"It's 9:30 p.m. in a Kansas City, Missouri, hotel lobby, and around 300 women and a handful of men are getting ready to take a shot out of a snow boot. They've spent $79 plus tax and shipping to buy the Holiday Boot Shot Tradition box, a package of five miniature glasses shaped like rugged winter footwear. (A few admit they snagged knockoffs on Etsy.)"
"The cozy, cuddly, predictable pablum of the Hallmark original movie has been endlessly mocked and parodied, but in 2024, the network was the most-watched entertainment cable channel of the year, with its highest ratings coming, reliably, in the fourth quarter. (Only networks that air news or sports beat it.) Yet for some of its 36 million devoted viewers, this season's 23 new Christmas romances-and Oy to the World!, the token Hanukkah offering-premiering from October to December, aren't quite enough holiday merriment."
About 300 fans gather in a Kansas City hotel lobby for Hallmark-themed events, many paying for branded items like a $79 Holiday Boot Shot Tradition box and traveling long distances. Attendees are mostly women wearing themed T-shirts and purchasing weekend packages priced $259–$699 for experiences including carol-oke, ornament-making, photo ops, meals, and meet-and-greets with Hallmark actors. Hallmark Channel drew its largest cable-audience ratings in 2024, reaching 36 million regular viewers and premiering 23 new Christmas romances plus one Hanukkah film. The events blend nostalgia, merchandise sales, and celebrity access around predictable holiday romance programming.
Read at Slate Magazine
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