This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox.
Julie Sherman Wolfe likes to joke that her favorite Jewish holiday is Tu Bishvat. Which is a shame, considering the Hallmark Channel has yet to make a movie about it.
Fortunately for her, she is also fond of mirth and merriment and a good old-fashion romantic comedy. In the past decade, the former stand-up comedian-turned-screenwriter has penned 12 Christmas movies for Hallmark, including this year’s “Holiday Touchdown,” a love story loosely inspired by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce that centers around the Kansas City Chiefs and features a small role for the tight end’s mom.
“The magic, the romance of the Taylor Swift and Kelce union really got people in that romance mood, and romance plus football, right?” Sherman Wolfe told “The Today Show.”
But there’s more to the story. “The great irony is that I’m a San Francisco 49ers fan,” the San Francisco native told me over Zoom, while pointing to the 49ers swag stacked on the shelves behind her.
Another irony? Sherman Wolfe is Jewish and has never owned a Christmas tree. Well, that’s not entirely true. There was that one time in 2020, which she blames on being cooped up all year during the pandemic. Her husband, Greg, wrote an essay about the experience: “Suddenly, as we stared at the tree sitting in the corner of our family room, 5,000 years of collective Jewish guilt slammed down on top of us like Judah Maccabee’s hammer.” An hour later, the tree was gone.
Yes, Greg is also a holiday-themed writer. He wrote a children’s book, “Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf.”
They met on JDate, married and moved to a quaint New England town that you could mistake for the setting of a Christmas movie. Indeed, Sherman Wolfe’s 2021 flick, “Taking a Shot at Love,” takes place there. “It’s so Hallmark-y,” she said with a laugh. But drive by their home and you’ll see blue and white lights festooned outside.
Her resume reads like the inventory of a Blockbuster at the North Pole: “The Christmas Club,” “Christmas in Montana,” “Finding Santa” and “Marry Me at Christmas,” just to name a few. Hallmark produces more than 30 Yuletide movies a year and has created its own Christmas industrial complex with conferences and cruises where fans can hang out with their favorite actors from the films.
Sherman Wolfe has written so much content for Hallmark, the network now invites her to these events. She sits on panels to answer questions from fans and writes skits that the actors perform, all while on a cruise to Cozumel singing Christmas Carol-oke and taking part in a cookie decorating contest.
Hallmark and Hanukkah, a meet-cute
In recent years, Hallmark has branched out into Hanukkah fare. Two of those films were written by Sherman Wolfe, “Hanukkah on Rye” and this year’s “Hanukkah on the Rocks” — which, in a bit of familial cross-promotion, features a cameo from “Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf.” It also features another connection: “I named a character Evi Shekhman, who is a friend of mine from the Jewish Federation. It was very funny. She said a lot of people called her and said, ‘I just heard your name on Hallmark.’”
It appears that unlike Tu Bishvat, Hanukkah has become part of American culture.
“We don’t need to explain the entire genesis of the holiday,” she said, “but I think enough people have people in their lives who celebrate, that it’s a fun diversion to get immersed in a different culture for a couple of hours.”
She said that countless non-Jewish Hallmark fans have told her the movies taught them about the symbolism of Hanukkah. “It’s showing people who may not know our culture the wonderful things about it. Because right now, there is so much negativity out there.”
She pointed to her son, Connor, who experienced antisemitism at his high school. In response, he launched a Jewish cultural club to follow in his parents’ footsteps and teach others about his religion. “He’s doing it not to preach anything, and not to get political,” Sherman Wolfe said, “but just to open up that door for people. We’re really proud of that.”