Writing your own Holiday Movie Script
During the holidays, you can feel like everyone else has it better than you sometimes - the path ahead feels bleak, especially if your spouse or family has been less than thoughtful towards you.
And yet the Christmas movies we watch in contrast are so magical, it can make you feel even more alone.
Just this past weekend I watched a movie recommended on the “Best Christmas Movies list” with Justin Hartley. In “The Noel Diary” he plays a world-famous author who falls in love over Christmas break with an absolute dream woman (She’s a gem and I’ve typed her an 8w9).
However, all that glitters is not gold if you look beneath the surface.
No matter that his mother had just died the day before and that the girl broke off her engagement with someone she loved because she met a new handsome man who she liked a bit better…
Or that it was totally one hundred percent fake.
Although it was indeed fun to watch while wrapping gifts, I bring it up because likewise last week I caught a marriage statistic that during the holidays, couples struggle more exactly because of the Hallmark holiday perfection!
People see their own partners as they are - less than perfect, while the glimmer in their eye for the shiny new object becomes brighter yet.
To counter this starry-eyed envy this season, try to do this fun but meaningful exercise with me this season today, just for five minutes.
1. Take a journal out or your phone and try to write a movie summary of your own life, setting your own love story down through the eyes of a Hallmark film.
You’re the hero, this we know.
And in your short paragraph story, make the hero finds the love they were looking for, in the form of…
You guessed it, your spouse.
Perhaps your hero in this movie summary needs to be reminded he or she was important. Prhaps they need to feel secure. Maybe they need someone to believe they could do hard things or just someone to accept them as they are.
What gifts does your spouse bring this holiday? Check out our Glow Guides if you need some inspiration!
If you’re not married, make this movie about someone else special who is already in your life, something realistic.
And in that way, as you create this fun story, what will you intentionally choose to thank this person for?
Take a moment to daydream this fun narrative up!
Share the scenario with your special person, too!
Tell them you had a holiday fantasy trope and it involved them and you having a fantastic sleigh ride, kissing under the mistletoe, sharing eggnog, or whatever else you dreamed up.
And here’s the most fun part of this exercise. You can actually do something like this, perhaps trading the sleigh ride for your SUV!
Find more ways to connect with your spouse in our 5 week relationship course or in our book, “Enneagram in Marriage.”
