The 30 best Christmas movies to watch on Netflix UK now, from Love Actually to The Princess Switch

best Christmas movies to watch on Netflix UK 2020 - Peter Mountain/Film Stills
best Christmas movies to watch on Netflix UK 2020 - Peter Mountain/Film Stills
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without fixing your eyes on the TV, for hours on end, watching festive films. It doesn’t even matter that many of them are completely terrible.

Luckily, Netflix is serving up a host of holiday movies this year. Plan your viewing now with our seasonal guide.

Best Christmas movies on Netflix

Klaus (2019)

In Netflix’s first original animated feature, a selfish (and exceedingly irritating) postman called Jesper (voiced by Jason Schwartzman) and a grumpy old toymaker (J.K. Simmons) become friends and attempt to cheer up the miserable, frosty town of Smeerensburg. Sergio Pablos’s animations are charming, even if the story subplots can get a little complicated.

Holiday in the Wild (2019)

This feel-good festive rom-com stars Sex and the City's Kristen Davis as a single woman on safari in Zambia, trying to get over her husband who unceremoniously dumped her two days before their second honeymoon. Luckily, her safari pilot turns out to be quite the catch... Expect sunny Christmas cheer and plenty of baby animals.

The Holiday (2006)

One of the few decent Rom Coms on Netflix, here two women with broken hearts, Surrey journalist Iris (Kate Winslet), and Los-Angeles movie-trailer maker Amanda (Cameron Diaz), house swap for Christmas for some much-needed R&R. Both women end up attached to the other's emotional baggage, leading to two, new and unexpected love stories. A lovely, fluffy film that warms the heart without making it cringe.

Read more: Best Christmas movies on Disney+

Love Actually (2003)

Netflix’s big “get” for the festive season is Richard Curtis’s endearingly cloying Christmas classic Love Actually, which really ought to have become an end-of-year tradition by now for any respectable Brit. Featuring a host of A-listers (and Martine McCutcheon), it also has the most 2003 soundtrack of all time, with Hugh Grant et al serenaded throughout by the likes of Sugababes, Girls Aloud, S Club Juniors and Dido.

El Camino Christmas (2017)

A potty-mouthed Netflix original with an almost impressively C-list cast of Tim Allen, Dax Shepard and Jessica Alba, this festive comedy stars Luke Grimes as a drifter who, following a short-lived reunion with his absent father, winds up taking a Nevada liquor store hostage on Christmas Eve. Much learning and growing and bonding looks set to ensue.

Christmas Inheritance (2017)

Like a reverse Sweet Home Alabama, Eliza Taylor plays a wealthy New York debutante who ventures to small-town Nowheresville to learn the value of all-American graft and hard work, pretends to be a commoner, falls in love and realises there’s more to life than endless Manhattan parties and boozing. A Netflix original, Christmas Inheritance looks a lot like the sort of thing a Zellweger or a Heigl would have made when romantic comedies still played in cinemas, and appears to ride on the same sense of enjoyably lightweight nostalgia.

Arthur Christmas (2011)

Despite slightly vanishing upon its release in 2011 (it didn’t even get a Best Animated Film Oscar nod), Arthur Christmas has emerged as something of a modern classic, with that trademark Aardman wit and warmth, and a lovely voiceover performance from James McAvoy as Santa’s clumsy son Arthur, who decides to rescue a little girl’s Christmas when Father Christmas forgets to deliver her gift. Bill Nighy, Michael Palin and Hugh Laurie are among the rest of the cast.

A Christmas Prince (2017)

A so-bad-it’s-amazing Christmas movie that has already garnered a wave of press for its various shortcomings, A Christmas Prince stars iZombie’s Rose McIver as a terrible New York journalist sent to a press conference in the fictional European country of Aldovia to report on a “playboy prince”. While there she goes undercover as a tutor for the prince’s disabled sister, falls in love with the prince and unearths a royal scandal. It is, by all accounts, the greatest-slash-worst thing to exist, playing like The Prince & Me, Never Been Kissed and the Princess Diaries sequel all tossed in a blender while a cheaper version of Natasha Bedingfield plays on the soundtrack.

Arthur Christmas - Aardman Animations for Sony Pictures
Arthur Christmas - Aardman Animations for Sony Pictures

Last Holiday (2006)

When you’re going to remake an old British terminal illness comedy starring Alec Guinness, why not cast Queen Latifah? This cheery festive film casts Latifah as a lonely department store employee who is told she has just weeks to live, inspiring her to journey on a luxury European holiday for one last blow-out, where she romances LL Cool J and eats fancy meals prepared by Gerard Depardieu.

A Very Murray Christmas (2015)

For a less mean Bill Murray, why not sample his experimental variety show special from 2015, directed by none other than Sofia Coppola and featuring cameos from George Clooney, Miley Cyrus, Chris Rock and a host of other stars. Full of songs and vaguely surreal skits, it’s a slight non-event, but worth watching for curiosity’s sake.

Read more: Christmas TV guide 2020

Deck the Halls (2006)

An unofficial US remake of the ITV comedy Christmas Lights starring Robson Green and Mark Benton, Deck the Halls casts Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito as next door rivals whose competitive holiday joy turns into an all-out war while wives Kristin Davis and Kristin Chenoweth wag their fingers on the sidelines. It’s unmistakably awful, but will likely make decent background noise to a game of Jenga.

Rose McIver and Ben Lamb in A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding - Reuters
Rose McIver and Ben Lamb in A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding - Reuters

Babes in Toyland (1986)

For the “weird and wonderful Eighties nonsense” aficionados in your life, this cheap-and-cheerful Christmas musical sees a bored-looking, 11-year-old Drew Barrymore getting sucked into a magical world in which life-sized toys roam the earth. Keanu Reeves, at his distractingly enthusiastic best, also appears, as does The Karate Kid’s Mr Miyagi, just to drive home the fact that this came out in 1986.

A Christmas Prince: the Royal Wedding (2018)

Last year's Netflix Original A Christmas Prince proved so oddly addictive it bagged itself a sequel, suspiciously well-timed with our own royal events. Amber and Prince Richard prepare to tie the knot, causing Amber anxiety she's not fit to be royal. It's not any better than the first, but remains as inexplicably watchable.

The Princess Switch (2018)

Another film treading the well-worn and predictably entertaining conceit of a life switch. Chicago baker (Vanessa Hudgens) competes in a Christmas baking competition in Belgravia, where she meets the prince's fiancée, who (totally unbelievably) looks exactly like her. They agree to swap lives for two days so as to, quite literally, see how the other half lives. Suspend your disbelief for two hours, and you might just get sucked in.

A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby (2019)

The third film in the Christmas Prince franchise looks like it will be the most far-fetched of all, but silliness is all part of the festive spirit. Queen Amber of Aldovia (Rose McIver) is expecting just in time for Christmas, and, along with her husband King Richard (Ben Lamb), must host King Tai (Kevin Shen) and Queen Ming (Momo Yeung) of Penglia to renew a 600-year-old sacred truce. Festivities turn dark when the sacred treaty paper goes missing, a snowstorm blows in, and the young couple realise an ancient curse is soon to descend upon the family...

Hector (2015)

A radical antidote to the all-American holiday cheese that makes up the majority of this list is Hector, a downbeat realist drama starring the great Peter Mullan. He’s the Hector of the title, a homeless Scotsman journeying down the country to get to a shelter in London that he plans to stay in for Christmas.

Nativity! (2009)

Anything starring Martin Freeman tends to be magically compelling, and this feel-good seasonal treat - an improvised comedy in which primary school teacher Paul (Freeman) tries to organise a school nativity - is no different.

Dr Seuss’s The Grinch (2018)

Benedict Cumberbatch voices the grumpy, green-furred Grinch with a heart two sizes too small, who plots to steal Christmas from the residents of Whoville. Can six-year-old Cindy Lou change his outlook? This brightly coloured animation has family-friendly jokes and eye-popping visuals.

Holidate (2020)

Sloane is sick of her family asking about her love life, and Jackson wants no-pressure dating options for the holidays. So, the pair agree to be one another’s “holidates” - no sex, no romance. It’s a familiar premise, but Emma Roberts and Aussie actor Luke Bracey are likable leads, while Kristin Chenoweth is a scene-stealing randy aunt.

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020)

This Victorian-set musical fantasy sees Forest Whitaker play a toy inventor who lost everything when his dastardly apprentice stole his blueprints. Granddaughter Journey is determined to restore his legacy. Featuring plenty of Broadway-style razzle-dazzle, including upbeat dance routines by Kylie’s choreographer Ashley Wallen. Ricky Martin and Hugh Bonneville are also among the cast.

The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (2020)

The sequel to The Christmas Chronicles (also on Netflix) sees Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn reprising their roles as Santa and Mrs Claus - the latter getting a much more prominent role this time around. They’re visited at the North Pole by an unhappy teenager, and also have to contend with a troublemaker trying to sabotage the festive season.

Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square (2020)

Have a jolly, Dolly - admittedly very campy - Christmas with this musical fable. Christine Baranski is the wealthy landowner threatening to evict the townspeople to make way for a shopping mall. Can Parton’s rhinestone-covered angel persuade her otherwise? Parton also provides the songs, and director/choreographer Debbie Allen the buoyant dance routines.

The Knight Before Christmas (2019)

If you like your romcoms with a side order of time-travelling (and somehow Kate & Leopold passed you by), this Vanessa Hudgens vehicle is for you. She plays Brooke, a disillusioned woman who has given up on the concept of happy ever after. Enter 14th-century knight Cole, sent to the future to fulfil his destiny.

Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger (2012)

Another chapter in the genial British franchise, this time starring David Tennant as twin brothers - an anxious primary school teacher, and his famous composer and conductor brother - who clash at a national Christmas song competition.  Marc Wootton is back as the irrepressible Mr Poppy.

Let It Snow (2019)

Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka is among the ensemble cast of this YA novel adaptation. Set on Christmas Eve, in a small, snowy town, several teenagers fall in and out of love. A witty script by British comedian Laura Solon, 30 Rock and Pitch Perfect’s Kay Cannon, and Finding Dory screenwriter Victoria Strouse makes this a surprising charmer.

Operation Christmas Drop (2020)

Based on the real-life US Air Force humanitarian mission of the same name, this genial film sees a congressional aid tasked with investigating a USAF base in order to find a reason to close it down. But a handsome captain shows her how they airlift goods to the citizens of Guam for Christmas - and, naturally, romance blossoms.

The Princess Switch: Switched Again (2020)

Yes, there’s more! Vanessa Hudgens returns - this time playing not one, not two, but three coincidentally identical women. As Margaret, Duchess of Montenaro prepares for her coronation, she switches places once again with Stacy in order to repair her love life. But the scheming Lady Fiona spies an opportunity to steal the throne...

A Bad Moms Christmas (2017)

Sequel to the 2016 film Bad Moms, the original trio - played by Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn - are joined by their own difficult mothers: welcome Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines and Susan Sarandon. Expect male strippers, drunken mayhem, and an oddly sentimental streak.

Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey? (2014)

Martin Clunes, Catherine Tate, Celia Imrie and Jason Watkins join Marc Wootton in the third instalment. Clunes plays an Ofsted inspector due to get married in New York. But, when he’s hit in the head by Mr Poppy’s pet donkey, he develops amnesia. Can he get his memory back before the big day?

A New York Christmas Wedding (2020)

Unhappily ambushed with Christmas eve nuptials by her future in-laws, Jennifer is given a chance to choose a different path by her guardian angel. The twist: in her alternate life, she’s explored her romantic feelings for her childhood female friend. Sex and the City’s Chris Noth pops up as a Catholic priest.