Dashing Through the Snow | 2023 | PG | – 1.3.2

Why is “Dashing Through the Snow” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “some thematic elements and action.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a brief hug and kiss, a couple of scuffles and fights without injuries, a fight with reindeer without evident injuries, many arguments, and discussions of believing in Santa Claus, family separation, loneliness, and political corruption, and some name-calling. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A social worker (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) rejects Christmas because of a traumatic childhood mall Santa experience, followed by his parents’ separation. When his estranged wife (Teyonah Parris) asks him to take their eight-year-old daughter (Madison Skye Validum) for Christmas Eve, the father and daughter meet a mysterious man wearing a Santa suit (Lil Rel Howery), and have a memorable adventure. Also with Ravi Patel, Gina Brillon, Sebastian Sozzi, Gaby Rosario, Noah Ayden Hernandez and David Shae. Directed by Tim Story. [Running Time: 1:30]

Dashing Through the Snow SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A man and a woman embrace and kiss for a few seconds.
► A woman wears a long, low-cut dress that reveals cleavage. Two women at a party are shown with gowns that reveal bare backs.

Dashing Through the Snow VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 – A man and a young girl ask a family with a van packed with technology for help to locate a mall Santa who was kidnapped by a politician; they find his location, the man enters a party and is stopped by a security guards, huge reindeer run through the sky and glide down glowing tracks to the ground, where their harnesses release them, and they animals surround several people, corner them, kick them, head-butt them, slam a man into the side of a van and dent the wall of it, knock them down, and carry a man to a branch in a tall tree and leave him there (no injuries are shown). In a flashback, a young boy asks a mall Santa to help keep his bickering parents together, but Santa later tries to rob his house; his father catches the man in the act, shouts, wrestles with him, knocks him down, and punches him a few times below the screen; the boy grows up to hate Christmas and as an adult, he says he has always been afraid to believe in Santa and happiness after his parents split up. A man dressed as Santa announces that he has been on the run because he stopped at a politician’s house and learned about illegal political schemes, making the politician angry and we see a flashback to the politician catching him unloading gifts and shouting at him; a scuffle ensues between the Santa, the politician, two other men, and a woman, with shoving and knockdowns as people grunt and the Santa hits the others with large wrapped packages (no injuries are shown), a Christmas tree falls toward the camera, and the woman falls face first onto it (she is uninjured).
► A man who hates Christmas goes to a neighbor’s house to feed a cat and finds a man dressed as Santa caught upside down in the chimney; he pulls him out, they argue, and the man dismisses Santa as mentally unstable and maybe a burglar and takes him to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation. A man climbs a glass sculpture in a busy downtown area and a social worker climbs up after him as several police officers and two fire trucks wait below; the first man comes down safely and is taken to receive shelter and a hot meal as a crowd cheers and applauds. A man crowd-surfs in a club and he falls on the floor onto his back, grunting but uninjured.
► A car chase between two men and a woman and two men (one dressed as Santa) and a young girl, involves loud honking, brake squealing and some swerving, but no accidents; the people being chased escape, but their car breaks down (we see the engine smoking), they argue briefly and catch a taxi, the Santa rolls out of the moving taxi, jumps to his feet unharmed, and runs into a nightclub full of people wearing Santa suits as the other taxi passengers follow him and lose the people chasing them, who push people out of the way rudely in the club and the Santa, while the man and the young girl escape.
► A man dressed as Santa accidentally picks up a computer tablet that shows how a politician plans to demolish a local church mission and pave the grounds because he was bribed to do so and when another man reads the material he decides that this Santa is a burglar, calls the police, and has him arrested, with a young girl whining loudly in protest; at the police station, a sad-looking Santa is kidnapped by two detectives who work for the crooked politician. Three men and a woman are arrested, a man dressed as Santa sends one of the men an action figure present he never got as a child, and the man squeals, shouts for joy, and hops up and down as he enters the back of a paddy wagon.
► A cell phone on speaker plays extremely loud Christmas music that causes three people to scream in pain and cover their ears. A man runs a short distance, bends over, coughs in exhaustion, and yells at a small group of associates. A grill cook yells at a waiter as the grill smokes. A man and his young daughter go to his estranged wife’s home where they talk about meeting the real Santa, but the woman argues briefly in disbelief; a man dressed as Santa arrives, details to the woman how he remembers the look on her face when she was a child (she looks shocked), and gives the first man a pet dog.
► Two men argue a few times, a man shouts at a woman over the phone, a man and a woman argue briefly by phone, and a man and his young daughter argue briefly. A man yells at two men and a woman. Two men and a woman are directed by a congressman to go door-to-door in holiday costumes and demand contributions to him (we do not see them do this).
► A driver in a van yelps and turns his steering wheel sharply as we hear brakes squeal. A man dressed as Santa says his flatulence smells like cinnamon and people in two vehicles in which he rides smell it in wonder; he also sweats glitter. A man and a young girl follow a glitter trail to Santa and a warehouse full of costumed cheering adults who are his helpers.

Dashing Through the Snow LANGUAGE 2

 – 1 mild scatological term, name-calling (crazy, nuts, sad, jerk, circus, common crook, weird, ridiculous, wounded ducks, Hands Magee, Willy Wonka, Three Stooges, Claus-tophonic), exclamations (shut-up, wow, holly jolly), 16 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, Merry Christmas, it is Christmas, we do Christmas, do Christmas, etc.). | profanity glossary |

Dashing Through the Snow SUBSTANCE USE

 – Many people in a club dressed as Santa dance and two of them hold glasses drinks in a long shot (no one is shown drinking), a server at a party holds a tray of tall glasses of champagne and a few people hold glasses of champagne (no one is seen drinking), and two women hold empty champagne glasses.

Dashing Through the Snow DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Christmas, Santa Claus, Black Santa, diversity, corrupt politics, bribes, working too much, broken families, cynicism, suspicion, sadness, loneliness, escaping danger, belief, faith, relationships, love, kindness, forgiveness, reconciliation, happiness, addiction to sweets/low blood sugar, old technology: payphones, dial phones, and fax machines.

Dashing Through the Snow MESSAGE

 – Santa Claus believes in all of us, so we should believe in one another.