Deck the Halls (and Your Netflix Queue) with These Christmas Movies and TV Shows

Falling for Christmas (2022)

Netflix 's top Christmas novelty Falling for Christmas brings Lindsay Lohan back into family movies. With more than one generation of viewers watching The Parent Trap and Freaky Friday as their Christmas season specials, the new romcom exploits Lindsay's nostalgic charms: she is, as always, funny, smiling, and adorable.

This time, Lohan plays spoiled daddy's girl Sierra Belmont, who isn't thrilled about inheriting her father's luxury ski resort. After a skiing accident, the girl loses her memory and finds herself in the care of Jake Russell, her savior and part owner of a cozy family hotel on the verge of bankruptcy. Russell offers Sierra a place at the hotel until someone comes to claim her or she can remember who she is. During her stay, Sierra's personality transforms as she tries to help Jake save his business.

Home for Christmas (2019)

The Norwegian comedy series Home for Christmas combines the "chick flicks" of the noughties with numerous romcom fictional relationship plots — but in doing so, it's terribly witty and lifelike. "When are you getting married? When are you going to have kids? How come are you still single?" — every family celebration, any unmarried woman in her late twenties and thirties comes under attack from her parents and relatives. Home for Christmas shows exactly what happens if the interrogators are too persistent.

Shortly before Christmas, Johanne arrives at her parents' house for a family dinner. The house is swarming with the offspring of her family and friends, and everyone can't help but comment on Johanne's life: all agree that she needs to work less and spend more time looking for "the one." Unable to handle the pressure, Johanne blurts out she's already dating someone, and her family insists that she brings the man in for the Christmas celebration. Now, Johanne has just 24 days to find a fake boyfriend to bring home for Christmas.

The Christmas Chronicles (2018)

Normally, Christmas and New Year's Eve movies use plenty of clichés — and this one is no exception. This is undoubtedly a part of their beauty and charm: we know from the start that, at the end, the characters will end up warm, cozy, and loved. But The Christmas Chronicles also does a few things differently: for one, it features a phenomenal Santa Claus played by Kurt Russell. He steals cars and sings blues rock in jail, and his elves can surely outdo any hardened criminal. And if that's not enough to spark your interest in The Chronicles, you may like to know that it was directed by Chris Columbus, the very person who created the Home Alone movies, along with the first two Harry Potter films, and Mrs. Doubtfire — just to name a few. By the way, there's also a sequel to The Christmas Chronicles, also directed by Columbus.

The story follows two kids of the Pierce family: Teddy, who lost his holiday spirit after his father's death and got involved with bad company, and his younger sister Kate, who doesn't lose faith in Christmas. One day, Kate is watching old family videos and spots someone's hand: the girl is sure it belongs to Santa. The kids decide to catch the old man at work, but their plan leads to a catastrophe: Klaus's sleigh is broken, the reindeer are scattered, and the presents are lost. Now, Kate and Teddy have to fix everything and help Santa save Christmas.

Jack Whitehall: Christmas with My Father (2019)

This is perhaps the most surprising item on our list — Jack Whitehall: Christmas with My Father is a Netflix special that falls between a standup comedy and a talk show and features comedian Jack Whitehall and his father Michael.

Over the course of an hour, Whitehall Jr. chats with his conservative father about how their family celebrated Christmas for the past 30 years: they watch family videos, recall Michael's silly jokes at the festive table, and Jack tries to educate his dad about gender norms and veganism. The show looks like a father-son competition for who can crack the wittiest joke and get the audience to laugh harder.

Over Christmas (2020)

The German mini series is a perfect choice for those who are tired of the mottling and puppetry of most Christmas and New Year's Eve productions. In that sense, Over Christmas is as realistic and down-to-earth as possible and goes without ugly sweaters and excessive sentimentality associated with the holiday season — in short, it's a sort of story that could happen to anyone.

Bastian had once left his hometown to go to Berlin to pursue a career in music. Several years passed, and he still works in a call center and plays music in the streets — and to top it off, he has just been dumped by his girlfriend. Christmas is approaching, and Bastian goes back to his parents' house to spend his favorite holiday there. At home, he confronts his more successful brother who's now dating Bastian's ex.

Love Hard (2021)

"Horrors of modern dating on Christmas Eve": there's a short summary of Love Hard for you. The film follows the conventional story of a "loser" trying to win the heart of a "hottie," and the plot is so formulaic, you can pretty much guess every twist. It's probably a perfect movie to put in the background while you wrap presents, decorate the Christmas tree, or make mulled wine — so all those pre-festive chores don't feel too monotonous.

Natalie is an LA-based journalist who writes about the disastrous dates she meets via a dating app. Readers love reading her columns, but Natalie feels desperately lonely and decides to expand her search radius: she swipes right on a great guy who lives on the East Coast. Natalie jumps on a flight to pay him a surprise Christmas visit — only to find out she has been catfished.

Dash & Lily (2020)

Christmas specials often prove to be more exciting than the original series — just remember "The One with the Holiday Armadillo" episode on Friends and Ted Lasso 's "Carol of the Bells." Now, imagine the entire show made to look like a Christmas special — and that's what watching Dash & Lily feels like. It's a festive Woody Allen–like comedy that can melt any cynic's heart.

Teenage Dash hates everything about Christmas because his girlfriend left him on Christmas Eve. He walks around New York, sulky and disdainful of all the couples around him, and enters one of the bookshops. There, he finds a notebook with a message written on the front: "Do you dare?" Dash follows the clues in the notebook to find out the author's identity: solve a riddle, make an impromptu public performance, or steal Santa's hat. Dash and the notebook's owner Lily don't meet but get close by passing the notebook to each other and sharing their dares and dreams.

Three Days of Christmas (2019)

This is another unusual holiday miniseries on our list: the Spanish Three Days of Christmas uses the festive season as a backdrop for a stirring family drama. The overarching feel of the show is anxiety rather than the exciting anticipation of Christmas or New Year's celebration. If you feel like experimenting with your viewing choices this festive season, you should definitely try Three Days of Christmas.

Each of the three episodes shows four sisters celebrating Christmas in their family home during three different periods in their lives: youth, adulthood, and elderly age. In the first episode, the characters inadvertently discover a monstrous secret that will affect the four sisters' lives, their relationship with each other, their family, and partners — until one Christmas day, in the series' last episode, this secret is finally revealed.

Klaus (2019)

Here's the dessert left for the end of our list: if you haven't yet seen Klaus, you're missing out on a lot of Christmas spirit. This Spanish animated film is relatively new, but it's sure to become a holiday classic alongside Home Alone and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Essentially, the plot is meant to provide a rational explanation to the existence of Santa Claus, but at the same time, it's not devoid of the magic of Christmas — only this magic is manifest through the characters' feelings, relationships, and acts, rather than flying sleighs, elves, and other typical ho-ho-ho's.

It all begins when Jesper, the worst student at the postal academy, is forced to relocate to a faraway island above the Arctic Circle. His job there is to rebuild the post office in a year and organize the mailing of six thousand letters. The whole town is in shambles, and the locals are divided into two feuding groups that hardly communicate with each other. One day, Jesper meets Klaus, a recluse carpenter who used to make children's toys. The young postman comes up with a scheme: children will write letters to Klaus with requests for gifts, and Jesper himself will thus get closer to his goal. Their joint undertaking transforms the town and locals, bringing warm new holiday traditions to the frozen land.