Single All the Way – Hallmark-Style Holiday Rom-Com with a Gay Heart

Sebastian Hart

The Gay Hallmark Movie People Kept Asking For

For years, queer audiences joked about wanting “a Hallmark Christmas movie, but make it gay.” When Single All the Way dropped on Netflix, the memes finally felt answered. Snowy small town? Check. Meddling family? Check. Holiday decorations aggressively colonising every frame? Double check. The only real twist is that the romantic leads are two men—and the homophobia is swapped out for over‑enthusiastic support.

If you approach the film as serious drama, you will probably be disappointed. As a trope‑driven holiday comfort watch, however, it hits its marks with almost mathematical precision. For a site like LGBT Novel Atlas, it’s a useful case study in how to queer a deeply traditional structure without scaring off viewers who just want festive fluff.

Trope Parade: Fake Dating, Friends to Lovers, Small-Town Return

The setup is pure romance workbook:

  • Peter, a chronically unlucky‑in‑love social media manager, convinces his best friend and roommate Nick to come home with him for Christmas.
  • The plan: fake a relationship to stop Peter’s family from nagging him about being single.
  • The complication: Peter’s family immediately attempts to set him up with another (very eligible) man, James.
  • The reality: literally everyone except Peter and Nick can see that they are already halfway to married.

Within minutes we’ve checked off:

  • Fake Dating – the pretend relationship that reveals real feelings.
  • Friends to Lovers – long‑term best friends forced to interrogate why no one else ever quite works.
  • Small Town Return – big‑city protagonist going home to a snow‑blanketed town where everyone knows his business.
  • Holiday Romance – family traditions, tree‑decorating, charity events, and a timeline that ends with Christmas morning.

None of this is subversive, and that’s the point. The film’s queerness lies in who gets to occupy these tropes, not in reinventing them.

Family: Overbearing, But Not Because He’s Gay

One of Single All the Way’s most refreshing choices is how it handles family. Peter’s relatives are:

  • loudly invested in his love life,
  • over‑involved in matchmaking,
  • occasionally too honest about his dating history.

But their meddling is never about “accepting” his sexuality. That hurdle has already been cleared offscreen. His mother’s book‑club‑fuelled enthusiasm for gay romance tropes becomes a running joke; she ships Peter and Nick harder than any Netflix viewer.

This dynamic won’t match every queer person’s reality, but it serves a clear purpose: to create a holiday film where queerness is fully integrated into family life, freeing the narrative to focus on romantic indecision rather than fear of rejection.

Nick vs. James: Two Versions of a Good Match

The love triangle here is notable for featuring two genuinely decent options:

  • James is handsome, kind, and shares Peter’s interests. Their dates are pleasant and chemistry is believable.
  • Nick is Peter’s long‑time confidant, a children’s‑book ghostwriter and dog dad who already shares a home and daily life with him.

The film doesn’t demonise James; it simply makes the case that compatibility isn’t enough if your heart is elsewhere. This matters, because too many romances manufacture drama by turning one corner of a triangle into a secret jerk. Here, Peter’s choice is about recognising where his emotional roots already are, not rejecting someone unworthy.

Humor and Tone: Sincere, Slightly Camp, Comforting

Single All the Way leans into sitcom energy:

  • chaotic nieces staging a children’s pageant,
  • an uncle trying (and failing) to understand Peter’s job,
  • a mother whose allyship verges on smothering.

Crucially, the humour rarely punches down at queerness. The joke is almost always about family intensity, small‑town quirks, or Peter’s own anxious overthinking.

Romantically, the film stays firmly PG. Kisses are sweet, cuddles are plentiful, and fade‑to‑black arrives long before anything explicit. For audiences—especially families or younger viewers—seeking non‑sexualised MM romance, this is exactly the right calibration.

Where It Succeeds, Where It’s Thin

Does Single All the Way have deep character work? Not really. Peter and Nick are broadly drawn, and their internal conflicts rarely cut below the surface. Their eventual realisation—“It’s always been you”—is emotionally satisfying but not surprising.

What it does offer is:

  • an easy entry point into MM holiday romance for viewers who might be nervous about heavier films;
  • visual and tonal alignment with decades of hetero holiday movies, which helps normalise queer stories in that space;
  • a ready‑made set of tropes writers can study if they want to craft cozy, low‑angst seasonal romances.

For more seasoned MM romance fans, the film works best as background comfort viewing while baking cookies or wrapping presents. For newer audiences—or for those specifically craving fake‑dating + Christmas—it can be a highlight of the season.

Lessons for Holiday MM Romance Writers

  • Don’t be afraid of sincerity. Single All the Way barely flirts with irony; it believes in love, family, and Christmas magic, and the target audience rewards that commitment.
  • Consider letting homophobia sit entirely offstage in at least some projects. There is value in narratives where being gay is not the problem.
  • Trope‑stacking (Fake Dating + Friends to Lovers + Holiday Romance + Small Town Return) works as long as you keep the emotional throughline simple.
  • Think about writing at least one “safe for Aunties and Teen Cousins” title in your catalogue; it expands who can comfortably recommend your work.

If your goal is to build a section of LGBT Novel Atlas dedicated to cozy queer holiday media, Single All the Way deserves a spot near the top, alongside soft MM novellas and trope‑heavy fan‑favourite romances.