Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Best. Christmas. Ever!’ on Netflix, Where Envy Over A Holiday Newsletter Leads to an Unforgettable Christmas

Netflix can sometimes be hit or miss with their original movies, especially the seasonal ones, but they really went all out with Best. Christmas. Ever!. Led by a talented cast that includes Brandy Norwood, Heather Graham, and Jason Biggs, this romantic comedy looks to bring the holiday heart and cheer with a newsletter as its driving force. So does Best. Christmas. Ever! have the juice to really take off? Is it worth watching this holiday season? Will it make you want to start sending out newsletters? Keep reading to find out!

BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER!: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Jackie Jennings (Brandy Norwood) lives a life that seems too good to be true, and she shares exploits and anecdotes from her perfect life and perfect family every year with family and friends in a holiday newsletter. Her old college friend, Charlotte Sanders (Heather Graham), isn’t a fan of these bulletins, referring to them as “brag letters” that make her feel bad about her own life that hasn’t turned out as she’d always hoped. Charlotte used to dream of being an inventor (hooray for women in STEM!), but she has since settled for working for years as a reliability engineer at StarTech Industries. While Charlotte is more of a realist, her husband Rob (Jason Biggs) is a dreamer, causing the two to not always see eye to eye. Their kids Grant (Wyatt Hunt) and Dora (Abby Villasmil) are cute, weird, and totally average in the way that most kids tend to be, with the former carrying a stuffed animal called “Monkey Bob” everywhere and calling himself a ninja, and the latter child convinced she has latent superpowers thanks to Marvel.

When Grant plugs Jackie’s address from her newsletter into the family’s GPS without his parents’ knowledge while on the way to Charlotte’s sister’s house for the holidays, Charlotte soon finds herself snowed into the Jennings household and unable to keep from comparing her life and family to Jackie’s. Jackie has a ripped karate champ husband named Valentino Jennings (Matt Cedeño) who is both hot and into reading Stephen Hawking books for fun, as well as children humanitarian Daniel and child genius Beatrix (Madison Skye Validum). Desperate to find a crack in Jackie’s facade, Charlotte decides to dedicate her stay with the Jennings family to proving that their newsletter is full of lies, even if her investigation comes at the cost of her own family having a merry Christmas.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Charlotte’s fourth-wall breaking as she talks to the camera will remind you of Fleabag, the brief instances of slapstick humor and violence that might have broken a normal person in the real world’s bones will remind you of Home Alone, and the aspects of attempted and successful one-upmanship from Charlotte and Jackie are reminiscent of Kristin Wiig’s Saturday Night Live character, Penelope.

Performance Worth Watching: Honestly, everyone does a pretty darn fantastic job in Best. Christmas. Ever!, but if I had to pick a stand-out, Brandy Norwood is effortlessly charismatic and charming as Jackie Jennings. She hit all the right notes (literally) as Jackie, giving her an incredible depth and emotional range displaying everything from smug to truly generous and loving, making her hard to tear your eyes from whenever she was onscreen. Special shoutouts as well to Heather Graham and Madison Skye Validum, who each imbued so much personality and commitment to their respective performances as Charlotte and Beatrix.

Memorable Dialogue: Charlotte and Rob discuss his interesting personal history with Jackie:

“You’re just defending her ’cause when you two dated, you were in that No Doubt cover band.”

“It was not a cover band.”

“It was called Total Certainty.”

“We sang all original songs.”

“That sounded exactly like No Doubt.”

A Holiday Tradition: Every year, the Jennings’ town of Hadley Falls does a Christmas pageant, which is traditionally their biggest local event of the year. This one is extra special, however, since Valentino is directing. Seriously, what can’t that guy do?

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: I’d say so because by the end it felt pretty darn fitting. Best Christmas ever, indeed.

Our Take: Best. Christmas. Ever! is a delightful movie that the whole family can enjoy, complete with comedic moments for kids that will keep them believing in holiday magic and Santa Claus, plus more adult jokes that will go over a child’s head but still tickle your funny bone. Everyone in the cast brings it and absolutely slays (sleighs?) from the adults all the way down to the kids, who all have their own moment to shine. Some highlights of this were Grant and Beatrix’s cute budding friendship and exploration of Santa’s existence with the aid of science, as well as Charlotte’s own arc from an embittered and insecure person taking her jealousy out on Jackie because her own life didn’t go as she’d expected to a more open-minded person who takes responsibility for her emotions and actions.

With Charlotte’s arc and eventual reconnection with Jackie in mind in particular, it has to be said that there is a lot of great hidden depth to this movie. It’s just a really sweet and human story. For all of its joys, the holiday season can be a time of comparison, envy, and heartache, and Best. Christmas. Ever! portrays that in a really thought-provoking and realistic way as it reminds us that no life or person is as perfect as it may seem. We’re all going through something, but if we communicate with and support one another as well as believe in ourselves, anything is possible, even having the best Christmas ever when you least expect it.

Our Call: STREAM IT! Make your annual seasonal streaming list (and check it twice) to make sure that Best. Christmas. Ever! is on there!