I rewatched the first film right after finishing this, because I had forgotten what I even liked to begin with that was missing here... turns out it was a lot. Firstly, the main character is gone, Teddy (Judah Lewis)... but he's the lucky one because those who are present are all only half-there. There's no family thread, one gets sloppily bookended to the beginning and end with about the care of a 90's sitcom (the problem and main starting plot point is essentially a Full House subplot quality, teen girl temper tantrum). The first film they were dealing with a recent death, a cynical world, the son slipping into a realistic life of crime. Where do we start out here? On vacation??? Yes, their first world problem is the Kate (Darby Camp) is upset her mom is dating an awesome guy. I say problem, but this isn't really dealt with as she immediately gets away from the entire cast of her family to have a separate adventure hanging out with Santa (Kurt Russell) and wife (Goldie Hawn). The rest of the film is a sloppy CGI romp through the North Pole. We're told the title Christmas Chronicles is no longer their video camera footage (as video camera films are no longer popular) but a series of novels (no doubt to establish a possible franchise and bunch of sequels. The film isn't set in a realistic nowadays world, but 100% in a fantasy, so essentially a totally different type a film and NOT a continuation of the first film. This would be like Christmas Vacation being set entirely in Clark Griswald's sex dream and acting like it's a sequel. It makes no sense. The elves are more like Gremlins (thank you Chris Columbus, just make Gremlins 3 already) than the edgy but sweet creatures from the first with a goofy drug Elf-bane to explain it away why they are snarling. A bland villain pulls the plot along screaming all the way, instead of the protagonists which should lead it. Their motivation is to stop the bad guy, whose motivation is to stop the good guy. That's it. That's the movie. Absent are the bystander characters that made the first film fun, the cops, the waitress at the restaurant, the guy who stole the car first, the people in jail. We don't get any characters to really see their transformation due to seeing Santa is real. Santa is still cool, but without his sarcastic edge, snappy lines. In short, the fun is totally gone. It's got 10x the effects and none of the heart or story-building that made the original worth watching over and over. Terrible.

Really liked the original but struggled through this one.

First film was class, and the whole family enjoyed it. The second however !!! Painful Lack of imagination, poor storyline leaves you falling asleep. Every Xmas I'd watch the first one happily, the second once is enough. Never to be viewed again