Home makeover shows are wildly popular with audiences. They make up the majority of programming on TV networks like HGTV and the DIY network. Chip and Joanna Gaines even turned their show, Fixer Upper, into a media conglomerate under the Magnolia label. Magnolia has a network, a magazine, books, and product lines sold in Target stores. In 2020, Netflix put a holiday spin on the home makeover formula.
Enter Benjamin Bradley, aka Mr. Christmas, a holiday fanatic who wants to help families decorate and celebrate like they never had before. Bradley begins each episode reading letters to his dog, Ebeneezer. He then decides on which project to take on. Each project becomes the center for that episode.
Despite only airing four episodes, the series covers a broad range of diverse letter writers. The first episode features a couple with two young children. They want to host Christmas this year and in the future. Their past traditions involved going to the homes of their divorced parents, a complicated task while trying to manage their youngsters. The challenge facing Mr. Christmas is getting one of the mothers to give up hosting duties. It takes an elaborate variety of decorations to finally get her approval.
The second episode is very sweet. Bradley is contacted by a volunteer fire fighter whose father passed away earlier this year. The father was the retired fire chief after over 40 years. He still regularly hung out at the station and was the absolute driving force behind the Christmas decorations and celebration. Bradley and his crew, who are appropriately titled “elves”, outdo themselves but also create a very unique tribute to the former chief.
Episode three is a request from a young woman on behalf of her large Italian family. She is engaged to a soldier and plans on moving with him when he gets deployed. This might be her final traditional Christmas with the family and she wants to find a way to incorporate all of the family’s history while adding her fiance’ to the festivities.
Episode four features a couple who grew up practicing two different religions. The husband was born Catholic. The wife was raised Jewish. They have three young boys who they have decided to raise Jewish. It’s up to Mr. Christmas to incorporate both religions in a way that isn’t offensive to either and not overly commercial.
Bradley grew up in the Midwest but he earned his degree at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York where he currently resides. He has confirmed in interviews that he owns over 3000 pieces of holiday décor, including over 40 Santas. He is a member of the “world’s largest organization for collectors, dealers and historians of antique and vintage Christmas decorations,” a group called the Golden Glow of Christmas Past. He’s an interior designer by trade. He offers some of his collection for sale on his Etsy shop, Ebenezer and Company.
Holiday Home Makeover is streaming now on Netflix.