Yoh! Christmas is the South African remake of a Norwegian show named Home for Christmas, that has already been remade in Italian as I Hate Christmas. The story has officially reached too many versions, and the makers can press pause on it. As for Yoh! Christmas, watch it if you haven’t watched the previous versions, and the following is the recap and ending of the series.
Spoiler Alert
Why does Thando lie about having a boyfriend?
It is the irritating pressure of the world around her that finally gets to Thando, and she ends up lying about her relationship status at the family dinner table. Thando has been single for three years after her breakup with her boyfriend, Sifiso, who has since moved on and has a child with another woman. Thando is personally not sad about being single, but she can feel the pitying looks from around her, as if to say that she has been left behind in life. Her sister has two kids, and her brother has twins, with more on the way. Thando is the only sibling who is single, and with every announcement and addition to the family, the pity just gets worse. Her siblings talk up Thando to Sifiso when they accidentally run into him in a restaurant, and the fact that they needed to do that reminds Thando that being single is seen as a failure. Even at work, her supervisor emphasizes the ‘single and lonely’ part a little too much when assigning her to work on Christmas Eve.
But Thando’s breaking point is at the dinner table when her mother tactlessly praises Sifiso’s marriage and kid while continuously poking at Thando’s lack of a relationship. Therefore, in a fit of desperation, Thando announces that she also has a boyfriend and will be bringing the man home on Christmas Eve. This starts Thando’s hunt for a boyfriend, which she has to accomplish in 24 days.
Who are the guys that Thando meets?
Thando’s first attempt at dating is to go to a ‘fast-dating’ event where she can interact with many singles at the same time, but she finds that all the trash of the sea is in one place. Someone is shady, someone else is a show-off, while another person is still not over his ex. The one decent guy she talks to turns out to be her cousin, and the next guy who looks like he might be okay is an acquaintance of Sifiso, and Thando wants nothing to do with that. Dejected, she simply decides to go back home. Thando tries a few more dates. She goes out with someone named Bheki, and the entire premise around his character is that he is short. He seems obsessed with Thando and picks a fight at a comedy club while heckling the comedian. Later, he gets angry when Thando wants to leave.
The next person Thando goes out with is a social media influencer by the name of Xolani. Thando is charmed by him, and he even sends her a dress for an event, which is a rather romantic thing to do. But then he proceeds to ignore her at the event and insists on creating an issue out of nothing, just to look good. Thando is annoyed, and that leads to him saying that she went out with him for social media fame. Xolani regrets it later and makes a few appearances in Thando’s life, but nothing much comes of it.
Thando also tries dating a much older guy, Victor, who was the ex-health Minister, but she finds that he and her mother knew each other before and were likely involved. This causes Thando to ditch him as soon as she can. But perhaps Thando’s biggest heartbreak of the season comes from Motheo. They hit it off instantly, and Thando genuinely likes him, but she finds that he is just nineteen years old. Regardless, Thando meets him a few more times, until she decides that she has feelings for him. However, Motheo is in a very different space, and he is leaving the country to do his volunteer work for a while. Basically, all of Thando’s efforts have led to nothing, and time is running out.
Who does Thando bring to the Christmas dinner?
Thando lives with her best friend, Charles, and lately, because of her boyfriend drama, she has been neglecting him. Charles always has Thando’s back, and he even helps her find some good dates, but he realizes that it is time for him to leave the house. It all happens when he sleeps with Minnie (Thando’s sister). Thando doesn’t question him about it, but as Charles says, he knows the right time to quit a situation.
On the other hand, Thando also discovers that her dad, Sam, is cheating on her mother, Nellie. When she tells this to her brother, she is surprised to find that he knows, as does their mother. Sam and Nellie are having some troubles in their marriage, and they are coping through a system of their own. This gives Thando a perspective on their seemingly perfect love and relationship and makes her question the value she is attaching to a man. This is when she realizes that she is more devastated by her best friend moving out than by not having a boyfriend. Additionally, she finds that Bheki has moved on with her friend, Riri. Thando is not angry about it, but when Riri tells her that she is in love with Bheki, something clicks in Thando’s mind. Charles had told her that she should just live and enjoy her life, and at that time, Thando hadn’t realized what he meant. But now, looking at Riri, she realized that she had not been living in the moment or valuing what she had. She was simply chasing what the world told her she should have. Therefore, Thando comes to the conclusion that she wanted to go home for Christmas instead of working. She easily gets permission for it from Mel, who is staying back, hoping her family will miss her in her absence. At home, Minnie tells Thando that her husband has been cheating on her, and they are on their way to a separation. She also hints that Charles likes Thando, but that is a discussion for another time.
During Yoh! Christmas‘ ending, Thando’s guests start arriving, and they are none other than Lulu, Bheki, and Riri, her friends, who have taught her valuable lessons about being happy with herself. Even Thando’s mother declares that she is proud of her daughter. Just then, someone knocks on the door, and Thado is surprised to see the person. If this show is staying true to its inspiration, there is a Santa Claus who is re-enacting a scene from Thando’s favorite movie that is a confession of love, and Thando will think that this is from Ben since he is the other person to love this movie. But if Yoh! Christmas is changing something, then either Charles or Motheo are at the door, and they have come to be with Thando.
Final Thoughts
There wasn’t a single ‘wow’ factor in this entire series, and our review would have been the same even if we had not watched the Italian or Norwegian version of this. Yoh! Christmas needed to be a lot more fresh or exciting, and without that, this was just another mindless three hours.
