It’s safe to say that almost everyone has been a witness to the actions of a “Karen” at some point in their lives and even if you haven’t, you’ve probably come across one while scrolling through TikTok. For those of you who don’t know what a Karen is, Dictionary.com defines the slang term as “an obnoxious, angry, entitled, and often racist middle-aged white woman who uses her privilege to get her way or police other people’s behaviors.” It also states that “Karens” are often “stereotyped as having a blonde bob haircut, asking to speak to retail and restaurant managers to voice complaints or make demands, and being an anti-vaxx, Generation X soccer mom.” 

The new 2022 holiday movie A Christmas Karen follows the journey of (you guessed it…) Karen, who is a good representation of the average “Karen”. The movie is a play on the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, but instead of Ebenezer Scrooge, Karen is visited by 3 Christmas ghosts who aim to show Karen the faults in her ways and teach her the importance of kindness. The movie opens with Karen shutting down the hot chocolate stand of her neighbor’s child by calling the police and reporting an unlicensed business that was operating on her street. Karen scares away the child and then pours herself a cup of the hot chocolate for free. We then follow Karen as she commits more Karen-ish acts like requesting to talk to a manager, demanding refunds, and yelling at Christmas carolers. After a long day of terrorizing her neighborhood, Karen returns home where she is visited by the ghost of her former boss who also acted like a Karen. The ghost warns Karen that “random acts of unkindness” will damn her to a life of constant misery in purgatory if she does not change her ways. She also tells Karen that she will be visited by 3 ghosts throughout the night to show her the fault in her ways. Throughout the movie, Karen looks back at her sometimes traumatic past, her depressing current existence, and the grim future that she is destined for if she doesn’t change. 

All in all, A Christmas Karen is a very solid Christmas movie. The film makes for a good humorous depiction of a true American Karen and shows how even the most pesky and rude Karens have the opportunity to change their ways. Some of the jokes don’t land perfectly and it is definitely possible to note some flaws in the movie, but that shouldn’t stop you from watching it. No one is watching a movie called A Christmas Karen and expecting it to be a cinematic masterpiece. It is excellent, however, in accomplishing what it set out to do, be a light-hearted holiday film that makes its audience laugh. Don’t believe me, just check out the comment section of the film’s trailer on YouTube; you will see numerous angry Karens complaining about the movie being “woke” and that “Karen” is an “anti White slur!”, a true indicator of the movie’s success

A Christmas Karen is free to stream on Pluto TV and is rated PG-13 for some of the swearing and crude humor featured.