MEET ME NEXT CHRISTMAS

MEET ME NEXT CHRISTMAS is a popular Christmas movie on Netflix. After a significant storm cancels her flight to New York City, Layla has no choice but to spend the night in a flight lounge while she waits for her rebooking. While there, she meets James, a charming man who shares many of Layla’s interests. Though they share feelings for each other, Layla is in a committed relationship. She can’t let her interest in James develop. Not wanting to let the opportunity slip by the pair makes a deal to meet at the Christmas Eve Pentatonix concert if they are both single by next Christmas.

The following Christmas comes around, and two days before Christmas Eve, Layla finds her boyfriend cheating on her. She immediately breaks up with him and scrambles to find a ticket to the Pentatonix concert. When she can’t track one down online, Layla’s friend suggests she hire a concierge service to find one for her. Out of options, Layla agrees, and the service assigns Teddy to her case.

The following day, Teddy and Layla go on the hunt for a ticket. First, they check everywhere online – to no avail – before visiting ticket kiosks throughout New York City. Layla gets scammed by a man online before they finally find a promising lead with an eclectic, wealthy couple who offer a ticket in exchange for a rare Chanel purse. To fulfill their wish, Teddy and Layla visit a Chanel store, but Layla gives the last purse to a man and his son, who are buying it for his sick wife.

Feeling more discouraged than ever, Teddy realizes he may have one more path towards getting a ticket. He brings Layla to his mother’s house, where his cousin, Jordy, says he can get them the ticket. Jordy, however, can’t guarantee the ticket as they have to win the Snow Ball lip sync competition. Jordy, however, is a perennial top contender at the competition and teaches them a choreographed dance so they have a chance.

As Layla spends the night at Teddy’s home, she learns he was a chef at a Michelin-star-rated restaurant but quit to take care of his sick mother. Having spent the day together and learning this sweet detail, the two begin to develop feelings for each other.

The next day, Layla and Teddy compete in the Snowball, which ends up being a drag queen competition, though Layla and Teddy don’t dress in drag. At the end of their performance, Layla and Teddy share a passionate kiss, which places them in second. Because they didn’t win, Layla is finally out of options to get this ticket.

However, as luck would have it, the Pentatonix members have been tracking Layla’s adventure the whole time. Now that she’s finally out of options to obtain a ticket, they offer her one so she can reunite with the man of her dreams. Some members, however, realize that the man may be Teddy, not James, so they invite Teddy to the show as well so he can confess his love to Layla.

On her way to the concert, Layla realizes she loves Teddy and is no longer interested in meeting with James. When she arrives at the concert venue, she sees James and apologizes for ditching him before going to find Teddy. However, during the concert, Pentatonix has Teddy come on stage and share his feelings for Layla, to which she runs up and confesses she feels the same.

Though MEET ME NEXT CHRISTMAS is a fun Christmas romance, its paganist view that fate and the will of the universe orchestrate everything that happens rather than being ordained by God ruins the film. Throughout the movie, Layla continuously references that fate/the universe is bringing her and James together; every coincidence proves this imaginary guiding force. The abhorrent, lengthy drag queen sequence takes up roughly 15 minutes of the story and celebrates the practice along with the LGBTQ lifestyle.

Though Layla has one scene of selflessness and learns that quality o character is important in a man, any redeeming qualities of the movie are fully offset by the harmful worldviews and ideologies taught. For this reason, MOVIEGUIDE® advises all audiences to avoid MEET ME NEXT CHRISTMAS.