I have a big corporate deadline looming in the city…”
38. Big city gal or guy who never has time ends up having to visit or “deal” with something in a small town.
39. Dog or a cat
40. Always a favorite diner or coffee shop everyone goes to.
41. It’s supposedly cold and/or a snowstorm is imminent. Yet the main characters don’t have their coats closed and you can’t see their breath.
42. They make Christmas cookies with hardly any cookies on a pan.
43. Any scene of a character exiting or entering a taxi
44. Airport
45. Any running of one character after another character
46. An unusually wise speaking child
47. Shopping on a little town main street instead of a mall
48. An elderly man resembling Santa Claus IS Santa Claus
49. An old home or hotel that needs to be fixed up in time for the holidays
50. Putting ornaments on a tree
51. A shot of a fireplace with a roaring fire
52. Someone casually picking up a baked good to eat
53. Any visual of a candy cane
54. If anyone in your viewing party tears up, you get this square
55. A missing relative arrives just in time for Christmas
56. A missing relative is actually one of the main characters that didn’t reveal themselves until Christmas night
57. The word “Believe” anywhere in writing on screen
58. Lacey Chabert
59. Patrick Muldoon
60. Jonathan Bennett
61. Out of focus colorful Christmas lights in the background of a shot
62. Colin Ferguson
63. Cameron Mathison
64. Any reference to Dolly Parton
65. Any has-been actor in a senior character role
66. Big city shots from the sky during credits
67. Any recognizable Christmas carol during the opening credits
68. The sound of a Jingle Bell in the soundtrack
69. Corporate big shot is closing a local business (factory, lodge, tree lot)
70. Kids play matchmaker for the couple
71. Parents/Older characters play matchmaker for the couple
72. Lead couple actively do not like each other at first meeting
73. Lead woman’s boyfriend is all work and no romance
74. Lead woman has to choose between family and career
75. Secret identity of character (he’s a prince! The caretaker owns the lodge!)

Tim Kretschmann is the host of Dead On Movie Reviews, Now Streaming, and Dead On the Bases. He is also a columnist on OtherworldlyCulture with the column Universally Loved.