The true meaning of Christmas. Well, the true meaning of Hallmark Christmas Movies.

Christmas Eve has always been a fun day in the Bastiat household. The kids were always so excited and happy, with all the anticipation, and all the preparation for the big day. Just wonderful. We’d cook food and wrap presents, of course, but to burn off their nervous energy, we always had an activity for them. For years, on every Christmas Eve, we took them ice skating. Until it became clear that these cute little kids were obviously future Division I scholarship athletes, which meant that their cute little knee ligaments suddenly became worth millions of dollars. So we stopped going ice skating, and we found other activities.

To this day, the girls love doing something on Christmas Eve. Some sort of activity that we can all do together. This year, they came up with a good one.

My girls are all in their early to mid-20s. The oldest is married, and the other two are in serious relationships, I think likely to get engaged soon. And, for whatever reason, they all love Hallmark Christmas movies. When I point out that some of these movies are a bit, um, amateur – well, my daughter just shrugs her shoulders and says something like, “They’re about decent people doing nice things. They make me happy.” I can’t think of a better endorsement, really. But for our Christmas Eve activity this year, they didn’t want to watch Hallmark Christmas movies — they wanted to write them.

They decided on this game: Each sister would write a Hallmark Christmas movie about another sister and her husband/boyfriend. And then they took turns reading them out loud to everyone. Combined with some Christmas cocktails, the plotlines became more and more Hallmarky, and the laughter grew louder and louder. It really was wonderful. I love that sound — everybody laughing until they can’t breathe. So, so wonderful.

Suppose my daughter “Jill” is writing a plotline about my daughter “Jane” and her husband “John.” A basic plot would sound something like this:

Jill is an overworked, stressed-out corporate lawyer who is sent to a small town to buy their Children’s Hospital and tear it down to put in a development. She meets John, a sensitive guy who wears flannel shirts, builds birdhouses for endangered species, and teaches Jill the true meaning of Christmas. They fall in love, save the Children’s Hospital, and open a cute little birdhouse store.

Now, that’s just a rough outline. They went on and on and on and on and ON. With everyone shouting out ideas for subplots and accessory characters, leading to more laughter and more shouted suggestions.

I wish I had recorded all this. But I’m glad I didn’t — some things should be enjoyed at the time, but not necessarily recorded for posterity. It was a glorious evening.

As you might imagine, all this got my propeller spinning a bit.

CNN would describe my daughters as dangerous right-wing radicals. This means that around 85% of the American population would describe them as normal. They understand that reality is real. They work hard. They all majored in some type of math or computer science, they all work in consulting now, and they all do quite well. They all have husbands or serious boyfriends and hope to have a family someday. Again, just normal 20-something young women.

And I was fascinated by their ham-fisted portrayal of the stereotypes found in Hallmark Christmas movies. Here are a few themes I picked up on:

• Corporations are evil.
• Doing something for your own self-interest is bad. Whatever it is.
• Doing something for charity is good. Whatever it is.
• Doing things for rational reasons is bad.
• Falling in love is irrational, and thus, is good.
• You should follow your heart, not your brain.
• Building things (developments, etc.) is bad. We should value what is already here. Sentimentality is a reasonable way to make decisions. Or a beautiful and good way, at least.
• My daughters made fun of the head-in-the-clouds birdhouse-building flannel shirt wearer, but they also made fun of the uptight, self-important girl-boss with the BMW. Too many examples to list here, but I found that fascinating.
• Hallmark, like Charles Dickens, uses Christmas to illustrate the darkness, as well as the beauty, of human nature. Which I also find fascinating.
• The ability to laugh at something does not mean that you think poorly of it. In fact, it may mean that you think highly of it. (I think that leftists struggle with this.)
• Hallmark Christmas movies can be beautiful, insightful, and silly. All at the same time. Just like my daughters.

My wife and daughters are getting home soon. Hitting the post-Christmas sales at the outlets, of course.

So I don’t have time to ruminate on all this. But I’d love to hear your ruminations in the comments below.

Christmas is beautiful. In so many ways.

God bless us, everyone.