The Claus Family 3 | 2023 Christmas Movies

For the past two years, I have been watching The Claus Family movies. I loved the first one and the second was OK but not as good. Will the third one be a letdown?

The Claus family is going on vacation to a ski resort. However, grandfather Noël (Jan Decleir) and Jules (Mo Bakker) still need to secretly deliver presents. But shortly after arriving at the resort, Jules’ little sister Noor (Amber Metdepenningen) finds the snowglobe and discovers that they are Santa. She wants to join them but Jules is worried that someone so young won’t be able to keep their secret.

Last year, I asked for a movie that involved the family more. And I got it! The big sub-plot for the movie is Suzanne (Bracha van Doesburgh), the kids’ mother, wants to propose to her boyfriend, Jef (Kürt Rogiers). Usually her plots are terrible but this one is decent. I even enjoyed Jet’s (Sien Eggers) bumbling help to make the proposal happen. It is a little uncomfortable but in all of the right ways.

There is a sort of secondary sub-plot where Noël gets captured in Mexico when delivering presents with the kids so he ends up in a Mexican prison. Then the elves and the kids have to figure out how to get him back. But, at the same time, the main plot involves Noor and a bully named Felix (Celest Henri Cornelis). I did like the way Noor’s story was handled though I’m not sure we needed to stick Santa in prison to achieve it.

Rating: More Claus Family please!!!

The Claus Family 2 | 2022 Christmas Movies

Last year, I found one of my favorite Christmas movies ever, The Claus Family. This year, Netflix gave us The Claus Family 2. Can the sequel live up to the original?

Jules (Mo Bakker) and his grandfather, Noël (Jan Decleir), are preparing to deliver presents again. This time, Jules is an official Santa Claus. When he finds a letter to Santa from a girl named Marie (Jasmina Fall) asking Santa to bring her divorced parents back together again, Jules does everything in his power to make it happen. Noël, however, is against Santa doing anything but delivering presents. Can Jules make Marie’s wish come true or is his grandfather right?

If you will recall, last year I said the bad part of the movie was the cookie factory that Suzanne (Bracha van Doesburgh), Jules’ mother, worked at. Well, this year, she quit the factory and opened her own cookie shop. Her plotline still doesn’t matter in the slightest to the movie but it was interesting to see her actually move forward professionally. The cookie shop doesn’t take up a big portion of the runtime of The Claus Family 2 so I won’t count it as a bad part this time around. I’ll count it as a bad part turned good.

The Claus Family 2 is one of those movies that you will either love or hate. The entire plot revolves around trying to get Marie’s parents, Tine (Lauren Müller) and Steven (Everon Jackson Hooi), back together. Of course, what this means is that Jules and his grandfather bicker through most of the movie. Personally, I found this version of “willful teenager vs elder” endearing. Jules was right and he knew he was right and he stood up for himself. He doesn’t know why his grandfather is so against love but he refuses to let the old man’s reluctance get in his way.

Also, the elves are delightful. If you don’t love them and all of their hijinks, then you don’t have a heart.

Is this something everyone will love? Absolutely not. It is not a fast paced movie so a lot of people are probably going to find it slow and boring. However, in a world of Hallmark Christmas romance movies, The Claus Family is a refreshing breather. I would love to see more of these movies in the future. Especially if they can bring the rest of Jules’ family into the Santa gang. Give them something more to do than be background characters. Let them be an actual family that can share in the love of Christmas.

The Claus Family | 2021 Christmas Movies

Netflix is playing games with me again. They listed The Claus Family as one of their 2021 Christmas movies. While it was added to Netflix on November 1, 2021, it’s actually a 2020 Dutch-Belgian film. You should not lie to me like this, Netflix. I’ll forgive you this time.

Last Christmas Eve, Jules (Mo Bakker) lost is father in an accident. As a result, he now hates Christmas. So when his mother, Suzanne (Bracha van Doesburgh), moves the family to Belgium to be closer to their grandfather (Jan Decleir), Jules is beyond sad. But his grandfather is the current holder of the family secret. Will Jules’s hatred of Christmas ruin the holiday for everyone or will he learn to be jolly again?

I loved The Claus Family. I watched it in the original Finnish language and it was magical. Probably the best Christmas movie I have ever seen.

The good parts: The acting was amazing. There wasn’t one bad piece of acting in the bunch. And that includes two young children. The story was actually intriguing. Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen, something different happened. I think I was expecting something more along the lines of an American comedy but this was more serious. Like a lighthearted drama.

The bad part: Suzanne has a sub-plot revolving around her working in a cookie factory. The factory isn’t doing very well but if they have one big sale, they can save the factory. So Suzanne tries to substitute her colorful Christmas cookies for the company’s boring bland cookies. It ends up with two conflicts - will she get fired and will the factory close. The problem is that none of this matters. It is there only to give Suzanne something to do so Jules can spend time with his grandfather. It has nothing else to do with the main plot. Actually, it seems that Suzanne barely even needs the job. I kept expecting her to quit the factory to start her own cookie company but that doesn’t happen. I would have preferred if they either eliminated the cookie factory plotline or gave it more importance. As it is, it’s just there.

I absolutely think you should watch The Claus Family. I believe there is a sequel coming out this year but I’m not sure if/when it will hit Netflix. It doesn’t matter because this one is good enough for an annual watching on its own. I would gladly watch it again. And I probably will.