Netflix has invested heavily in the Christmas movie genre, and while many of its entries have flopped, a few have risen to the top over the last few years. Netflix original films can’t boast the same legacies and brand recognition as other holiday classics, but they can target modern audiences while still leaning on the nostalgia inherent to the season. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the streamer’s highest-rated Christmas movie is the 2019 animated film Klaus.
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Netflix does not always release viewership data on its original productions, and even if they do its hard to gauge how much money an individual title really made for the streaming service. That means we have to look to critics, reviews and social media to see how beloved or impactful a specific movie is, and Rotten Tomatoes is a great aggregator for that purpose. The site gives each movie a “Tomatometer” score which describes the percentage of reviews that were considered positive overall. It also provides the average rating of the movie from those reviews on a scale of one to 10. The Popcornmeter does the same for user-submitted reviews, with the average rating described on a scale of one to five.
Klaus has is 95 percent Fresh on the Tomatometer, with 77 reviews from verified critics accounted for. Its average rating is 7.7 out of 10. It did even better on the Popcornmeter – 96 percent Fresh with an average rating of 4.6 out of 5, based on over 2,500 user-submitted reviews. It’s worth noting that there are other Netflix original films with higher scores on Rotten Tomatoes, but their scores are not weighted the same. For example, the 2020 animated special Alien Xmas is 100 percent fresh, but it only has 7 reviews from trusted critics, with an average rating of 7.5 out of 10.
Klaus, by comparison, has only seemed to gain traction in the four Christmases since its release. The movie was made with hand-drawn traditional animation, giving it a naturally nostalgic feel. The all-star cast includes Jason Schwartzman, J.K. Simmons, Rashida Jones, Will Sasso, Sergio Pablo, Norm Macdonald, Joan Cusack, Reiulf Aleksandersen and Sam McMurray. It’s notably that Simmons voiced Klaus – a version of Santa Claus – here long before taking on the role in this year’s Red One.
Klaus is set in Norway in the 1800s, and follows a new postman in training Jesper Johansen (Schwartzman). Jesper is unambitious, so his father, the postmaster general has challenged him to deliver 6,000 letters within a year. He struggles to do so because his town is made up mostly of two feuding clans who have nothing to say to each other. However, on the outskirts of town Jesper meets a reclusive woodsman named Klaus who carves wooden toys that no one plays with.
Jesper finds work by delivering letters from the local children asking for toys, while Klaus gradually learns to open up to others in his community. The story takes a few more twists and turns from there, but it’s a fun, light-hearted adventure and clearly a crowd-pleaser for families around this time of year. The unique art style goes a long way in selling it, and proving that there is still a place for traditional animation in today’s world.
More Highly-rated Netflix Christmas Films
Klaus is always worth a re-watch, but for those interested some of the other top-rated Netflix original films with a Christmas theme include the 2020 comedy Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, the 2022 special Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery and the 2019 family comedy Feast of the Seven Fishes. The streamer has plenty to choose from, and while new movies are coming out all the time, this is the perfect time of year to favor a comfortable re-watch over the unknown.
Netflix also has plenty of licensed Christmas content this year, from family-friendly throwbacks like The Family Man to recent raunchy comedies like A Bad Mom’s Christmas. It’s also home to many of the indispensable Hallmark movies for this season – though many of those have migrated over to Peacock. More is likely coming in the weeks ahead as all streamers make a push for the end of the year.
