Drew's mother worked double shifts to make extra money at Christmastime. Cast Ben Affleck as Drew Latham James Gandolfini as Tom Valco Christina Applegate as Alicia Valco Catherine O'Hara as Christine Valco Josh Zuckerman as Brian Valco Bill Macy as Doo-Dah/Saul Jennifer Morrison as Missy Vangilder Udo Kier as Heinrich David Selby as Horace Vangilder Stephanie Faracy as Letitia Vangilder Stephen Root as Dr. Freeman Sy Richardson as Doo-Dah Understudy Tangie Ambrose as Kathryn Peter Jason as Suit Ray Buffer as Arnie Phill Lewis as Levine the Lawyer Hailey Noelle Johnson as Little girl Sean Marquette as Older brother Sonya Eddy as Security lady Tom Kenny as Man wrapping gift Production In May 2001, it was announced Affleck was in talks to star in Surviving Christmas when the project was at Columbia Pictures. Release Box office Surviving Christmas opened theatrically on October 22, 2004, in 2,750 venues, earning $4,441,356 in its opening weekend and ranking seventh in the North American box office and second among the week's new releases. The film ended its run on November 23, 2004, with $11,663,156 domestically and $3,457,644 overseas for a worldwide total of $15,120,800. Critical response On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critics' consensus states: "Surviving Christmas is unpleasant characters attacking each other for 90 minutes before delivering a typical, hollow anti-consumerist message." It was ranked #91 in the site's 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s on the site, as well as the fourth-worst Christmas movie of all-time. On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 19 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale. Writing in Entertainment Weekly, Lisa Schwarzbaum said, "Really, critics and audiences ought to turn thoughts and wallets discreetly away from Surviving Christmas, ignoring the sight as if Santa had just stepped in droppings from Donner and Blitzen." In The New York Times, Stephen Holden concluded, "This is a film that perversely refuses to trust its own comic instincts. Perhaps out of a fear of not having enough jokes, it throws in extra subplots and unnecessary characters to keep the pace frantic, and the action muddled." Accolades The film was nominated for three Golden Raspberry Awards at the 2005