It goes without saying that Christmas films are one of the best parts of the holiday season: they’re sometimes nostalgic, often feel-good, frequently moving, occasionally awful and always, without exception, massively comforting. So it makes sense that Netflix has a full line-up of excellent or pleasingly terrible films for you to watch this December. Here’s our round-up of the streamer’s Christmas-related movies not to miss this year.
Christmas on Mistletoe Farm
A widowed father inherits a farm and moves his young family there at Christmas - and the adjustment is bumpy to say the least, at least for him. The kids love it, however, and start to plot to find a way that they can all stay.
Director Debbie Isitt has something of a penchant for Christmas films (she also directed Navity Rocks! and Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey?!) and it stars Bridgerton’s Kathryn Drysdale (she plays the dressmaker who knows everyone’s business, Genevieve Delacroix) alongside a fairly fresh-faced cast including Scott Garnham and Scott Paige.
From November 23
Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas
It’s been eleven long years since We Wish Ewe A Merry Christmas, and now Shaun is back for another Christmas escapade. This time, Shaun is out on a hunt for a bigger stocking and this festive quest leads him on a larger adventure that sees The Farmer dressed as Father Christmas, Mossy Bottom Farm covered in snow, unbearably wholesome scenes that involve ice skating, pop-up Christmas trees, a sledge, and of course, tonnes and tonnes of sheep.
From December 1
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol
Dickens’s Christmas classic has been recreated hundreds of times, but that hasn’t quashed our excitement about this new animated musical version. Here, Stephen Donnelly, creator of Monster High: Welcome to Monster High, directs, and award-winning actors Jessie Buckley, Olivia Colman and James Cosmo star, with Luke Evans voicing the eponymous mutton-chopped miser.
From December 2
Falling For Christmas
Lindsay Lohan’s first major film in almost a decade dropped this month, and it has been trending since its release. If you’re just getting on board, Lohan plays hotel heiress Sierra Belmont. After becoming newly engaged to her influencer boyfriend, Sierra gets in a snow-related accident, loses her memory, and, unable to remember who she is or where she ought to be, ends up being cared for by widower lodge owner Jake, his unbearably cute daughter and kindly mother-in-law. Guess what happens? It’s the first of two Christmas films that Lohan is making with Netflix: her second, called Irish Wish, will be released next year.
Available now
The Christmas Chronicles
This 2018 comedy film from Clay Kaytis follows the story of Kate and Teddy who try and salvage Christmas after they jump into Santa Claus’ sleigh, crash it and lose all the presents. With Kurt Russell playing Santa Claus and Goldie Hawn playing Mrs Claus, what could be more fun? Hawn’s real-life son Oliver Hudson plays Teddy and Kate’s late father and Kimberly Williams-Paisley (Safe House, Lucky 7) and Lamorne Morris (Game Night, Yesterday) also star. Although the film received mixed reviews, Netflix reported that as many as 20 million watched it in the first week after it was released, making it a major hit.
Available now
Father Christmas Is Back
This 2021 British comedy film starring Liz Hurley, John Cleese, Kelsey Grammer and Talulah Riley is about four sisters who gather in a mansion in Yorkshire over Christmas. Consisting of only slightly more dramatic events than at any normal Christmas family reunion, festivities start to unravel when their father (Grammer) shows up decades after abandoning the family, and a long-buried family secret also gets exposed.
If you like this comedy there is also a sequel, Christmas In Paradise, which was released by Lionsgate in November and which sees Grammer and his daughters reunite in the Caribbean (though it’s not on Netflix yet).
Available now
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
22 years after its release, Jim Carrey’s crooked green face almost whips up as much Christmas cheer as Father Christmas himself. Well, almost.
For those who somehow missed watching this 2000 film version of Dr. Seuss’ 1957 novel, it’s about the Grinch and who dislikes Christmas. One year, feeling particularly malevolent, he decides to steal all the presents, decorations and food of the Who, the townspeople of Whoville. Anthony Hopkins narrates and Christine Baranski, Bill Irwin and Molly Shannon also star.
Available now
Dolly Parton’s Christmas On The Square
Straight-forward reimaginings of A Christmas Carol are all well and good, but why not watch Dolly Parton’s bonkers musical version, which has the always fabulous Christine Baranski playing a wealthy real estate owner Regina Fuller? She returns to her hometown to sell the land, but everything changes when she receives a visit from Dolly Parton aka Angel.
The musical was almost universally panned, being called by one paper’s review “an absurd barrage of singing and dancing”, but sometimes, and especially at Christmas, what could be better than that?
Available now
Single All the Way
Peter (Michael Urie) persuades his best friend Nick (Philemon Chambers) to pretend to be his boyfriend for his Christmas family visit home. But unbeknownst to him, his mum (played by Hocus Pocus’ Kathy Najimy) already has plans to set him up on a blind date. Drama ensues, but things, happily, take a turn for the romantic.
Jennifer Coolidge (The White Lotus) stars as the fabulous Aunt Sandy alongside Barry Bostwick (Schitt’s Creek) as father Harold and Jennifer Robertson as Peter’s sister Lisa. Director Michael Mayer cut his teeth on Broadway, winning a Tony Award for directing the rock musical Spring Awakening in 2007.
Available now
A Castle for Christmas
Despite its utterly ridiculous premise we couldn’t help enjoying this rom-com about a best-selling author Sophie Brown (Brooke Shields) who takes a sabbatical in Scotland after her latest book causes a scandal.
She falls in love with Dun Dunbar, the castle where her grandfather used to work as a groundskeeper, and manages to strike a deal with its owner Myles (Cary Elwes), who is running out of money to keep up the mouldering pile: he agrees to let her buy the castle off him, but she needs to stay at the property for several weeks, during which he secretly plans to put her off the purchase (he’s wavering on his decision to sell) by being incredibly rude. Convoluted? You don’t say. Nevertheless, it’s fun watching it all unravel at the Tudor Gothic Dalmeny House near Edinburgh.
Available now
A Christmas Prince
There are now three Christmas Prince films in the franchise: 2017’s A Christmas Prince, 2018’s A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding and 2019’s A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby, all three of which are on Netflix.
The original is, in our view, the best. In it, young journalist Amber Moore (Rose McIver) is sent to the tiny kingdom of Aldovia (where’s that?) to get the scoop on Prince Richard, who has been portrayed as a playboy but who is now about to be king following his father’s death. While poking around the palace she gets mistaken for one of the princesses’ American tutors and goes along with things so she can get behind the scenes. Well, as per usual, the end is nothing if not predictable, but we’re not complaining.
