Christmas Again Parent Guide

Rowena Clybourne (Scarlett Estevez) loves Christmas. (What kid doesn’t?) The presents, the decorations, the food…but Rowena’s favorite part of Christmas is having fun with her family. She’s even made a list of her top five Christmas memories, all of which are family outings she went on with her sister, Gabby (Ashlyn Jade Lopez), and her parents Carolina (Alexis Carra) and Mike (Daniel Sunjata). But since her parents’ divorce, it seems like Christmas, along with everything else, is changing for the worse.

Mike has brought his new girlfriend, Diane (Beth Lacke) and her son Louie (James McCraken) home for Christmas, and Rowena doesn’t like it one bit. As the day drags on, one thing after another goes wrong for Rowena – bad presents, spilled food, and Diane’s obnoxious kid ruining everything he touches. During a fresh air break, Rowena runs into Santa (Gary Anthony Williams)…or, at least a man dressed like Santa. She tells him she wishes that she could just do Christmas all over again, the way it used to be. And when she wakes up the next morning, it’s Christmas all over again! And the next day, and the next day…

The child acting is, as you would expect from a Disney Channel movie, absolutely dreadful. If it’s any consolation, the adult acting is equally dismal. The film saunters through trope after trope, most of which have been shamelessly lifted from similar films, in a festive death march of exaggerated acting, deplorable writing, and unendurably treacly faux-Christmas cheer.

Frankly, I’m not wild about the movie’s messaging either. Rowena’s initial behaviour, while not exactly stellar, is perfectly understandable for a child whose parents have just divorced. The movie’s storyline should encourage adults to take some interest in why an emotionally stressed child is acting out at a major family holiday. What it does instead is insist that she should somehow process all of that emotional stress on her own while behaving in a completely selfless fashion. Kids are kids, and don’t have the same capacity for processing difficult emotional events as adults, but none of the adults in the film seem to care about her feelings or coping ability.

As you’d expect from a Disney made-for-TV movie with a TV-G rating, there’s really nothing for parents to be concerned about here – aside from the emotionally manipulative messaging. Some kids engage in the usual pushing and shoving and that’s about it. And even if the messaging goes over kids’ heads, I still wouldn’t recommend this movie. If nothing else, it’s deeply annoying, and any adult caught within hearing distance of the film is very likely to develop a new sympathy for the Grinch.