Christmas stories usually follow this trend, and they do so in a surprisingly specific manner. The purpose of Christmas (going back to when it was a Winter Solstice celebration) is to banish winter gloom and restore good cheer. Typically, a Christmas story will have a grumpy character who can't get into the spirit of the holidays. Following some kind of enchanted, mystical Christmas adventure, the grumpy character changes and gains a healthy dose of Christmas spirit.
This transformation can take the form of an altered attitude, as in A Christmas Carol (the Patrick Stewart version is my all-around favorite) or How the Grinch Stole Christmas, or in to physical transformation, such as when Tim Allen turned into The Santa Clause. Last year, I took a crack at writing a story in which a woman went through a transformation similar to Allen's, called Claus and Effect.
Although sometimes the plots of Christmas stories are described as simplistic or saccharine, some of them have quite a bit of depth to them. For example, in A Christmas Carol (Spoiler Alert), Mr. Scrooge is offered plenty of opportunities to change from his wicked ways. He is told by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley, that he'll suffer in the afterlife if he doesn't - basically, a threat of Hell, but this is ineffective. The spirits of Past and Present try to appeal to Scrooge's sense of empathy and try remind him where he came from, but these appeals also fail to sway Scrooge. Only when the spirit of the future shows Scrooge the utilitarian consequences of his actions - most notably, in the death of Tiny Tim - does Scrooge want to change. Viewed in this way, A Christmas Carol is a remarkably humanistic story, despite the religious overtimes surrounding the story and the Christian holiday around which it is based.
Leave a comment - what is your favorite Christmas story/movie?