If it’s one gem Netflix has given us within the past five years, “The Christmas Chronicles” is it.

Released in November 2018, the film stars Kurt Russell as Santa Claus who takes on two kids from Lowell, Massachusetts (Kate and Teddy Pierce played by Darby Camp and Judah Lewis) who have discovered him in the act of delivering gifts. 

But we must back up a bit to understand how we got to two kids hiding in Santa’s sleigh. The Pierce kids have lost their firefighter father, which has been hard on both them and their mother. Their mother Claire (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) works as a nurse and is away from home a lot (and unfortunately she’s covering on Christmas Eve, leaving the kids to their own devices). Teddy has recently been hanging with the wrong crowd and doing illegal things. Kate is trying to keep the belief in Santa alive and save Teddy at the same time. So when Kate sees the flash of a figure in a video of a past Christmas when her father was alive, she tries to convince Teddy it’s Santa and that they must set up a trap to try to catch him in the act.

So that’s how we get to the point with the kids in the sleigh, which, once Santa learns this, becomes startled and crashes the sleigh, losing his magic hat and sack in the process.

Now that he’s lost his hat Santa can’t move as quickly as he normally does and if he doesn’t get back to delivering presents, the Christmas spirit will be lost. With the kids help, they set out to find his hat and sack.

Of course trouble ensues and Santa gets arrested and ends up performing a rousing rendition of “Santa Claus Is Back In Town” with Steve Van Zandt in the clink. The kids rescue the reindeer and Kate finds the sack and teleports to the North Pole and where the elves help her. One elf reaches Santa at the jail with a replacement hat so Santa is able to finally get a move on and finish his task. The sleigh is repaired, the hat and sack have returned to their rightful owner and the kids are still in tow. Plus it’s now the 11th hour. So Kate and Teddy help Santa finish the delivering and he returns them to their humble Lowell, MA abode.

The kids ask Santa if they’ll ever see him again and he tells them “not if he can help it”. He gives Teddy his hat, proving that Santa really didn’t need it after all.

Christmas morning the kids open their gifts. Kate gets the skateboard she has wanted and Teddy gets a magical ornament that shows his father’s reflection when he looks into it.

This film is very touching and well-done. It has become a yearly viewing staple for me. Unfortunately, “Christmas Chronicles 2” was not quite what I expected. Also, watch until the end for a surprise appearance.