Common Sense Media Review
By Jennifer Green
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Book-based film has mature themes, inspiring messages.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 9+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
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Christmas Jars
What's the Story?
Hope (Jeni Ross) has just lost her adoptive mother to illness and finds herself scared and alone in the world when an anonymous person leaves a CHRISTMAS JAR full of money outside her apartment door. Inspired by the kind act, she discovers other people online who have received similar anonymous jars at difficult times in their lives. She pitches a story to her editor, looking for a break to make the career switch from newsroom assistant to writer. In her reporting, she discovers the identity of the family who started the jar-giving movement and works her way into their lives under the pretense of being a college student writing a paper about their furniture restoration business. But when Hope finds in this family a new home as well as a possible love interest, she's torn between publishing the story and furthering her career or telling them the truth about who she is.
Is It Any Good?
Based on a best-selling novel and real-life movement of anonymous gift-givers, Christmas Jars has at its heart a proven inspirational story of kindness and generosity. Where it works best is when it's telling that story, revealing how selfless acts of humanity can affect people's lives in deep and unexpected ways. The character of Hope, played by Jeni Ross with the right combination of world-weary vulnerability and youthful optimism, offers a perfect vessel for this tale.
But the film also struggles to maintain a coherent tone throughout. We're introduced to Hope as an abandoned baby, then watch her grow up and lose her adoptive mother, all in a 5-minute introductory sequence. This sets a seriously dramatic tone for what's to come, making it confusing when we fast-forward to her life today and are bombarded with a series of awkward characters meant to be funny in Hope's workplace, the editorial room of a Buzzfeed-like news site, and the implausibly-perfect Maxwells, the family that started the Christmas Jars movement. There are some plot points that may offend working journalists. But if they, and other viewers, can look past the inconsistencies, the film's emotional ending delivers its promised holiday message.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the "real spirit of giving," which a character in Christmas Jars suggests happens when nobody knows who gave the gift. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Do you think this film was more of a drama or a comedy? Why?
Hope lies and misrepresents herself to the Maxwells in order to get their story and advance her journalistic career. She's torn between publishing the piece, which will be her big break, or telling the Maxwells the truth. What would you have done in her situation?
What do the holidays mean to you?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : November 4, 2019
- Cast : Jeni Ross , Ron Lea , Tara Yelland
- Director : Jonathan Wright
- Studio : BYU TV
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : Friendship , Holidays
- Run time : 110 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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