With this past week being Hanukkah and tonight being the last night, I thought it was a good opportunity to share with you the three Hanukkah-themed movies I recently watched on Hallmark. I will rank them in order of my least favorite to my favorite and give brief descriptions of each one.
3. "Double Holiday" - This is about two colleagues who work together to plan the company holiday party, which combined the celebrations of Hanukkah and Christmas. As it goes with most Hallmark movies, they are at odds with each other in the beginning, but fall in love by the end, complete with that signature Hallmark end-of-movie kiss. Another part of the story was that the same two leads were vying for the position of vice president of the company. In the end, only one of them can get that position, but of course, Hallmark found a way for it to be a happy ending for both of them. While this was a cute movie, it was my least favorite of the three that I watched. It was your typical Hallmark movie, with no surprises (at least not for me).
2. "Love, Lights, Hanukkah!" - The title is cheesy, but this is a great movie. I marked it as a favorite on my Hallmark Checklist app. (Yes, I'm so addicted to Hallmark movies that I have an app for that. Don't judge me.) Anyway, this is a moving story (to the point where I shed tears a few times) about a single woman who wishes to find love this holiday season...and she does in more ways than one. After having a DNA test done, she finds out she's 50% Jewish. One thing leads to another and she reunites with the her birth mom who had put her up for adoption when she was a baby. (The woman's adopted mom has already passed away before the movie begins, but we know they had a very close relationship.) She also becomes acquainted with her half sister and her half sister's husband and children. It turns out, that family has a family friend, and of course, out of that a romantic love story evolves. This is not your typical love story, though. The conclusion is a comforting one, but it's more open-ended and realistic than other Hallmark movies I've seen. And then there's the birth dad who she ends up speaking with on the phone, but not yet meeting in person. He lives in Italy and she has plans to one day visit him there. There is a lot of room for this story to grow and I hope there will eventually be a sequel. All of the actors and actresses were delightful to watch, but the two leads were my favorite. They were imperfectly charming and not so polished as leads in Hallmark movies often are.
1. "Eight Gifts of Hanukkah" - I loved this one as much as I loved "Love, Lights, Hanukkah!". The reason I gave this one the top spot on my list is because it is totally and completely about Hanukkah, whereas the previous two combine Christmas and Hanukkah. Both types of movies have their merits, but if I'm ranking Hanukkah movies, this rises above all of them. This is the only one of the three that premiered this year. I hope they will air it again next year, along with more movies of this nature. This movie is about a single woman (of course) who begins to receive nightly gifts from a secret admirer. Although it wasn't clearly shown in the beginning, it was pretty obvious to those watching who that admirer was. About halfway through the movie, we see him tell his buddy that he is the secret admirer. The recipient of those gifts, however, does not figure it out until close to the end of the movie. There are a few possibilities, but she never suspects the person it actually turns out to be. It's one of those movies where you realize sometimes what you've been looking for your whole life has been right in front of you all along. I adored the leads in this one and I hope there will be a sequel. I would like to see where their stories go because although they do end up together in the end, the guy is contemplating taking a position not-so-close-to-home. Although the fact that they ended up together was predictable, I did not see that eighth gift coming. I mean, I knew there had to be an eighth gift, and it had to be epic. I just didn't realize how touching and deeply meaningful it would be. I marked this movie as a favorite.
So there you have it! I hope everyone who celebrates had a very Happy Hanukkah!
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