Recipe for Christmas cheer

It's that time again...time for my TiVo to be filled with Christmas delights--er, movie specials. Some of you might think it's a waste of time for me to watch the cheesy goodness, but every year, it fills me with a crazy, giddy joy to see what Hallmark and ABC Family have to offer in the way of holiday programming. Sometimes after awhile, though, they all seem to meld together into a red-and-green swirl of joy mixed with plot and character development.

The way I figure it, here are the ten things it takes to make a good Christmas movie:

1) A hunky male lead
2) A woman who's trying to 'make it on her own' but somehow needs a man around the yuletide season to make things happy and complete
3) Some unfortunate incident (death of a parent, loss of a job, etc.) around the holidays that causes either said hunky male lead or aforementioned woman to hate Christmas and everything related to it
4) A killer soundtrack of cheery music, complete with lots of bell-ringing in the tunes
5) A 'magical' genie, witch, wish-granter of sorts--bonus points if he/she disappears in a mysterious way
6) Someone who doesn't believe in Santa Claus but is converted by the end of the two-hour film
7) A town that bands together for some sort of cause
8) References to the lack of or abundance of snow (because that's what makes Christmas Christmas, after all!)
9) A gift or keepsake that makes an appearance and has special meaning
10) Changes of heart that can only happen around this magical, magical time of year

Seriously, folks, I should be in the Christmas movie biz because I could write these things in my sleep by now! I give props and kudos to the movies that throw me for a loop, because with over 30 of these things on my DVR awaiting my viewing, I have to be picky! I've instigated a rule that a show has until its 30-minute mark to enthrall me. After that, if I'm not hooked, to the trash can it goes.