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.

The movie kicks off with great animation, and that's how you know you're dealing with a heavy-hitter flick. We meet Avery, a school teacher who makes toddlers give speeches about Christmas ornaments. She loves crossword puzzles and juice boxes. While she's in the teacher’s lounge, other teachers keep congratulating her, but she has no idea why. Her best friend Ruby explains that she signed her up to be a competitor on The Great Holiday Dash, something that is definitely NOT The Amazing Race. Avery is not thrilled.

Cut to Andrew Walker, selling juice—a real stretch for my boy AW. His character’s name is Wes, a retired professional athlete looking for his next big thing, and it turns out that next big thing is The Great Holiday Dash.

Avery thinks it over and realizes it could be a great way to bring attention to her school and maybe even get some extra funding. So she starts training, even though she’s never done anything like this before. She ends up meeting Wes at the gym, and it does not go well. Classic treadmill situation.

The competition begins, and Wes is shocked to see Avery from the gym there. The game is simple: there’s one silver bell hidden somewhere in America. The first one to find it wins. But this year, the contestants won’t compete individually—they’ll team up in pairs. Naturally, Avery and Wes are teamed up. The game kicks off with one team being eliminated after the first round. Luckily, Avery and Wes crack enough nuts to move on to the second round, which takes them to Boston. The next game involves shooting pucks, which works great for Wes.

Producer Dirk pulls Wes aside and tells him to flirt more with Avery for the ratings—“Wes, you’re the star! A little flirting will really boost the numbers.” That night, Wes and Avery actually connect. Gotta hate when that happens.

The next day, they head to New York City for a window display competition. Instead of immediately diving into the task, they spend more time talking and getting to know each other. Their theme is “Three French Hens,” so they go with a French theme for their display, and it looks amazing—almost like professionals came in afterward and finished it for them. And good for them—they WIN the round! They hug, and Producer Dirk tells Wes, “Good job.”

Next, they head to Texas for a dance contest. This competition is a little weird, but their dance quickly turns sexy, and they win again.

After a hitchhiking detour, they assume they’re out, but surprise—they’re not! So that’s a relief. They head to Oregon for the next round, but first, there’s an extracurricular gift exchange, for reasons that are unclear.

Avery and Wes make it to the finals, and the sparks are flying. However, when Avery overhears a conversation between Wes and the producer, she gets really mad. What she doesn’t hear, though, is Wes telling the producer that he doesn’t want to play the game anymore because he’s really into her.

The producer tells her about Wes’ feelings right before the final competition. They do a crossword puzzle and race to find the best gift under the tree. Wes falls and hurts his leg, so Avery continues on alone—and wins!!!

They celebrate by announcing what they’re going to do with their prize money—both plan to give back to the community.

In the end, they make up and and make out.