There Are 40 New Hallmark Holiday Movies & Only 12 Hallmark Holiday Movie Plots

You know the 12 Days of Christmas, but we're here to talk about its cousin, the 12 Plots of Hallmark Christmas. Hallmark and its sister network Hallmark Movies & Mysteries produced a whopping 40 new original holiday movies for this Christmas season. But as you might expect, the plots aren't all that original. In fact, all 40 new 2020 Hallmark holiday movies can be sorted into just 12 categories.

We can give them one thing, which is that at least these categories are mixing things up a little. A little. While this year introduces us to a few new tricks, we have a lot of old standbys in the mix, from ol' reliables like opposites attract and heading home for the holidays, to recent obsessions like the inclusion of vaguely royal characters and journalists as romantic heroines.

And while it sounds impossible, each of these 12 categories have more than one movie that matches, and some have several. I checked my list twice. Some movies are even overachievers and weave their plots through multiple categories. There's even one that features a single dad (check!) who comes home for Christmas (check check!) and reconnects with a childhood sweetheart (check check check!).

No one is surprised that Hallmark has figured out what works and that they're driving it home for the holidays. But it's somehow shocking to see just how strikingly similar all these movies really are. I guess it's as the old saying goes: if you've seen 12, you've seen them all.