Amazon Prime’s latest Christmas film, Your Christmas or Mine? is like The Holiday meets Scrooge in the kind of romance that surprisingly works. If you’re skeptical about how the execution could work with the two leads separated most of the time, the film digs into getting to know its characters outside of their norms. What turns out to be an innocent, love-filled mixup turns out to be an entire family affair full of secrets, stories, and new beginnings.
The film stars Asa Butterfield, Cora Kirk, Daniel Mays, Natalie Gumede, David Bradley, Harriet Walter, June Watson, Angela Griffin, Alex Jennings, and more. Two days before Christmas, established couple James (Butterfield) and Hayley (Kirk) go their separate ways, each inviting the other over for a Christmas spent with their families. They both decide it’s best to go home for the holidays, but last minute choose to surprise the other by taking their offer. And so, as imagined, Hayley ends up with James’ family, and James finds himself alone with Hayley’s. Hooray, a mixup; it’s the 21st century, and they can call each other, right? If only Hayley hadn’t left her phone on the train.
Your Christmas or Mine? is an anxious person’s actual nightmare. But thankfully, Hayley is a lot braver than many of us because if we were held at gunpoint in the middle of an unexpected blizzard with no phone and the surprise realization that our boyfriend is an earl’s son, we’d lose our minds. You read that correctly; Hayley is not only held at gunpoint by Argus Filch (Bradley)…I mean, Jack, but she realizes that the presumed cottage she’d be spending a quiet country Christmas at is a manor.
There Hayley meets the pompous home-owner and James’ father, who presumes that Hayley met his son while serving in the army. It’s a loaded, absolutely bonkers twist that wouldn’t work if the film was developed by Americans, and that’s a cold, hard fact. Somehow, you don’t even bat an eyelash. It is what it is. At this point, as Hayley realizes she’s now stranded because of the storm, she decides to spruce up the place for the holidays. Unfortunately, the hasty decision lands her on the earl’s bad side until the end, where his grief is replaced with a bit of magic and understanding.
When James is with Hayley’s family, a surprise visit from her ex-boyfriend, which her family doesn’t know about, causes a flurry of chaos and emotions about letting go to come centerfold. In both cases, the film is about two people finding the courage to not only be transparent with themselves but their family members as well. It’s about vocalizing feelings aloud and addressing fears, no matter how heightened or where they could lead.
Also Streaming on Prime: Hotel for the Holidays
And in true Christmas movie fashion, is it a holiday film if it doesn’t end with one group trying to do something nice for another and combining two worlds into one? The cold, heartbreaking Hughes manor is finally filled with the light they’ve desperately needed. The dog is the story’s true hero in the end, and it turns out the grouchy guard man is related to the family too. In a nutshell, Your Christmas or Mine? is fun and delightful, but most importantly, we’ll need Maisie Peters’ “Together This Christmas” to release officially.
Your Christmas or Mine is now streaming on Amazon Prime.