The Christmas Chronicles (2018)

The Christmas Chronicles feels like a holiday movie with a pulse: a brisk, city-at-night adventure that treats Christmas wonder as something you can chase, lose, and earn back again. Kurt Russell’s Santa is the secret weapon—charismatic, mischievous, and oddly moving—turning familiar seasonal beats into something with real spark and laugh-out-loud swagger. The film zips from cozy family warmth to playful mayhem with just enough thrills to keep kids wide-eyed and adults entertained, while still leaving room for a gentle undercurrent about grief and hope. If you prefer your Christmas stories quiet and traditional, this one’s a little louder and more modern, but for most families it’s exactly the kind of charming, rewatchable ride that makes December feel like December.

The Christmas Chronicles (2025) is clearly aiming for a warm, high-energy holiday romp that mixes family grief with a “save Christmas” scavenger hunt, and it mostly banks on Kurt Russell’s Santa to carry the charm. The problem is it feels aggressively by-the-numbers: the beats are obvious, the emotional turns can feel a bit engineered, and the story rarely surprises you once the sleigh hits the ground. Some of the visual effects and action set pieces land more “TV special” than magical, which can make the adventure feel smaller than it wants to be. If you’re happy with a safe, kid-friendly Christmas movie powered by a likable lead and a few crowd-pleasing moments, it’ll do the job—but if you want fresh holiday magic or genuinely inventive storytelling, this may feel like reheated cocoa.