Hallmark Christmas movies are corny, predictable and just what our critic needed to embrace the holiday spirit.

The story of how a big-city culture critic, Amanda Hess, found love where she least expected it — in the monotony of Hallmark’s Christmas movies.

Guest: Amanda Hess, a critic at large for the Culture section of The New York Times

Background reading: 

• One December morning, a millennial critic awoke to discover that she had been begrudgingly charmed by an onslaught of Hallmark and Netflix holiday films.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

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