12 Festive Jewish Recipes For Hallmark Season

There are exactly two ways to think about Hallmark movies: Either you’re a purist — an artist who can’t imagine spending two hours watching something so formulaic and simple — or you’re a lover of all things fun and heartwarming, no matter what form it comes in (even the cookie-cutter, predictable format of a Hallmark movie). Actually, now that I think about it, there’s a third type of person who watches Hallmark movies: The secret kind. The ones who prop their feet up on a stack of The New Yorker, draw the blinds and watch Lindsay Lohan regain her memory just in “Falling For Christmas.”

Forbes reports that the Hallmark Channel began rolling out its holiday lineup in mid-October and has already premiered five original movies, two new series and a second season of the “Finding Mr. Christmas” reality show. Last week, the channel ranked as the fourth most-watched cable network in primetime, averaging 536,000 viewers between 8 and 11 p.m., outpacing CNN, HGTV, TLC and the Food Network.

Hallmark is all Christmas,” you might say — and you’re mostly right. Still, our sister site Hey Alma has reviewed Hallmark’s Hanukkah movies, and they’re worth a look. Varina Jones-Reid reviewed “”Love, Lights, Hanukkah!.” The whole team got together to talk about “Round and Round” (and they LOVED it.) Lior Zaltzman wrote on Kveller that it’s the best Hanukkah movie yet!

So, if you’re one of the masses settling in for a Hallmark movie this week, you might as well have something festive to munch on — preferably with a little Jewish twist. We’re sharing twelve recipes for your romcom marathon, from Blue Crinkle Cookies, Peppermint Hot Cocoa Challah, Eggnog Donuts to Cranberry-Orange Rugelach, and more.

And if you really want to get into the festive spirit, how about boxing up some of the cookies and giving them to your neighbors?

Whatever recipe you try — and whoever you do or don’t share it with — please take a moment to rate it. Rating recipes helps our community grow, and we love to hear from you.