Netflix holiday movies often follow a well-trodden path, laid in place decades before streaming even existed. It typically involves a small town, a city-dwelling fish-out-of-water lead, a love interest that knows Santa, or is a knight, or a snowman, a big fight, a broken heart, a misunderstanding cleared (with some winter magic maybe), a precious kid played by a too-old child actor, and, of course, Santa again.
“There are certain boxes you have to check when you're writing a Christmas movie,” Marla Sokoloff, writer and actress in The Merry Gentleman, told Fortune.
The success of these movies hinges on playing into tradition and nostalgia, while offering a twist or some novelty as to not overplay one’s hand. “There are a lot of elements that need to be in Christmas movies that people count on, and just the formula because it works and it doesn't really get changed,” Sokoloff added, explaining that part of the joy in writing her Netflix flick was that she was able to play on the form and incorporate different themes.
Comforting in its clichés, these once-derided guilty-pleasure Hallmarkian joints have become surefire crowd pleasers. It seems like it’s shaping up to be not just the season for these festive and unapologetically rote movies, but the decade of them.
Part of what might be fueling the desire to curl up, pad your body and mind with fuzzy blankets, and space out while watching a Christmas rom-com might be the storms weathering outside. This year’s word was “brain rot,” as selected by the Oxford University Press, defined by our predilection towards overconsuming a stream of unchallenging content. Socioeconomic anxiety, a divisive election year, the threat of fascism, and a constant barrage of anxiety-inducing news pushes some Americans to unplug or inundate themselves with pacifying content.
Whether your personal anecdote might be housewives screaming at each other or a steady churn of sports commentary, it appears as if a swath of Americans are looking for nostalgic holiday content that simply feels good and allows them to unplug. Netflix has taken note.
The business of manufactured nostalgia
Netflix has seemingly made an assembly line out of holiday cheer. This year, they’ve churned out a new holiday rom-com every single Wednesday in November, a representative tells Fortune. Each was welcomed with open arms, all debuting #1 on the top 10 Global Films List in English.
People might not have admitted that they loved these movies in the past because of their general wholesome and corny tendencies, according to Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, who said that very quality is what makes these movies special. Even if they’re unassuming, these Christmas movies are “not to be underestimated in terms of what they can bring, in terms of viewership and eliminating churn, especially during the holidays.”
Like a modern-day remake of a harlequin romance novel, these movies are akin to “comfort food,” says Dergarabedian, noting they tend to generate an upbeat feeling among viewers. And they have mass-market appeal, which is ideal for studios or executives who are scrambling for a hit. While it’s likely harder to tackle a project that’s ambitious and potentially divisive, studios find it considerably easier to bank on nostalgia’s ability to deliver on crowd-pleasing entertainment.
People are more prone to nostalgia during cold weather, seeking content that “warms our hearts and our spirits,” said Clay Routledge, psychologist and author of Nostalgia: A Psychological Resource, who added that said emotion also is fueled by the heightened presence of rituals and holiday traditions.
But it’s also more than just a seasonal bet. “There's a lot of stuff going on in the world that's making people feel uneasy or dissatisfied or uncertain,” said Routledge, referencing concerns of AI, the global rise of political populism, and concerns of climate change. “When we feel high uncertainty, we mine the past for comfort, but also for guidance and inspiration.”
Routledge referenced results from a recent survey run by Human Flourishing Lab, where he is a director and vice president of research. Calling nostalgia a “forever trend,” he noted it’s fueled by experiencing rapid changes in society. And getting constant news alerts about the latest world-altering issue doesn’t help either.
“The more information comes at us, the more we're going to be seeking that kind of comfort food as a way to, like, stabilize ourselves,” Routledge explained, adding “nostalgia tends to be a successful bet.”
Indeed, Netflix appears to be putting all their chips in on nostalgic content. And in a world that often feels apocalyptic, it seems like the bad Christmas movie is the medium of choice.
The power of these movies is quite simple, in Sokoloff’s eyes. “Our lives are so stressful and sometimes filled with such negativity that you can watch these movies and you know that you're not going to experience that, this is not what that's going to be feeding you,” she said, adding that people appreciate the similarity of the storytelling even when it can be somewhat basic.
The ascent of the millennial
So far, Netflix’s bid on nostalgia holiday fare has paid off. The Merry Gentleman, starring Chad Michael Murray and Britt Robertson, had 14.7 million views from its mid-November debut until early December, per Netflix. Meet Me Next Christmas, starring Christina Milian, has racked up 18.1 million views, and Our Little Secret, a Lindsay Lohan, Ian Harding and Kristin Chenoweth joint, has amassed a whopping 32.4 million views.
Part of the secret sauce is not just about relying on the holiday heart strings but tugging on millennial’s desire to see the stars of their childhood make a comeback, too. Whether it’sLohan or her Mean Girls costar Lacey Chabert (who has starred in a pantheon of such movies), Netflix has chosen to add an extra layer of frosting to the already frothy piece by bringing back stars from a bygone era.
“People at the end of the day want to see familiarity, they want to see nostalgia,” Sokoloff, who was a child star herself as Gia Mahan on Full House, explained. “It combines the best of both worlds, you have Christmas and then you have a familiar faith that you are excited to see on your TV again.”
Young people are especially nostalgic, Routledge pointed out. And millennials might be especially drawn to feeling wistful, as they age into adulthood and find it's their time in the cycle of trends. About two to three decades after a style is popular, it tends to re-emerge, albeit in a new iteration, noted Routledge. Now with greater economic power, millennials are searching to connect to their past and reacquaint themselves with their former tastes. It provides comfort and continuity, but also, a sense of resurgence.
In a sense, the return of nostalgic figures and forms from one’s childhood creates a personal feeling of “I’m back,” for the viewer, Routledge said. “Everyone wants to feel relevant and that their interests are validated at some level.”
Many nostalgic stories follow “a redemptive arc,” priming viewers for a comeback in casting itself. Casting Lohan and Michael Murray, for example, is a way to scratch that itch—and then some. As Sokoloff pointed out, the appeal of Michael Murray is not just of her generation; her daughter, too, is obsessed with the former One Tree Hill star.
While millennials might be the prime target for these Netflix movies, nostalgia by nature is an intergenerational experience as people share an image of their childhood traditions.
“There's so much in the world. When you're watching The Married Gentleman, you could be watching it with your mom who voted for someone you didn't vote for, and vice versa. And that doesn't matter,” Sokoloff said, adding it’s a way to not have those difficult conversations while spending time with family.
“People like it because it doesn't divide people,” Dergarabedian echoed, calling this type of content a “layup” for Netflix during a time where “people are looking for escapism, they're looking for content that brings people together.”
Of course, these movies are baseline family-friendly fare as well, matching with the overarching appetite for PG or PG-13 movies, which are resonating strongly right now, Dergarabedian added.
Netflix is able to play its cards with tradition
Dergarabedian said the only potential downside to this churning out of nostalgic content is if Netflix overindulges in the strategy. “But that's really only a problem when you have limited bandwidth,” he said, adding that Netflix has a “virtually unlimited ecosystem.”
“The power of Netflix is pretty insane,” Sokoloff said of the viewership that her film received, adding its reception has also been super positive.
“For risk-averse studios and streamers, content providers, and producers, going with known IP is often the best guarantee of success, but not always,” Dergarabedian said, noting that content can simply fall flat. He said one of “the toughest codes to crack for the industry is trying to determine where the fine line is” between adhering to old IP, recycling too much, or putting one’s own spin on something.
But there’s not as much of a ceiling for this nostalgia-bait Christmas genre. “Actually, the more familiar, the better [when it comes to] Christmas movies,” Dergarabedian said, explaining it’s “sort of like putting on the fireplace and letting it run in the background.”
And Netflix knows as much. Christmas movies are an area where recycled IP is permissible. It’s “maybe the only realm where you can really get away with that for decades on it and not exhaust the interest in these shows, because it is that very familiar that people want,” Dergarabedian said. It’s part of the culture, after all, he added, pointing out that everyone does the same traditions during the holidays.
“We just want to go back and have the familiar,” he said.
It’s not dying away anytime soon either. “Almost every writer I talk to, I'm like ‘have a Christmas movie in your back pocket ready to go, because there's never going to be a time where people aren't going to make them,’” Sokoloff said, adding that while rom-coms or action movies might fizzle out, Christmas is “not going anywhere.”
