From New York Times, I'm Michael Bobarrow.

This is the Daily.

Today, 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.

It's Tuesday, December 24th.

Amanda, thank you for coming into the studio.

Thank you so much for having me.

This is your first time on the show.

This is the thing we get to do at the end of the year.

We get to bring on everybody who's never been on the show, but who we secretly have wanted to be on the show.

This is my Christmas wish, come true.

You write about culture for the times.

You're a critic, and you're here today to talk about a subject that I'll be honest,

I don't think I or many of us on the show ever imagined might be an episode of The Daily.

You are going to be providing an exploration, a meditation, whatever you want to call it,

a kind of study of the Made for TV Christmas movie,

which you contend has not quite gotten the critical attention that it deserves.

And specifically, you're going to be talking to us here about that most familiar brand of Made for TV Christmas movie,

the Hallmark Channel Christmas movie.

That is our subject today.

Yes.

How do you justify that?

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