The Stan Original Film Jones Family Christmas delivers festive spirit in a uniquely Aussie way.

It's the Christmas film we all need right now – one that is filled with lots of sentiment, a sprinkling of good laughs, and a healthy dose of Aussie festive spirit.

The Stan Original Film Jones Family Christmas is now available to stream, and it's a solid family-friendly Christmas film to watch this summer. 

Jones Family Christmas is a multi-generational comedy based on the coming together of a family scattered across the globe to celebrate Christmas under one roof in regional Victoria. But it's also told through the lens of a family whose holiday gathering is impacted by bushfires. 

It's a reality many can relate to, including the film's writer Tegan Higginbotham. Her own experience during the Victorian bushfires in 2019 inspired her to write this script.

Watch the trailer for Jones Family Christmas. Post continues below.

During filming, Mamamia was invited to visit the set of Jones Family Christmas and get into the festive spirit nice and early. 

Speaking with Higginbotham in between takes she told Mamamia: "There's so much sentiment and heart around this time of year. To capture that and the unique Aussie Christmas identity, plus working with such a talented cast and crew... it's been the biggest joy."

Acclaimed Australian actress Heather Mitchell (Love Me) stars alongside Ella Scott Lynch (Love Child), Max McKenna (While The Men Are Away), Neil Melville (Brilliant Lies), and Nicholas Denton (Dangerous Liaisons).

And we have to say – Heather Mitchell as the matriarch trying to hold the family together amid all the chaos, is a joy to watch.

When Mitchell and I meet, we're on the set in Victoria, sitting on white plastic chairs in a field dotted with yellow flowers. It's only when you look a few metres to the right that you remember we're on a set with dozens of crew, countless cameras, trucks and lighting equipment.

Mitchell was immediately interested in the role as soon as the script made its way to her.

"I haven't done a Christmas movie before, and I also loved the feel of how intergenerational the plot was. It's full of humour and love, and it's about the complexity of families. How could I not want to take it on!" she says.

"I think family is the origin of all our relationships, whether it's the family you're born into or the family you create."

This sentiment is crystal clear in Jones Family Christmas, and watching the community and Jones family come together amid challenging external circumstances is widely relatable. 

As Mitchell notes: "The bushfire in a way is a character itself, forcing everyone to come together despite their differences or their little irritations with one another."

Heather Mitchell and Ella Scott Lynch. Image: Stan.

The fabulous Ella Scott Lynch plays Mitchell's eldest daughter in the film, Christina. 

"Christina has been living in London for the past decade or so, has a child of her own and she's married to an Englishman. She hasn't been home for a very long time, and she's stepped away quite a bit from her upbringing in Australia," Scott Lynch explains.

"She definitely feels a bit lost, and has that disconnection of someone who hasn't been home for a long time."

It's a sentiment Scott Lynch says she can relate to in a way, given her work often pulls her away from home. 

"Often it's not until you come home, typically around Christmas, that you sort of realise what's been missing. My family is very sort of blended. I've definitely experienced that feeling of having been away for a long time, and then coming back, and trying to fit in and find your place within a complicated family unit. 

"That's why I loved this story so much, because I think a lot of the audience will be able to relate to those universal feelings. Christmas is so often thought of as 'the most perfect together family time of the year'. But that kind of feels inauthentic. And it's okay to poke a little fun at that."

As Mitchell tells me: "Christmas means something different for everybody. But I think the one thing that's in common with all of that is connection. Yes, there's pressure for the family to come together, and it's certainly never perfect. But that's what makes it so interesting. We're all fumbling around trying our best at the end of the day."

There's a lot to be learned from Jones Family Christmas amid the film's moments of love, misadventure and togetherness. 

Perhaps one of the biggest takeaways is that Christmas and perfection don't belong in the same sentence – as long as we're together with the ones we love, we're doing more than alright.

The Stan Original Film Jones Family Christmas is now streaming, only on Stan.

Feature Image: Stan.