These Netflix Holiday Movies Will Help Treat Your 'Falling for Christmas' Withdrawal
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So, you've just watched Falling for Christmas, and you're already going through holiday rom-com withdrawal. Luckily, when it comes to finding all the best holiday movies in one place, Netflix has firmly cemented itself as the gift that keeps on giving. Since the internet collectively fell in love with The Christmas Prince back in 2017, the streaming giant has continued to fill our stockings with incredible holiday movies from The Princess Switch to Single All the Way, starring the one and only Jennifer Coolidge.
But if you're looking for a little less love under the mistletoe and more action (ahem, for those who consider Die Hard a holiday movie), or if you need a bit of distraction for the little ones while you're off in Santa's workshop (a.k.a. another room), there are plenty of options to stream, from Christmas Crossfire to Jingle Jangle. And no holiday movie marathon is complete without a classic like White Christmas.
Whatever you end up watching, there's no better start to the merriest time of the year than cozying up under some blankets with hot chocolate or mulled wine and settling in for a holiday film that is pure joy.
Ready to start populating that queue? Check out these 35 best Christmas movies on Netflix in 2023.
Falling For Christmas
In case you haven't heard, Lindsay Lohan is back in what is sure to be the second best holiday content we've gotten from her—because yes, the Santa Baby dance from Mean Girls will always get top honors. In Falling for Christmas, Lindsay stars as spoiled heiress Sierra who learns about the true meaning of the holiday when she wakes up with total amnesia after a skiing accident. (During which she fell off a mountain... see what those title writers did there?)
With some help from the handsome local inn owner (Chord Overstreet), Sierra's journey to figuring out who she is might just help her see what she's been missing all along.
Christmas With You
The holiday season always seems like a time where even the most unlikely possibilities can come true. For example, a famous pop star (Aimee Garcia) could see a fan video from a young girl who happens to be the daughter of a very hot and very single teacher (Freddie Prinze, Jr.). Another possibility: That pop star could decide to surprise the fan at her school, only for a blizzard to cause her to spend some quality time with their family, maybe write the song that could relaunch her career, and find love all at the same time.
What? It could happen.
The Noel Diary
Jacob Turner (Justin Hartley fresh off of This Is Us) has a lot of questions about his late estranged mother, who kicked him out of the house when he was 16. When he returns to her house at Christmastime to settle her estate, he finds a journal that just might contain the answers he's spent his whole life looking for.
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol
Watching a rendition of A Christmas Carol is a Yuletide must! There are a number of adaptations out there, but if you're in the mood for a family-friendly and animated take on the tale, look no further than Netflix's offering this season. Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, and Luke Evans lent their voices to the classic characters.
The Princess Switch
In The Princess Switch, Vanessa Hudgens plays a single American baker who enters a baking competition in Belgravia. While she’s there, she keeps getting confused with a princess who looks just like her. (Don't you hate it when that happens?) The two switch lives for a bit and—surprise, surprise—romantic entanglements ensue.If you can't get enough of the High School Musical alum playing her own doppelgänger, be sure to tune into The Princess Switch 2: Switched Again and The Princess Switch 3: Romancing The Star, too.
Single All the Way
Going home for the holidays can be complicated as it is, but when Peter, sick of questions about his single life, convinces his best friend to pose as his boyfriend and come with him, only to have a blind date already waiting for him (set up by his mom by all people) when he gets there, you can bet things are not going to be all holly jolly.
If wanting to see how everything turns out doesn't convince you to press play on this queer holiday film, two words: Jennifer Coolidge.
A Castle for Christmas
On paper, spending the holidays at a Scottish castle sounds like one of the most romantic ways to pass the season. It's too bad that for Sophie (Brooke Shields), who travels abroad to buy a whole castle, her dream Christmas comes with a prickly owner (Carey Elwes) who forces her to stay in the coldest and dustiest room in the place.
But, in true Christmas spirit, while they may start out butting heads, the pair’s relationship might just turn into something a little bit more.
Love Hard
When LA girl Natalie (Nina Dobrev) falls for East Coast guy Josh on a dating app, she decides to take a chance and surprise him with a Christmas visit... only to find out he may have "borrowed" some photos of the local hot guy Tag (Darren Barnet of Never Have I Ever) for his profile.
But it doesn't end there. Josh convinces Natalie to stick around with the promise that he'll introduce the two of them—but only after she poses as Josh's girlfriend during the holidays. Oh, the perils of online dating.
Grumpy Christmas
Don Servando (played by Héctor Bonilla) and Doña Alicia are two people who could use a little more Christmas cheer and a little less bah humbug. Brought together by their newly married son and daughter, they're forced to spend the holiday season together at the beach and quickly discover they loathe each other. Neither is willing to make the best out of the situation, even if that means ruining Christmas for the whole family.
A Naiji Christmas
The only thing this mother wants for Christmas is to see her sons who have refused to settle down and get married. She's even willing to throw in a sweet prize—her house in the fanciest neighborhood in Lagos—to whichever son says "I do" first, which sparks a fierce competition between them.
A California Christmas
Joseph is the rich playboy and wannabe real estate tycoon and Callie is the hardworking farmer who is just trying to keep her family's land—which Joseph is dispatched to take off her hands. Mistaken for the new farm hand, Joseph is put to work and the two soon get to know each other, drink some excellent wine (this is a California farm after all), and maybe even end up falling in love.
If you love this one, catch the sequel, A California Christmas: City Lights, in which family obligations require Joseph to go back to the city—possibly jeopardizing their love.
Christmas Wedding Planner
There’s nothing like being a wedding planner during the holidays to remind a girl how single she is. But Kelsey doesn’t have the time to dwell on such things when she has her cousin's big Christmas wedding—the event that will be her big break into the industry—to plan and Connor, a private investigator who is threatening to ruin the whole thing, to deal with.
A Boy Called Christmas
After his father goes missing, a young boy named Nikolas must travel to the North Pole to save him—and maybe realize his destiny as a certain man in a red and white suit? Based on the book of the same name by Matt Haig, the family-friendly film stars Henry Lawfull, Sally Hawkins, Kristen Wiig, and the always-a-joy-to-watch Maggie Smith.
A Thousand Miles From Christmas
All it takes for this auditor who has forgotten the true meaning of Christmas to reignite his holiday spirit, however reluctantly, is one earnest teacher determined to put on the biggest living nativity scene ever. See how it all turns out in this Spanish rom-com.
Holidate
What's a list of holiday movies without at least one "friends with judge-y families who promise to just be each other's plus one at various holiday get-togethers but end up falling in love with each other" film? While it may seem like a tired trope, the scenes with Kristen Chenoweth alone make Holidate worth a watch.
Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square
Time with certified national treasure Dolly Parton is the best holiday gift you could ever receive. The Grammy winner's holiday special features 14 new songs, Jenifer Lewis, and a delightfully grinch-y Christine Baranski, so go ahead and have a holly Dolly Christmas.
A Christmas Prince
The Netflix Christmas original that started it all, A Christmas Prince took the internet by storm in 2017. The holiday rom-com follows journalist Amber Moore as she travels to Aldovia to cover the crown prince's ascension to the royal throne. She goes undercover to report on the story... and ends up falling for the prince in the process (obviously). But will they get their snow-capped happily ever after? You'll just have to tune in to find out.
If you're a fan, may I recommend also catching the "so bad, it's good" sequels?
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey
Remember that feeling you got when you were a kid and you opened up the last present under the tree on Christmas morning and it was the exact toy you'd been waiting to get all year? If that feeling of wonder was bottled and infused into a movie, it would be Jingle Jangle.
The film tells the story of toymaker Jeronicus (Forest Whitaker) who has lost his spark after his former assistant stole his book of inventions. But you know what might reignite Jeronicus's creativity? The love of family, a little Christmas spirit, and one truly magical toy.
A Very Murray Christmas
Every family should have that one offbeat uncle. And if you don't, you should feel free to claim Bill Murray as yours. With special guests Miley Cyrus, Phoenix, George Clooney, and Chris Rock—just to name a few—A Very Murray Christmas is Murray at his best. His dancing-and-singing-and-drinking-until-he-passes-out-on-Christmas-Eve best.
Klaus
A spoiled postman, Jesper, teams up with a reclusive, burly toymaker named Klaus to bring cheer (and toys) to the children of Smeerensberg—an icy, Nordic island that has lost its happiness to generations-long family feuds. When word gets out, the families decide to put aside their differences (yes!) and work together to rid the town of their new common enemies: Jesper and Klaus (oh no).
With stunning visuals and a cast that includes Jason Schwartzman, J.K. Simmons, and Rashida Jones, this animated Netflix original breathes new life into a classic legend.
Let It Snow
Multiple storylines of teens dealing with relationships, friends, and friends who maybe want to be more than friends come together during one fateful Christmas Eve snowstorm in Let It Snow. (Think Love Actually but with more waffles and more Kiernan Shipka.)
It's based on the novel by YA masters John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle, so you can expect some seriously heartwarming and funny moments.
White Christmas
What's a Christmas movie marathon without this 1950s classic? Something out of the Grinch's lair, that's what. This heartwarming film follows two friends and former soldiers who decide to help their former Army general's struggling inn drum up Christmas business by putting on a big show. The cast is incredible (hello, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney!), and the dance numbers are *chef's kiss*. There's no way you're walking away from this one not filled with holiday cheer.
Christmas Inheritance
Cheesy, yet so good. In order to test her ability to run the family's toy business, spoiled heiress Ellie is sent to Snow Falls (where the company started) with instructions to hand deliver a letter to her Uncle Zeke. But with Zeke nowhere to be found and a snowstorm that leaves her trapped in the company of a handsome inn manager, Ellie will have some extra time on her hands to learn the true meaning of Christmas.
Holiday in the Wild
Yes, Rob Lowe and Kristin Davis are technically the stars of Holiday in the Wild, but you could make a pretty good argument that the elephants are the real scene stealers in this rom-com.
After her husband announces he's leaving her right before they're supposed to head out on a safari vacation (rude), Kristin's character Kate ends up on her second honeymoon to Zambia alone. But don't worry. With the company of a hot pilot (Lowe) and an orphaned elephant who needs nursing back to health, Kate might just end up having the Christmas of a lifetime.
Holiday Rush
When popular radio DJ Rush Williams is fired just before the holidays, he and his four (ok, slightly spoiled) kids move in with his aunt—a lifestyle change that might just be the Christmas present that they all really needed.
This heartwarming film stars Darlene Love, Deon Cole and La La Anthony.
The Knight Before Christmas
Is it okay to make a whole dang holiday movie based on a pun of a classic Christmas story? Yes, yes, it is. In The Knight Before Christmas, Vanessa Hudgens stars as Brooke, a teacher who has given up on love until she (quite literally) runs into Sir Cole Christopher Frederick Lyons, a medieval knight who has somehow ended up in the present day.
Brooke feels compelled to help Sir Cole get back to his right time period or remember who he actually is—whichever comes first. That is, unless Brooke and Sir Cole find themselves living happily ever after instead...
Christmas Crossfire
Firmly in the camp that Die Hard is a Christmas movie? This one's for you. After a man interrupts an intended murder, he finds himself in the would-be killers' sights. Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like running for your life.
The Christmas Chronicles
Stowing away in Santa's sleigh is something that will 100 percent land you on the naughty list this year—even if this cool-as-hell Santa is played by equally cool-as-hell Kurt Russell. But with Christmas spirit down 35 percent and kids across the world at risk of not getting presents this year, those naughty kids might be exactly the elves that Santa needs.
You would think one Christmas adventure would be enough for Kate, her brother, and Santa, but there's even more of a holly jolly good time to be had in the sequel.
Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker
It just isn't the holiday season without seeing a performance of The Nutcracker. Prep for your time with the Sugar Plum Fairy with Netflix's behind-the-scenes look at legendary dancer and choreographer Debbie Allen's original rendition of the classic ballet in this documentary. Trust, you'll be giving this one a standing ovation.
Operation Christmas Drop
What's it take for a by-the-book Congressional aid (Kat Graham) to finally relax enough to understand the true meaning of the holidays? Oh, just a trip to a U.S. Air Force base on a tropical island, some heartwarming moments with local kids in need, and one dashing and charismatic captain.
Just Another Christmas
Getting trapped in a time loop where every day is Christmas honestly sounds like the ideal. But if you're Jorge, who really really doesn't care for the holiday, it's your own personal hell. Tune in to see if the poor guy ever makes it to the day after Christmas.
The Holiday Calendar
Kat Graham is ready to bring even more holiday cheer to your screen in The Holiday Calendar. In the film, her character is gifted a beautiful antique Advent calendar, and then things start to get a little bit weird. Each day, the calendar seems to be dropping hints about her future—and not just what presents she'll be getting this year.
Angela's Christmas Wish
Add Angela's Christmas Wish to the top of your must-watch list the next time the whole family is looking to spend the night in together. This sweet story, based on a children's book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt, follows a young Irish girl who makes it her personal mission to keep the baby Jesus doll in the local nativity scene warm.
This, of course, is easier said than done. The adventures Angela has, plus the film's overall message of generosity might make it a new family favorite.
Christmas With a View
The hiring of a new celebrity chef has the tinsel a-talkin' at the Thunder Mountain Ski Resort, except for Clara, an aspiring restaurant owner who keeps crossing paths with her new boss. As you might guess, things get ~spicy~ from there.
The Claus Family
Christmas doesn't have to be everyone's favorite day of the year. But it would probably help if, say, you're a member of the Claus family (yes, that one), that, at least, you put on a happy face until December 26th. And when your grandfather, a.k.a. the big man himself, falls ill, you might just have to learn how to embrace the spirit of the season just a little.
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The Claus Family
Christmas doesn't have to be everyone's favorite day of the year. But it would probably help if, say, you're a member of the Claus family (yes, that one), that, at least, you put on a happy face until December 26th. And when your grandfather, a.k.a. the big man himself, falls ill, you might just have to learn how to embrace the spirit of the season just a little.
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