Christmas in Nollywood has never been about snow, Santa Claus, or the magical enchantment that often defines Western holiday films. It has always been something warmer, more complicated – a season that brings families together under one roof, stirs up old tensions, celebrates abundance (or the struggle for it), and mixes joy with the everyday realities of Nigerian life.
Nollywood’s embrace of Christmas-themed films marks a fascinating evolution in Nigerian cinema, blending global holiday tropes with distinctly local flavors. While not a longstanding tradition, unlike Hollywood’s decades-long churn of festive classics, Nollywood’s pivot began gaining momentum around 2021, fueled by streaming platforms’ demand for seasonal content and a desire to capture the “Detty December” spirit.
Prior to this, Nigerian films often released in December for commercial reasons but rarely centered on Christmas itself, with early outliers like Silent Night (1996) directed by Chico Ejiro or A Christmas Passion (2004) by Charles Novia, being exceptions rather than the rule. Viewers in Nigeria often turned to Hollywood imports like Home Alone, Elf, or Love Actually for their festive fix, which featured snow-covered streets, Santa-driven miracles, and overt celebrations of the season’s religious or whimsical magic, elements that felt distant from the tropical realities and cultural rhythms of Nigerian life. The 2021 Netflix release A Naija Christmas served as a watershed moment, proving that holiday stories could resonate globally while staying rooted in Nigerian realities.
Why the Rise?
Streaming platforms played a significant part. Netflix, having seen success with South Africa’s How to Ruin Christmas series starting in 2020, sought more African seasonal content to engage viewers during the global holiday period. Prime Video followed suit. December offered a natural window: cinemas are busy, diaspora audiences are online, and people want something light-hearted amid the pressures of the end of the year. Producers recognised the opportunity and began to respond.
The true turning point arrived in 2021 with Kunle Afolayan’s A Naija Christmas, Netflix’s inaugural Nigerian Christmas original. This film marked a deliberate shift, proving that holiday-themed stories could succeed commercially and resonate deeply when adapted to local contexts. Its success, blending romance, family pressure, and humour in a Lagos setting, sparked a wave of similar productions, accelerating through the influence of streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime Video.
These services, seeking seasonal content to boost viewership, drew inspiration from Hollywood’s profitable holiday formula while encouraging Nollywood filmmakers to localise it. By 2024 and 2025, titles such as Christmas in Lagos, A Danfo Christmas, and A Very Dirty Christmas had firmly established Christmas as a viable genre, capitalising on the high-energy December period known as Detty December. This season, characterised by vibrant parties, family reunions, shopping sprees, traffic chaos, and the return of Nigerians from abroad, provides an ideal backdrop for releases, as cinemas fill with festive crowds seeking escapism amid economic pressures.
What makes a Nollywood Christmas distinctive is its refusal to rely on Western hallmarks. There is no snow-covered village, no Santa-driven resolution, no heavy emphasis on the religious miracle of the season (though church scenes or quiet moments of faith do appear). Instead, the holiday is portrayed as an intensified version of ordinary Nigerian life. Family reunions dominate: siblings clash, parents impose expectations, secrets long buried rise to the surface. Meals become the setting for both celebration and confrontation. Travel home – whether by danfo bus or flight – brings revelations and reconciliation. The bustle of Lagos during the festive period, with its parties, nightlife, returnee energy, and cultural traditions, forms the backdrop. The season carries weight: the pressure to succeed, to marry, to show progress, to be together even when it is difficult.
This portrayal reflects a broader cultural understanding of Christmas in Nigeria. The holiday is not primarily a quiet, sacred pause; it is a time of gathering, abundance, and communal energy, often mixed with the stresses of expectation and economic reality. Films capture that duality without idealising it. They show joy alongside strain, laughter alongside argument, forgiveness earned through confrontation rather than granted by magic.
Family Reunions and the Chaos of Togetherness
In many of these films, Christmas is the occasion when families are forced to confront one another. A Very Dirty Christmas (2025), produced by Ini Edo and directed by Akay Mason, places the holiday at the centre of a family gathering where a disappearance triggers scandals, past traumas, and emotional confrontations. The title generated considerable controversy, with groups such as the Christian Association of Nigeria expressing concern that it undermined the sanctity of the season. Yet the story itself uses Christmas to examine family complexities and eventual reconciliation. It interprets the holiday as a pressure point where unresolved matters demand attention – a common experience in Nigerian gatherings during this time.
A Naija Christmas (2021) places the season at the very centre of its conflict. The mother’s demand for marriage by Christmas Eve creates the deadline that propels the entire plot. The holiday is not mere atmosphere; it is the mechanism that exposes societal pressures around legacy, class, and gender. The film interprets Christmas as a moment of heightened expectation, where family wishes collide with individual realities.
The Journey Home and the Weight of Return
Travel home is a recurring motif, reflecting the cultural importance of returning to the village or family base. A Danfo Christmas (2024) structures its narrative around a family’s bus journey to Idanre, encountering mechanical failures, financial difficulties, and emotional disclosures. The holiday symbolises the pull to return and reconnect, even when the road is difficult. It interprets the season as a test of endurance and family unity. The same with Christmas in Lagos (2024), with its characters arriving back home from the diaspora to enjoy the “detty december.”
Urban Energy and Personal Discovery
Films set in Lagos often portray the season as vibrant chaos. Christmas in Lagos (2024) captures the city’s pulse, with multiple love stories unfolding amid parties, weddings, and the energy of returnees. The holiday is interpreted as lively chaos that accelerates relationships, tests bonds, and pushes characters toward self-understanding.
Quieter Reflections and Generational Bonds
Even in more subdued stories, the holiday provides the conditions for growth. In Grandpa Must Obey (2025), the festive break sets the scene for a grandfather reluctantly hosting his grandchildren, leading to pranks, clashes, and gradual understanding. The season creates the opportunity for generational reconciliation.
A Mirror for Real Life
Across these stories – and others like Christmas in Miami (2021), A Merry Christmas Miracle (2024), Christmas Between Worlds (2025), and Christmas at the George’s (2025) – Christmas functions as a mirror. It reflects the pressures, the warmth, the conflicts, and the resolutions that define family life in Nigeria during the festive period. The films do not preach or rely on supernatural fixes; they observe, interpret, and resolve through human effort and connection.
This is what a Nollywood Christmas ultimately offers: a celebration that feels authentic because it does not shy away from the fullness of the season. It embraces the gatherings, the expectations, the laughter, the arguments, and the quiet moments that follow. As the festive period of 2025 draws to a close, these films stand as a reminder that the holiday in Nigerian cinema is not borrowed – it is claimed, reshaped, and made to speak in a voice that is unmistakably local.
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