Rick Garman and the Business of Christmas movies

The writer and producer shares his thoughts on the Christmas movie business

Entertainment Weekly reported that 110 Christmas movies were made for the 2024 holiday season. Once dismissed as formulaic or overly sentimental, Christmas movies—especially those made for TV and streaming—have now found widespread appeal across diverse demographics. Curious about the growing popularity of this genre, I had the chance to interview Rick Garman, a prolific screenwriter who has worked on 43 movies, including 20 Christmas films. Garman offers invaluable insights into the enduring charm of these movies and how the genre continues to evolve.

To learn more about Rick Garman and his work, visit his homepage.

Nicholas Yanes: Growing up, what were some stories you loved? Are there any from your youth you still enjoy revisiting?

Rick Garman: In terms of my own personal stories, I don’t have a lot because I don’t really remember much of my childhood. Not only was it a long time ago, but I didn’t have the happiest experience growing up, so I have tended to block a lot of it out.

However, there is a Christmas memory that has stuck with me. When I was young, my grandmother insisted on cooking Christmas dinner, but when she had a heart attack, she was unable to do so from that point on. She laid down the edict that if she couldn’t cook, nobody cooked, so the family, including all the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., would go to the one restaurant that was open on Christmas – a buffet-style place in a shopping center.

By the end of the meal, it would always devolve into an argument (it was different every year), so several of my cousins and I started a tradition that we would power through the meal and then excuse ourselves to go to the movie theater on the other side of the parking lot.

This tradition stuck with me when I moved to California at age 18 and didn’t really know anybody. I went every year and spent all of Christmas day at the movies for decades, really only stopping it when Covid happened. Today, I still spend most of the day streaming movies.

I won’t say that lacking in a magical Christmas experience growing up is what has helped me write so many Christmas movies – perhaps I’m doing a little wish fulfillment – but I think it certainly hasn’t hurt.

If you’re talking about other people’s stories, Stephen King’s novels are what gave me a love of reading and storytelling. Nobody crafts one like him.

Yanes: When did you know you wanted to pursue a career as a creative? Was there a moment when this goal crystalized for you?

Garman: I got involved in the drama department when I was a freshman in high school and I knew immediately that I wanted to pursue it as a career. I was overweight, bullied a lot, not happy, etc., so being in plays gave me a chance to be someone else for a little while. And it eventually surrounded me with people, friends… a tribe to call my own.

I moved to Los Angeles at 18 to be an actor. I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and graduated in 1987. I went on one audition and said, “Nope… not for me.” I had this very clear vision of how my life would turn out and it was not good. I didn’t have the self-confidence or resolve to do it, so I never went on an audition again.

In 1990, I started working for a theater company – The Colony – as their administrative director. One of the company members had passed away from AIDS, and they wanted to do a play that dealt with the topic, but everything that was out there was too angry, strident, and confrontational for our relatively conservative audience. So, I said, “I’ve been in plays. I can write a play.” And I did and The Colony produced it.

Hearing an audience laugh for the first time – and then later hearing them cry – because of something I created was life-changing. It took a long time to get there professionally and “officially,” but from that moment on I was a writer.

Yanes: You are from Iowa, and I spent about a decade there. While the small towns were far from perfect, many had an undeniable charm and sense of community I have not found elsewhere. With that said, how do you think your time in Iowa shaped your approach to telling stories?

Garman: I grew up in the suburbs of Cedar Rapids, which was more city than small town, but I have always said that Iowa is a great place to be from. It may not always be a great place to actually be, but I’m happy to be from there.

There is an innate kindness in people from the Midwest that seems to be missing from people in other areas. People seem a little bit more “real” and plain-spoken, which I think has inspired the kinds of characters I write, certainly in Christmas movies.

Yanes: A substantial part of your career has been writing Christmas movies. Not including the ones you’ve written, what are your all-time favorite Christmas movies?

Garman: A Christmas Story, Home Alone, The Family Man, Love Actually, Die Hard (yep, I’m one of those)

Yanes: As you began your professional writing career, when did you realize that there was a significant market for Christmas movies? For instance, one of your earliest movies was 2016’s Christmas in Homestead. Was it easier to sell that movie than scripts in other genres?

Garman: I knew that it existed, but never really thought that much of it. After I wrote several rom-com movies for PixL (a channel that doesn’t exist anymore), I got the door open to pitch for Hallmark and they wanted Christmas ideas. So, I came up with a bunch, pitched them, and they chose Homestead.

Of the 43 movies that I’ve been a part of, 20 are Christmas movies, but that’s less because of my intention and more because that’s what people ask me for.

Yanes: Since 2016, the direct-to-TV/Streaming Christmas movie genre has ballooned into its own industry. From a business/corporate side, why do you think so many studios are willing to develop so much of the same content?

Garman: It’s comfort food. In a world gone mad, people crave comfort and joy (holiday pun intended). A Christmas movie is two hours where you know nobody is going to die, there are no real bad guys, only people who are misguided (and usually learn their lesson by the end), and it’s always going to end with a kiss or a happy holiday moment. In short, they make people happy and as long as the demand is there, studios will continue to crank them out to satisfy it.

Yanes: On this note, why do you think consumers are so willing to watch so much of the same type of movie? Do you think there will ever be a point of oversaturation?

Garman: I think the above answer covers this, but there has been already a bit of oversaturation. Most of the other networks that tried to get into the game are pulling back and doing fewer of them or different types because (I believe) they realized they couldn’t topple the Crown (Media aka Hallmark Media).

Yanes: Though formulaic, I have noticed that the Christmas movie genre is evolving. The romcoms are becoming a bit risqué, and there is even an appetite for Christmas horror/slasher films. How have you noticed Christmas movies evolving in the last decade?

Garman: This is a continuation of the above answer, but a lot of this is because they tried to compete with Hallmark and weren’t able to. Now the other channels are developing their own styles of Christmas movies, like Netflix, which is doing more grown-up, slightly risqué versions of the classic holiday tales, or Great American Family, which is leaning into the faith-based market. Basically, this is more market driven than anything else as they try to find their own brand.

Yanes: A lot of people would love to become professional writers. What advice could you offer to people who want to write or develop a Christmas movie?

Garman: It’s a tough market to crack and the requirements are different for every outlet. Hallmark likes pitches – short blurbs with a backup 1-2 pager that they can review quickly and decide if they want to see more. They don’t like finished scripts because they want to develop.

Netflix prefers finished scripts, but they are very picky about what they read.

The key to all of it, though, is effective representation. Nobody will take submissions from a writer directly unless they know you and have worked with you before. The approach has to be made by a manager or agent with a work sample that fits the genre (don’t send an action script if you’re trying to get into the Christmas biz.

In terms of what to write… don’t do the same old thing. Everyone is looking for fresh, different, new ways of story-telling, interesting locations (that aren’t too expensive), original set-ups with unique characters that haven’t been done a million times. Once they get into development, they may get changed to be more of the typical Christmas fare, but you need something “new” to get in the door.

Yanes: Finally, what other projects are you working on that people can look forward to?

Garman: Two of the three new Cherry Lane movies are streaming on Hallmark+ now – Season’s Greetings from Chery Lane and Happy Holidays from Cherry Lane. The third will start streaming this Thursday, December 19, called Deck the Halls on Cherry Lane.

And you can watch almost all of the movies I’ve had a hand in on Hallmark+ - 34 of them at last count. I keep telling them they need to have “Rick Garman” playlist, but they just smile and laugh politely.

I have a new film called My Argentine Heart, filmed in Argentina with Julie Gonzalo, that will be on Hallmark Channel in January, and I’m working on another film for them now that is targeted for summer, but I can’t really give details yet.

Other than that, I have several other projects that are going out to market early next year, including a couple of TV series, an action script, and more, but nothing is set in stone.

Remember, you can learn more about Rick Garman and his work by visiting his homepage.