Family comedy starring Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick. For Cloverdale, Massachusetts optometrist Steve Finch (Broderick), no time of the year can compare to the glory of the Christmas season. And, for many years now, hes carried on a series of heartfelt but hokey Yuletide traditions that his family - wife Kelly (Kristin Davis), daughter Madison (Alia Shawkat), and son Carter (Dylan Blue) - at this point, can barely tolerate. Despite his familys exhausted protests, super-organised Steve has the December calendar chock full with everything from shooting the Finchs annual Christmas card photo, to their ritual tree harvesting and neighbourhood caroling night. Theres also scheduled time for shopping, personal reflection, and the towns yearly Winterfest carnival, which Steve joyously oversees. But Steves Christmas bliss is suddenly destroyed when slippery car salesman Buddy Hall (DeVito) moves in next door and Steve finds himself going toe-to-toe with his new neighbour. Buddy quickly begins to undermine Steves dominance as the local King of Christmas when he sets out to festoon his new house with enough glowing holiday lights so it will be visible from outer space.
Good neighbours can be hard to come by and when the flighty Buddy Hall (Danny Devito) moves in across the street from the conservative Dr. Steve Finch (Matthew Broderick), it quickly becomes apparent that the two men are complete opposites. While Finch methodically plans out every minute of the coming Christmas season for his family, Buddy craves freshness and excitement and is seized by an impulsive desire to decorate his house so brightly that it can be seen from space. While the mens wives Kelly (Kristin Davis) and Tia (Kristin Chenoweth) and their children revel in one anothers differences and form solid friendships, a rivalry of personalities and Christmas spirit ensues between the two men that will wind up testing the patience and love of every member of both families. This is fun, comical holiday entertainment for the entire family ages 9 and older. --Tami Horiuchi