Netflix’s ‘Dash & Lily’ is an Underrated Modern Holiday Classic

There are traditions that mark the start of the Holiday season. Twinkle lights emerge from the shadows, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” re-enters the Billboard Top 100, and wrapping paper goes on sale. This year, though, I’m planning on adding something new to the mix. I will officially mark “Christmas” by rewatching the criminally underrated Netflix show Dash & Lily. The show is a heartwarming love letter to Christmas in New York that deserves to become a modern Holiday classic.

Based on the best-selling YA books by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, Dash & Lily follows two star-crossed teen having very different Christmases alone in New York City. The upbeat and quirky Lily (Midori Francis) is despondent that her parents have skipped town for their favorite family holiday, while cynical rich boy Dash (Austin Abrams) is counting on his divorced parents to stay out of town so he can have a penthouse staycation of his own. While Lily loves the joy of Christmas, Dash detests what he sees as false cheer. So how do these two teens actually make a connection? Through a precisely placed red notebook in the stacks of New York’s iconic Strand.

Dash & Lily is essentially just a new take on an old rom-com set up. Just as in the iconic old Hollywood film The Shop Around the Corner, Dash and Lily fall for each other through writing. The two share games, dares, and personal stories in the pages of the notebook they trade. Lily gets to be her boldest, most vulnerable self, while Dash learns the bliss of connecting with someone and how thrilling hope can be. It’s sweet. It’s formulaic. It’s as comforting as a marshmallow-laden mug of hot chocolate on a snowy day.

But Dash & Lily holds a special place in my heart for a more personal reason. The Christmas rom-com premiered a year ago, right when people were obsessing over election results and Four Seasons Landscaping jokes. (Which is why I think it fell off a lot of Netflix viewers’ radars…) And exactly when I realized that I would be spending Thanksgiving and Christmas alone in my New York City apartment. I had spent almost a whole year living under lockdown and would have to endure the brutal irony of spending the holidays in the least festive version of a city famous for going all out for Christmas.

Oftentimes Christmas romances are positioned as pure escapism. A journalist falls for a Christmas prince. A career woman meets her match in a festive woodworker. Vanessa Hudgens multiples herself under a bough of mistletoe. You know the routine. But Dash & Lily didn’t let me escape. I related to Dash’s bitterness and Lily’s loneliness. And I coveted a Christmas in New York City that was as bright and bustling as the one that unfolded onscreen. I even outright sobbed when my deceased dad’s favorite Nat King Cole holiday standard blasted at the perfect emotional moment. Dash & Lily gave me catharsis. Like a Greek tragedy, but with less death and more tinsel.

Netflix, Hallmark, GAC Family, Disney+ and every other streamer and channel under the sun have made it their mission to churn out hundreds of new holiday titles out every year now. Holiday romances come out two dozen a time — like trays of piping hot gingerbread men — to be devoured and forgotten. But Dash & Lily deserves more than to be lumped in with the rest of the disposable holiday content. It has a heart, an edge, and a warmth that has stuck with me since I first saw it.

I’m definitely going to watch Dash & Lily again this year. Better yet, I’m going to spend this Christmas in New York City, once more. The difference is this year I’ll get to experience the golden glow of the Rockefeller Center tree, the glee of barely making it one time around an ice skating rink, and the joy of browsing the shelves at the Strand. I won’t just watch Dash & Lily; I’ll get to have a Dash & Lily Christmas. And I will be thankful for every cheesy part of it.

Watch Dash & Lily on Netflix