Kate Pierce (Darby Camp) is now a teenager who is unhappy about the fact that her mother has started dating a new man and they are spending Christmas in sunny Cancun. Exiled elf Belsnickel (Julian Dennison) aims to use Kate’s new found cynicism as a way back to the North Pole to destroy Santa Claus.

Netflix original The Christmas Chronicles was an enjoyable if generic Christmas movie that lived off of the star power of Kurt Russell’s cool Santa and included a fantastic musical number. The sequel adds to that star power by having Russell’s partner Goldie Hawn join the fray as Mrs. Claus and a much bigger musical number featuring Darlene Love, once the lead singer of The Blossoms.

If those elements were enough for you in the original then you will be in pretty safe hands here as well. Elsewhere though the film is genuinely lacking in some sparkle which is a shame given that Chris Columbus moved into the writer and director chairs this time round. With his credentials I hoped for more, but with perhaps the small nod to Home Alone in the airport scenes I found everything else lacking.

This film jettisons the first films older brother for a younger half brother and then pairs Santa with the girl and Mrs. Claus with the boy. Whilst the Santa plot is reasonable fun, Goldie Hawn gets very little to do in the much duller half of the film. Julian Dennison, star of Hunt for the Wilderpeople is also wasted. His comic timing and humour could have been a real boon for the film, but instead he just gets to be grumble at Santa and the elves.

Can you ever be truly down on a film that features Kurt Russell in a Santa suit, wearing shades and playing the saxophone though?