.jpeg)
A middle-aged man recounts with youthful vigour an eventful Christmas from his childhood in 1940s American suburbia, animatedly recalling run-ins with bullies, triple-dog dares, novelty lamps, Chinese turkey, truculent Santas, the F-word, and – above all else – his all-consuming desire to find an air rifle under the family tree come Christmas morning. Suffused with warmth and gentle nostalgia, Clark’s feel-good seasonal comedy somehow manages to avoid both sentimentality and wistfulness whilst evoking, with an admirable attention to comic detail and an easy-going episodic structure, the simple pleasures of the seemingly wonderful family Yuletides of yesteryear.
