The story
About Father Christmas
Father Christmas is worn out, so once the deliveries are done he turns his sleigh into a caravan, boards out his pets and goes on holiday: France, where the food disagrees with him, then Scotland, where the weather does, and finally Las Vegas, where he swims, gambles and gets recognised. Home again to a mountain of letters, he grumbles his way through another Christmas Eve, stops off at the snowmen's party and still has presents to drop off before the children wake. Raymond Briggs's two picture books, with Mel Smith as the voice of the old man.
The CineClaus verdict
Raymond Briggs's Father Christmas is a tired old man who grumbles at the weather, the post and the chimneys, and Mel Smith voices him so well you believe every complaint. Most of the half hour is his summer holiday, which is the joke, and the Christmas Eve round arrives in a rush at the end.
It is wry where The Snowman is wistful, and a fine pairing with it on Christmas Eve. Watch the British version, not the jolly American one.
The family desk
Can the kids watch?
Our take: rated U by the BBFC for very mild bad language. Expect a lot of mild grumbling, some toilet humour, a glimpse of a bare bottom and a grown-up holiday with drinking and gambling, none of it frightening, so most children will be fine with it.
Content advice & accessibility
- Our age guidance
- Editorial, separate from the official U certificate, and never looser than it.
