Hallmark Channel Hits a Home Run With its New "Hanukkah on the Rocks" Movie

The Hallmark Channel is well known for its extensive collection of Christmas movies, which grows bigger every year. Their predictable romantic comedies always feature a couple falling in love amid lots of Christmas decorations and red and green sets. The themes are not complicated but usually have a minor conflict which is resolved with a kiss at the end.

Hanukkah has been glaringly missing from these movies, except for the last few years where its blue and white decorations have made minor appearances. Usually the theme for the annual Hanukkah movie is a chance encounter between a Jew and a Gentile that leads to a joint celebration of the two holidays. In the last two films, the revelation that either the boy or the girl is Jewish gets us to a scene where both families play Dreidel (although one confuses the Nun and Gimmel as the signal to win all of the coins.)

But last week the Hallmark Channel redeemed itself by posting a new movie called Hanukkah on the Rocks, where Christmas is hardly mentioned and the entire focus is on the celebration of the Jewish holiday. 

We watched the two-hour long movie and recommend it for Hanukkah viewing. The plot is a bit weak as it centers on a search for a special box of "Cohen Candles" that all the stores in Chicago seem to have run out of. Also we found it odd that while the blessings in Hebrew were pronounced correctly, none of the men saying them wore a kippah.

But both of the lead actors are Jewish, which is a plus for Jewish representation in today's world of film and TV.

Here's a video preview of the movie, which is streaming now on The Hallmark Channel and on YouTube.

Enjoy!