Hanukkah On The Rocks | 2024 Christmas Movies

Hanukkah On The Rocks is this year’s Hallmark Hanukkah movie. I am so glad that it wasn’t Leah’s Perfect Gift. That would have been sad.

Tory (Stacey Farber) is a lawyer who gets laid off shortly before the first day of Hanukkah. While debating where to go with her life, she finds herself temporarily bartending at Rocky’s, a local dive bar. With the help of bar regular, Sam (Marc Summers), and his son, Jay (Daren Kagasoff), Tory figures out what is really important to her.

Most of the time, I find the annual Hanukkah movie to be better than some of the Christmas movies. And this year is no different. I loved that Hanukkah isn’t just a background holiday that happens to be celebrated as the plot progresses. No, there are actual celebrations with lighting the candle each night, kids playing dreidel, and Tory creating specialty themed cocktails. And since the bar was celebrating every night, they welcomed all of their patrons to celebrate, not just the Jewish ones. It was so refreshing after the awfulness of Leah’s Perfect Gift.

The only negative I have for the movie is the secondary conflict between Tory, Jay, and Sam. I don’t want to spoil that part of the plot but I really don’t understand why Jay got upset about it. Especially at Tory. It was another of those “Why didn’t you tell me this?” - “Because they asked me not to!” types of conflicts and I hate those. Don’t blame the person who was asked not to tell. Blame the person that did the asking. Thankfully, it’s not the main conflict and it’s solved pretty quickly. So it doesn’t really ruin the beauty of the rest of the movie.

Rating: Can we get non-alcoholic versions of those drinks?

Miracle In Bethlehem PA | 2023 Christmas Movies

I live about an hour from Bethlehem, PA. When I saw that there was a Christmas movie called Miracle In Bethlehem, PA, I was intrigued. It wasn’t actually filmed in Bethlehem, of course. It was filmed in Canada. Ah well.

Mary Ann (Laura Vandervoort) is a lawyer who is waiting to adopt a baby. After months of waiting, a baby in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania becomes available. Mary Ann drives to pick her up but gets stranded in Bethlehem due to a severe snowstorm. With no room in any of the local hotels, the new mom and her baby end up staying with Joe (Benjamin Ayres), a mechanic who has lost direction in his life since his father’s death.

While I understand that this movie was supposed to be an analog to the story of Jesus, it was a little offensive that a white woman so intent on adoption was insisting on adopting a baby. There are a lot of children in the system and, as they get older, it’s harder and harder for them to get adopted because people only want to adopt babies. Maybe we don’t normalize only adopting babies.

Obviously, since this is the story of Jesus, it is very heavy handed with its use of God and church. It’s a little annoying but, considering Jesus was the point of the movie, it’s understandable. It does make it a little less appealing to certain demographics though. Or maybe this was Hallmark’s way of saying they haven’t completely dumped God for LGBTQ+ stories.

Rating: At least it’s not a manger

We Wish You A Married Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

The Hallmark Channel dominates the beginning of the Christmas movie season. I’m not sure if that is good or bad. Anyway, the second movie they give us this year is We Wish You A Married Christmas. It’s a little weird to get a married couple story this early in the season but, hey, what do I know.

Becca (Marisol Nichols) and Robby (Kristoffer Polaha) are a married couple having difficulty connecting with each other. Their marriage coach suggests a vacation to Gracious, Vermont. Thanks to a few setbacks, they end up having to stay longer than they planned. Will that help or hurt their marriage?

WWYAMC started out extremely boring and confusing. It was difficult for me to tell if these two were married and having problems or if they were just business partners. Honestly, it was worse when I figured out they were married. They have the most boring marriage problems. Instead of actually fighting over anything, they just ignore each other. Yes, that is their problem. They don’t “see” each other. And while that is a real life problem actual married couples have, it makes for very boring television.

Annoyingly, the movie doesn’t actually pick up until it’s almost over. Even when Becca and Robby were spending time together, it was still boring. Picking up items for the bed and breakfast they are staying at, shopping at the Christmas market, watching the shortest parade in the world…the most interesting thing they did was bartend at the employee Christmas party at the bed and breakfast. Even that was done as a montage. It would have been much more interesting if they had reconnected a little earlier. We could have seen a much happier couple giving romantic advice to the new couple - either the two townspeople that get together or the new couple sent by the marriage coach. Like a wink to the camera sort of thing.

If you really want to watch a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie, WWYAMC isn’t terrible. It’s just boring. So maybe pop it on while you clean the house or cook dinner or some other household task. It’s not worth your complete attention but maybe your half attention.