Deck The Hallmark

Rising NYC architect Margot unexpectedly inherits an English manor. Embracing Christmas traditions abroad, she finds love and a sense of belonging that reshape her life. Watch on Philo! - Philo.tv/DTH

Lilly is out there, mourning the loss of her dad, trying to find the motivation to decorate without him. To make matters worse, her nosy neighbor is really onto her for putting up her decorations. Lilly is excited to go on a date with the most eligible bachelor but has to give an interview to some guy named Sean first for an article he's writing. She ends up hitting it off with him, and it's clear he's taken by her. She then goes to meet her date, Owen, who is a real estate agent and a total tool. But she agrees to go on a second date with him.As luck would have it, Sean is going to need to meet up more to finalize the article. So they keep meeting up, and sparks are flying. She thinks, "I really like this guy, but what about Owen? He's the city's hottest eligible bachelor!"Owen insists on helping her out with a charity event, and at the event, all she can think about is Sean. Much to her frustration, Owen brings her on stage and kisses her on the cheek. She tells him to get lost. She goes to find Sean at his office, but he's already left to go find her. She's told that he went home to be with his wife. He shows up at the gala, but she's gone, and then he sees pictures of the kiss on the cheek.There's a lot of misunderstanding, but ultimately, they meet back up and right the wrongs. They help decorate a grumpy lady's Christmas booth at the festival, and then they kiss.

The movie kicks off with Angela and Brian from The Office trying to convince us that they can play other characters. We're at the Holly Hills Post Office, where every year, Brian and the other postal workers judge the best Christmas card. The winner goes on the Wall of Fame. It’s Settie’s dream to win, but the same person has won 18 years in a row.Cut to a year later, and Settie sits down to write her annual newsletter. To her surprise, it doesn’t just write itself. She thinks, "If only I had this famous author to write my Christmas card!" This author, Juan, wrote her current favorite book. So, she decides to go for it and emails Juan’s manager, offering to pay him to come to her town and write the letter for her. Juan, who's in a bit of a funk, agrees to take the gig.When he arrives, he gets into a rideshare with Settie’s daughter, Lilly. When Settie’s rival, Sue, shows up, they lie and tell her that Lilly and Juan are engaged. Juan agrees to stay, though he’s completely confused about what’s going on. But after meeting Sue, he realizes he can’t stand her and decides to stay for a while longer.Soon enough, sparks begin to fly between Lilly and Juan for real. But Juan is still struggling with writer’s block, even when it comes to the Christmas card. Meanwhile, Sue has been running things in town for too long—she even has rules about how people can decorate for Christmas. So, to surprise Settie, Lilly and Juan stay up all night decorating Sue’s yard with Christmas lights and lawn ornaments. They love the result.But the night isn’t over. Lilly and Juan run lines for a play she’s auditioning for, and they share a kiss—purely for the love of the art, of course.Sue thinks she’s figured out who Juan really is and confronts him at a Christmas party. But she’s wrong—he’s not in the mafia at all. However, it’s revealed that Sue doesn’t actually write her own Christmas letter.After the excitement of the party, Lilly and Juan share some big kisses.Juan gives Settie the Christmas letter she asked for, but she decides that she wants to write her own letter after all. The next day at breakfast, Settie reads the letter she wrote out loud, and it’s perfect—honest, heartfelt, and even admitting she hired a ghostwriter. She also explains how she fell back in love with Christmas, and how her family’s Christmas traditions are perfect just the way they are. The letter ends up winning the Christmas card contest, and we all cheer.

Asha works is a nurse at the ER. She takes a call from her parents who are sad she isn't home on Christmas. But she explains that after years of avoiding this shift, her luck ran out. We then meet Jake who is a reporter covering the Christmas Day basketball game. He's leaving the game and sees a women with a bunch of gifts in her hands and goes to help her. He ends up slipping on the ice and goes to the ER. When Asha sees him, it's clear they knew each other. She was his chemistry tutor in high school and he was a mr. athletic in high school. They catch up on where they've been. The sparks begin to fly and his heart rate begins to increase. HE shoots his shot and asks her to go out for a drink and she says yes! They have some candy cane martinis, talk about their parents, and he walks her home and he's about to walk away but then he pulls her in and they kiss!!!We then see a year go by and see them grow closer and closer. We're back to another Christmas season and he proposes! Now it's time to meet the parents - up first is Asha's family. Asha's dad is a real hoot who does some classic fatherly hazing to Jake such as giving him a hard time about his rental car, getting on him about not asking for his blessing, and tricking him into eating some real hot chicken. They go to meet Jake's dad and it's a different vibe and they end up getting into a bit of an argument about how many kids they'll have. His dad expresses concern over Jake not being ready for marriage. Jake's parents are divorced, hence his fathers hesitancy towards marriage, so they go to meet his mom. She's much more excited for them to get married and also excited to show off her knowledge of Indian culture she's learned from pop culture. The next day, Jake falls off a ladder when he finds out that he's not the first guy to propose to Asha. She explains to him that her dad really liked this guy but i didn't and I said no. They talk about it though and make up. The next day, the families all come together in the most anxiety driven scene in the history of Hallmark. Jake's mom wears a traditional Indian saree and they don't take off their shoes. They get in an argument about where the engagement party is gonna take place. But that's nothing a little Silent Night won't handle.After going to the Christmas carnival together, both sets of parents have conversations about hesitation on if these two cultures can blend. There are some more speed bumps along the way such as Asha and Jake waking up on the couch together, a bit of an argument about what he will wear to the engagement party, and frustration that they double booked on Christmas Eve.It all comes to a head when they show up late to Asha's families Christmas service because they were with Jake's family. A huge argument errupts which leads to Asha saying that she doens't think this is going to work. Samual and Jake Sr talk about how they done goofed and decide to work together to make sure their kids work out. Samual apologizes to Jake and gives him his blessing for him to marry Asha. Then Samual goes and apoogies to Asha and they have an amazing father/daugther moment.It's time for the engagement party complete with some traditional ceremonial speeches given by both of the dads. They all dance and Asha and Jake kiss under the mistletoe.