It’s the most wonderful time of the year: The Hallmark Countdown to Christmas. Families are at the center of so many of the stories we watch, whether we recognize it or not. As a family scientist, I'm interested in how these stories reflect what research tells us about family relationships—and where popular portrayals differ from what we know.
In this blog series, I'll use familiar stories from popular culture to explore the science of family life, examining the relationships, experiences, and everyday interactions that shape how we connect with one another.
"Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story"
Hallmark Christmas movies have a fairly predictable formula: Someone arrives in a new place (or returns to an old one), discovers an unexpected connection, and begins reconsidering what matters most in life. Usually, romance plays a central role. But sometimes the more interesting love story isn't between two people; it's between a person and a community. That's what makes Hallmark's Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story an interesting opportunity to consider the psychology of belonging.
This movie features Avery Clark, an ambitious freelance reporter who returns to Chicago for Christmas. Accustomed to moving often for work, Avery knows little about football or the city. When she begins profiling Darlene Donnelly, a devoted Chicago Bears fan preparing to attend her 500th game, Avery encounters a community connected through shared traditions, collective memories, and a sense of identity.
Belonging Is More Than Having Relationships
Psychologists Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary argued that people have a strong motivation to form and maintain lasting, positive interpersonal relationships. Importantly, belonging isn't simply about being surrounded by people. We can have numerous social interactions and still feel disconnected. Meaningful belonging involves feeling accepted, valued, and connected to others.
These connections can be particularly important when our lives are changing. Moving, changing careers, entering a new relationship, or experiencing other transitions can disrupt established social networks and leave us searching for new ways to connect.
For someone like Avery, whose career involves frequent change, the appeal of a stable community may be about more than finding romance. It may represent the possibility of becoming part of a shared story.
Why Sports Fans Feel Like Family
Social identity theory suggests that our identities are shaped partly by the social groups to which we belong. We don't define ourselves solely as individuals. We also understand ourselves as members of families, communities, professions, and other groups. For devoted sports fans, team identification can become a meaningful part of that social identity. For example, Wann and colleagues found that a sense of belonging helped explain the relationship between sports fandom and perceived meaning in life. In other words, supporting a team may provide something that extends far beyond entertainment.
Fans share experiences, celebrate victories, endure disappointments, and develop connections with people they might otherwise never meet.
Traditions Connect Us Across Generations
One of the most compelling elements of Holiday Touchdown is Darlene's extraordinary history as a Bears fan. Attending 500 games represents far more than an impressive attendance record. Those games are connected to relationships, memories, and important moments across her life.
Family scholars recognize that rituals and traditions can serve important functions in maintaining family identity and connection. Whether families gather for holiday meals, celebrate birthdays in particular ways, or watch football together every Sunday, these repeated experiences provide continuity.
Research on family rituals suggests that these practices can support family cohesion and provide a sense of stability and identity. A family that gathers to watch football may spend surprisingly little time discussing the game. Instead, the gathering becomes an opportunity to share meals, tell stories, reconnect, and create memories.
Relationships Essential Reads
This isn't the first time Hallmark has used football to illustrate the importance of family traditions. In last year's Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story, I explored how shared rituals can strengthen family identity and create connections across generations. This year's Bears-themed movie builds on that idea by highlighting something equally important: how traditions can connect us not only to our families but also to a broader community.
Finding Home Isn't Always About Finding a Place
We often think of home as a physical location, but home can represent something more complex. It may be the place where people know our stories and recognize our traditions. Sometimes, home isn't a place at all but the experience of being connected. This is an important distinction because people don't necessarily need to remain geographically close to experience belonging. Families maintain traditions across distances, friends develop communities through shared interests, and people establish meaningful connections in new places.
Belonging also doesn’t require everyone to share the same interests. Avery doesn't need to become a lifelong football fanatic to appreciate what the Bears mean to Darlene and her family. Sometimes, connection begins with curiosity about why something matters so much to someone else.
Hallmark vs. Psychology
Hallmark Christmas movies may not be known for their realism, but that doesn't mean they don't get some things right. Throughout this series, I'll end each post with a reality check. Sometimes the movies will get the science right, sometimes they'll take a few creative liberties, and sometimes the answer will fall somewhere in between.
Hallmark says: Sometimes finding where you belong means finding the right people, traditions, and community to call home.
Psychology says: There's real science behind this one! Our sense of belonging isn't limited to romantic relationships or even our immediate families. Shared experiences, meaningful traditions, and connections across generations can strengthen our social identities and help us feel part of something larger than ourselves.
The verdict: Hallmark gets this one right. The most meaningful love story isn't always romantic; sometimes, it's about finding your people.