Adventures with Santa: THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES on Netflix {Recap}

On Thanksgiving Day, I sat down with a good friend to watch the new Netflix holiday film The Christmas Chronicles, which stars Kurt Russell as Santa Claus.

I have to admit that I went into that viewing with apprehension, as I wasn’t sure whether I would like Kurt Russell as Santa Claus. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I would like the movie at all, but boy was I wrong! And I’m so glad that I was wrong. This holiday movie was a big surprise. It was funny, touching, silly and laugh-out-loud enjoyable.

Let’s take a look at this movie, shall we:

The Pierce family lives in Lowell, Massachusetts; and every Christmas, mom Claire (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) and dad Doug (Oliver Hudson) film the big holiday with their children Teddy and Kate. But in 2018 Doug – a firefighter – died in the line of duty and now celebrating Christmas just won’t be the same.

To make matters worse, Claire – a nurse – has to fill in at the hospital for a co-worker on Christmas Eve, leaving younger sister Kate (Darby Camp) home alone with her teenaged older brother Teddy (Judah Lewis).

While watching old Christmas videos of the family, Kate saw a strange arm appear out of the fireplace. Believing that to be Santa Claus, she blackmails Teddy (her big brother has been hanging out with some troubled kids, who are stealing cars and she videotaped him boosting a car) into proving her theory.

The two set up a makeshift trip wire by the fireplace linked to a Christmas bell and hooked up to a camera behind a closet where they wait. But, as you can imagine, they fall asleep, but Kate is woken up by the bell, seeing Santa in their living room. Unfortunately, he leaves before Teddy can see him; but they hear him moving on the roof and go outside.

Once outside the siblings see Santa’s sleigh and reindeer floating above them. They also see Santa hopping from rooftop to rooftop at light speed. As crazy as it may seem, Kate decided to climb up into Santa’s sleigh, despite Teddy’s objections, and he has no choice but to follow.

Soon enough, Santa returned to the sleigh, riding off with the kids in tow; but when Kate tapped Santa on the shoulder, he was naturally startled and that caused him to lose control of the sleigh and the reindeer over Chicago, Illinois.

Not only does Santa lose his bag of presents, but also his magic-filled hat, which allows him to leap from house to house, squeezing into tight spaces. The sleigh also crashed and the reindeer scattered throughout the city.

Needless to say, Teddy and Kate have to help Santa get the presents, his hat and the reindeer back or else Christmas Spirit will be gone – and the last time that happened, the Dark Ages occurred.

What followed was an adventure of epic proportions with Kate striking out on her own to find the reindeer while Santa and Teddy kept two Chicago police officers (Lamorne Morris and Martin Roach) busy.

Then Santa ended up getting arrested while Teddy headed off with Kate on the reindeer to retrieve the bag of presents, which they eventually tracked down. Following instructions from Santa, Kate climbed into the bag to seek help from his elves – and having quite a fun little sojourn inside Santa’s workshop at the North Pole with all those adorable elves.

Without giving too much away on how Santa got out of jail – that involved members of the E Street Band (Bruce Springsteen’s long-time bandmates) and some slick Elvis moves from Russell’s past playing the King himself way back in the day – Teddy learning a valuable lesson about never boosting another car again, Santa having more magic all on his own – without the need for his hat – and how one act of kindness can change so much for one family, I encourage all of our readers to watch The Christmas Chronicles.

Enjoy the ride, the current event jokes and the magic of the holidays. Oh, and don’t be surprised by a cameo appearance by Goldie Hawn (Russell’s long-time life partner) as none other than Mrs. Claus.

Check out the following trailer for The Christmas Chronicles and make sure to watch (and rewatch) the movie on Netflix as soon as you can. You won’t be disappointed.