Overlong, trite and sentimental, This Christmas focuses on a well-heeled, high-achieving African-American family in Los Angeles gathering at the home of their divorced mother. One of the sons, a brilliant saxophonist, is on the run from a bookie's debt collectors, another is AWOL from the US Marines with a white girl in tow, while a third is secretly planning to leave home for a music career. One of the daughters has an errant husband, another has put love on hold to advance in her career, and Mom is in denial about her ex-husband and can't tell the children about her supportive, middle-aged lover (the reliable Delroy Lindo). During the Christmas morning service, everything is put right and the Good Lord given his due.