Tired of 'Love Actually'? This Smosh YouTube series is the new Christmas classic you need

Is your holiday movie rotation feeling a little too predictable? If you're looking for a fresh tradition, the answer might not be on Netflix, but on YouTube. Enter 'Smosh vs. Christmas', a two-part special from comedy collective Smosh that blends holiday cheer with genuine tension, all thanks to a Jenga tower.

Horror and Hilarity Built on Blocks

The series is an actual play of a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) called Dread. Its mechanics are brilliantly simple: to perform an action, a player must pull a block from a Jenga tower. If they succeed, their character succeeds. If the tower falls, their character dies—instantly. This simple rule transforms a comedic story into a high-stakes thriller, making every moment intensely watchable, even for those unfamiliar with TTRPGs.

A Perfect Parody of Hallmark Tropes

The story, set in a town where it's always Christmas, is what you'd get if a Hallmark movie collided with the movie 'Krampus'. The cast, featuring Shayne Topp, Amanda Lehan-Canto, and Angela Giarratana, lean into familiar archetypes—the struggling novelist, the small-town carpenter, the big-city hotshot—but the improvisational storytelling and the constant threat of the tower lead to wild and satisfying twists. First released in 2024, the series has become a rewatchable favorite, with Smosh even releasing a new festive horror special in 2025, titled 'We're All Gonna Die on Christmas'.