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The holiday season seems to start around June these days, and Christmas movies have become a cozy preoccupation through much of the year. Though there’s still a bit of variety in seasonal fare, gone are the days when you watched one Christmas movie a year, and it was either about a guy trying to jump off of a bridge or a child setting traps to kill the two grown men who want to murder him.
Now there’s a lot more where those came from—many of them available for streaming on Netflix year-round. Here are some of the best the streamer has on offer during the festive season—however early or late yours starts. (And while this is a roundup of holiday movies, yes, it’s heavily skewed toward Christmas; Netflix’s current offerings are heavy on Santa and light on everything else.)
The Merry Gentlemen (2024)
It might not be entirely traditional, but there’s absolutely no rule against adding a little beefcake to your holiday feast. Britt Robertson plays Ashley, a professional dancer who finds herself out of a job and so makes her way home for Christmas—only to discover that the bank is about to shut down the sketchy local performing venue run by her parents. Naturally, it’s time to put on a show! An all-male revue, specifically, including an array of middle-aged hunks like Chad Michael Murray and Maxwell Caulfield who’ll heat up a holiday gathering for you and your mom. You can stream The Merry Gentlemen on Netflix.
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020)
As kids’ holiday fare goes, this one’s a little different, both in style and in pedigree. It’s a straight-up fantasy (rather than the more traditional romantic variety) with a toymaker inventing a living matador fighting for his right to individuality. The pedigree includes playwright David E. Talbert in the director’s chair and an all-Black cast that includes Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, and Anika Noni Rose, all having a lot of fun in a colorful (and musical!) adventure. You can stream Jingle Jangle on Netflix.
Klaus (2019)
A charming, bespoke Santa origin story based on nothing in particular, Klaus finds the lazy son of a postmaster general in 19th-century Norway banished to a distant island town where he’s tasked with delivering 6,000 letters within a year, lest he be cut off from the family fortune. Arriving there, he discovers the two primary feuding families can’t be bothered to send letters for him to deliver, but that an elderly widower might be able to help him in a scheme he’s concocted to convince the town’s children to write letters in the hopes of receiving toys in return—toys crafted by old Klaus, in search of the family he never had. It’s all beautifully hand-animated, and the genuine emotion wrings tears, Pixar-style. You can stream Klaus on Netflix.
The Holiday Calendar (2018)
Kat Graham stars as struggling photographer Abby Sutton, who gets an old Advent calendar from her grandfather—she’s very not into it initially, until the calendar reveals a tiny pair of boots on day one, and later that day, her friend Josh (Quincy Brown) gives her a real pair of boots. As the calendar’s gifts seem to line up with things that actually happen, Abby begins to suspect that there’s magic, and romance, in the air. Ethan Peck (Star Trek) also stars. You can stream The Holiday Calendar on Netflix.
Let It Snow (2019)
Not to be confused with Hallmark’s 2013 Let It Snow, which is also a Christmas movie, but not a particularly (or at all) diverse one. Nor is this the 2020 snowboarding horror movie of the same name. There’s not much margin for error when you’re hunting for this one, is what I’m saying. Based on a novel by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle that intertwines three distinct stories, this Let It Snow involves a large and fairly diverse cast of characters figuring into holiday romances both straight and queer, all taking place in the same small town. You can stream Let It Snow on Netflix.
Carol (2015)
The chemistry between Rooney Mara’s Therese and Cate Blanchett’s Carol is palpable from the moment their eyes meet across a crowded department store during the season Christmas season of 1952. It’s the 1950s, and theirs is an attraction that dare not speak its name, even in private (luckily, queer phobia has been entirely eradicated in our time). The women suffer for their love, but the tears come less when things are going bad as when it starts to feel like they might just possibly start to go a little right. You can stream Carol on Netflix.
Hot Frosty (2024)
A perfect pairing with The Merry Gentlemen for your lightly horny holiday, Hot Frosty stars Lacey Chabert as a widow running a cafe in the tiny made-up town of Hope Springs, New York. One day she picks up a scarf at a secondhand store and places it around the neck of a particularly chiseled snowman because, while all snowman bodies are valid, it’s gonna take abs to score free winter apparel. The snowman, quite naturally, comes to life, leading to a series of wacky misunderstandings but also a little holiday romance. You can stream Hot Frosty on Netflix.
There’s Something in the Barn (2023)
A mysterious visitor in your barn at Christmastime? That can only mean one thing!
Elves, that is. One elf in particular, found living on the property of a family moving back to their ancestral home in rural Norway (only dad’s in any way happy about it). At first it seems like a cool thing, having a mythical creature just out back—until the family begin ignoring the three simple rules one must always observe in the presence of a barn elf. What starts as a quirky holiday comedy turns into a full-bore gorefest by the final act. You can stream There’s Something in the Barn on Netflix.
Operation Christmas Drop (2020)
Congressional aide Erica Miller (Kat Graham) drops everything for a mission to visit a beachside Air Force base—and find reasons to defund it. She clashes with the studly pilot assigned to escort her around, who is particularly involved in one of the base’s pet projects: an annual airdrop of supplies and gifts to various Micronesian islands. You know where this is all going, but that’s part of the fun. You can stream Operation Christmas Drop on Netflix.
A Bad Moms Christmas (2017)
Not quite the feel-good Christmas movie that you may or may not be looking for, this Bad Moms sequel adds Susan Sarandon and Christine Baranski to the original trio of Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn. It arrived just over a year after the first movie, giving it a bit of a slapdash feel, but one that works for a raunchy, women-led Christmas comedy. It mostly avoids the salty/sweet balance than made the original a hit, and instead aims right for the sassy jokes surrounding a holiday debacle. You can stream A Bad Moms Christmas on Netflix.
Carry-On (2024)
Sometimes you want a Christmas movie with all the trimmings, and sometimes you need a break from all the tinsel. And, so: Carry-On, a thriller that takes place on Christmas Eve. At the airport—literally the worst place to be during the holidays! Taron Edgerton is a TSA agent who’s blackmailed into allowing Jason Bateman onto a flight with a very dangerous package. And yet I can’t get through with my belt. You can stream Carry-On on Netflix.
Love Hard (2021)
Natalie (Nina Dobrev) gets catfished for Christmas (fun!). The poor woman travels across the country to see the guy she met on an app, and discovers that Josh (Jimmy O. Yang) was using pictures of his friend Tag (Darren Barnet) the whole time. She gets something going with Tag, but soon has to decide which of the two guys she really has feelings for. You can stream Love Hard on Netflix.
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (2022)
It might not replace all of the many, many earlier Dickens adaptations in your holiday heart, but this computer-animated musical version boasts some fun songs, and a strong voice cast led by Luke Evans and Olivia Colman. It’s slightly less scary and maudlin than many other takes, so it might not be a bad way to introduce young kids to the holiday tale. You can stream Scrooge: A Christmas Carol on Netflix.
Chicken Run (2000)
The holidays are in the background of this funny, fowl take on The Great Escape, with a reminder that Christmas is less fun if you’re stuck laying eggs on the farm. The sharp Aardman Brothers comedy has some incredibly fun stop-motion animation, and an awful lot of chickens. It remains the top-grossing stop-motion animated movie of all time. (Netflix is also has the two-decades-later sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.) You can watch Chicken Run on Netflix.
That Christmas (2024)
This fairly delightful all-ages animated Christmas boasts a very impressive cast: Brian Cox as Santa is joined by Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker, and Bill Nighy (among other British luminaries). A record-breaking blizzard in the coastal town of Wellington-on-Sea throws Santa’s plans into chaos, but also threatens to separate several families, physically and emotionally, in a series of intertwined stories that blend a bit of comedy with some sincere emotional beats. You can stream That Christmas on Netflix.
Meet Me Next Christmas (2024)
Veteran TV and movie director Rusty Cundieff (Tales from the Hood and Chappelle’s Show, among many other credits) helms Meet Me Next Christmas, starring Christina Milian as a woman who finds herself rushing around New York City in search of sold-out Pentatonix tickets (oddly specific, but sure). You see, she met a guy named James last year at Christmas, and they’d agreed to reunite at the concert, An Affair to Remember-style—but wait! The handsome ticket concierge (Devale Ellis) helping her out is pretty cute, too. You can stream Meet Me Next Christmas on Netflix.
Holidate (2020)
Sloane (Emma Roberts) and Jackson (Luke Bracey) have figured out how to deal with all the questions that arise (apparently?) when you’re single and you show up at family gatherings: They’re going to be each other’s platonic plus-ones at holiday meals. Would it be much of a holiday movie if something other than friendship weren’t in the offing? It all builds to a climactic Thanksgiving dinner. You can stream Holidate on Netflix.
Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square (2020)
It’s the holidays, and Regina Fuller (Christine Baranski!) is on her way home, to evict a bunch of people so she can sell some land to a mall developer. Naturally, she’s got some learning to do, with help from Jenifer Lewis—and from Dolly herself (cast as type as an all-singing angel). Dolly wrote all the musical numbers, and it’s all dorky fun in the best ways. The whole cast is several cuts above, as are the dance numbers, choreographed by Debbie Allen. You can stream Christmas on the Square on Netflix.
Falling for Christmas (2022)
Speaking of Christmas casting coups, this one saw the return of Lindsay Lohan in a lead role after a decade. She plays a snotty heiress who loses her memory following a ski accident and learns lessons about love and life while recovering in a ski lodge run by earthy Jake Russell (Chord Overstreet). You can stream Falling for Christmas on Netflix.
Call Me By Your Name (2017)
A story of love and sex involving young, mercurial Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and older Oliver (Armie Hammer), Call Me By Your Name takes place mostly during the summer in northern Italy. There’s a poignant scene at the end, though, centered around Hanukkah, that sees Elio taking inspiration from the holiday and choosing to endure his grief. It’s not a lot in terms of screen time, but it captures the spirit of the holiday beautifully. You can stream Call Me By Your Name on Netflix.
Tangerine (2015)
Just your typical girlfriend/buddy/revenge comedy movie about two trans sex workers on the hunt for the man who did one of them wrong. As heartfelt as it is madcap, it all takes place on a wild Christmas Eve in Hollywood (so don’t expect snow). Shot on a couple of iPhones, director Sean Baker and company make a virtue of the intimacy and immediacy that modern technology can bring. You can stream Tangerine on Netflix.
The Princess Switch (2018)
Stacy De Novo (Vanessa Hudgens) is a pastry chef from Chicago off to fictional Belgravia to compete in a holiday baking contest. There she meets a duchess, who’s also the fiancee of the local prince (Sam Palladio)—and who happens to look exactly like Stacy (surprise: they’re both played by Hudgens). The two decide it might be fun to see how the other half lives, and so they swap lives, which unsurprisingly complicates things with the prince. If you like this one, the series continues in two further movies that add yet another Hudgens. You can stream The Princess Switch on Netflix.
A Christmas Prince (2017)
Another trilogy, you say? Look, sometimes you just want to sink into the couch for hours of holiday schmaltz. No problem: Here, an American journalist (Rose McIver) heads to fictional Aldovia on the hunt for a scoop. A case of mistaken identity leads to her being mistaken for the tutor to the young princess. And, of course, she’s soon cozying up to the prince (Ben Lamb). It goes well enough that they get two more movies out of it. (Yes, all these movies have nearly identical plots, which is a cozy feature, not a bug.) You can stream A Christmas Prince on Netflix.
The Noel Diary (2022)
This one’s more of a comedy/drama in a holiday vein, so it’s less generally goofy and a bit less predictable than some of the other modern Christmas movies (whether that’s a pro or con will largely depend on your mood). Writer Jake (Justin Hartley) returns home for Christmas to settle his late mother’s estate; he’s just in time to meet Rachel (Barrett Doss), who’s looking for information about her birth mother, who’d been Jake’s nanny. You can stream The Noel Diary on Netflix.
The Christmas Chronicles (2018)
A deeply cute Christmas adventure finds a couple of kids (Judah Lewis and Darby Camp) accidentally crashing Santa’s sleigh (Santa here is played by Kurt Russell). It’s got plenty of (family-friendly) action, and Russell seems to be having a ton of fun. If you like this one, the sequel is approximately as good. You can stream The Christmas Chronicles on Netflix.
Holiday Rush (2019)
Another dramedy, Holiday Rush finds widowed hip-hop radio DJ Rush (Romany Malco) losing his job and heading back to his old home with a plan to buy the local station where he got his start alongside his producer, Roxy (Sonequa Martin-Green). The professional plans don’t run particularly smoothly, but the pair do discover that their feelings might not be all business. You can stream Holiday Rush on Netflix.
Our Little Secret (2024)
Lindsay Lohan is back in her third Netflix movie, following her big comeback in 2022’s Falling for Christmas. Here she joins a stacked cast, including Kristin Chenoweth, Ian Harding, Jon Rudnitsky, and Chris Parnell, in the story of a couple of exes forced to spend the holiday together (her new boyfriend’s sister is dating her old boyfriend, and neither of them wants anyone to know). Seasonal shenanigans ensue! You can stream Our Little Secret on Netflix.
Single All the Way (2021)
Peter (Michael Urie) is in a high-stress LA-type job on his way home to New Hampshire for the holidays. Sick of questions about being single, he decides to invite his best friend Nick (Philemon Chambers) to pose as more than his roommate. A tried-and-true setup! Complications ensue when his mom (Kathy Najimy) sets him up with her fitness instructor, James (Luke Macfarlane), before learning about the fake boyfriend who’s soon on his way to becoming a maybe real boyfriend. The fun cast also includes Barry Bostwick and Jennifer Coolidge. You can stream Single All the Way on Netflix.
