Hallmark just announced its slate of 47 (!) new holiday movies for 2024, and in it are multiple projects that are at least Hanukkah-adjacent. While the synopsis of “Holiday Crashers” does not include the word Hanukkah, it does have a picture of the film’s two heroines at a Hanukkah party that is as blue and typically Hallmark as we’ve come to expect (with a seven-armed menorah in the background, sigh).
“Leah’s Perfect Gift,” starring Jewish actress Emily Arlook of “Grown-ish” (and soon to be “Nobody Wants This”) fame as Leah, is about a Jewish girl who loves Christmas and goes to her boyfriend’s family Christmas celebration. There may not be a Hanukkah celebration in this film at all, even if the word is in the description of the film, but the Jewish girl obsessed with Christmas is already a Hallmark trope and I have to hope it will be handled delicately.
The film I’m most excited about is “Hanukkah on the Rocks,” which, before I get into the synopsis, I’m already rooting for because it’s from the same writer as another Hallmark Hanukkah fave of mine, “Hanukkah on Rye,” Julie Sherman Wolfe, who I guess is now stuck with making different “Hanukkah On…” movies for the rest of time. Hanukkah on the Beach? Hanukkah on Top(s… get it?!)? Hanukkah on a Jewish Space Laser? I’m down for them all. Sherman Wolfe also wrote the script for what is arguably the most important Hallmark Christmas movie of the season and maybe in history, “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story,” which features Travis Kelce’s mom, Donna Kelce, and Jewish actress Hunter King.
“Hanukkah on Rye” featured two of my Jewish faves, musical star Jeremy Jordan and “Jane the Virgin” star Yael Grobglas, and I’m pretty excited about the cast of “On the Rocks,” too. Tory, the movie’s lead, is played by Canadian actress Stacey Farber, the badass Jewish redhead of “Degrassi,” “Saving Hope,” “Superman and Lois” and the latest season of “Virgin River.” Farber already starred in a Hallmark movie last season, “A Season for Family,” but this is her first Hanukkah one.
Starring as her love interest Jay is Daren Kagasoff, whom I absolutely loved as Ricky in “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” and who most recently starred in NBC’s “The Village” opposite Israeli actress Moran Attias as well as the Korea War film “Devotion.” Jay’s grandfather, Sam, is played by Marc Summers, the delightful and iconic TV host who was actually born Mark Berkowitz and had a childhood dream of being a rabbi. All in all, it’s a really fun, authentically Jewish cast.
So what’s the story of “Hanukkah on the Rocks?” Well, according to the casting announcement for the movie, it’s all about Tory finding herself after quitting her big corporate law job a week before Hanukkah. Bereft after years of working a corporate job, she takes up a gig at the very unstylish local Chicago bar called “Mack’s” and tries to help her grandmother (her bubbe, if you will) with Hanukkah preparations, all the while keeping her big lifestyle change a secret.
The Hanukkah errands her grandmother sends her on include a mission to find her a box of the “good’ Hanukkah candles (we all know people who are particular about their Hanukkah candles; I personally am a sucker for these, which I can’t say are “good” but still remain my favorite). Unfortunately, when she finds the last box, she also discovers that there’s competition for them, in the form of Jay, a doctor (a nice Jewish doctor!) visiting from Florida for the holidays.
As an aside, the least believable part of Hanukkah Hallmark movies is that we all migrate en masse to our family’s homes for Hanukkah — a feat usually reserved for the High Holidays and Passover.
But I digress… The candle quest leads Tory to an Old Town bar called Rocky’s where she meets Sam and a cast of fascinating characters (yes, including an aspiring comedian, this is Chicago) that help her find a new passion and then turn the bar into a Hanukkah pop-up called, you guessed it, Hanukkah on the Rocks. (Fun fact: There is actually a Hanukkah pop-up bar in Chicago called 8 Crazy Nights!) The bar brings a new connection to the local community and lots of Jewish treats, drinks and joy. Jay is trying to convince his grandfather to move with him to sunny Florida, where all old Jewish men retire, but will he end up finding his place in Chicago, with Tory, instead? I think we know the answer to that one (this is a Hallmark movie!!!).
This is all to say, the story of this film sounds suitably fantastical and adorable for a delightful Hanukkah Hallmark movie. Yes, Chicago natives will likely find some settings jarring (you can always tell Hallmark movies are not filmed on location, but I’m OK with that). Yes, the candle premise is a bit of a stretch. But just like “Hanukkah on Rye” and the crowd favorite from last year, “Round and Round,” this feels like a story told from a Jewish perspective, written by a Jewish writer with love and genuine fondness for the holiday. In “Hanukkah on Rye,” Sherman Wolfe based some of the scenes and storylines on her own Jewish family and interactions they’ve had, and I bet she may have done the same for this one. She may have also been inspired by 8 Crazy Nights or by Maccabee Bar, a yearly pop-up bar founded in 2018 by an amazing Jewish bartender called Naomi Levy in Boston, whose decor is perfectly suited for a Hallmark movie.
“I wanted to write a Hanukkah movie that wasn’t ‘explaining’ Hanukkah or Judaism to anyone – just like we never explain Christmas or Christianity in a Christmas movie,” Sherman Wolfe told Kveller about “Hanukkah on Rye.” Hopefully, her second Hanukkah movie will have that same haimish feel.
“Hanukkah on the Rocks” premieres on December 13 at 8 p.m. ET on the Hallmark Channel, meaning you’ll be able to watch it long before the Festival of Lights, which starts on Christmas Day this year. That means a lot of us may in fact be traveling home for Hanukkah, and hopefully will have a fun Hanukkah Hallmark movie to watch with our loved ones.
