Back in the mid 1990s I came up with an idea for a Christmas romance movie about a young woman who sends a Christmas card to a serviceman which sparks a love story between them.
The kernel of the idea originally came when I was watching TV with my mom and a holiday music video by Vince Gill came on; the song was "I'll Be Home For Christmas." My movie idea was a way to honor both my parents; my dad who served as a medic in the European Campaign of WWII and my mom who sent out hundreds of Christmas cards every year. Handwritten cards. Cards often bought in the Hallmark Store.
Back in the mid 1990s there was limited cable, there was no internet/Google, no streamers, there wouldn't be a Hallmark Channel until 2001. The only real place for my movie idea would be the movie theaters. I really wanted to see a Christmas romance movie, there weren't any back then and I was determined to make that happen.
Jump ahead to the first week of 1999. The Christmas romance movie idea was still tugging at my gut but I didn't really have any of the details of the story and characters figured out. I had been writing screenplays at that time; Bette Midler read my first screenplay ever written a comedy titled 86 Management, I had other Christmas ones in the works including one about a town in Vermont home to the real Santa Claus, I had just finished an American West retelling of "The King and I," and I was passionate about a little known slice of Mae West's life that really really really should be a movie/documentary/Broadway musical. (Which I still whole heartedly believe.)
To support my screenwriting habit (at this time I was only optioning screenplays I hadn't sold one yet) I took a job at a lumber mill working in the office. My first full work week was the first week of 1999. On that Friday the loggers came to the office to get paid. As soon as one of the loggers walked into my little office and my eyes met his it was love at first sight. I was in my early thirties and up until that moment I had never ever felt that feeling before. It was overwhelmingly epic.
As soon as I got home from work that day I took a seat at my desk and began typing on my clunky chunky Apple computer (there were no laptops back then.) The story, characters, setting for The Christmas Card flew into me the day I first saw the logger.
The owner of the mill, seeing the spark between us, arranged for me to spend a day in the woods with the logger, for research of course.
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I love this story!
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Joany, thanks so doggone much for posting this! So glad you're here on Stage 32...and all the VERY BEST to you!
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So cool to hear some Xmas movie history, Joany Kane! It's amazing that today Hallmark alone makes 40 Christmas romance movies each year. Thanks for sharing and best wishes for continued success.
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What a great story, Joany. A real life movie romance. If you’re still working on selling a romantic comedy as a made for TV movie please allow me to recommend Matt Bierman’s upcoming Stage 32 lab where he’s working with a small group of writers to develop a romantic comedy treatment that can sell to one of the networks or streamers. Matt’s an expert in the genre. Here’s a link so you can see how Matt’s designed his lab: https://www.stage32.com/classes/Create-The-Elements-You-Need-To-Sell-You...
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Write the Christmas story idea about a letter sent to a servicemen, but later into the story enter a new character of that being the servicemen's brother the logger you suddenly became close to.