The best Christmas movies all have plot holes, and that’s okay

Some of the greatest holiday movies of all time have one thing in common, and because it’s Christmas, it somehow works.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Yes, trees have been erected, halls have been decked with boughs of holly, mangoes have come into season, and carols blare from every shop front. But more than that, it’s the time of Christmas movies.

It’s the season of Emma Thompson crying to Joni Mitchell as the reality of Alan Rickman’s monumental betrayal sets in, of Will Ferrell playing a human-sized elf with a penchant for sugary breakfast pasta, of Mr and Mrs McAllister leaving their eight-year-old son at home on multiple occasions and somehow never hearing a peep from child services about it.

The Holiday has been a festive favourite since it dropped in 2006. Picture: supplied

It’s the season of usually unforgivable overacting, of criminally bad fake accents, and some of the most gaping plot holes of all time somehow being forgiven because hey, it’s Christmas. And at Christmas, all manner of cinematic sins can be forgiven.

Take, for example, the timeline of one of the most popular Christmas films in modern history, The Holiday. Despite the two female protagonists agreeing to an international house swap days out from Christmas, somehow, weeks manage to pass between their respective arrivals and scheduled New Year’s Eve departures.

In the alternate space time continuum of Iris and Amanda, the women manage to fall in love with new partners, make new friends, celebrate Hanukkah, offer physical therapy treatment to a senior citizen, end up in the same DVD store as Dustin Hoffman, and get business class seats on last minute holiday season flights. It’s almost impressive how impossible the timeline is. And yet, it’s still consistently one of the most watched films every single holiday season.

Christmas is Emma Thompson crying to Joni Mitchell. Picture: supplied

Even this year’s must-watch Christmas film, Happiest Season, has its fair share of truly unbelievable moments. For starters, Abby should clearly end up with Riley. Then there’s the issue of Harper, having spent her entire life feeling she has to live in the closet or risk being disowned by her parents, forgives her mum and dad for inflicting a wild form of emotional trauma on her literally overnight. Which happens hours after her older sister cruelly outs her in front of a room full of people, and she also seems fine about by the next morning. Also, Jane is the true hero of the movie.

At its core, though, like so many other Christmas classics, Happiest Season is a film about the awkward universal experience of meeting your partner’s family for the first time and worrying you won’t cut the mustard.

Happiest Season is filled with plot holes, but none of them matter. Picture: supplied

And it seems that either because we’re feeling merry or stressed up to our eyeballs over present lists, food preparation and trying not to engage in family arguments, we’re willing to overlook all of these moments in exchange for some scenes involving snow, heavy drinking, karaoke, snugly dressing gowns and a picture-perfect tree surrounded by professionally wrapped gifts on Christmas morning.

Yes, Christmas movies are predictable and more often than not highly unbelievable, but that’s what we need when we need it the most.

By the end of the year – this year especially so – we’re burnt out and emotionally crawling to the finish line. We don’t have capacity for a mind-bending cinematic masterpiece. All we can handle is simple, surface-level problems with a guaranteed resolution time of 120 minutes of less, featuring some wacky sweaters. And that’s exactly what Christmas films deliver.

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Originally published as The best Christmas movies all have plot holes, and that’s okay