Best. Christmas. Ever! Ending Explained

WARNING! This article contains spoilers for Best. Christmas. Ever!

The ending of Best. Christmas. Ever! proves Santa Claus is real, Monkey Bob is probably real, and anything is possible with a little holiday spirit. Best. Christmas. Ever! is a 2023 Netflix original Christmas movie starring Jason Biggs, Heather Graham, Brandy Norwood, and Matt Cedeño. With classic Christmas songs sung by Brandy Norwood and a healthy dose of familial rivalries, Best. Christmas. Ever! hits the typical Netflix holiday movie beats before wrapping up with a heartwarming, optimistic conclusion.

Charlotte (Graham) and Rob (Biggs) have a happy family, but they don't quite have the life Charlotte wanted, a fact she's reminded of every year when her friend Jackie's (Norwood) over-the-top Jennings Family Holiday Newsletter arrives. Charlotte doesn't believe Jackie is telling the truth about her family, and she gets the chance to find out when their family accidentally goes to the Jennings family's house for Christmas instead of Charlotte's sister's house. While tensions run high, Charlotte learns to appreciate the life she has and helps her family rediscover the magic of Christmas.

So Jackie's Christmas Letter Was Accurate the Whole Time?

It was all true except for Daniel.

Jackie's newsletter boasts about her family's "splendiferous" year, claiming her 10-year-old daughter Beatrix (Madison Skye Validum) became the youngest person ever admitted into Harvard, her son Daniel's work was helping to avert a humanitarian crisis in Africa, her husband Valentino (Cedeño) was running a highly successful karate dojo, and Jackie herself had sold her aviation company for enough to merit an early retirement. Charlotte is highly suspicious of Jackie's claims and begins investigating her house, finding a suspicious Photoshop manual; however, as the movie goes on, almost all of Jackie's claims turn out to be true, except one.

While the newsletter was honest about her son Daniel's work making a difference in Africa, it left out the fact that Daniel had died, and the work being done was through a memorial fund established in his name. The Netflix movie doesn't spend too much time elaborating on the circumstances of Daniel's death, but the grief of the Jennings family is certainly felt throughout the holiday season, no matter how much Jackie may try to put on a cheerful face. Best. Christmas. Ever! doesn't explicitly reveal how Daniel died, but considering the movie explains that he was admitted to a hospital before his death, he likely died as the result of a severe illness or medical condition.

Explaining why she kept Daniel's fate hidden, Jackie remarks, "That's not something you just put in the holiday newsletter," because news of her son's passing was heavy and didn't remotely match the tone of the rest of Jackie's newsletter highlights. It would certainly be more honest, and possibly even aid Daniel's causes better, for Jackie to be upfront in her newsletter. However, the passing of a child is a difficult event compared to the tone of the rest of the Jennings newsletter, with Jackie's motivations also being based on her desire to keep Daniel's memory alive.

Why Rob Kept The Christmas Letter Secret

He was proud of their family, even if Charlotte wasn't.

After arriving at Jackie's house, Charlotte spots a letter addressed to Jackie from her husband, Rob, and becomes suspicious since Jackie was Rob's first girlfriend. She starts snooping around Jackie's house looking for clues until she accidentally gets caught, embarrassing herself, and admitting her jealousy. Rob reveals he's been writing his own Christmas newsletter to a group of friends for years, but everyone kept it secret from Charlotte because he knew she hated Christmas letters and was ashamed of the life their family had. Realizing she'd been ungrateful, she asks Jackie if she can read copies of all Rob's letters so she can appreciate everything she'd been missing.

Did Charlotte Really Talk To The Real Santa Claus?

If it looks like Santa, talks like Santa, and disappears in a cloud of smoke on Christmas like Santa...

After Jackie and Charlotte fly over Valentino's Christmas pageant with the solar-powered hot air balloon and Santa's sleigh to convince Grant (Wyatt Hunt) and Beatrix that Santa is real, Jackie lowers the sleigh down so that Charlotte can get out. Upon landing, she encounters an old man who helps her out and says, "I know how tricky these flying sleighs can be." When she thanks him he says, "No, thank you, Charlotte Sanders." When Charlotte turns to see how he knew her name, he vanishes in a puff of smoke. The movie doesn't otherwise have any supernatural elements, so was that actually Santa Claus?

The fact that the old man with the beard was there at the right time, knew her name, and mysteriously vanished certainly suggests he was the real deal. Charlotte had just done something extraordinary and put a spark of belief about Santa in the heart of an entire crowd of kids, and if there's one Christmas movie trope that could bring Santa to life, that would be it. As far as the plot of the movie goes, Santa's appearance is little more than a fun wink, since he doesn't factor into the plot in any way, but it does show the extent of Charlotte's Christmas spirit.

Is Monkey Bob Really Sentient?

There's something up with that creepy monkey...

It's not uncommon for children to have imaginary friends or talk to their toys, so Grant's personification of Monkey Bob seems to be nothing more than a childhood fantasy. However, Monkey Bob directly impacts the plot enough to pose the question: is Monkey Bob truly sentient? Despite the otherwise grounded nature of the movie, the appearance (and disappearance) of what appears to be a real-life Santa Claus means a question about the authenticity of Grant's stuffed monkey toy shouldn't be out of the question.

Grant says Monkey Bob is the one who put Jackie's address into the GPS, with Monkey Bob also helping to snatch the fake Santa's beard and hat off his face. The stuffed monkey also pops into the rearview mirror to scare Charlotte off the road so she sees the sign about the Daniel Jennings memorial fund, and Charlotte says Monkey Bob is the one who had the idea to fly over the town square with the Santa sled – the event that preceded the magical appearance of the real Santa Claus. If Santa is real in this movie, there's no reason to believe Monkey Bob isn't real, too.

How Could Charlotte & Rob Still Afford The House?

Charlotte's rash financial decision may have worked out after all.

After reading all of Rob's Christmas letters, Charlotte decides to give him a surprise Christmas present and secure a mortgage for his dream home using their emergency fund as a down payment. Unfortunately, only a few hours later, a video surfaces of a StarTech robotic vacuum cleaner catching on fire, tanking her company's stock. Charlotte tries to make it back to the mortgage office to cancel the loan, but she gets stopped on the way, so it seems like Charlotte and Rob are stuck with a new home payment they may not be able to afford.

Fortunately, as the credits sequence reveals, Jackie helped Charlotte market her crumb-free Chip Mitts, landing a product deal with Mariah Carey. Financial details about the success of the Chip Mitt aren't revealed, but it seems to be fairly lucrative with the reveal of Carey's involvement. With one of Charlotte's inventions finally taking off, Best. Christmas. Ever!'s ending reveals that Rob, Charlotte, Grant, and Dora can live in Rob's dream house after all.