I tried to end my single spell by living in a Hallmark film-Josie Copson-Entertainment – Metro

One writer tried to live her own Hallmark film (Picture: Hallmark/YouTube)

I got dumped at 8:45am on a Friday morning by a guy I’m not even sure I liked. I hadn’t even finished my morning cup of tea.

After the savage start to my day, I did what I always do in these situations. I FaceTimed my mum to rant about how unfair things are while she nodded sympathetically, and told me: ‘It’s going to happen for you’.

Once 5pm hit, the pick-myself-up routine that I’ve perfected over many years of being single continued. I served myself a family-sized pizza, reached for the remote, and put on a romantic movie to remind myself that love does exist.

As it was November, there’s only one type that would do – Hallmark. Real life can suck, but in these festive delights, that’s never the case. 

I love everything about the movies, from how Christmas is the most important thing going on in everybody’s life, to the way even the village meanie has a heart of gold.

My adoration runs so deep that when I visited New York in December 2023, rather than making use of the city that never sleeps, I ensured I was back at the hotel each day at 8pm for their Hallmark Christmas countdown.

London dating is hard so I tried to change my luck

Watching a big city woman fall in love with a fit local handyman/bakery owner/prince over hot chocolates never gets boring, and a part of me has always been envious of the main characters getting to experience the magic of Christmas and falling in love simultaneously.

As I dipped my final pizza slice into some mayonnaise, I had an epiphany, why couldn’t I be the star of my own Hallmark movie? Well, here’s what happened when I tried…

Stage one: Getting into character

‘I’m just trying to help, isn’t that what people do at Christmas’ – One Royal Christmas

The leading ladies are kindness personified (Picture: YouTube)

The central character is almost always flawless in character. She may be clumsy and stressed at her big city job, but she’s Disney princess level of kindness. Most human beings like to think they are nice and I’m no different, but I am also self-aware enough to know that there is room for improvement. It’s not my number one priority every day, however, that was going to change.

I decided to start my plight by baking a cheesecake for the entire Metro office. I am not really somebody who is talented in the kitchen area – I keep hair extensions in some of my cupboards – but as baking is also often a key passion of the Hallmark girlies I wanted to give it a try. I dug out my mum’s special recipe from an old email and followed the instructions closely.

I felt smug as I carefully carried it on my commute and placed it in the fridge before excitedly serving it at lunchtime. Unfortunately, I hadn’t realised that it hadn’t set as I’d immediately put a lid on my creation after assembling. I ended up scooping out what could only be described as white chocolate slop mixed with biscuit crumbs for everyone to eat. People were nice about the situation, but it was me who was meant to be the lovely one.

The cake didn’t go as planned

Undeterred I continued with random acts of kindness. In one week I placed chocolates in my building’s foyer for the delivery people, smiled at strangers (which they often found disconcerting), decorated my neighbour’s door for Christmas, blurted out compliments each time I thought of them, emailed my old English teacher to thank her for making me love writing, and paid for my friends to go to Winter Wonderland.

I wasn’t sure if it was getting me closer to the man of my dreams, or how long the karma would take to cash in, but it felt so lovely. I was getting so much joy from it that it almost became selfish. I was reminded of the Friends episode where Joey Tribbiani proved there’s no such thing as a selfless act. He is right.

Other acts of kincness went a little better

Christmas became my whole personality

Stage two: Reading the script

‘I was wondering if you were going to the Green Pine Grove Town Square Christmas Eve Festival of Lights, Christmas Tree Decorating Contest Finalist Gala tonight?’ – Love at the Christmas Contest

Now my personality transplant was complete, I was ready to meet men. The weather outside was frightful, and the fire (the one I play on YouTube) was so delightful, so I decided to begin work from the comfort of my home.

Hinge was redownloaded, and I got to work transforming my profile to be entirely Christmas-themed.

Every picture had a nod to the day, and all my prompts had a festive twist. Nobody could be unsure of my intentions, as my opening line read: ‘This year, I really want to fall in love like they do in the Hallmark movies.’

My Hinge profile got a makeover (Picture: Josie Copson)

My intentions were clear (Picture: Josie Copson)

When I chatted to men I tried to bring up the holiday season as quickly as possible. Where appropriate I would even directly quote Hallmark films, chucking out lines such as ‘If you believe in Christmas, you believe in love’ and asking if the men planned to attend made-up events (see quote above).

Dating apps can be a chore when you’re endlessly asking people what they got up to that day. It’s why lots of us delete them, and then begrudgingly seek them out in the app store on a particularly lonely night. However, this ambition to get the Crimbo chat commenced as quickly as possible made the whole thing more joyful. Sometimes I even felt excitement to start talking with strangers, which is not something that I’ve felt in a long time.

I started to build a connection with Clive* as we discussed his bold decision to complete his advent calendar on day two of December, and why napping during a Christmas film you know the plot of is one of the best ways to spend a Sunday.

However, I took things too far when we discussed my lack of Christmas tree decorations. I typed, ‘Just because I don’t put out every light in existence doesn’t mean I don’t like Christmas’ – a direct quote from Christmas at Pemberley Manor. Our flowing conversation stopped dead and he then unmatched me. I fear I’m now the laughing stock of a brutal boys’ group chat.

Stage three: Meeting my leading man

‘The best gifts aren’t wrapped in paper, they’re felt in the heart’ – A Wish for Christmas

Men with occupations linked to Christmas are the highest value bachelors in Hallmark (Picture: YouTube)

My dating app chat may have been falling flat despite a promising start, but my spirit was not.

A pop-up shop selling real Christmas trees had recently appeared in my local town, and I’d quickly developed a crush on one of their sellers. We had exchanged some words during a brief encounter. I asked when he was open until, he replied ‘8pm’. I said ‘no, sorry, what day?’, he said ‘Oh, Christmas Eve.’ We laughed, and I told him I’d be back.

As promised, I returned to his workplace and pretended to peruse the price list, while he stuffed a tree into a baler. I realised that there is something undeniably alluring about watching a man throw a massive tree into machinery and grapple to get it out again.

I developed a crush on a man who worked at a Christmas tree farm

The plant-based show stopped and he walked in my direction, and asked if he could help. I had no plan on how I was going to convert this friendly customer and worker conversation into a perfect love story, but something overtook me.

We began to chat about all aspects of our lives covering jobs, hobbies, and of course, Christmas. I even read Simon* his daily horoscope.

After 30 minutes of this back and forth, I was fairly confident I could write an accurate profile on Simon but I was also audibly sniffling, and wishing I’d put on a bigger coat. Flirting in the cold isn’t for the weak. I was wondering what my next topic should be when I heard those words every girl wants to hear from the guy she fancies: ‘So, you got a boyfriend then?’

We exchanged numbers and I left. I felt happy, not only because I was finally free to blow my nose, but it seemed as if the silly plan thrown together while watching Lacey Chabert spend Christmas in a Scottish castle was actually working.

Before I’d reach my flat, my phone flashed with a ‘Hey’ text from my new contact. My heart may have skipped a beat.

Stage four: A fairytale ending

‘This tree brought me home for a reason’ – The Tree that saved Christmas

A festive date was harder than anticipated (Picture: YouTube)

In the world of Hallmark, the romantic leads fall in love quickly. Their feelings are always progressing at exactly the same pace and they don’t struggle to get dates in the diary. As much as I was trying to pretend to live in their world, I could only control myself and it turns out my male lead was unreliable.

Three days after our meet cute, Simon agreed to bring a Christmas tree over to my flat so we could decorate it together – a key scene featured more often than not in our inspiration material. I did full hair, makeup and threw on a red jacket so I looked like Christmas. He didn’t appear, and instead text me an hour after our meeting time to say he’d had an emergency.

Simon suggested we meet the following day. Once again, he didn’t show up. Sitting on my sofa alone, just waiting for a love story to begin, for the second night in a row hurt. The empty space where I planned to put the tree felt like it was mocking me.

Every rejection and terrible dating experience that I’d not allowed myself to dwell on came up. I cried hard. It wasn’t very Hallmark of me, but I was exhausted from the past few years.

I released so much pent up anger with the cathartic tears that I felt lighter when I woke up the following day. Things got even better when I unexpectedly reconnected with a man called Jordan*, who I met over the summer. Things naturally fizzled out after two dates, but maybe the festive magic was what we were missing all along?

He wanted to come see me so I went out to buy a Christmas tree (not from Simon), and then Jordan joined me for some decorating.

I finally got to decorate my tree

During our initial dates, I felt like he wasn’t fully interested in getting to know me. But, seeing him do something as delicate as hanging a bauble, checking with me on where the bows would go, and untangling my fairy lights made me see a gentler side of Jordan. He is caring, kind, and he may not know how to use a tree baler but he was getting more attractive. (Although, when he put three baubles on one branch, I did momentarily think he deserved jail time.)

My Hallmark experience hasn’t been the comfortable ride I’m used to watching on the TV screen. Unfortunately, there is no writers’ room making sure I don’t experience heartbreak during the 31 days of December. At times I really wished there was, but I have learnt to embrace the more messy aspects of real life. I feel more excited about romance than I have done in the other 11 months of the year and even if Jordan isn’t the one, I know that there is a little bit of magic to be found in everyone if you look for it. And if people aren’t presenting it, then I can make it myself, I am the main character of my own story… as are you.

The fairy on top of the tree was my work friend Rishma Dosani telling Danny Pellegrino all about my last month during an interview. The producer/star of Hallmark film Deck the Walls said: ”Oh, that’s so cute. That’s a movie, right there.’ So if anyone who works in their office is reading this, firstly thank you, I love you and secondly, call me!

*Names have been changed

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