Hallmark's A Tale Of Two Christmases Has A Message Every People-Pleasing Perfectionist Needs To Hear
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
As Hallmark continues to add to its impressive Christmas movie collection, releasing new movies every weekend during its "Countdown to Christmas," we can't help but notice the valuable life lessons that can be gleaned from each one. Sure, you may not relate to some of the ever-so-common plots, like falling in love with an unlikely character or spending Christmas in a picturesque town. Still, there's a reason you walk away from these movies feeling inspired to make a change.
And if you are a people-pleasing perfectionist, Hallmark's new "A Tale of Two Christmases" is a movie you'll definitely want to feast your eyes on this year. In the film, thanks to Christmas magic, Emma Peterson's story "splits into two possibilities, via Hallmark. In one, she stays in the city and spends Christmas with a successful lawyer she's been crushing on. On the other, she travels home to spend the holiday with her family and her childhood friend.
The different possibilities can be compared to the battle happening in Emma's head — the battle to live a "picture-perfect life" despite her unhappiness. By the end, she ends up ditching the idea of what she thinks her life should look like to the rest of the world, and chooses a path that gives her the most joy. But how does she get there? Emma received a message in "A Tale of Two Christmases" that helped her navigate her people-pleasing perfectionism, and everybody who can relate needs to hear it.
Follow your heart, and do it for YOU
Are you constantly trying to be perfect, working hard to make others happy, and feeling frustrated when you fall short? Emma Peterson in "A Tale of Two Christmases" can relate. "I had this thing inside me that thought I had to be a certain way," she admits. In the movie, Emma works for an architectural firm in the city, spinning her wheels for a company that hardly values her, all while trying to make her father proud. She's been a perfectionist her entire life, with her childhood friend, Drew, calling her: "Perfect Peterson."
Although her perfectionism has landed her at a top-notch job in Chicago, where she dresses fancy, has perfect hair, and a life that many on the outside looking in would think is "perfect," it's far from it. The main reason? She's not truly happy. Emma ends up venting to her father, who she desperately wants to impress, telling him she "let him down." His response to her changed the course of her life.
"Maybe it's time for you to start following your heart. With everything. And do it for you, 'cause you deserve it." Mic drop. If you find yourself in Emma's shoes, thinking you need to be, act, dress, speak, and live a certain way because your perfectionism has told you that's what will make everyone proud, this is for you! "Don't do it for me," Emma's father tells her. "The most important thing is that you're happy."
You may find a difference between what you think you want and what you truly want
In "A Tale of Two Christmases," the two Christmases Emma experiences are entirely opposite. When she stays in the city with her new crush, her holiday is very different than the traditions of comfort and joy she's used to experiencing with her family. She's wearing an elegant cocktail dress in her wealthy crush's high-rise apartment, helping him host a sophisticated Christmas Eve party. But there's something inside her that's missing.
The other Christmas, Emma is with her family, wearing ugly Christmas sweaters, with her hair undone, and surrounded by those who genuinely love her. Surely, this isn't the picture-perfect life she envisioned for herself. But by the end, she realizes that is where she is valued the most. And that childhood friend of hers? He wasn't what "Mr. Perfect" looked like to her at first, but, well, you'll see.
"If I'm being totally honest with myself about where my life is headed and what I actually want," Emma says to Max, the successful crush-worthy lawyer, "turns out I prefer dysfunctional family gatherings to perfect holiday parties." By truly following her heart and letting go of the need to look and be perfect, Emma can finally be as happy on the inside as it appears on the outside. And since you may not have a dreamlike dose of Christmas magic on hand, Hallmark's "A Tale of Two Christmases" may be the closest thing to it.