Christmas 2020 Reviews: Day 14 - Mistletoe and Menorahs (2019)

Also known as A Merry Holiday, this film follows Christy, a toymaker who loves Christmas. When her boss talks to her about how much he loves the holidays, they bond and he invites Christy to come up with a new line of toys for the company to produce, for her to share with him at his upcoming holiday party. However, it turns out that Christy's boss wasn't talking about Christmas as she had assumed when they were sharing their holiday excitement. Instead, he was talking about but Hanukkah, which Christy knows nothing about. At her friend's suggestion, Christy teams up with a Jewish middle school teacher named Jonathan, so that he can teach her about his holiday, and she can teach him about Christmas, which he needs to learn about in order to impress his Christian girlfriend and her parents.

I was intrigued by Mistletoe and Menorahs because I thought it would be nice to see a Christmas film that acknowledged and explored at least one other religious holiday that happens around this time of year. Additionally, I knew very little about Hanukkah upon entering this film. While I don't feel like an expert on the holiday now, I did learn some things, and had a fun time doing so.

Overall, this was a surprisingly nice watch. I say "surprisingly" because for the first ten minutes, it seemed like it was going to be a very bland, dull film. However, things perked up once Jonathan (played by Jake Epstein) showed up, as he has some great line delivery and really good chemistry with Kelley Jakle as Christy. I really liked them as a couple. Refreshingly, they only had one fallout, and they didn't spend the whole third act sulking about a big misunderstanding as so many film couples do. Instead, these two take some time away to think about what happened and what was said, say sorry and then the plot continues. Maybe other people find this boring, but for me, it was something of a revelation seeing two characters apologise to each other and become better friends because of it, rather than having a big drama with a will-they, won't-they stance.

In terms of the films flaws, I liked how at first when Christy and Jonathan were introducing each other to their different holiday traditions, they were really interested in the differences the holidays had. I enjoyed watching them both embrace and respect these different aspects of their respective holidays. However, as the film goes on and the pair grow to like each other, they begin saying how similar the two celebrations really are. I understand what they're doing, it just felt a bit cheesy for my taste.

I did find it interesting how we learned more about the religious side of Hanukkah than we did for Christmas. When Christy was teaching Jake about Christmas, she only referred to the charming commercialised parts, like buying Christmas trees and visiting Christmas markets and never spoke about Jesus. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and did make me wonder if Hanukkah is more sacred to Jews in terms of there faith, than Christmas is to Christians.

On the subject of dialogue, there is one really awkward moment where Jonathan compliments Christy in a flirtatious way, and she replies "I bet you say that to all your students" in an equally flirty manner. The problem with that is that Jonathan's students are aged 11-13, so it sat a bit uncomfortably with me.

Another thing that was rather laughable to me is that Christy is supposed to be a toymaker. That's a nice idea for a Christmas film, but we don't see her literally making toys, as she's more of a designer. That's fine, but her ideas for toys are absolutely awful. At first, she can't think of any ideas of her own, so she asks her boyfriend, and he suggests a congressman action figure doll. To make this fun, she comes up with the idea of including a comic book with the doll, that explains to children what a congressman is. Amazingly, someone actually thinks this idea is good enough to steal, and so Christy has to quickly think of a new toy. Her solution? Action figures of famous characters in religious texts, notably those in the Jewish faith. Apparently this is great, because two of the Jewish characters claim they had to make up their own toys based on certain Jewish biblical characters when they were boys. Her boss is convinced the toys will be a great success, especially with the included comics kids will get along with those characters, telling them all about them.

I'm sorry, but this seems very niche to me. I can't think of any child, no matter how faithful to a religion, who would be excited by this toy. Maybe they would be good props for R.E. teachers to use in their lessons, but not toys. Let's be honest, the only possibly fun religious toy is a Noah's Ark set, and that's because you have loads of animals and a cool boat to play with. It's not so much about the story of Noah.

I don't like that the reason Christy got to pitch this toy to her boss was because she accidentally got him to think she was Jewish, and that she's just sticking with the lie. The liar revealed plot is a tired one, but it feels very necessary for her to come clean about her religious beliefs here. She never does though, which gives this film a somewhat incomplete ending.

Aside from some intriguing moral choices, and a clear lack of understanding of the toymaking industry (coming from someone who also knows nothing about making toys, this doesn't feel well-researched at all) there is some really good writing here. The characters are likeable, their dialogue feels sincere and there are even couple of good jokes. My favourite joke involves Jonathan hanging up what he believes to be mistletoe, which would have been a really good moment had it not been ruined by terrible, childish stock music playing over the comedic reveal of the moment, which takes away any authenticity from the situation.

I liked Jake Epstein's performance here and would be intrigued to see more of his work. I know religion isn't everyone's favourite topic, but as someone raised Christian, I personally enjoyed learning more about a different religion's winter holiday celebration, especially with two likeable leads. Despite some flaws in the storytelling due to the music used, bland cinematography and questionable toymaking companies, I found this film cute and enjoyable thanks to the two leads, as well as the religious aspect.

THE SCOREBOARD

Would I recommend this film? Yes

Christmas quote of the film: "Well, what do you know. Another thing Christmas and Hanukkah have in common." - Jonathan

Film rating: 5/10