Christmas movies are supposed to be cosy, heartwarming, and occasionally a little bit cheesy in just the right way. They’re about festive feels, glittering lights, and the comforting promise of happy endings. But then… there are the sequels. Some are forgettable, some are baffling, and some are outright disasters that make you wonder what the filmmakers were thinking. From recycled plots to casting choices that leave you questioning reality, these follow-ups often feel like they were thrown together on the back of a mince pie-induced fever dream.
We haven’t bothered ranking them because let’s be honest: that feels unnecessarily cruel. Each one of these cinematic misfires is a contender for the very worst your festive watchlist could offer. They stink. And they’re proud of it. Yet somehow, despite their flaws, they’ve made it onto our screens year after year, giving us equal measures of bewilderment, eye-rolling, and second-hand embarrassment.
So pour yourself a glass of mulled wine, pull up a blanket, and brace yourself. These are the worst Christmas movie sequels of all time, each one a cautionary tale of festive filmmaking gone wrong.
Home Alone: Holiday Heist
This is Home Alone in name only - and even then, the movie gets it all wrong. Despite the fact that it stars Darnell from My Name Is Earl (oh how we miss you Darnell), Holiday Heist is almost certainly the worst iteration yet. Why? Probably because, you know, the kid isn’t actually home alone – which is the very least you should expect from a movie called Home Alone. We much prefer Macaulay Culkin's version and would even prefer to watch Home Sweet Home Alone, the recent but still pretty poor sequel. It's that bad.
Look Who’s Talking Now
The first two Look Who’s Talking movies were given a tepid reception by the critics but raked in at the box office. This sequel finally killed the series, moving the “action” on from talking babies to talking dogs. Kirstie Alley’s Mollie loses her job at Christmas time, but there’s no festive joy in this one. The third film stretches the one joke until it snaps. Not even a cast including John Travolta, Danny DeVito and Diane Keaton can save this one.
Jingle All The Way 2
To be fair, Arnold Schwarzenegger was never very believable in his small-town-suburban-dad roles. Walking around town in XXXXL plaid shirts, picking up office phones as if the receiver wouldn’t immediately crumble apart in his microwave-sized hands. So it’s understandable that the producers of Jingle All The Way 2 would opt to downgrade for this sequel. Downgrade they did. Way down. Deep-beneath-the-Earth’s-crust down, until they happened upon Larry The Cable Guy.
Rudolph’s Shiny New Year
Watching the 1964 stop-motion TV classic Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer is truly the Christmas-iest thing you can ever do. But the sequel? Why should we care about what he gets up to on NYE? You’re not going to be the only one with a red nose come 12 o’clock, Rudolph. You’re not special anymore.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 2
A perfect combination of schmaltzy yuletide cheer and slapstick laughs made the original an immediate Christmas family favourite upon its release in 1989. But did you know there was a sequel? Starring Randy Quaid? With a plot that involves him and his family being shipwrecked on an island, after he finds out a chimp is better at his job than him? And that it was the worst thing that’s ever existed?So bad, this film, that there are barely any clips of it on the internet. It’s too bad for the internet. Think about that for a second. Why? Well, a lowlight of the movie is Randy Quaid stabbing a pig in the head. Hilarious!
A Christmas Story 2: The Official Sequel
A Christmas Story 2: The Official Sequel goes to great lengths to let you know that it is, indeed, an ‘Official Sequel’. Why? Are people really going around making unofficial sequels to A Christmas Story? And if they are, can we watch those instead? Because this is officially garbage.
Beauty And The Beast: Enchanted Christmas
Okay okay, the original wasn’t actually a Christmas movie – but this is a Christmas sequel, so we’re allowed to hate it as much as any other film on this list, alright? Alright. Released in 1997, in the midst of Disney’s better-left-forgotten era of endless straight-to-VHS sequels, Beauty and the Beast: Enchanted Christmas is actually set in the middle of the first film. Confusing, right? What do you even call that? That’s not a new film. That’s a deleted scene.
The Santa Clause 3
The original centred on a town of adults who refused to believe in Santa Clause, despite the fact that Christmas presents magically appeared under their trees every year. It was stupid. But you know what’s even more stupid? Santa Clause 3, where St. Nick gets in a fight with Martin Shor,t because who even cares anymore?Well, it turns out Disney did, as some 16 years after this drivel, it decided to make the TV show The Santa Clauses, which re-ignited the whole Festive franchise.
Richie Rich's Christmas Wish
Yep, there was a sequel to Richie Rich, the 1994 comedy starring Macaulay Culkin. And it’s bad. Richie Rich's Christmas Wish sees the series take a turn for the supernatural. Richie wishes he had never born, and makes it a reality thanks to a prop that appears to be made out of a washing machine. Culkin steered well clear of this one, as did most of the original cast. It’s Back to the Future meets It’s a Wonderful Life. But terrible.
A Bad Moms Christmas
Bad Moms was a surprise hit in 2016. Keen to cash in, a sequel was snappily put into motion and hit cinemas less than 18 months later. Impressive. Kunis, Bell and Hahn return, their characters now having to deal with not just Christmas but visits from their respective mothers. Truly heinous. But even turns from Christine Baranski, Susan Sarandon, and Cheryl Hines (as those moms) can’t make this turkey sing. We will say this isn't the worst movie on the list, though, so go ahead if you're gagging for some trashy comedy.
Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas
A TV-only sequel where the actors are replaced by claymation, Will Ferrell is replaced by Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, and the jokes are replaced by a sense of all-consuming dread. Oh, and songs.
Skip the search — follow Shortlist on Google News to get our best lists, news, features and reviews at the top of your feeds!