I hit play on this Netflix animated Christmas movie with a bit of a ‘tude. And maybe that was the best way to approach it since the flick slowly melted my frozen heart. No reason to sneer at this genuinely funny, genuinely sweet pure Christmas movie. The kind of Christmas movie that’s all about family and Christmas and no sneering, no snideness, no cynicism.

It’s about various children and parents living in a small seaside English town that gets hit by a blizzard on Christmas Eve. We follow the stories of the various characters… parents stuck in the blizzard, a pair of twins, one on the naughty list, a lonely school teacher and the son of a divorced mom, etc. Oh, and actual Santa with his cost-saving one tiny reindeer too.

About that… yeah, it’s visually low on the imagination scale with an art style and character design that feels a little cheap. But happily that’s not the important part of the film so I give it a bit of a break. And, hey, wouldn’t that be a Christmas miracle?

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t laugh during the opening Christmas pageant, especially at the exploding Jesus. That was a hint this might not be the super generic CGI cartoon it looks like. And I chuckled a number of times throughout. It’s funny and warm and sweet.

And lest we think its saccharine and corny, I point to a cheeky few seconds of the intro to Love, Actually that this movie lets play. Just enough talk about Heathrow airport arrivals before a parent wisely turns the sweet, funny very R rated Christmas movie off. But is works as a reminder of the kind of ensemble Christmas movie they both are.

Because, at its heart, That Christmas is a genuinely sweet and earnest Christmas movie that knows when to make you say “awww”. I’m not gonna say its an all-time Christmas film for the ages, but that score hints that it has a better chance than most of the Christmas movies this season. I recommend it, even if you have a Grinch heart and a ‘tude towards Netflix animation.

Score: 85