Christmas is a very special time of year for everyone to gather and enjoy the festive season as a family or with friends even! No one likes to be alone for the holidays, including Rob and Julie.
Rob is in freelance advertising who lives in New York City and is about to spend the holiday season with his loving Italian family. Of course, there is always a snag in the plan, right? Rob just broke up with his girlfriend who was supposed to spend the holidays with him and his family.
Rob grows tired of the family telling him he needs to settle down with a girl. He’s unable to keep a steady girlfriend until he makes a promise to his elderly grandmother who is suffering from congestive heart failure and unfortunately fading fast.
He promises that she will meet the woman he is to marry, that he will be happy and spend the holiday season with her.
With a bit of luck, Rob finds Julie online; a theatre critic for a New York newspaper, who is going through the same crisis of parents not wanting her to be alone on Christmas.
Julie’s mother insists on trying to set her up with old boyfriends to try and rekindle the relationships so she can have someone to bring home during Hannukah.
Annoyed and determined to keep them quiet, she agrees to pose as a couple with Rob to help each other get through the holiday season.
Now, there are always some complications along the way, right? Things can’t go perfectly every time, or it wouldn’t be interesting.
Rob is Catholic and Julie is Jewish. They are unsure about how to respectfully join in on their holiday traditions. Julie has never trimmed a Christmas tree before. Rob’s family was kind enough to teach her after a joke which revealed she is of the Jewish faith.
She placed a rather flashy red and green ornament on the tree, trying to make sure it was secure on the branch. She had done it, everyone was excited and clapping!
That is until the ornament suddenly crashed to the wooden floors, shattering. Silence fell over the room…the ornament belonged to Rob’s great great grandmother. They cleaned it up and went on enjoying their night despite the unfortunate accident while getting to know Julie. The family really seems to like her.
Julie brings Rob home for the first night of Hannukah. Julie told her parents that Rob was Jewish. It will only be Rob, Julie and her parents. She said to follow her lead, it will be fine. That was before the surprise of Julie’s brother being home who happens to be a Rabbi.
It is time to light the menorah for the first night of Hannukah and Julie’s brother invites Rob to lead them in the prayer. You can see a slight panic as Rob pretends to know what he is doing until Julie intervenes and “begs” Rob if she could lead the prayer and helps him light the menorah. Everyone claps and smiles after. Rob, not knowing how this faith works, blows out the menorah candles and says Amen! Too stunned to say anything, the family stops and is still for a few seconds until Julie brushes it off and says Rob was just joking…but the audience knows the truth.
I do not want to spoil the ending; you will need to watch the movie to find out how they survive the rest of the holiday! Will Rob and Julie get together? What happens to Rob’s grandmother? Do the families ever find out about what has really been going on?
This 2012 Hallmark classic Christmas film is one of my personal favorites within Hallmark’s extensive line of holiday films. Joey Lawrence stars as Rob along with Emily Hampshire as Julie.
The plot is heartwarming for such a festive season full of families spending time together, enjoying classic Christmas traditions and showing the differences in cultures of how holidays are celebrated. I really enjoyed it. Joey Lawrence is wonderful in his role, Rob. He keeps it humorous by adding little puns throughout the movie and plays his commitment-phobe, successful family man role to a tee! Emily Hampshire played her role well of being a passive theatre critic who gives everyone good reviews because she does not want to step on anyone’s toes until enough is enough!
It is a great movie to get a nice mug of peppermint hot chocolate, a gingerbread cookie and a cuddly blanket. “Hitched for the Holidays” is a great movie to add to any Christmas movie collection!