Christmas With the Singhs (2024 Hallmark Channel)
📺. Stream/Watch the Movie (Ad): Stream this movie now with Philo w/ Deck The Hallmark
Cast: Anuja Joshi, Benjamin Hollingsworth
Director: Panta Mosleh
Writer(s): Patricia Isaac, Emily Ting
➡️ Check out our Youtube Channel: Lifetime Uncorked: Lifetime Movie Reviews
🎧 Listen to the Lifetime Uncorked Podcast: Listen Now
🍷 Support the show with a $5 tip: https://ko-fi.com/patrickserrano
Accused: The Karen Read Story, Katie Cassidy, and Turtleboy? – Lifetime Uncorked
- Accused: The Karen Read Story, Katie Cassidy, and Turtleboy?
- It's A Wonderful Lifetime Preview, Brandy Norwood, Vivica A. Fox, and Airplane Movies?
- If I Run Lifetime Movie, Kat Graham, and Prayer Requests?
- Ice Road Killer Lifetime Movie, Christmas Thrillers, and Truckers
- You Better Watch Out, Christmas in July, and Bramblefest?
- The Nanny Sees All 2025 Lifetime Movie, Child Actor of the Year, and Golden Madison?
- I'm Your Biggest Fan Lifetime Movie, Hailey Duff Directs, and Beverley Mitchell?
Make a one-time donation
Make a monthly donation
Make a yearly donation
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlySynopsis (via Hallmark)
For Asha Singh (Joshi), Christmas is the most important time of the year. But when she’s stuck working at the hospital during the holidays, she wishes for some much-needed Christmas magic. Enter Jake (Hollingsworth), her former high school classmate, who unexpectedly reappears in her life. After a magical year together, Jake proposes. But their first Christmas as an engaged couple isn’t exactly the fairytale they imagined. When they head home for the holidays, they quickly discover their picture-perfect romance is about to get a serious reality check: their families couldn’t be more different! Juggling various holiday traditions, big personalities, cultural differences and complicated family dynamics proves to be a challenge as Asha and Jake have to learn if they can bridge their two families and survive a Christmas with the Singhs.
Recap/Wine Thoughts
Asha works as an RN in a hospital ER; she somehow finds time to decorate the waiting room and talk to her Indian immigrant parents. They are disappointed that Asha won’t be coming home for the holidays; she opts to work through them.
Jake is a hot, hot, hot Chicago sports reporter. He isn’t going home for the holidays either. His divorced parents are disappointed. His mother is very festive, but his father opts for Kung Pow Chicken over Gingerbread.
Jake slips on some ice and ends up in the ER. Asha treats him and is surprised at the random run-in. They were classmates in High School. Jake was the big man on campus, and Asha was his nerdy chemistry tutor. They have good chemistry, and it sets Jake’s pulse rising. After her shift, he asks her out for a drink, and she agrees. (They have candy cane martinis.) Asha tells Jake that she loves being a nurse practitioner and lied to her dad to get him off her back about being a doctor. Jake reassures her that every family has its quirks and shares a story about his dad throwing him into the deep end of the pool so he can learn to swim.
Jake doesn’t feel like Christmas magic exists because his parents told him they were getting divorced at Christmas. Asha loves Christmas and explains that her family is Christian, not Hindu. He walks her home, and they kiss her on the doorstep. He tells her he wants to spend the whole year with her.
They do that in a quick montage set to a happy little pop Christmas song!
Jake proposes to Asha at the restaurant they went to almost a year ago. His proposal is really sweet, but the ring he gives her doesn’t come with one of those lights on the ring box, and I’m not impressed. Jake is excited to meet the in-laws. Asha realizes that he didn’t ask her father for her hand in marriage, which is the first thing to go wrong.
They get to their hometown and have to drive a micro smart car from the airport. Asha has the whole trip planned, and he realizes they are double booked with his mother’s Christmas Pagent and her fams Christmas Eve tradition. Asha’s entire family is there, including all her aunties. Mr. Singh is unimpressed with Jake and is extra hard on him. Jake and Asha have to sleep in different rooms because they aren’t married yet.
Jake tries to win everyone over at dinner and ends up continually inadvertently insulting Mr. Singh. They get into spicy food, eating off, and Jake becomes sick. He ends up having to chug milk.
Dinner with Jake’s dad, Jake, is equally as awkward. He asks them about having kids and their plans. It turns out they don’t really have any. So it is a fair question. Later, he questions Jake and Asha’s relationship and Asha overhesrds. Jake’s mother isn’t much better and is low-key racist, telling Asha she loves Eat, Pray, Love. They invite both parents to meet the Singhs.
Since this is Asha and Jake’s hometown, they run into their class homecoming king and queen, and THEY DRAG ASHA!!! They don’t remember her because they were too popular. Then, they continue telling Jake and Asha that they are a mismatch. (This understatedly gets to Asha.)
Jake helps Mr. Singh decorate the house. Even though Jake is afraid of heights, he gets up on a ladder and tries to screw in a light bulb but falls off after Mr. Singh tells Jake that Asha was almost engaged before.
Jake and Asha actually talk about things and hash it out. They promise not to keep any more secrets from one another. (This is the whole point of a Hallmark movie, so what could happen next in the next hour?)
Oh, the parents have to meet one another. The families are confused by one another’s cultures, and it is cringe. They then argue about who will host the engagement party, stressing me out. Everyone sings “Silent Night” with a sitar to smooth things over.
Jake’s mom throws a Christmas festival, and the Singhs have a great time UNTIL Mr. Singh gets upset when he learns that Jake and Asha might miss his family traditions for Jake’s mother’s Christmas pageant.
Asha and Jake snuggle up and watch a Bollywood Christmas Movie and decide they need some alone time without their parents. Then they fall asleep on the couch, and Mr. Singh finds them. He disapproves. The date day is cut short by family obligations. Jake has to decorate a Christmas tree at his dad’s house, and Asha goes shopping for a nischitartham dress.
Then Jake and Asha get into an argument because his parents feel like her parents are taking over the engagement party with their traditions and not incorporating a sentimental vest.
Asha gets advice from her brother and sister-in-law. Jake receives advice from the Homecoming King. It boils down to this: Jake and Asha need to worry less about appeasing the family and doing what is right for them as a couple.
At the Christmas pageant, Jake’s mom has to replace some cast members at the last minute, putting Asha and Jake into the play. This, of course, makes them late for Mr. Singh’s reading. When they burst into the church, still in the Mary and Joseph customers, he tells them they are mocking him. The parents start arguing, and Jake oversteps, talking to Mr. Singh disrespectfully. He asks Asha to choose sides, and she calls the whole thing off and runs away.
The dad’s talk. Mr. Singh talks to Jake, Mr. Singh talks to Asha, and finally, Jake makes a grand gesture. Standing outside with a boombox and dancing to Indian music. (Eye Roll!) Everything is forgiven.
The engagement party happens, and it seems pretty nice. The dads make a joint speech and give their permission for Jake and Asha to be engaged. Everyone claps, and the movie ends with dancing and kissing under the mistletoe.
Side Note/Stray Thoughts
You know what isn’t fun at Christmas time? Stressing out about other people’s family drama. This movie made me feel so anxious.
Overall rating
Pour it up
Put a Cork in It
Christmas Feels
🎄🎄🎄 (3 Christmas Trees)
Enjoyment Level: 🍷🍷 (2 glasses of wine.)
What did you think of the movie? Let me know in the comments or on social media @LifetimeUncorked
📺. Stream/Watch the Movie (Ad): Stream this movie now with Philo w/ Deck The Hallmark
➡️ Check out our Youtube Channel: Lifetime Uncorked: Lifetime Movie Reviews
🎧 Listen to the Lifetime Uncorked Podcast: Listen Here
🍷 Support the show/blog with a $5 tip: https://ko-fi.com/patrickserrano
Inquiries | podcast@lifetimeuncorked.com
🍾 Your Support is appreciated. D Nate today to keep the website going! Thank you.
*Photo Credit: © 2024 Hallmark
Let me know what you thought of the movie in the comments below or @lifetimeuncorked
