The Virgin River Christmas episodes, now streaming on Netflix, weren’t without drama

(Mel was, after all, searching for her biological father). But they were certainly lighter than

the rest of Season 5, which featured a gut-wrenching miscarriage and a devastating fire,

among other tragedies. For many viewers, the change of pace came as a welcome relief.

“It was fun to offer a Christmas present to the fans after a pretty intense Season 5,” showrunner Patrick Sean Smith said in a recent interview with Parade. “It’s really just ‘holiday cozy’ at its finest, with Virgin River style.”

Although viewers shouldn’t expect to see tree lightings and musical numbers on a regular basis going forward (at least not until next holiday season), Smith confirmed that the series is moving in a less intense direction overall. “I would say, in general, that I don’t want subsequent seasons to be as heavy as Season 5,” he shared. “But I still want [the show] to be meaningful and emotional.”

Smith replaced previous showrunner Sue Tenney in Virgin River’s fifth season and saw his first season as “an opportunity to test the limits,” he said. “I think at the end of the day the show’s about love and loss and grief and second chances. The show will always be about that. But I think as far as calibrating the intensity of it, I definitely don’t want Virgin River to become Grey’s Anatomy or a 9-1-1 Virgin River show.”

Smith’s perspective developed in part due to the production hiatus imposed on Virgin River (and most of Hollywood) by the writers’ and actors’ strikes, which lasted for more than five months collectively. “Given the circumstances, we were able to drop Season 5 and get some audience reaction to [the miscarriage] storyline [before starting on Season 6], and it’s definitely something that I’m factoring into the storylines moving forward,” he said.

Nonetheless, he stands by Season 5’s turn of events, including Mel’s miscarriage. “I felt like it was a way of bringing Mel and Jack closer together…We had yet to see them go through something as a couple,” he said. “It was so organic for it to be unfortunately through Mel’s miscarriage, but the journey for them as a couple and in the series will always be to having that family that they dream of and that we dream for them.” Plus, the response he got to the storyline wasn’t all negative. “I also got a strong positive response on social media [from] women who’ve gone through something similar and felt that the way we dramatized it was validating and healing for them.”

Hinting at what else is to come for Season 6, Smith told Parade that viewers can expect “another little time jump” as well as a continuation of Mel and Jack’s “pursuit of starting their family.” The next installment will also explore more deeply Mel’s relationship with her biological father and his ties to the town.

“When an audience connects with the characters, they connect with the good as well as the bad, so you have to have both,” Smith said. “Otherwise, I worry you’re kind of just skimming the surface and that’s what I don’t want to do with the series.”