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It's a time to relax from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and just recharge your batteries.
Unless, of course, you work for Netflix where this time of the year seems to inspire thoughts of post apocalyptic doom.
In recent years, the streamer has given us around Christmas 'Bird Box,' 'White Noise' and 'Don't Look Up' - all of which feature people having to survive cataclysmic events.
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Welcome, then, to this year's offering 'Leave The World Behind,' a 140 minute tale of a New York family who get out of the city for a vacation to a nice house in Long Island only to realise society around them is beginning to crumble.
Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke are Amanda and Clay Sandford.
She's an advertising executive and he's a college lecturer.
They have two kids, Charlie Evans' Archie and his 'Friends' obsessed younger sister, Farrah MacKenzie's Rose.
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Adapted from the acclaimed 2020 Rumaan Alam novel, Sam Esmail's movie begins with Clay waking up in their home to find Amanda packing a suitcase.
She's determined to take a family break that day, announcing very dramatically she wants to get out of the city because she's come to the realisation that she hates people.
Arriving in a plush house hired from the owner over email, they enjoy all the mod cons including a swimming pool until events start to take a weird turn.
A family visit to the beach results in them having to run for cover as a massive oil tanker heads towards holidaymakers and ends up getting grounded.
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The WiFi and TV suddenly goes down in the house and the national emergency broadcast starts to kick in when it eventually returns.
Rose is amazed to witness hundreds of deer gathering in a forest at the back of the garden, staring at the house.
Then out of the blue, Mahershala Ali's GH Scott and his teenage daughter, Myha'la's Ruth arrive at the front door in formal attire, claiming to be the owners.
GH explains they have come from a concert in New York which they fled after a massive blackout in the city.
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Unsure if their story is genuine or bogus, Amanda is reluctant to allow them inside or let them spend the night with her family but Clay is more welcoming.
There's immediate friction between her and Ruth, while GH hints that he might know about the strange series of events that are taking place.
The following morning Clay goes into the local town to find out what's happening.
The strange occurrences continue to come thick and fast, though, with piercing sonic attacks deafening him and also his family back at the house.
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Clay is also tormented by a private plane which drops leaflets in Arabic.
Increasingly the Sandfords and Scotts feel under threat and their lives become endangered.
Will they get through the whole experience unscathed?
Or is there something else afoot?
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'Leave The World Behind' is an unsettling, if slightly flabby watch - drawing on recent experiences in real life to create a sense of panic and fear.
Echoes of 9/11, the COVID pandemic and the Capitol Hill riots inform much of the imagery in Esmail's movie which is executive produced by Michelle and Barack Obama.
Esmail does a pretty decent job whipping up the tension, with the audience sharing most of the main characters' confusion around what is behind the power outages, the sonic booms, the planes falling from the sky.
GH is more clued in, however, than most of the characters but even his guesswork smacks of a very 21st Century brand of conspiracy theory and it is not fully baked.
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Esmail has a good nose for unsettling visual horror.
However it is blunted by a film feels a bit too long in parts.
Sometimes the movie drags its heels as it laboriously tries to score its points.
The performances, though, are especially strong, with Roberts excellent as the stressed out working mum and Hawke great as her laid back husband.
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Myha'la impresses as a know it all teen, while Evans and MacKenzie are suitably cast as awkward siblings - the former a skittish late teenage boy, the latter doing a great job as his anxious younger sister.
Double Oscar winner Mahershala Ali walks away with the film's acting honours - oozing charisma and intelligence as a protective father and a troubled citizen.
Kevin Bacon, though, gives Ali a real run for his money - turning in one of his best screen performances in years as a trigger happy survivalist who has prepared for a doomsday and will do anything to protect himself and his family.
However it isn't just the acting that impresses.
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Tod Campbell's slick cinematography captures the moments of chaos quite effectively amid the isolation.
Watching it unfold, audiences will be reminded of John Krasinski's 'A Quiet Place' movies.
'Leave The World Behind Us,' though, never quite hits the heights of Krasinski's films.
It's a decent watch but with a bit more pruning it could be much better.
As a calling card for Esmail, however, it shows real potential.
('Leave The World Behind' received its world remote at the AFI Fest in LA on October 25, 2023, was released in selected cinemas on November 22, 2023 and was made available for streaming on Netflix on December 8, 2023)
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