5 Christmas movies from Black America and the diaspora to watch on Christmas Day

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Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

I love a good Christmas movie. I especially love watching Christmas movies on Christmas day after all the presents have been opened and the wrapping paper is spread all over the place. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of navigating a living room full of brand new toys for kids who already have too many with a cup of hot chocolate (with marshmallows!) in a robe you only wear on Christmas. Oh, just me? Anywho, since I love watching movies I figure that maybe you might as well and if you’re looking for a fun Christmas movie to watch, I got you covered. 

To make it a little more fun, I decided to pick five Christmas movies I watch and enjoy from across Black America and the diaspora, which for this case means England and the African continent. If you’ve got a full Christmas agenda, with guests, cleaning up and then Christmas dinner and then cleaning up after that, you might not get to all of these. And if you’re enjoying the holiday solo, which is also a vibe, you might actually hit all of these in a binge marathon throughout the day. However you choose to celebrate pick a movie, enjoy it and ya know, Merry Chrimmuh. 

1. “This Christmas” 

While I have some issues with anybody who alleges that Chris Brown’s musical version of “This Christmas” is better than the Donny Hathway original, the “This Christmas” movie, however bangs. It has the total ensemble cast of some of our favorite Black community actors: Regina King, Delroy Lindo, Idris Elba, Chris Brown, Lauren London, Loretta Devine, Mekhi Phifer, Sharon Leal….etc. You get the picture. 

There are a lot of Black folks we know and love in this movie, it’s set in Los Angeles so there’s no snow and there is a Soul Train line at the end. It covers a lot of bases. You’ve seen it because we all have and if you haven’t, go on ahead and pull it up. You might learn a thing or two about what you can do with baby oil! And I don’t mean that as a joke about Diddy.

2. “Meet Me Next Christmas” 

This is a new one and a good one to add to your Christmas Day movie lineup. I’ve already written about how much I love the film and how much of a fan I am of Christina Milian in cutesy, Lifetime-esque roles. I like it, I love it; I want more of it. But we have Devale Ellis and Milian traipsing around New York City falling in love, Pentatonix and more than enough shenanigans to make the movie zooom on by. If you like Christmas movies that have joy and love and meet-cutes and unexpected love, this is your jam. It’s my jam. Jam with me. 

3. “Christmas Angel” 

You know what I love as much as Christmas movies with Christina Milian? Christmas movies with singers and rappers. “Christmas Angel” has you covered. On your TV protagonist lineup, we have singer DaniLeigh and Romeo Miller, the latter being a mainstay of romantic comedies. We have Skyh Black and Elise Neal. And we have a random mishap somewhere in the middle of the country (I can’t quite tell where but it’s a place with Black people) right around Christmas time with love and kids and happiness and joy and the hope of tomorrow and the promise of good tidings and cheer. It’s a fun one. Check it out. 

4. “Boxing Day”

This is a movie that takes place mostly in London where they celebrate Boxing Day, which is the day after Christmas and is important in England. Anywho we have an American girl and her British-Jamaican boyfriend who leave America to spend the holiday in London where she will meet his family for the first time. This movie gives us the cultural mishaps when two culturally different worlds collide. We have accents and R&B and really fly outfits and dominos. We see Big Ben and we see love on Christmas. It’s nice to see what Christmas looks and sounds like in other places around the world with some diasporic connection. 

Speaking of which…

5. “A Wesley South African Christmas”

If you’re up on Black movies, then you know the Wesley family from “A Wesley Christmas Movie.” Well this time they’re baaaaack with “A Wesley South African Christmas” which as you can imagine lands the Wesley family in Durbin, South Africa. The film follows businessman Todd Wesley, (Terayle Hill) who ends up spending Christmas in Durban, South Africa, as the result of a stalled business deal. Once his family arrives shenanigans ensue. And they ensue with Jasmine Guy, Dorien Wilson, T.C. Carson, and a whole host of Black folks from America and South Africa having fun, getting merry like Christmas and showing you what it looks like in one part of the Motherland!

Wherever you are in the world, wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas!

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Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio and host of the award-winning podcast, “Dear Culture” on theGrio Black Podcast Network. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest) but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said “Unknown” (Blackest).