(ANALYSIS) In the Amazon original “Candy Cane Lane,” a recently laid-off father Chris (played by Eddie Murphy) decides he’s going to give his family their best Christmas yet by winning an annual decorating contest on his street and the substantial amount of prize money that comes with it.

In his hunt for the best decorations, he ends up in an extravagant — and sinister — pop-up store that features a supposedly lucky tree decorated with all the gifts given in “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” 

Before Pepper (Jillian Bell), the shop’s owner and a dastardly former elf, is willing to sell Chris the tree from the popular song, she asks him to prove he understands the true meaning of Christmas.

READ: How Christmas Is Changing Once Again

In turn, he recites a few solid answers about generosity and the imaginations of children.

“Unless you want to go the religious angle,” he amends.

“Oh, Jesus Christ — no,” she quips in response. 

Modern Christmas movies are, by and large, less religious than classics like “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” There are several possible reasons: Maybe the classics are only so religious because the Hays Code required only positive depictions of religion, while these new releases aren’t because of the declining religiosity of Americans.

This isn’t a trend that befalls Christmas movies exclusively, of course, but the trend does present a greater problem for movies centered around a holiday founded on religious tradition. 

Acknowledge Jesus? Acknowledge Jesus, just as a joke? Don’t acknowledge Jesus at all? If it’s not about Jesus, then what is it all really about? 

The biggest issue comes for movies that want to be wholesome and family friendly — and as inoffensive as possible so as to appeal to the widest audience possible. As a result, instead of wholesome, they’re excruciatingly shallow.

Plenty of people prefer shallow during the holiday viewing season. Just look to Hallmark, the biggest producer of new Christmas movies. The channel has released 42 holiday movies in 2023 alone. They’re formulaic, cheesy and low-budget, focusing on romance and the spirit of Christmas and essentially nothing else. But they remain a great success, making Hallmark one of the most-watched cable channels in existence and bringing in a great deal of ad revenue — more than enough to produce dozens of low-budget movies every year.  

The formulaic aspect is part of what makes these movies so appealing; they’re movies to watch when you want to turn your brain off. They’re apolitical, blandly charming and set in idyllic small-town America — where Christmas is seemingly celebrated all year long. Religion certainly isn’t mentioned, though the movies do encourage traditional values by prioritizing young, simple love, decrying “workaholics living in the big city” and almost exclusively depicting straight, white couples (though this is something Hallmark intends to change in upcoming years.) 

“Candy Cane Lane” doesn’t fall so far from the holiday movie gold standard. It certainly has an interesting premise, and it matches the classic “family misadventure” of many beloved Christmas movies. Ultimately, however, it falls flat. It relies on “plot twists” for narrative development and presents cliched family conflict that are resolved effortlessly. 

It isn’t a movie about family, or generosity, or selflessness or beauty. So what is it about? It’s a word to the wise to avoid roadside pop-ups that make guarantees that seem too good to be true. 

“Genie,” Peacock’s direct-to-streaming Christmas movie, begins with a similar tragedy for its protagonist Bernard (Paapa Essiedu). He misses his daughter’s birthday while working late, the final straw in his workaholic tendencies driving his wife and daughter away. Making matters worse for him, he loses his job that night. After meeting an ancient genie (Melissa McCarthy) who can grant his every wish, however, Bernard begins to turn his life around for the better. 

The movie, written by rom-com royalty Richard Curtis — who notably wrote and directed the Christmas classic “Love, Actually” — is adapted from his 1991 TV movie “Bernard and the Genie.”

It’s sweet enough, and McCarthy is predictably funny as a magical being who’s introduced to the modern world, but it gets old fast. Cliched family drama remains trite and secondary to a series of bits that get less amusing the more the formula is repeated. It’s not that the family shouldn’t end up happy together for Christmas, it’s that they do so after surface-level conflict and a snappy resolution.

The best way to illustrate my dissatisfaction is to compare “Genie” with a scene both the original film, and newer version, both share. The genie asks Bernard about the origin of Christmas, and Bernard explains that it’s mostly a commercial holiday, but it began as a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The genie is shocked by this, each of them claiming they knew Jesus personally.

In both versions, the genie refers to him as “Big J” and jokes about attempting to get him to use his prowess as a miracle worker to become an entrepreneur — opening up a restaurant that serves loaves and fish. The scene directly after is the same in each movie, too: Bernard and the genie grant dozens of kids their Christmas wish by acting like Santa Claus.  

Both are meant as a bit of comical whimsy, but the tone is markedly different. For starters, the scene in “Bernard and the Genie” is three times as long as the one in “Genie” — and it actually conveys meaning. It references specific Bible stories: Jesus turning water into wine, walking on water, overturning tables in the temple. 

They even discuss his death on the cross — which briefly distresses the genie — resurrection and ascension to heaven. These details lead to an ultimate conclusion about Christmas, as the genie says humans are lucky Jesus is in heaven rather than on Earth.

“Jesus was not keen on people making money out of religion,” he says, lifting a novelty Santa candle holder. They then decide to go play Santa for kids to “make some wishes for Big J, his way.” 

In “Genie,” when Bernard asks what Jesus was like, she responds: “You know, he’s Jesus. He’s just kind of like, ‘Hey.’” When they go to grant kids’ wishes for Christmas, it’s not in Big J’s name. It’s to prevent the kids from feeling disappointment, which Bernard says they “learn all about” at Christmas.  

One includes a funny explanation of religious tradition, a true criticism of commercialization and a decision based on genuine goodwill; the other is a spineless, half-hearted ploy to appeal to a traditional audience that lacks substance entirely and ultimately means nothing. 

A Christmas movie doesn’t have to mention the religious origins of the holiday to be good or worth watching. It doesn’t have to hammer home the point that all morality and tidings of comfort and joy tie back to God or contain an altar call. 

Frankly, it’s OK to turn your brain off sometimes when you watch a movie. The year is almost over. Relaxation during these final few weeks of the year watching a thoughtless, sappy movie that’s saturated with Christmas spirit is not a bad thing.  

Maybe Hallmark gets a pass here, even though their factory-level production of new movies is oversaturating the market with low-quality films and dragging other new releases down to the same low. The Christmas movie behemoth has never claimed to be anything it’s not and is dedicated wholeheartedly to uncomplicated Christmas cheer. There’s something at least a little bit admirable about that. 

It’s movies like “Candy Cane Lane” and “Genie” that are disheartening. Even worse, they can be annoying. 

One of the homes on Chris’s street in “Candy Cane Lane” boasts a Christian theme, featuring a large sign that displays the oft-repeated mantra: “Jesus is the reason for the season!” The phrase, like the rest of these movies’ content, is empty. 

Instead, these new releases seem to be saying, “We’ve discovered something groundbreaking. There’s a reason Christmas is meant to be a time of love, peace and joy, a time for families to be together, a time to exchange meaningful gifts to show appreciation for your loved ones. We just can’t figure out what that meaning is!” 

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Jillian Cheney is Religion Unplugged’s Senior Culture Correspondent. She writes about film, TV, music, art, books and more. Find her on Twitter @_jilliancheney.