For many people, a familiar pastime in the weeks leading up to major winter holidays is gathering with family members and watching holiday movies, be they in a theater or on television. While vaccines are more widely available now than they were last year, for some plans still remain the same this holiday season, unsure about going to movie theaters. However, this shouldn’t stop us from enjoying holiday movies with friends and family.
During the month of December, therefore, the Falls Free Press will reprise “The 12 Films of Christmas,” focusing on new holiday movies for the year 2021—a year that can still do with plenty of spirit. We will review each film, whether naughty or nice, and let you know where to watch it.
Imagine a world before the concept of a secular Christmas. A world still full of poverty but also without kindness to one another. War among groups of people still exists, but without a holiday full of peace and goodwill, the Christmas truce of 1914 might never have happened. Told as a bedtime story by Dame Maggie Smith as Aunt Ruth, A Boy Called Christmas introduces Nckolas (Henry Lawfull), a young boy who sets off on a journey to find his father who has traveled north with a troop to the mythical town Elfhelm, in an effort to answer the king’s request to bring hope back to his people.
Left with his aunt (played by an extremely convincing yet easily forgettable Kristen Wigg), Nikolas is forced to watch as she immediately takes over the family’s small cabin and burns his only toy, made by his late mother. In turn, Nikolas decides that he and his pet mouse are safer following his father’s path than sleeping in the cold outside the home. On their journey the mouse learns to speak English and they come across an injured reindeer Nikolas saves and names Blitzen, both leading up to the discovery of Elfhelm, a magical city similar to what children think of as Santa’s workshop at the North Pole.
Once inside the city however, he learns that his father’s group has already left the town, having kidnapped a child. This betrayal has caused Mother Something (Sally Hawkins), Elfhelm’s lawmaker, to ban Christmas celebrations– Christmas being a celebration of dance and merrymaking which includes sweets and goodwill to outsiders. Being an outsider, Nikolas is thrown in jail where he meets a trouble-making truth pixie who helps him escape and find the kidnapped child. Doing this helps him realize how to bring hope back to his home, gathering a sack of homemade toys and candies and flying back to the city on Blitzen to find the king. By bringing joy to families throughout the kingdom, the king declares that Christmas will be an annual event. While the story never mentions it, audiences can imply he might even be declared a saint.
As compared to many other children’s holiday films, Christmas is a lot scarier, containing multiple moments where Nikolas nearly dies, either by starvation, weather, or explosions. One particular scene even shows his father’s murder during an escape, which is especially out of place in an uplifting movie about celebrations. Nevertheless, the obvious lead ups to Nikolas becoming the modern-day Santa Claus make it repeatedly apparent that the child will survive. This is also clear in that Aunt Ruth tells this story to three young children, all of whom are already sad about their mother’s recent death. Nevertheless, due to the repeated danger this film is best for older children and families looking for a change in Christmas folklore.
A Boy Called Christmas is available to stream on Netflix.
