Hallmark has been a staple during the holidays for years. However, the past few years have not been an impressive one for the network: I’m talking about their movies. For me personally, Hallmark movies have become increasingly harder to watch throughout the years.

Let’s start with the plot: each one seems loosely based on a big city woman coming home for the holidays, here she meets a small town man or past boyfriend, falls in love with him in an alarmingly quick time frame, and ditches her workaholic fiancee. Another common theme is, yet another big city son or daughter coming home to see their parents failing — usually holiday themed — business. While home, they learn the true meaning of Christmas, and fall head over heels for a small town man or woman.

Along with the repeated storyline, the actors are reused every year, some of the most common being: Candace Cameron-Bure, Lacey Chabert, Alicia Witt and Lori Loughlin. Seeing these actors play the same role every year gets old. Not only this, the actors are the same in regards to diversity as well. Ethnic diversity in these movies is heavily lacking. Each year the movie posters look the same: a white woman next to an attractive white man, with red or green sweaters on, posing in front of a beautifully snowy background.

In defense of their movies, I will say the network continues to make huge profit each year. Apparently many are still amused with their predictable movies airing from October to January each year. I personally dislike the Hallmark movies, but believe they still deserve to receive credit for their popular and diverse selection of Christmas cards. Therefore, I’ll stick to grabbing my Hallmark Christmas cards and watching the classic Christmas movies, like Polar Express and The Grinch.