Okay, so the other day I got really excited. The Hallmark Channel announced that they had started their countdown to Christmas! Now stay with me here, I’m going to take a wide turn and then hopefully circle back around. I have to start out by saying that I absolutely LOVE Hallmark Christmas movies and I’m going to tell you why. They are cheesy. They are unrealistic. They always have a happy ending. They are predictable and that’s why I love them. What’s better than cozying up in your favorite spot with a cup of tea, a glass of wine or a shot of tequila (name your poison) and getting totally lost in the predictability of a sappy Hallmark Christmas movie. It’s escapism, for a few hours you get to check out and forget about the real world.
I think there are a few cookie-cutter scripts they use for these movies. Big city successful girl returns to her sleepy hometown to shut down the Inn, Toy Factory, Santa’s Fun land, etc. and hooks up with her high school sweetheart who is still available (or a widower with an incredibly cute kid who of course is instantly taken with our heroine)…and they all live happily ever after and it’s all wrapped up with a bow in 2 hours (minus commercials of course).
Escaping from the grind of our daily lives is really a gift if you think about it. We all have our stuff, some worse than others at this very moment. It could be an illness, money problems, job loss, death of a loved one, estranged family members, anxiety, depression, I could go on and on, but you get my drift. My life is not a Hallmark movie, that’s why it’s so fun to get lost in them. I do need to be reminded every once in a while that I’ve been sitting on the couch for like six hours and maybe I should shower, but I digress.
Shortgirls are used to dealing with stuff and persevering. We are used to being called “cute names”, ugh! We are strong by nature even when things are not quite going the way we expected. Being a shortgirl means you are always going to have play the dwarf to Snowwhite, the munchkin to Dorothy and the elf to Santa.
This actually happened to me, the elf thing. I was in college and I had a part-time job as a waitress at Friendly’s (yummy right?!) It was a couple of weeks before Christmas, and they were having breakfast with Santa. I still remember my manager pitching the idea to me. I’d get all the tips, it would be fun and a nice bonus was thrown in there too. How could I refuse, I was a broke college student. It was a no brainer. The specifics of the actual event I can’t remember (it was a long time ago) but I don’t think I suffered any irreversible scarring because I played an elf to Santa. I know I’m short, I’ve been this height for a really long time (actually, I think I’m starting to shrink) Sometimes you just have to embrace what’s in front of you and just do it, whether it’s playing an elf or getting lost in a predictable Hallmark Christmas movie! Short but Mighty, Shortgirls rule!