The Christmas Chronicles

The Christmas Chronicles – Siblings, Katie and Teddy, always got along until their dad passed away. Now, the pair fight all the time and while Katie loves Christmas, Teddy thinks its lame and is more interested in getting into trouble with his friends. When Katie discovers evidence that Santa may exist, she persuades Teddy to stay up on Christmas Eve to catch him on camera. However, their discovery leads to disaster with Santa’s crashed sleigh, escaped reindeer and lost sack of presents. Can the pair help Santa to get Christmas back on track or will it be ruined for kids all over the country?

The Christmas Chronicles (2018) – Director: Clay Kaytis

Rating: PG

Running Length: 104 mins

Starring: Darby Camp, Judah Lewis, Kurt Russell

Genre: Christmas

REVIEW: ‘THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES’

Christmas is the time of year when we are bombarded with reminders of how wonderful life is! Everything is brightly coloured! Everyone is happy! Santa Claus is coming kids – best be good for your weary parents who could do with a month of good behaviour at the end of yet another tiring year! With all of that comes a glut of yet more Christmas movies. The schmaltz can be so overwhelming. We wade through the candy corn quagmire to find any submerged baubles that give us audiences even just a little a taste of something different. Netflix’s ‘The Christmas Chronicles’ is once again popular at this time of year so, where does it stand on the schmaltz-o-meter?

Well, the siblings, Katie and Teddy (seriously, a teen boy goes by this name) – played by Darby Camp and Judah Lewis, respectively, were once close but, since their father died, are at loggerheads. Teddy is heading down a bad boy path so what could possibly happen to straighten him out? As you might guess, a visit from Santa on Christmas Eve goes haywire and the pair are determined to help the so-called jolly old (not fat) man finish his job before the sun rises. Enter Kurt Russell who injects plenty of gravitas and fun from the moment he crash lands on our screens. His scenes sparkle with so much charisma that whenever he isn’t on screen, the movie suffers for it. In fact, sadly the kids struggle to lift the movie by themselves and their ‘solo’ scenes drag.

This Santa isn’t as friendly as one might expect (“I do NOT say Ho Ho Ho!”) but his rough around the edges persona never comes across as mean spirited so the love manages to stay the right side of tough. While ‘The Christmas Chronicles’ is unlikely to persuade non-Christmas movie lovers to move over to the red and green side, it does have enough Christmas cheer to shake a candy cane at.

CONTENT: IS ‘THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

As a young boy, Teddy is given a swiss army knife by his father for Christmas, his mother isn’t too happy about it due to it being dangerous but his father assures her it will be fine.

The kids’ mother feeds a candy cane to a reindeer. Their father is unsure if this is a good idea but the reindeer eats it and seems ok. We mention this in case this encourages kids to feed animals with food that could make them ill.

At age 10, Katie makes a video for Santa, she says ‘Sometimes I say bad words’ and after says ‘…I lose my sh-‘ before stopping and correcting herself to a more appropriate word.

Teddy is now a teenager and is mean to Katie. He almost tells her that Santa isn’t real before pausing and deciding not to. As he leaves her bedroom, he dumps a lot of fish food in her fish tank, she panics and immediately goes to scoop out what she can.

Katie sees Teddy stealing a car with some friends.

Santa reveals that a man has previously stolen a car; a short while later the three need some form of transportation so decide to steal the already stolen car (so they feel that they are technically not committing a serious crime) and say that they will take the car to the police once they have finished using it.

Santa tells Katie to round up the escaped reindeer while he and Teddy distract the cops. Teddy is reluctant to let her walk around the streets of a new city at night by herself but Santa assures him that she will be ok. She is then seen completely alone on a deserted street but soon comes across the reindeer and does not have any problems.

Teddy and Katie stand outside a church and can hear a Christmas carol being sung. They remember that this was their father’s favourite song. This is slightly sad but not overly distressing.

Three robbers approach Teddy in a park a demand that he gives them Santa’s sack, He refuses despite their threats to hurt him. The take him and the sack to their boss.

Santa is put in jail. In the next cell, three women in short skirts talk to him – they appear to be prostitutes but there is no reference to them as such and their clothes aren’t too revealing so kids are unlikely to understand this.

When Teddy is taken to the main criminal the man is disappointed that his men have brought him seemingly worthless loot. He tells them that the next time this happens, they will suffer consequences as he opens the door to a large furnace.

Teddy is mistaken for a criminal by Santa’s elves and, as he sits on the floor with his legs out in front of him, one of the elves walks between them wielding a small chainsaw. The elf gets closer and closer to his crotch but is stopped before he gets hurt.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES’ FOR KIDS?

‘The Christmas Chronicles’ may not do a huge amount to stand out from the oversaturated Christmas movie crowd but what it does is light and fun enough to be a firm family favourite for the festive season. We recommend this movie for kids aged 7 and over.

• Violence: 1/5 (a character threatens to harm Santa and the kids, he chases them out of a restaurant with a baseball bat)
• Emotional Distress: 2/5 (there are a few touching moments as the kids and their mother remember their father)
• Fear Factor: 2/5 (the robbers in the park are threatening, they are serious with no light relief or comedy so this scene could be a little frightening for younger kids)
• Sexual Content: 1/5 (there are prostitutes in the jail cell next to the one Santa is in, however there is no mention of this and they are not treated differently to the other criminals there)
• Bad Language: 1/5 (Katie almost says a moderate curse word. Infrequent mild blasphemy and the two siblings often insult each other with terms such as ‘freak’ and ‘boring slug’)
• Dialogue: 0/5
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of sibling rivalry, Christmas cheer, saving the day, death of a parent, love,  belief and kindness.

Words by Laura Record