'Tis the Season - Your Christmas or Mine? (2022)

Streaming Service: Amazon Prime
Movie Name/Year: Your Christmas or Mine? (2022)
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Length: 1h 35min
Rating: Unrated
Production/Distribution: Banijay Entertainment, Shiny Button Productions, Amazon Prime
Director: Jim O’Hanlon
Writer: Tom Parry
Actors: Asa Butterfield, Cora Kirk, Daniel Mays, Angela Griffin, Natalie Gumede, David Bradley, Alex Jennings
 
Blurb from IMDb: Hayley and James are young and in love. They both make the same mad split-second decision to swap trains and surprise each other. Passing each other in the station, they are completely unaware that they have just swapped Christmases.
 

Cat’s Point of View:
Your Christmas or Mine? was one holiday rom-com that I’ve been looking forward to watching since we streamed trailers back in November. It was at a respectable #16 on my personal Top 20 for this month, and I had a small giggle to myself when I saw that Selina had this film listed as her #15. It’s not unheard of for us to choose things so similarly, but I get a kick out of it when it happens. I digress…
 
There were quite a few reasons that I was hopeful for Your Christmas or Mine? The first and, likely, stand-out reason was that the trailer painted the picture of a story we really haven’t heard before. (If it’s been done in the past, I certainly don’t remember seeing it at least.) The narrative for Your Christmas or Mine? felt far removed from the typical holiday rom-com, lacking all of the overdone sappy tropes.
 
That’s not to say that there weren’t a few corny moments here or there in this production, but they fit in the story well and it didn’t feel like the production team was aiming for a blackout round in Christmas movie cliché bingo.
 

Adorable (and sometimes cringeworthy) miscommunications and misbehaving family wove into a story tying a cute couple together. There were some solid character arcs here, and I even got a little misty at a few points along the way. Your Christmas or Mine? even provided me a jaw-dropping moment where I thought to myself “holy shit, they didn’t just do THAT in a Christmas rom-com, did they??!”
 
There was a phenomenal cast on board. This film has a veritable 6-degrees-of-separation of British cinema – large and small screens, alike. Though, it’s fairly easy to recognize the likes of Asa Butterfield (The Space Between Us, Slaughterhouse Rulez, Choose or Die) and Alex Jennings (The Forgiven, Operation Mincemeat, The Crown). If you thought you were doing a double-take seeing a favorite love-to-hate character Mr. Filch in the Potterverse, or the dubious Frey of Game of Thrones (2011-2019) you weren’t wrong. David Bradley (Broadchurch, Catherine Called Birdy, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio) has an interestingly cantankerous role in this movie, as well. Meanwhile, Cora Kirk (Midsomer Murders, Doctors, Prey for the Devil), who played Hayley in Your Christmas or Mine? is a fresh face in British film. I really enjoyed her performance here and sincerely hope she takes on more roles that cross the pond.
 
All told, Your Christmas or Mine? was a lot of fun and left me with the warm fuzzies I was hoping for from this particular genre. This would be a treat to watch with friends or family in the mood for something a little different from the standard ultra-predictable fare.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 50%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 69%
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score –6.4/10
 
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4/5
 
Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating: PG-13
 
Movie Trailer: