# Best. Christmas. Ever!

Best. Christmas. Ever! is a 2023 American Christmas romantic comedy film directed by Mary Lambert and written by Todd Gallicano and Charles Shyer (his final credit before his passing in 2024). The film stars Heather Graham, Brandy Norwood, Matt Cedeño, and Jason Biggs.
Released on Netflix on November 16, 2023, Best. Christmas. Ever! received generally negative reviews from critics.

## Plot

Charlotte and Rob Sanders, living modestly in a small apartment, feel overshadowed by the seemingly perfect life of Charlotte's college friend, Jackie Jennings. Jackie's annual Christmas letter, detailing her family's extraordinary achievements, incites envy and skepticism in Charlotte. She showcases her daughter's Beatrix extraordinary intelligence and her son's Daniel wishes to change the world as he travels.
Charlotte, feeling her own family is unremarkable, describes her daughter Dora's obsession with Marvel comics, her son Grant's attachment to a stuffed monkey, Rob's impractical dream of house flipping, and her own abandoned inventor dreams. When Grant, misunderstanding his mother's sarcasm, navigates the family to the Jennings' home for Christmas rather than her sister Stacy's as planned, they spend the night as it is very late.
Planning to head out early the next day, the Sanders get snowed in and forced to stay. After an outing to get a Christmas tree, Charlotte finds a letter addressed to Jackie from Rob and her suspicions of them increases, as they once dated.
Charlotte is also suspicious of Jackie's seemingly perfect family, especially after meeting Jackie's fit, husband Valentino. Her distrust leads her to leave everyone in the town square, where Valentino is running the town's Christmas pageant rehearsal, under the guise of getting a last-minute gift. Charlotte searches their house, trying to find a flaw.
Meanwhile, Grant and Beatrix, influenced by her skepticism of Santa's authenticity, embark on a misguided mission to expose a Santa, set up to see children in the square. Unable to get him to admit he is a fake, Grant uses his monkey to unmask the Santa, culminating in chaos.
While Charlotte is snooping at the Jenning's house, Valentino accidentally kicks her, thinking she is a thief. When Jackie confronts Charlotte about her behavior and Jackie's surprise prepared for her husband and daughter, as she rebuilt a dollhouse that his late mother was not able to do herself.
Charlotte accuses Jackie and Rob of having an affair, based on misinterpreted correspondence. This leads to Rob revealing he has been sending family Christmas letters for years. He kept them secret from her due to her known disdain for the practice. Charlotte accidentally causes the dollhouse to smash onto the floor, so everyone is disappointed in her.
Charlotte prepares their car to leave, as she believes her destroying the dollhouse was unforgivable. Jackie begs her to stay telling her it is okay to make mistakes, as friendship is more important than objects. Then, they go together to a bank downtown, where 10-year-old Beatrix helps Charlotte get a low, fixed interest rate for Rob's dream house. Soon after, Charlotte's company implodes due to a faulty vacuum cleaner they put on the market, against her warnings.
As Charlotte is on a drive to cancel the mortgage, the car slips off the road. Before she gets back on track, she encounters Jackie's friend Rose, who thanks her for spending the holidays with the Jennings, as this time of the year is very difficult for them.
Charlotte soon sees a billboard for the Daniel Jennings Memorial Foundation, so she realizes Daniel actually died. Returning to the house, she enters his locked bedroom. Jackie follows her and explains what happened to Daniel, telling her she created the foundation to keep his memory alive and help her family pull through the tragedy.
As a tribute to her late son Jackie worked with Rose, also from the aviation company she pre-retired from, to design the first-ever solar-powered hot air balloon. She put the North Star on its side that lights up to fly it by the Christmas pageant spectacle, making Daniel a part of it.
When Jackie has a technical problem Charlotte, an engineer, helps solve it. Charlotte hitches a ride on the botton of the rope ladder towards the pageant. Flying too low, it catches on the Santa's sleigh decoration from the Jennings' roof and accidentally attaches to the balloon. As they approach the show, the kids' belief in Santa is restored.
In the epilogue, the Sanders and Jennings families collaborate on a joint Christmas letter. Charlotte boasts about her new invention, while the Jennings promote their NGO through solar-powered hot air balloon travel.

## Cast

* Heather Graham as Charlotte Sanders
* Brandy Norwood as Jackie Jennings
* Jason Biggs as Rob Sanders
* Matt Cedeño as Valentino
* Wyatt Hunt as Grant Sanders
* Abby Villasmil as Dora Sanders
* Madison Skye Validum as Beatrix Jennings
* Nadia Sine as Rose McCaffrey
* Janet Lo as Keiko

## Release

Best. Christmas. Ever. was released by Netflix on November 16, 2023. Best. Christmas. Ever. was a hit on Netflix. It debuted at number 1 on the streaming service and number 2 globally with 22.3 million hours for a total of 16.3 million views. This ranks second in the Global Top 10 behind David Fincher's The Killer.

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 38% of 21 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.4/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 34 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.
Variety wrote "Its absurdist lunacy acts as a Trojan Horse containing genuinely meaningful sentiments on forgiveness, happiness and bittersweet sorrows — universalities people tend to reflect on as their year comes to a close".