Two holiday season must-sees on Netflix

We’re part of the Stream Team for Netflix and were compensated for this. All thoughts are our own. The Christmas season snuck up on us again this year. It really shouldn’t sneak up as it’s the same time line every year, but it somehow does. One element of the ‘sneak’ is that the family didn’t have enough time to watch some of our go-to Christmas movies. Now that the kids are older they actively enjoy some films and are old enough to know what they like. One such series of films, The Santa Clause, is back on Netflix and they’re good enough to watch anytime of the year.

We re-watched The Santa Clause 2 the other day and it really is a great family film. The first one is a Christmas classic. The third film is still entertaining and gets better the more that you watch it. When The Santa Clause: 3, The Escape Clause was released the critics said it was too dark, in regards to the other films. That film is the first to have a discernible ‘villain’, but it’s not dark. Martin Short’s performance is campy and light enough to be entertaining and not scary for the vast majority of kids.

Then there’s Tim Allen, who reportedly didn’t like filming with children. The Santa Clause films are entirely aimed at children, but Allen’s performance has a very subtle dark undercurrent that will absolutely resonate with adults. It does so without bringing down the films or making them warrant a higher rating. The Santa Clause films are available for streaming on Netflix

Secondly, Christmas Inheritance is a Netflix original film. I walked into the room when my wife started watching it and immediately thought that it was a Hallmark film. It was brightly lit, the entire cast is quite pretty and it just had that happy, holiday vibe about it. These types of films, especially during December are a weak point for us. My wife loves to watch them and I like to bond with my wife, so it’s win/win.

I sat for a moment and was hooked. Christmas Inheritance is a Netflix original film, but it’s so much better than its Hallmark contemporaries. The acting is better, there is more plot movement and there’s more to the film than just two people who you know will eventually be together. From my wife’s perspective, there is more character development. Granted, the casual fan of this type of holiday far might not tune in to these for character depth. But when those characters have more to them than just a fish-out-of-water in love ploy, it’s refreshing and makes the film so much more enjoyable.

There was less of a suspension of disbelief than other films that it’s associated with. The characters were more believable and because of that, less frustrating and someone that you’d actually want to hang around with.

The plot to Christmas Inheritance is cut from the same cloth. However, the end result is one that even those who don’t like those types of movies will end up enjoying, even though they might roll their eyes at times.