Santa Is Back to Save the Holidays in Netflix’s ‘The Christmas Chronicles 2’

Alci Rengifo

Netflix is dropping “The Christmas Chronicles 2” into our stockings to remind us that in 2020 Santa Claus doesn’t just spread Christmas cheer. He is apparently auditioning for a spot in the next Marvel movie too. The 2018 original was a big hit with its murky shots of jolly old Saint Nick blasting through urban America evading projectiles and exploding cars. But this sequel looks much better since it is directed by Chris Columbus, who helped initiate the “Harry Potter” movie saga. Better looks, but just as ludicrous a plot.

It’s been three years since the events of the first “Christmas Chronicles” and siblings Kate (Darby Camp) and Teddy (Judah Lewis) are spending the holidays in Cancun with their mother, Claire (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) and her boyfriend Bob (Tyrese Gibson). Bob’s son Jack (Jahzir Bruno) seems like a nice kid but has rarely been out on his own. But there is a plot afoot. A disgruntled former elf, Belsnickel (Julian Dennison), who was made into a human for being naughty over at the North Pole, kidnaps Kate and Jack and opens a portal which sends them to the icy frontier. At first it’s not so bad because Kate gets to reunite with Santa (Kurt Russell) and Mrs. Claus (the more than appropriate Goldie Hawn). The Clauses show the two new friends around their Christmas digs, including “the Village” where toys and candy are made. Kate might even want to stay forever, since she hasn’t warmed up to Bob back in Cancun. However, Belsnickel soon arrives to carry out his scheme to steal the star atop Santa’s great tree and ruin Christmas forever.

“The Christmas Chronicles 2” is pure goofy commercialism but with less of the manic absurdities, or even dreary choices, of the first movie. It’s as if Columbus made a checklist of what to leave out. There are no mobsters tossing their enemies into waste furnaces or demented elves threatening to chainsaw a kid. Columbus instead combines the action-heavy attitude of the franchise with more of a traditional holiday romp. The screenplay by Columbus and Matt Lieberman still defies much logic, but at least it is shot with the same kind of visual grandiosity Columbus brought to “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Santa’s village looks like a Christmas postcard come to life and is sheltered beneath a large curtain of aurora borealis. The Clauses home has the design of a comfy Swedish cottage and when everyone carols on Christmas Eve, you can catch a glimpse of a drunken little elf raising a glass. We even get a quite glorious musical number when Santa and Kate are tossed into Boston airport in the year 1990 and holiday cheer must be pumped so the reindeer can fly. 

The Boston airport moment is the best one in the movie because it’s the only time it truly reaches the kind of heart-tugging emotional high Christmas movies are loved for. Kate and Santa don’t just get stuck in 1990 because of Belsnickel’s tricks, the scene lets Kate reconnect with someone from her past in a genuinely moving way. “The Christmas Chronicles 2” slides back into action movie mode where most of its recognizable holiday imagery gets turned around into candy-colored violence. This is the kind of Christmas movie where Belsnickel lets a giant snow leopard loose on the reindeer and Dasher nearly gets killed, evil dust is unleashed to turn Santa’s elves into deranged monsters who rush at Mrs. Claus with little hammers before she shuts the door, and at one point, Belsnickel wages drone warfare on Santa’s village. All this because years ago he was an underappreciated elf who went bad, meaning he started wearing a leather jacket and backwards cap, proceeding to do things like tag Santa’s sled. It’s hard to blame him though. From what we can tell Santa offers little to the workers except endless supplies of candy canes and once in a while Mrs. Claus bakes cookies. Although even the cookies can be dangerous, like the exploding gingerbread man Mrs. Claus arms Jack with when she sends him out into the blistering cold to find a specific plant to make medicine.

Still, Columbus manages to film it all quite well and a few sweet Christmas points are achieved. Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, a famously real couple, fit naturally into their jolly roles. Hawn in particular is very warm and likeable, even when the writing gives her some silly tasks like serving desserts that are actually healthy good in disguise (ok, that is kind of fun). The closing singalong of “O Christmas Tree” is also nicely done, combining shots of Cancun beaches with Santa’s snow-capped town. It’s the visuals that work best since the plot runs so thin. We won’t even get into the strange contradictions, like how Mrs. Claus can devise a hot chocolate drink that instantly cures you of hyperthermia but it takes the entire movie to help Dasher the reindeer (who isn’t even bleeding). And as explained in the movie, Santa got started as a saint dropping off gifts in Turkey, so why does his accent sound so Germanic when he speaks to the elves, whose original community, per this movie, is also living in Turkey? 

Maybe one shouldn’t be too grintchy when approaching “The Christmas Chronicles 2.” No doubt many viewers enduring this pandemic holiday at home will find some entertaining escapism worthy of a silly grin or two. It’s quite telling that everyone seems to be having fun in their roles. Yet, gone are the days of those simple delights like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Christmas movies now need to pack a bigger punch in our age of superheroes, and without a doubt Santa is one of the original costumed icons of any country that celebrates the season of giving. You almost have no choice but to surrender and get on his new bulletproof sled. 

“The Christmas Chronicles 2” begins streaming Nov. 25 on Netflix.