Christmas Chronicles is Netflix original Christmas movie that tells the story of Katie and Teddy Pierce planning to catch Santa Claus. Katie Pierce (played by Darby Camp) tries to catch Santa in the act in an effort to bring back her brothers Christmas spirit. Teddy Pierce (played by Judah Lewis) goes along with it and when they do catch Santa (played by Kurt Russell) after climbing in his sleigh, they cause him to crash. In an effort to save Christmas, we watch as Katie tries to repair her bond with her brother and Teddy tries to fix his act, and be the person his late father would have wanted.

         Even though Christmas Chronicles is a comedy, it does show some very real emotions children can go through if someone they love passes away. Ultimately, this movie does show how families can break a part if someone important dies, and it does a wonderful job in doing so. What it doesn’t do a good job of is slowly showing Teddy’s realization that even though his father is gone, he can still be the person he wants him to be.

         Instead, it makes him flip between emotions, making it seem like his character is just a teenager, instead of what it was meant to be. Also, the movie attempted to add in CGI animated reindeer and elves. And while the idea was cool, the visuals were awful. The reindeer were extremely fake and it reminded me of something you would see in the 2000s, when it was actually made this year. Finally, Santa seemed to be rude one minute and kind the next, and essentially did the same thing Teddy’s character did.

         Overall, the plot was good, and the characters at their core were good, but the execution of everything made the movie feel like it kept flipping between two different character set-ups. The CGI was just terrible and definitely could have been better. I would watch this movie with my family, but it definitely isn’t going to become a yearly tradition to watch it.