From Almost Christmas to This Christmas, there is beauty in them all.
When it comes to Christmas time, all you want to do is tuck into a really good movie and, often, you find yourself giggling at a cringey family comedy but with an added sense of warmth, because some of them are the best family films out there.
While there aren’t many, Christmas films with Black families at the focus are, for me, the best and most positive portrayals of family life, something that isn’t often shared in blockbuster films.
For as long as I can remember, This Christmas has been one of my favourite Christmas movies. Named after Donny Hathaway’s song of the same name, This Christmas centres around the Whitfield family during the festive season, whose eldest sibling Quentin (Idris Elba) comes home for the first time in four years.
Now, while there are arguments, betrayals and some truly ridiculous moments, at the centre of the film is the importance of family and music, which finally comes to a head at the end of the film when the Whitfield matriarch Ma’Dere (Loretta Devine) comes to terms with her youngest son wanting to following in the footsteps of her ex-husband.
This Christmas may not be the poster for happy family life throughout, but it is one of the many Christmas films which centres around a Black family that doesn’t wholly focus on brutality, drugs and negative stereotypes.
David E Talbert’s Almost Christmas follows a dysfunctional family that comes together for the festive season for the first time since their mother’s death and there is no shortage of drama.
Due to it being a comedy-drama, there is, of course, the cliché of an affair being revealed over Christmas table, two sisters not getting along most of the time and a rooftop Santa meeting an untimely demise.
However, at the heart of this film is each of the Meyer siblings dealing with the grief of losing their mother in their own way, all while hoping their father, Walter (Danny Glover), is coping while they aren’t in the family home.
Having lost my mother myself, the festive period is always particularly hard and, with a film like this, it gives hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel when grief can seem all-consuming. Despite the many family arguments, the Meyers all come together to support their father and one another, even though they don’t realise it.
The casting in this film has to be one of the best, with the genius Mo’Nique as the utterly hilarious Aunt May who takes no nonsense from any of the Meyer family members as well as JB Smoove as Lonnie Maclay who won’t let anyone forget he once played baseball.
Almost Christmas has the perfect amount of seriousness to deal with themes of grief in the best way it can, allowing everyone to see themselves in one of the Meyer siblings.
When it comes to Tyler Perry, not everyone gets on board with his films, but his character Madea will go down in history as one of the funniest ever.
At its core, A Madea Christmas has a pretty random plot, but the meaning of Christmas – like in a lot of Christmas films – finally becomes apparent at the end of the movie.
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Chad Michael Murray’s character Tanner McCoy is the bully who never grew up, but after having his life saved by Anna Maria Horsford’s Eileen, it’s clear he doesn’t have hate in his heart but is instead battling with inner demons after a newly-constructed dam threatened his crops.
Despite its lacklustre plot and cheesy delivery, A Madea Christmas is the perfect watch for some easy laughs each year.
Taking it back to the early 2000s is one of my favourite comfort films, Last Holiday.
With rapper-actors Queen Latifah and LL Cool J leading the festive romantic comedy, the film follows a department store employee, Georgia (Latifah), who quits her job, gathers her savings and goes on a luxurious trip to Europe after being diagnosed with a terminal illness.
While it becomes clear later on in the movie that Georgia was misdiagnosed, the charming comedy portrays a theme of found family, with plenty of laughs along the way.
At the core of each of these Christmas films is the love of Christmas and some fairly dysfunctional families working things out as they discover the true meaning of the festive holiday.
Now, this isn’t to say other Christmas films don’t sum up a perfect whacky family life at Christmas time, there are plenty. Christmas with the Coopers, Christmas with the Kranks, Candy Cane Lane and many more all serve the same purpose when it comes to the holidays.
Every family is different, and every family Christmas film portrays just that.
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