Aahana Swrup
Netflix’s rom-com ‘A Merry Little Ex-Mas’ brings the joy of the festive season, mixed with a healthy dose of some chaotic family dynamics. The story revolves around Kate, an environmentalist, who has always been passionate about making a change in the world. Even so, she made the move from Boston to the small, cozy town of Winterlight in pursuit of a fairytale romance that inevitably ended up flickering out. Now, with her and Everett’s divorce nearing finalization and the children almost out of the house, she has a chance to start over and do the things she never could.
However, before that, she’s going to celebrate Christmas with her family in their hometown, hopefully for the last time. Naturally, all hopes for a stress-free holiday season fly out of the window when Kate realizes Everett is planning on tagging his new girlfriend, Tess, along for the festivities. Besides the prominent themes of rekindled romance, the town of Winterlight in all its holiday glory becomes an instrumental part of the film’s narrative and visual storytelling. Therefore, its possible origins in reality remain worth exploring.
Winterlight is a Fictional Town That Spoofs the Portrayal of Small-Towns in Holiday Rom-coms
‘A Merry Little Ex-Mas’ charts a fictional tale, free of any direct basis in reality. Instead, the rom-com seems to present a fun and interesting exploration of tropes and cliches associated with Holiday romance stories. As such, much like other elements in the film, the town of Witchlight also becomes an entirely fictionalized tool in service of the overarching story. The town, sporting a whimsical and distinctly yuletide name, seems to be a meta reference to the overall holiday rom-com genre. Over the years, the idea of finding love, especially during the holidays, in quaint small towns has become something of a trope.
Furthermore, most of these idyllic, closely knit towns tend to gravitate toward festive and joyous names. For instance, in Netflix’s 2024 film ”Hot Frosty,” where the protagonist finds love with a snowman who has been magically brought to life, the story takes place in a fictional town called Hope Springs. Similarly, another Christmas movie from the same year, ‘The Merry Gentlemen,’ is set in a cozy town known as Sycamore Creek. Numerous other examples can be found in similarly romantic holiday-time films. This meta commentary on the small town trope extends in ‘My Little Ex-Mas’ throughout the narrative.
Off-the-bat, Kate’s personal problems in her relationship compel her to grow somewhat resentful of living in a small, close-knit community. Even though her day-to-day life is amazing, she wonders what opportunities she could have found in Boston. On the other hand, Tess, Everett’s otherwise worldly girlfriend, allows herself to get swept up in a whimsical romance, partly due to the feeling of being in a “fairy tale romance” that Winterlight brings. Thus, by employing and referencing the small-town trope through the fictional town of Winterlight, the film adds a humorous and familiar touch to the narrative.
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