Have yourself a very ‘Sappy Holiday’

I won't apologize: I love cheesy Christmas movies.

By Shalise Manza Young

For many people, it is not acceptable to acknowledge Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. Then, and not a moment before, they will begin engaging in whatever makes their holiday heart happy, be it hanging lights, listening to Mariah Carey and Nat “King” Cole, or pulling the collection of nutcrackers out of the basement.

Joy in an eye-opening scene in “Sappy Holiday.” (Nicely Entertainment)

But I have been celebrating the magic of Christmas for months. In small, fictional mountain towns where everyone knows your name to Chicago, New Orleans, and London. Anywhere opposites are unexpectedly forced together, high school sweethearts reunite, and one-time missed connections are finally made.

Dear reader, I am a cheesy Christmas movie junkie. And I make no apologies for it.

Yes, they are formulaic. Yes, we all know how they will turn out in the end – usually with a kiss under the mistletoe and a deep gaze into each other’s eyes as they say “Merry Christmas.” And there are even times my feminist heart questions why it’s always the woman that has to uproot her life to be with her beloved.

But. I. Cannot. Stop. Watching.

A decade or so ago, my then-nail technician had the Hallmark Channel on in her salon, and I mocked the movie that was showing for the very same reasons I now love these films: it was sugary and predictable.

And then I came across “Sappy Holiday” a couple of years ago. I have been a devotee of the genre ever since.

The movie follows Joy Johnson, a New York City sous chef fighting with a co-worker to be named executive chef at a small bistro. Joy’s boyfriend, Gabe, is an anesthesiologist from a bougie Black family that lives in Burlington, Vt., where his mother is mayor.

Without her knowledge, Gabe convinces Joy’s boss to give her eight days off so he can bring her to Burlington to meet his family – and, Joy discovers when she finds the ring in his luggage, propose to her. But they haven’t been together long, and Joy isn’t ready to marry him.

Gabe leaves for home without Joy because he’s meeting with potential donors to the hospital where he works, leaving Joy to make the drive up alone in his car.

But it’s December and it’s Vermont, so of course there has to be snow, and of course Joy isn’t driving on U.S. Route 7, the two-lane highway that the rest of us would take from NYC to northern Vermont. She’s on a narrow, unplowed road when she spins out on black ice and slides into a snowbank. She calls Gabe, who asks about the status of his car, not his girlfriend, and then refuses to come to her aid.

James, a maple syrup farmer running to the local market at his mother’s request, comes to her rescue, determines that the car will have to be towed, and eventually convinces her to come to his family’s home because there aren’t any hotels for miles.

It’s so close to Christmas, so the town mechanic can’t get the parts needed to fix the car quickly, and Joy is forced to stay for a few days. She has instant chemistry with James, who gets her to appreciate slowing down and enjoying life; she also quickly builds rapport with James’s mother and his brother’s family, who are visiting for the holiday. She even saves the financially struggling farm by suggesting they turn the huge home into a bed and breakfast. When she finally gets to Burlington, she realizes Gabe and his snooty family are not what she wants, and heads back to the maple farm. She spins out again on the side of the road, James rescues her again, and they live happily ever after.

That was it. I was hooked.

Now the “My Stuff” pages on my Hulu, Netflix, and Tubi accounts are almost exclusively Christmas movies, and I’ve watched all them at least 10 times each.

OK, maybe 15.

My kids faux-cheer me when I break down and watch a film I haven’t seen before instead of, say, one of the films in the “Merry Liddle” trilogy – “Merry Liddle Christmas”, “Merry Little Christmas Wedding,” and “Merry Liddle Christmas Baby” – starring best-friend-of-Beyonce Kelly Rowland and following her from falling in love with her neighbor one Christmas, to their wedding the next, to the arrival of their twins the holiday after that.

Even when I was in sundresses and shorts during the summer, I was curling up on the couch to watch the iconic Patti LaBelle as praline queen Miss Loretta in “A New Orleans Noel,” as singing superstar Dora Ducharme in “A Family Christmas Gift,” and as Mrs. Swinson in “Christmas Everlasting.” All have been in heavy rotation for months.

A meet-cute between a San Francisco ad exec and a lawyer/sleigh maker at a remote Alaskan airport. A children’s book author reconnecting with her childhood crush as she celebrates one last Christmas at her family’s Cape Cod home. A famous singer surprising a young fan and falling for her widowed father as the two unexpectedly write a Christmas song together.

The storylines are endless. But they all end with love.

It’s a little weird even to me that I’m so addicted to these movies. These days, the appeal might be the pure escapism: after days filled with the nonstop stream of horrors from this regime and frequently writing about them, the movies offer the chance to unwind with pretty people and pretty scenery and having everything wrapped up in a pretty bow in just 90 minutes.

I bet I can figure it out if I watch “Snowed Inn Christmas” again. Or “My Christmas Inn.” Maybe “Christmas Hotel”?

Who am I kidding? By the end of the week I’ll have cycled through all three. And probably a few more.

Shalise Manza Young was most recently a columnist at Yahoo Sports, focusing on the intersection of race, gender and culture in sports. The Associated Press Sports Editors named her one of the 10 best columnists in the country in 2020. She has also written for the Boston Globe and Providence Journal. Find her on Bluesky @shalisemyoung.

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