THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – FRED CLAUS

 

Fred Claus (Vince Vaughn) is the older sibling who grows up to resent his brother and grows a chip on his shoulder as big as Christmas itself.

The film begins with the birth of Nicolas in the Middle Ages when within a few minutes of his birth, the baby starts saying “Ho, ho, ho!”

Older brother Fred pledges to be the best big brother ever, a promise that turns out to be easier said than done.

By the present-day Nick has become the modern-day Santa Claus, giving gifts to people and Fred runs a repo company taking them away.

Rachel Weisz plays Fred’s long-suffering girlfriend, Wanda Blinkowski who gets mad at Fred for forgetting her birthday and standing her up all in the same week.

Fred’s dream is to own his own gambling establishment but in order to raise the deposit he poses as a Salvation Army Santa and his antics result in him being arrested and Nicholas has to bail him out.

Nicholas insists as a condition of his bailing him out that Fred visits him at the North Pole where he can earn the money he needs for the deposit.

Unfortunately coinciding with Fred’s visit is the imminent arrival of an efficiency expert Clyde Northcutt (Kevin Spacey) whose only intention is to shut the operation down.

On Fred’s arrival he attempts to play cupid between an elf named Willy (John Michael Higgins) and Santa's Little Helper Charlene (Elizabeth Banks) but his efforts appear to make things worse.

In addition, he manages to get into endless arguments with his mother (Kathy Bates) rubs Mrs. Claus (Miranda Richardson) up the wrong way and brings the whole Christmas operation to its knees after incapacitating Santa.

Ultimately after attending a Siblings Anonymous meeting, where he is joined by the brothers of Alec Baldwin, Sylvester Stallone, and Bill Clinton, Fred comes good and saves the day, his relationship and Christmas into the bargain.

I found it to be a hugely enjoyable film but my favourite scene would have to be the snow globe scene.

Where after Christmas has been saved all the Elves run to the snow globe room where on the giant snow globe, they can see the children of the world opening there presents accompanied by Hazel O’Connor’s rendition of Silent Night, just lovely.