Where's the movie magic in Hallmark Christmases?

Let me start off by saying I love Hallmark Christmas movies and It's A Wonderful Lifetime Christmas movies, and now we have Great American Family Christmas movies.

But let's be real, there's a lot of fantasy in these movies and I am not talking just the romantic plotlines.

First off I realize the majority of these movies are made in the summer but can the actors at least pretend it is cold.

You never see their breath when they speak and trust me at last Saturday's Parade of Lights, it was cold enough to see your breath.

Now let's talk snowmen. I was watching one movie over the weekend, I believe it was "Haul Out the Holly" (another fun rom-com from this year) and the snowmen were just a little too perfect. I mean perfectly round – I think you could practically tell they were large Styrofoam balls. Hallmark needs to remember there are high-definition TVs. Scuff up the Styrofoam or maybe use CGI.

Perhaps Hallmark does not have the budget of Universal Pictures that have made dinosaurs look incredibly real but I think they could try harder to make the snowmen look real.

How about housing. Does everyone in Hallmark, GAF and Lifetime have maids to clean their houses. I mean they are always immaculate with no clutter. And, why are they always huge. Doesn't anyone in these movies have meager wages and live in a regular home. Apparently not.

They all must be well off to afford the homes they live in and to always decorate with Balsam Hill, a major sponsor of Christmas movies no matter the network.

How about the movies with the amnesiacs or stranded travelers and people just welcome strangers into their homes. Yes, that is what the song the "Christmas Guest" talks about and Jesus said, "When you have done it unto the least of these you have done it unto Me," but how many of us would really welcome a complete stranger into our home, to be near our children no less?

Maybe those in the movies are just kinder and gentler than I, or maybe, just maybe, they are just characters in a movie.

And, maybe that's why we enjoy these and other movies, it takes us away to some small Christmas town or some island filled with dinosaurs, or even outer space, to forget our own troubles, if only for a few hours.

Maybe it doesn't matter that the snowmen are too perfect, the houses are too clean and the women never wake up with bedhead. Maybe it's enough for us to sit back, relax and enjoy a fun movie, whatever genre you prefer.

On a sidenote I am not going to get into the rivalry (for lack of a better word) between Hallmark and Great American Family. I will note that Great American Family channel appears to have lured a lot of the leading actresses away from Hallmark, but many of the leading actors have stayed at Hallmark. (See "Three Wise Men and a Baby" with Paul Campbell, Tyler Hynes and Andrew H. Walker, a hilarious rom-com from this year's installments of Hallmark Christmas movies.)