Metacritic reviews

It’s not just "Netflix holiday rom-com good." It’s actually very, very good.

At its heart, it is Holt and Swindells’ performances that give the story its warmth and soul — qualities essential to any Christmas movie.

It’s the problem faced when one of these films is raised just above the gutter-level norm, you end up wanting it to be that much better. As it stands, Jingle Bell Heist is as good as it’s getting for now.

The thoroughly entertaining villains should have played more of a role, as should the store, and the material should have been more comedy-focused and delivered by actors with more of a knack for it. Once this heist was over, they could have spun it out into sequels, where each year a new operation got underway. It's a shame that this one falls so flat.