How Hallmark's New Movie A Magical Christmas Village Can Help Chronic Worriers
"A Magical Christmas Village" is the latest Hallmark Channel original holiday movie to premiere. If you're wondering why a Christmas movie premiered on the first weekend in November, then it's time to get acquainted with The Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas and its unwavering commitment to holiday viewing that starts well before the holidays. If you're looking for a new movie to get you into the holiday spirit that may even help you in your day-to-day life, "A Magical Christmas Village" should be first on your list.
"A Magical Christmas Village" follows Summer when her mother, Vivian, comes to town (via Hallmark Channel). They pull their decorative tabletop Christmas village out of storage, and it turns out the beloved decoration has control over the real world.
This movie is perfect if you're seeking a sweet romcom, a tale about mother-daughter relationships, or that warm and fuzzy nostalgic holiday magic we all crave this time of year. The feel-good flick has a rather unexpected message, though, and it applies to enough people that it's definitely worth talking about — especially as the holiday season approaches.
The message? "Don't worry." Now — for those of us who are self-proclaimed chronic worriers, the idea that we should "stop worrying" is laughably reductive as well as being generally unhelpful advice. However, "A Magical Christmas Village" has a much better idea about why we worry and how to stop.
The movie's unique perspective on worriers
"A Magical Christmas Village" follows Summer, who worries about everything, and her mother, Vivian, who happily flies by the seat of her pants. Vivian isn't just carefree; she genuinely values her lack of worry and seems relatively unfazed by her increasingly dire financial situation and impending homelessness. Vivian is of the mind that things will work out how they should and that no one needs to intervene. Summer, on the other hand, believes that her mom has had the luxury of not worrying because she has always hopped in to make sure that things in her mom's life turn out okay.
Certainly, Summer's position here isn't a unique one; many of us feel this way, and it's especially easy to fall into this trap if you tend to worry about every possible worst-case scenario. One moment in the movie, in particular, stood out as the crux of the argument here. Summer spends a lot of the movie worrying about her mom's financial stability, even though Vivian, herself, doesn't seem concerned. When they discuss this, Vivian says, "Every time you say 'worry' I think I failed to teach you how to live a life." While Summer believes that she's being responsible and preventing negative outcomes, Vivian believes that worrying is actually the opposite of living happily.
How to worry less and celebrate more
The message of "A Magical Christmas Village" is to worry less, and Summer finds herself doing just that by the movie's end. When Summer is able to give up on the idea that she is responsible for keeping everything running smoothly, she realizes that letting things unfold and watching the chips fall as they may actually turn out alright most of the time. Summer's worst-case-scenario fears aren't often the actual outcomes.
Most of us don't have magical Christmas decorations that will allow us to control the future just by rearranging figurines (though we really wish we did). Still, this movie's message is commenting on that very idea. It doesn't matter how hard we try; we don't have a magical, future-predicting Christmas village, and we can't control everything. If we spend less time trying, we have a lot more time to do the important things, like spending time with family, going on dates, and decorating for the holidays. Preparedness can be a good thing, but when it starts to give you a false notion that you can prepare for and prevent any difficult moments in life, it will start to get in the way of the fun moments.
"A Magical Christmas Village" encourages us to think twice before we try to control the whole world around us. Instead, we should stop and smell the roses — or in this case, the Christmas trees.