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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.)
Champagne Problems (2025)
Minka Kelly stars here as Sydney, a hard-driving American executive who heads off to Paris in order to acquire a Champagne brand for her company—and it needs to happen before Christmas. C’est pas possible! She brings along the precocious family dog, Bulles (a West Highland Terrier who’s already become a bit of a fan favorite), but that’s not the only complication: The heir to the company just happens to be a French hunk played by Tom Wozniczka, and, évidemment, their swoony romance puts the big deal on the line. Stream Champagne Problems.
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. Stream The Merry Gentlemen.
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. Stream Jingle Jangle.
Last Christmas (2019)
Emilia Clarke and America’s sweetheart Henry Golding have tremendous chemistry as a down-on-her-luck aspiring singer and the slightly mysterious man with whom she shares a lovely and inspiring holiday season. The twist ending here will either work for you, or it really won’t (either way, it’s hilarious on paper). I was prepared to chuckle, but it still got me in the end. Stream Last Christmas.
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 Dolly herself (typecast as an all-singing angel). Dolly wrote all the musical numbers, and it’s dorky fun in the best ways. The whole cast is several cuts above, as are the dance numbers, choreographed by Debbie Allen—it’s a goofy good time, and I mean that in the best way. Stream Christmas on the Square.
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. Stream Klaus.
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. Stream The Holiday Calendar.
Jingle Bell Heist (2025)
A sharp-witted retail worker (Olivia Holt) and a repairman who’s seen better days (Connor Swindells) realize that they both have designs on the titular holiday heist: they’re going to rob London’s biggest department store during the seasonal rush. With no choice but to team up, they reluctantly scheme together—before the two mismatched thieves start to find that their feelings are getting in the way of the perfect score. Stream Jingle Bell Heist.
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. 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. Stream Let It Snow.
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. Stream Hot Frosty.
My Secret Santa (2025)
Alexandra Breckinridge hops over from Netflix’s long-running romantic drama, Virgin River, to take the lead in this Christmas movie, Here, she’s a struggling single mom trying to raise the cash to send her daughter off to snowboarding camp at a luxury resort (which: OK?). What are you gonna do but get a job at the resort playing Santa, requiring that she first masquerade as an old man—which is almost certainly some kind of statement about sex- and gender essentialism in the ski-resort-Santa business. When she gets the hots for her new boss (New Amsterdam‘s Ryan Eggold), shenanigans ensue. Stream My Secret Santa.
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 also has the two-decades-later sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.) Stream Chicken Run.
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. Stream Operation Christmas Drop.
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. Stream Carry-On.
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. Stream Love Hard.
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. Stream Scrooge: A Christmas Carol.
That Christmas (2024)
This fairly delightful all-ages animated Christmas boasts an 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. Stream That Christmas.
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. Stream Tangerine.
Merry Liddle Christmas (2019)
Kelly Rowland produced and stars in the first of what has become a series (four movies, so far), though Netflix currently only has the first one. Here, Rowland plays Jacquie Liddle, a tech entrepreneur who’s got it all together until her incredibly messy family shows up for Christmas. Still, she’s determined to put together a marketing video that shows her vision of a perfect Christmas, which goes about as well as you can imagine. Complicating things further is her hot new neighbor Tyler (Thomas Carrot). Like Jacquie herself, the whole movie is a bit more impressively put together than the standard quickie Christmas movie, with a competence and charm that’s made those cozy sequels rather welcome. Stream Merry Liddle Christmas.
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. Stream Meet Me Next Christmas.
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? Stream Holidate.
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). Stream Falling for Christmas.
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 more movies that add yet another Hudgens. Stream The Princess Switch.
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.) Stream A Christmas Prince.
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. Stream The Noel Diary.
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. Stream The Christmas Chronicles.
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. Stream Holiday Rush.
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! Stream Our Little Secret.
Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022)
Christmas Carnage, as a genre, is at least as venerable as the holiday rom-com (Black Christmas predates every single one of those cozy Hallmark-style movies), and there’s nothing wrong with adding some blood and guts to your holiday display. Here, Riley Dandy plays Tori Tooms, a record store owner closing up for Christmas Eve, and heading out for drinks with her flirtatious employee and a couple of pals. Those friends happen to run a toy store that has in stock a Santa robot—one that’s been recalled because of its original military programming. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that this particular robot is about to malfunction, and cut a bloody swath through the holiday season. Not quite as scary as more modern AI, but still best not mess with robot Santa. Stream Christmas Bloody Christmas.
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. Stream Single All the Way.
