The Christmas Chronicles stars Russell as an absurdly charismatic Santa Claus, trying to save Christmas after kids interrupt his annual delivery route.
Brits waste hundreds of hours every year scrolling through streaming services looking for something to watch. Yahoo wants to save you a scroll by recommending one movie — under two hours long — that you should watch this week, every Friday. This is the one to watch.
Netflix has become the go-to destination for Christmas movies over the past few years. Lots of them follow a very specific format — there’s an icy career woman who ends up in a cottage somewhere with a dashing, knitwear-clad gardener who teaches her that the true meaning of Christmas can’t be found in spreadsheets and power suits. There’s nothing wrong with these movies — and some of them are very fun — but it’s fair to say that we’ve been there, done that, and got the itchy Christmas jumper.
But Netflix’s exalted status among Yuletide cinema has also yielded some true gems for families. There’s the absolutely lovely Richard Curtis-penned animation That Christmas from 2024, for example. The pinnacle of this genre, however, is undeniably the 2018 film The Christmas Chronicles, in which Kurt Russell plays the most suave and sexy cinematic Santa Claus of all time.
What is The Christmas Chronicles?
On the face of it, the plot is very simple. Festive true believer Kate (Darby Camp) enlists her teen brother Teddy (Judah Lewis) to prove that Santa is real using a video camera. They succeed, but in the process, they end up causing Santa’s sleigh to crash, separating him from his reindeer and the presents he needs to deliver before morning in order to avert the permanent decline of Christmas spirit. Just a sweater-wearing caretaker and a joyless CEO away from being pure festive cliché.
However, the bargain basement of trite festive entertainment never met Kurt Russell. He’s an absolute force of nature, channelling every last megawatt of his movie star charisma into the red suit and bountiful beard. “Santa Claus?” asks Kate in surprise after the crash. “Live and in person. One night only,” Russell’s less-than-jolly Saint Nick smirks with quintessential cool.
“Hope you like coal,” he deadpans when a restaurant diner angrily refuses to help him.
Why we love it
Russell is effortless as a special kind of Santa Claus. He’s warm, friendly, and driven by a desire to make the day special for kids all over the world — naturally — but he’s also smart, sarcastic, and completely unpredictable.
It takes a unique Father Christmas to be able to deliver an Elvis Presley musical number in a prison cell — a nod to Russell’s performance as the King of Rock n Roll in John Carpenter’s 1979 made-for-TV biopic — or quip from behind the wheel of a speeding Dodge Challenger that he’s “trading in eight reindeer for 400 horses”.
Any shortcomings of the script by Matt Lieberman — previously credited only on a direct-to-TV Dr Dolittle sequel — are swiftly papered over by Russell’s rampaging comic energy. When Santa is asked to simply quote a Christmas carol as if it’s a badass Schwarzenegger one-liner, he growls it with aplomb.
However, that’s not to say this is a Christmas movie entirely for adults. It’s packed with action sequences that director Clay Kaytis — previously best known for spending almost 20 years as a Disney animator — helms with real flair. Very few festive films can boast as many car chases as this one.
Kids, meanwhile, will delight in the colourful fantasia of Santa’s North Pole headquarters. In stark contrast to more cynical festive fare like Red One — why not run Christmas from a military-like warehouse? — this is Christmas as the most magical time of the year.
Need to know
📽️ Movie: The Christmas Chronicles (2018)
⏰ Runtime: 103m
🎭 Actors: Kurt Russell, Oliver Hudson, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Jesse Gervasi
🍿 Genre: Family film
🤔 Similar to: That Christmas, Candy Cane Lane, Family Switch
📺 Streaming service: Netflix
🍅 Ratings: 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, 2.9/5 on Letterboxd, 7.0/10 on IMDb
And that magic filters through into the emotional core of the story, which is the relationship between the two kids and their complex family ties. As the movie starts, they are both dealing with the loss of their father, a firefighter who died in the line of duty. This story thread provides the most saccharine elements of the movie, but there’s real heart in its best moments, like the children pausing outside a church to listen to the echoes of their dad’s favourite carol before musing that they haven’t been in a church since losing him.
The Christmas Chronicles wears this sort of material lightly, allowing it to land its emotional blows before deftly segueing into an action scene, Russell crooning in a jailhouse, or some CGI elves who love to dance.
What critics thought
It was this emotional schmaltz that led to some decidedly mixed reviews for The Christmas Chronicles when it first arrived. But like so many festive films, it’s not the critics that matter — it’s the people who watch it every year and take it into their hearts.
