Stream It or Skip It: ‘The Christmas Chronicles’ on Netflix Stars Kurt Russell as a Santa with Swagger

You know it’s Christmas season because Netflix is pulling out all of the holiday stops. Next up on your to-watch list is The Christmas Chronicles, a rowdy yet family-friendly holiday movie starring Kurt Russell as a Santa with swagger. The film comes from producer Chris Columbus, the guy behind holiday hits like Home Alone, Miracle on 34th Street, and Christmas with the Kranks. But is Columbus and Russell’s first foray into the Netflix realm on the nice or naughty list?

THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Ten-year-old Kate Pierce (Darby Camp) is having a lackluster holiday season. Her father’s gone, her mother’s working, and her older brother Teddy (Judah Lewis) has fallen in with the wrong crowd. Kate’s frown turns upside down the instant she catches a glimpse of Santa Claus–the actual, living, breathing, mountain of a man embodied by Kurt Russell. But after Kate and Teddy inadvertently wreck Santa’s tight delivery schedule when they stowaway in his sleigh, the Pierce kids have to team up with Santa–and, more importantly, with each other–in order to ensure that Christmas isn’t ruined for everyone.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: If you expand the last third of Elf out to feature length, you’re pretty much on point. But this being a Chris Columbus production, there’s also a sprinkling of Home Alone’s family angst. Toss in a dash of edgy ’80s kids movies like The Goonies and Adventures in Babysitting and just a touch of Gremlins and even 2012’s Chronicle and you’ve got The Christmas Chronicles–a Christmas movie unlike anything else on Netflix.

Performance Worth Watching: Wouldn’t you be worried if I said anyone other than Kurt Russell?! Have no fear, because the actor and character that this entire movie is built delivers a true gift of a performance. The Christmas Chronicles‘ take on St. Nick is exactly what you’d expect from the elevator pitch “Kurt Russell plays Santa Claus.” He’s got all the swagger of jolly Jack Burton, a bluesy, straight-shooting charm that makes him stand out from pretty much every other Santa you’ve ever seen on screen. He’s cranky yet inspirational, empathetic yet a bit frantic, and he also makes Santa rakishly handsome.

Memorable Dialogue: You don’t cast Russell as Santa and not give him pithy one-liners. When he gets behind the wheels of a Porsche: “I traded in 8 reindeer for 400 horses!” When he sees an advertisement featuring a chubby and plump Kris Kringle hocking soda: “Billboards add 80 pounds, Freddy.” And when people keep asking him to deliver his supposed signature catchphrase: “I don’t do ‘ho ho ho.'”

Single Best Shot: The best shot of the movie comes from the best sequence of the movie, right after Kate and Teddy sneak on board Santa’s sleigh and the craft, a sleek bit of Scandinavian sci-fi, takes flight. For Christmas movie fans and amateur Santa scholars like myself, I gotta say, it’s a magical moment. And when you look at it within the context of all of Netflix’s holiday romcoms and all the direct-to-VOD Christmas fare on the streaming service, this breathtaking bit of seasonal spectacle is the exact moment when the film goes from dime-a-dozen TV Christmas movie to something special.

Our Take: It’s about time we changed the idiom to “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and TV movies about Christmas.” And I should know, because I have seen hundreds of them, a lot of which you can find on Netflix right alongside The Christmas Chronicles. Netflix originals like A Christmas Prince mingle alongside generic flicks like Christmas in the Smokies, The Spirit of Christmas, Merry Kissmas, Christmas Crush, etc. etc. etc. All of these movies are comfortably the same, focusing on a single young woman as she forsakes a career and city life for a man and the Christmas spirit. Some are very good, some are very bad, but they’re all more or less the same.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, no, the Christmas movie featuring hot Kurt Russell Santa is nothing at all like, say, Netflix’s The Holiday Calendar. It’s not even like the kind of big screen Christmas movies that reach theaters nowadays, which either veer towards emotional family dramedies (Love the Coopers), animated kid friendly confections (The Grinch), or raunch (A Bad Moms Christmas). The Christmas Chronicles feels like a true throwback to, as I said before, the rambunctious family movies that dominated the ’80s (no wonder Kurt Russell fits right in). It’s goofy and earnest for sure, but there are moments that have real bite to them–and I’m not just talking about the creepy, “cute” elves that fill the cuteness quota in the back half of the film. Teenager Teddy deals with some legit emotional baggage in this one–and at one point is almost mutilated by a chainsaw. See, edgy!

By being nothing at all like the dozens and dozens and dozens of Christmas movies cranked out by the Hallmark Channel, The Christmas Chronicles automatically becomes a must-watch for those looking for the rare holiday movie that’s more concerned with keeping the Christmas spirit alive than watching an event planner fall for a businessman. Beyond that, though, Christmas Chronicles does just enough to stand apart from the merry mythologies seen in films like Elf, The Santa Clause, or Miracle on 34th Street. Russell’s Santa is unique, as is the old world yet otherworldly production design. And unlike all those other movies, The Christmas Chronicles delivers some actual action scenes that you’ll want to rewatch every year. That initial sleigh ride, the one that goes horribly haywire, is directed with pulse-pounding immediacy by Clay Kaytis, who makes his live-action directorial debut here. There’s just enough world-building here to make this a canon worth expanding. I want a sequel, that’s what I’m getting at.

Listen, I’ll be straight up: I cannot get enough of Santa Claus confronting non-believers and making them double-take after rattling off their innermost Christmas wishes. I cannot get enough of deafening Christmas spirit channeled into elaborate musical numbers. I cannot get enough of movies wherein convincing someone to believe in Santa Claus is treated with the gravity of nuclear disarmament talks. The Christmas Chronicles has all of that, and ain’t that enough? It is for me.

Also, no spoilers, but just wait ’til you see who plays Mrs. Claus. I gasped.

Our Call: STREAM IT. I honestly cannot think of a better new movie to watch with your entire family while stuffed beyond stuffed on Thanksgiving.

Watch The Christmas Chronicles on Netflix