Every year, it seems, feel-good Hallmark holiday TV movies make a bigger pop-cultural impact. (Or have you not seen those sweatshirts that proclaim: “I just want to bake cookies and watch Hallmark Christmas movies all day.”)
But with a higher profile, comes more scrutiny. And the Hallmark Channel occasionally has drawn some criticism for a movie block that largely ignores other faiths and the concept of inclusion.
This season, incremental progress is being made as two of Hallmark’s 24 festive flicks — “Holiday Date” and “Double Holiday” — arrive with Hanukkah themes.
“Holiday Date,” starring Brittany Bristow and Matt Cohen and airing Dec. 14, follows a young woman named Brooke who gets dumped right before Christmas. So she enlists the help of an actor named Joel to play the role of her boyfriend for the holidays.
Brooke had described her ex-boyfriend as “Mr. Christmas” to her family and worries about keeping up the ruse when she discovers Joel is Jewish. When her family eventually finds out his background, they incorporate his Hanukkah traditions into their plans. Christmas and Hanukkah are celebrated side by side as they all learn more about the other’s holiday. Of course, there are some romantic sparks. This is Hallmark, after all.
As for “Double Holiday,” which stars Carly Pope and Kristoffer Polaha and airs Dec. 22, it focuses on a career-minded woman named Rebecca, whose Hanukkah plans don’t go as expected when a promotion opportunity comes up at work. When the company CEO asks Rebecca and her insufferable office mate, Chris – also her main competitor for the promotion – to plan the company’s Christmas party, she realizes they must overcome their opposing styles in order to succeed.
Forced to work together on the party, Chris learns more about Rebecca and embraces her family’s Hanukkah traditions, while she also begins to see him in a new light.
The titles are Hallmark Channel’s first Hanukkah-themed holiday movies since “Hitched for the Holidays” premiered in 2012. According to the cable network, the writers and executive producers of both films are Jewish. The network program executive who guided the projects — and consulted with others at every level — is also Jewish. Before shooting, the Hallmark Channel says it sought consultation from branches within the Jewish faith – Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform – to be certain the content represents a true celebration of Hanukkah.
Bill Abbott, who serves as CEO of Hallmark parent Crown Media Family Networks, was asked about the strategy during a recent edition of The Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top 5 podcast.
“We are very proud of those movies and we think those movies really reflect an across-the-board approach to celebrating the holiday season,” he said.
As to why Hallmark declined to use “Hanukkah” in either of those two titles, Abbott said Hallmark programming — despite its decade of “Countdown to Christmas” branding — is not focused on programming from a religious point of view.
“It’s hard if we start to slice up the pie, so to speak, and make movies based off of specific holidays. So, if we were to look at Kwanzaa, for example, or other religions and how they celebrate the holidays it’s a little bit more difficult because we don’t look at Christmas from a religious point of view, it’s more a seasonal celebration,” he said. “Once you start to slice it more finely within individual religions it’s a little bit tougher to necessarily tell that story in a way that doesn’t involve religion and we always want to stay clear of religion or controversy.”
As for other forms of diversity, well let’s just say Hallmark still has some work to do. The Hollywood Reporter pointed out that only four of the network’s 24 original holiday movies this year have black leads. That’s down from last year, when five of Hallmark’s 21 holiday films had black leads.
