153 New Christmas & Holiday Movies: Hallmark, Lifetime, More

The grand total of original holiday films in 2022 is, by our count, a startling 153, appearing across 25 television networks and streaming services. Many have already premiered, having the audacity to come out as early as October, unabashedly preempting traditional yuletide season — which is, for the sane, right now. Such is the consequence of an ever-growing quantum of competitors attempting to play the game that Hallmark and Lifetime perfected with their own ridiculous, smooth-brained holiday cinema. By the time mid-December rolls around, it’s nearly impossible to navigate the pine-scented morass of made-for-TV viewing options.

This is largely because, despite the deluge, most holiday movies remain the same. If you don’t squint hard enough, everything looks like this: A hard-working woman with a fresh balayage visits a small town for Christmas, outfitted exclusively in Target-brand decorations, to uncover the true meaning of the holiday (falling in love with a man who owns every sweater from Lands’ End). But if you squint excessively hard, stretching your optic nerve (in the spirit of Christmas, imagine this is an anatomically accurate way of describing nerves) to its absolute limit, there are key differences. Some take place in small towns, others in hometowns; there are girlbosses who dream of owning property and girlbosses who dream of owning bakeries; there are pets who are in danger of being petnapped, and there are pets who are in danger of just not being adopted. Christmas is about nuance. Here is some help finding it (on an entertainment platform near you) this season.

Note: This list does not include theatrical releases. Sorry, Violent Night.

During the holidays, no one is more desperate for couples to smash than a snowstorm. Horny Christmastime weather forces incompatible pairs everywhere to share close quarters without Wi-Fi, electricity, or transportation options, leaving them only one choice: a hookup.

A former country-music duo (and actual couple) run into each other after many years apart. But only an incredibly convenient storm can force them to spend the holidays together again.

A ski-lodge event manager’s worst nightmare comes true when the corporate Christmas party she (or her twin? This is a “twin shenanigans” genre installment) planned is ruined by a snowstorm — a scenario made even worse by the shocking revelation that the company’s picky CEO is her ex, and now they’re stranded together. Do these people not have LinkedIn? I mean, fair enough, it’s a boring website.

Exes reconnect when a snowstorm leaves them trapped inside a superstore. Who says late-stage capitalism can’t be romantic?

A woman and her estranged daughter are taken in by a church after getting stranded in a snowstorm. In this case, the snowstorm is horny for philia only.

In holiday films, small towns are clean, quaint, magical places where everyone knows everyone else and, despite having tiny populations seemingly incapable of generating enough money to support the cinematic environs, businesses are thriving, every house has an updated kitchen, and at least one hot guy possesses an impressive chunky knit collection. These movies’ female protagonists are working harder than Jessica Chastain in the early 2010s to abandon their homes for the first small town that will have them.

On advice from their questionable marriage coach, a couple visits the quiet, charming town of Gracious during Christmastime. In this cinematic universe, the town of Gracious is known for helping troubled married couples. If Gracious were real, maybe it could have saved what Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles had.

Every Christmas. interior designer Reilly picks a random place on a map and travels there. This year, she finds herself in the hamlet of Mistletoe Lake, where she stays on a boat that she helps redecorate. Will Reilly find herself under the mistletoe in Mistletoe Lake? For fucking sure.

A small-town Massachusetts community theater is in jeopardy because its girlboss Scrooge owner wants to sell it before the holidays. Also a famous TV star moves to the town and wants to be in its production of A Christmas Carol. It would be rude to ask for more from this one.

Musician and former unhoused person Gail gets stuck in the town of Harmony Springs, Oklahoma, after a run-in with an alpaca (and Brooke Shields) while driving across the country for the iHeartRadio Christmas Eve special in Los Angeles. If iHeartRadio wanted her so badly, maybe it would have arranged a plane?

Sick of it all, a famous country-music star abandons everything and shows up at her grandmother’s Tennessee farm. Sadly, this is not a Sheryl Crow biopic.

Leah, a judge for The World Record Bureau reluctantly travels to a small town to investigate its many holiday-themed records. She falls for the town doctor, who is hot but not so hot that it’s scary to talk to him.

A woman enlists the help of a hot small-town man to help her figure out her aunt’s eclectic will. To find out why her aunt made her will so confusing, you’ll have to watch the movie because I don’t know, either.

While most holiday films don’t take themselves very seriously, there are a handful that take themselves as seriously as Oscar bait. Like Best Picture winner CODA, but make it Christmas.

After a chance encounter while shopping on Black Friday, a white man and a white woman spend the holiday season searching for each other because they did not get each other’s numbers, last names, or social-media handles.

A woman’s military husband is presumed dead after a plane crash. Spoiler alert: He’s not dead.

A grandma played by Marlo Thomas says her miniature Christmas village can magically grant Christmas wishes. Not sure about regular, nondenominational wishes, though.

Rocket engineer Shelby (Tamera Mowry) almost quits her job because her boss is a Scrooge. But when her daughter points out that he might be a character from a story Shelby wrote brought to life, she stays and investigates.

In this Netflix original, Justin Hartley, the man who hurt Chrishell Stause of Selling Sunset, plays a novelist who is on the cover of New York Magazine. He revisits his hometown around the holidays after his mom dies. What is this, the Great American Family network?

This one sounds fake but is, in fact, real: An optometrist played by Katrina Bowden (Cerie from 30 Rock) brings “some color” into a color-blind elementary-school teacher’s life during the holidays. Maybe this optometrist could come to Kim Kardashian’s soulless white house?

Ghosts visit a grumpy man or a frigid bitch at Christmastime? Real original! Public domain was a mistake (with the exception of A Muppet Christmas Carol).

Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. Tap dancing. Sigh.

The Ghost of Christmas Present is a woman! This is huge.

Scrooge, but she’s a Karen.

Another one!

She’s just an Italian girl from New York who bonded with Italian American Bradley Cooper over leftover pasta. These films represent this essential community.

Italian American ex-con and Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice appears in this film about an Italian American pop star who enlists her celeb friends and connections to give her Italian American family the best Italian American Christmas ever after realizing they think she’s an Italian American workaholic.

The Colucci siblings try to recreate their dead grandmother’s signature pasta sauce that she always made for Christmas dinner. The only problem is that the recipe is missing!

Nothing brings heterosexual couples together quite like trying to save a small business during the holidays.

In this sprawling ensemble comedy, a beloved Chinese restaurant announces it’s closing its doors for good just before Christmas, and everyone — from the children of the owners to the regulars, including Aunt Jenna from The Vampire Diaries — fight to save it.

Luxury-travel blogger Tracey goes on a Christmas getaway at a bed and breakfast in a small town. She finds herself trying to help the struggling small business and, along the way, falls for the owners’ hot son.

Perfumer Emily must create the perfect holiday scent, so she returns to her quaint hometown for inspiration (of course), where she meets a writer who helps her help her father save her late mother’s candle-making business. And now I have a migraine.

A Christmas-obsessed fitness instructor in the town of Mistletoe, Montana, falls for a businessman who threatens the community center where she teaches with his ambitions to turn it into a resort.

Reality home design show star Blair helps her dad save his contracting business over the holidays by building a tiny home for the unhoused with the unwanted help of her ex in a film that is not on Discovery+.

This summer, FX’s original series The Bear radicalized a hungry and excitable nation with its gritty, romantic plunge into the life of renowned chef Carmy Berzatto, who abandons his fine-dining career to take over his family’s struggling Italian beef shop in Chicago. This Christmas, companies that make Christmas films are aware that people really, really liked The Bear.

In this HR nightmare, fine-dining chef Maya is working at a resort in Italy when her boss asks her to pretend to be his fiancé for the holidays so he can avoid getting set up by his family. Only Maya starts falling for him for real, and at the same time, her boss’ ex is trying to take over the restaurant. Denise Richards is in it.

Fine-dining chef Scarlett never serves a festive menu for the holidays. All that changes this year, however, when her friend sends her on a holiday cooking getaway. Will she serve up food for the holidays, or will she serve up some generic heterosexual love? Probably both with more of the latter.

A celebrity chef takes a Christmas vacation after a breakup and a flop restaurant opening only to be mistaken for a sous chef while on vacation. Instead of saying, “No, I am not a sous chef, I am on vacation,” she works as a sous chef because the chef, while grumpy, is hot.

Ambitious food correspondent Carly helps a perfectionist chef with stage fright reopen his family’s diner, all for the pilot episode of her television show.

It’s going to take a Hanukkah miracle for Molly and Jacob to stay together upon learning they own competing delicatessens.

Single moms like Reba Hart in the WB sitcom Reba (2001–2007) work too hard, love their kids, and never stop. Finally, they’re getting their deserved representation at Christmastime.

With a gentle heart and the heart of a fighter, this single mom named Noel gets into a spat with her grumpy Grinch neighbor, Jeremy. Will they fall in love (at Christmastime) despite their differences in this motion picture that is basically Gran Torino but with young white people?

A single mom who loves her kid and who works too hard develops a surprising connection with her new, older neighbor. This film is very serious, though it will at more than one point overestimate the emotional intelligence of a child.

A “Christmas enthusiast” (and single mom) helps an “internet entrepreneur” find his soulmate. If he is so good at the internet, though, why can’t he do this himself, hmmm?

Is there anything more Christmasy than the loss of a spouse?

Lindsay Lohan returns to cinema and, in so doing, reminds us all that she is capable of winning an Oscar in her role as a socialite with amnesia at Christmastime. Glee’s Chord Overstreet plays a widower.

Interior designer Hayley wants to surprise her recently widowed mother with the best Christmas present ever: reuniting her with her long-lost, definitely alive family.

When widow Abby runs into her ex, a former professional-football player, their old love for each other is put to the test. And by that, I mean they fall back in love with each other because her husband is dead.

Widowed artist Jess and bartender Dave find themselves on the kiss cam when they go to a hockey game on their first date. Although they have absolutely nothing in common, their kiss brings the team good luck, so they keep trying to kiss because angry hockey fans will come for them if they don’t.

From executive producer Toni Braxton (who also appears in the movie), Jane Seymour plays a, yes, widow at Christmas. 

Maggie’s family visits her widowed, definitely not gay brother for Christmas and learns that their traditions are not the same.

Traci, a widow and devout Christian with fresh caramel-toned highlights, stops believing on her second Christmas without her husband. She’ll start believing again, however, when a new man comes into her life. Faith is easy peasy!

A young widow’s wishes for her son come true in unexpected ways (hence the “Mystery”?) in this film inspired by a Scotty McCreery song.

It’s not just the capital city of Wisconsin. It’s a woman in a Christmas movie!

The only thing Madison wants more than being a singer-songwriter is a perfect man. Unfortunately, her relationship with her boyfriend falls apart right at Christmastime.

Aspiring musician Madison jokingly tells her family that she’s dating the prince of a small country in Europe but takes the bit way too far when she enlists her friend Sebastian to impersonate the made-up prince while visiting her home in New Jersey for the holidays.

Department-store exec Madison decides that, this year, Santa will be young, hot, and stylish.

Most Christmas movies deliver the message that nothing matters at Christmastime except family, the pursuit of heterosexuality, and going back to your hometown. These films attempt to deliver the same message but manage to make it about “the industry.” Write what you know, I guess!

Hallmark goes meta. Kerry, a local shop owner, reluctantly takes on the role of costume designer on a Christmas movie that’s shooting in her town. Along the way, her life becomes a Christmas movie as she rediscovers her passion for costume design and falls for the film’s leading man. Gasp!

One-name pop star Angelina fulfills a young fan’s Christmas wish and, along the way, falls in love with Scooby Doo star Freddie Prinze Jr.

The daughter of a country singer begins a job as her estranged father’s manager. Nepo babies deserve representation, too!

Pop star Jaylen returns home for the holidays and tells her family that her security guard is her boyfriend. Despite their differences (she is fun and he is a brick), love prevails.

Singer Aphrodite becomes a judge on a reality show and is visited by three Christmas spirits, and … you know the rest. Ashanti, Vivica A. Fox, Eva Marcille, Robin Givens, Mckenzie Small, and Mel B star.

A music manager on the hunt for the next big hit falls for a woman who abandoned her dreams of becoming a musician. Tyler Hilton of One Tree Hill, Walk the Line, and having a lot of hair stars.

Regular farms are so 2010s.

Erica (Peyton List) is the hottest maple-syrup rancher you’ve ever seen. When a hot man comes to town, Erica starts to question everything, and they fall in love because they are hot and it is Christmas.

After getting stranded in a small town because her car broke down, Joy finds joy in helping a local save his maple farm.

These protagonists learn their holiday lesson in just under 90 minutes (two hours with commercials) by lying to get what they want. Many of them should be in some kind of jail.

Is it social anxiety, or are you just a bad person? After being mistaken for her boss by a hot man, Julianne pretends she is her boss instead of correcting him. She then leads the hot man to believe she is a different person, all while falling in love with him at Christmastime.

According to Candice Cameron Bure, Great American Family, which “celebrates American culture, lifestyle and heritage with holiday-themed, family-friendly original movies,” won’t produce Christmas films with gay people but will produce a film in which a woman makes her best guy friend pretend to be her boyfriend.

A big shot magazine reporter (what is this, the ‘90s?) comes to Natalie’s hometown to write a profile about her handmade soap business, which he thinks is a family business. Natalie gets her friends and colleagues to pretend to be her family while the reporter is in town because what else was she supposed to do? Tell the truth?

Campbell, a journalist for an airplane magazine (classic!), pretends she’s writing a story about her estranged Cajun dad so she can get to know him. He is played by Bruce Campbell.

Interior designer Jen poses as a family influencer in order to enter a design contest and ends up a finalist. Will this young liar learn a lesson at Christmastime?

After Carlinhos catches his partner cheating in this Brazilian comedy, he enlists Graça to pose as his new girlfriend at Christmas with his traditional family. Cheating is lying, and pretending someone who is not your romantic partner is your romantic partner is lying, too.

A newly single woman attempts to rekindle her Christmas spirit at a Christmas retreat for singles, except her ex is there, too. Instead of coming clean about their past, the former couple pretend they don’t know each other.

A San Francisco–based photojournalist violates her journalistic integrity when she shoots her own family for a cover story and hides the personal connection from all but one co-worker.

Crisis-management queen Nicole (Eva Marcille of ANTM, The Real Housewives of Atlanta) gets the most impossible task for the holidays: rehabilitate the terrible image of her ex, a former football player, while pretending they were never involved.

Starring in two films this year alone, Jodie Sweetin, who played Stephanie Tanner on Full House, has officially dethroned her former fake sister, co-star, and flop Christian Christmas queen Candace Cameron Bure.

Jodie Sweetin plays a Barbara Corcoran type who tries to buy a bed and breakfast at Christmastime only to discover that it is owned by her ex. How she, a real-estate executive, did not know this beforehand does not need explanation.

Overworked architect Jodie Sweetin spends the holidays in Switzerland with her mother, who is opening an inn there, as one tends to do around the holidays. She learns about Swiss Christmas traditions from a single dad named Liam, who sounds more Irish than Swedish, but it’s fine. Oh, also, her former BFF and her former boyfriend (who started dating her former BFF) are staying at the inn, too, coincidentally.

Batgirl never got to see the light of day, but these films did.

Gossip Girl’s Jessica Zhor plays the stressed-out co-host of one of television’s most popular home-renovation shows in this subtle HGTV ad.

In a shocking twist, architect Hazel decides to spend Christmas in her hometown of Oak Park, Illinois, of all places. Hazel unexpectedly falls for the very hot contractor who is working on her father’s bakery, which is in jeopardy. Duff Goldman is in it, just in case you’re interested in a subscription to Discovery+, which offers Food Network programming.

This movie has everything: Jane Sloan from The Bold Type (Katie Stevens), gratuitous before and after photos of a (fake) home renovation, and furniture from Wayfair you’ve seen in your friends’ apartments.

A new chef joins the struggling Haven Restaurant and Inn in Vermont and shakes up the menu. Bobby Flay, whom you might find on shows streaming on Discovery+, plays a famous food critic who visits the restaurant.

Not even the holidays can stop a girlboss from girlbossing too close to the Yule log.

If Christmas films are good for one thing, it is for reminding audiences everywhere that personal shopper is a respectable profession. Justice for Kristen Stewart! 

After an encounter with a man dressed as Santa [insert big wink], a high-powered ad executive starts living the same day over and over again. And that day is Christmas.

Workaholic Kim gets dumped just before the holidays when she was expecting a proposal, so her mom takes her on a getaway to … connect with the holidays or something.

In this film directed by Melissa Joan Hart, West Side Story’s Rita Moreno plays a “holly jolly” drill instructor.

A property lawyer and gatekeeper of cinema played by Danica McKellar fights to save the local drive-in around the holidays. No sexuality activity at this drive-in, though. 

Hallmark Christmas movie regular Lacey Chabert of Mean Girls plays a business executive who visits her parents for Christmas, except her parents planned a trip of their own without her, so she’s solo. Nonetheless, her parents’ HOA insists she participate in its holiday festivities.

A young federal agent, who will stop at nothing until her mission is accomplished, recruits the completely inexperienced and convenient doppelgänger of her informant, who has gone missing.

LeToya Luckett plays Mercedes, a fast-talking popular relationship therapist with answers to everyone’s problems but her own. This Christmas, she gets some help from an angel, but as she is a girlboss, she initially resists that help.

These vital films in the Christmas catalogue serve as an annual reminder that meteorology is still a job despite your reliance on a weather app that says it’s not raining when it is literally raining.

Rival meteorologists Bridget and Drake fall like snow for each other while reporting from a picturesque Christmas town.

Rival meteorologists race to cover a snowstorm but get stuck in a small town in the process. Will they fall in love? Will they save Christmas? Are their weather predictions more reliable than the Apple Weather app?

I’m literally doing it right now.

Another classic “writer goes back to her hometown for Christmas and realizes home is where she belonged all along” story. In this one, the writer is a children’s-book author played by Sarah Ramos of Parenthood. 

Chicken Soup for the Soul provides the kind of story every blogger can relate to: Sophie, a popular travel blogger who says that “running away from Christmas is an essential part of my brand,” visits her hometown for the holidays and gets roped into a situation where she must work with a good-looking doctor to save her family’s annual Christmas event. Will Sophie selfishly use the doctor for a story? Will there be any barn doors? Will there be recognizable Christmas décor from Target? The answer to all of these questions is yes.

After an awful Thanksgiving, travel writer Carly takes an assignment about an Airbnb competitor that requires her to go on a solo holiday getaway. Like all writers at Christmastime (speaking from experience), Carly learns about herself and finds love.

Writer Abigale, played by Noovie’s Maria Menounos, fulfills her lifelong dream of writing a book, and it’s a guide to modern dating. Unfortunately, her publisher requests that she puts her own advice to the test by making a man fall in love with her in 12 days, which is two more days than Andie Anderson got.

In 2003, Love Actually had a permanent impact on Christmas cinema and regular-season cinema with its use of a sprawling ensemble cast whose stories, which kind of have something to do with one another, come together in the end (sort of). These films honor the Love Actually Christmas ensemble concept while trying very hard not to be Love Actually.

This ensemble film, starring Madelaine Petsch and Mena Massoud, follows the staff and guests (including a pop star and a prince) at a New York City hotel during the holidays.

Zoey Deutch, Shay Mitchell, Kendrick Sampson, and Ray Nicholson star in this ensemble film that follows a group of strangers in New York City whose lives are intertwined after a gift mix-up involving pieces from iconic jewelry store Tiffany’s.

What does baking have to do with the holidays? Everything.

Recently engaged food blogger Sarah returns home for Hanukkah only to discover that her family’s bakery is in danger. What is her fiancé’s name? Good question. It’s Chad, so what could possibly go wrong?

Pastry chef Carmen, who cooks from the heart, must work with perfectionist chef Jax to create a holiday menu, and as it turns out, polar opposites in the kitchen attract sexually.

Julia, a pastry chef based in Chicago (the go-to city for Christmas-movie women), travels to a small-town bakery known for its gingerbread as part of research for her cookbook. Because this film needs a plot, she finds herself at odds with the bakery’s owner.

Former pastry-school rivals with a romantic history meet again in a televised pasty competition. Life can be so crazy.

Law enforcement is so useless in these Christmas films that characters, including children, have to solve Christmas crimes themselves.

Andy is accused of stealing a multimillion dollar diamond while visiting her rich friend’s estate. A mystery writer helps her solve the case because the ION Television Christmas Cinematic Universe is absolutely grounded in the idea that law enforcement isn’t useful. This would have been a great Mary-Kate and Ashley mystery, but this one sadly stars adults, including Billy Baldwin.

The CEO of a small-town bakery puts on her detective hat after her grandmother’s special recipe is stolen, and she teams up with the owner of a local bakery who is a widower to re-create the stolen recipe.

The assistant to an egocentric social-media influencer finds love the old-fashioned way: by working with a vet to find her boss’ missing dog before Christmas. 

In a classic case of local law enforcement being unable to do its job properly, four children work together to figure out who stole Santa’s bells after the wrong man is blamed for the crime.

A young reporter teams up with a shady but hot art dealer to catch some thieves while on a mission to write the Christmas story that could save her career (all reporters have this experience).

With the sounds of bad accents.

It’s a tale as old as time: secret prince falls in love with known figure skater.

An MI5 agent tasked with keeping the royal family safe for Christmas does so by posing as the nanny.

Joey King’s sister, Hunter, plays a YouTube dog trainer who helps the prince of a fictional country get his clumsy corgi, Mistletoe, trained before Christmas.

Princess Camille of the fictional country of Morgana travels to America (why?), where she falls for a professor. Unfortunately, there’s a catch: The professor was hired by her dad (the king) to babysit her, even though this woman is an adult.

Hometowns are not to be confused with small towns. Hometowns can be (and usually are) small towns, but small towns are not always hometowns.

When her hometown animal shelter closes while she’s visiting for the holidays, aid worker Annie must team up with her old nemesis, Dylan, who happens to be the town vet, to get the animals adopted. Movies about rescued and/or dognapped pets could be its own category this year.

A pop star comes home for Christmas and helps her rival coach the high-school choir.

New Yorker Ember (Noelle was taken, evidently) learns she inherited her grandmother’s Christmas-tree farm. She heads back to her hometown (real original, Ember!) to sell it as soon as possible but, due to some circumstances including a hot man, she stays a little longer than planned.

When Sara (Shenae Grimes-Beech of the 2008 90210 reboot) visits her hometown to help her mom move, she finds herself planning a Christmas concert with her ex. They fall back in love with music and (sorry to spoil it!) each other.

Former Broadway star Billy Holiday (Mario Lopez), not to be confused with the Billie Holiday, returns to his hometown for the holidays and falls for a woman who (gasp!) doesn’t have a publicist.

Chic, modern woman visits home for the holidays and unexpectedly falls back in love with … roller skating! And her ex.

A famous actress seeking a normal life secretly returns to her hometown for Christmas, but someone leaks her location.

Somehow, none of these characters are TaskRabbits. Maybe next year?

Type-A caterer falls for a travel photographer at Christmastime. The only problem is that he is her boss’s nephew. But she’s a gig worker, so it doesn’t really matter?

When iconic mall Santa Charles decides to retire, the competitive interview process for his replacement creates chaos.

In this very loose but at the same time quite obvious adaptation of The Sound of Music, a woman (who is not an up and coming nun) facing eviction takes a job as the nanny to a billionaire’s children right around the holidays.

Struggling artist Liv reluctantly takes a teaching job at an elementary school to make ends meet. Will abandoning her dreams help her find her true purpose and romance? Yes, yes, it will.

Because any aspiring actress could be discovered at a community theater if she’s willing to sacrifice Christmastime.

An aspiring Broadway singer reluctantly offers her talents to a local Christmas production. Somehow they got Gladys Knight to be in this.

A former actress takes over an annual local Christmas Eve theater production.

These are the most heterosexual movies of the season, possibly of the year, maybe even of all time.

Has anyone’s childhood friend ever decided that they are in love with you during the holidays, or is that just a thing that happens in these movies? Would genuinely like to know if anyone has lived this experience.

Designer Rachel is tasked with designing a custom tuxedo for picky bachelor Brett. Christmas and measuring his body and stuff leads to love.

Amazing Angie falls for a guy who is her competitor in a Christmas-tree competition.

The protagonist in this movie’s name is Noelle, but so is her on-again, off-again boyfriend’s new girlfriend.

Let’s get this out of the way: This is not a sequel to the 2000 Ben Affleck film. Grey’s Anatomy’s Sarah Drew stars in this movie about a woman who bumps into her high-school crush around Christmas.

Fed up with dating, Jessica swears off men for the holidays until a gallery owner moves in across the street. They become each other’s dates for the holiday under one condition: They are not allowed to fall in love. But they will.

Talia and her childhood best friend (male) are reunited in a Christmas town, which manifests yet another heterosexual holiday romance.

A struggling couple must work together to save Christmas (and their relationship) by finding a missing reindeer.

Aimee Teegarden of Friday Night Lights plays Elle, who is determined to host the perfect high-school reunion. Will she reconnect with her old crush Cam or fall for the former bad boy?

Ashley McKenzie was the queen of Christmas but this year, hot newcomer Ben steals her thunder.

According to former Hallmark star and JoJo Siwa nemesis Candace Cameron Bure, Great American Family keeps “traditional marriage at the core.” These are GAF’s most traditional, most straight, and most annoying films that have no evidence of sexuality of any kind.

“It might only happen just one time a year, but isn’t it nice to slow down and think about the things that are really important in life?” says protagonist and inventor of original thought Janie in the A Merry Christmas Wish trailer.

In this film, a blonde woman visits a small town at Christmastime, hoping to find out more about her family history. If Great American Family is anything, it is accurately named, minus the first adjective.

Recently separated Ivy struggles with living in the shadow of her mother, who was a Christmas maven.

Hallmark has one gay Christmas movie, and Lifetime has one gay christmas movie. But that’s where it stops this year. Living and learning!

Bachelor Sam (Jonathan Bennett) recruits a hot neighbor to help him watch his niece and nephew over the holidays.

After the death of a beloved neighbor, six estranged friends reunite for a holiday treasure hunt.

There is nothing more important than family. These films, which range from comedy to drama to angel lore, revolve around the most important thing in life besides fast and furious cars.

After many Christmases apart, everyone in the Wesley family comes together for the holidays. Unlike a majority of the films on this list, this one exists in a universe in which people drink alcohol and have sex.

Everyone knows Christmas is the best time of year to commit a parent trap. In this Hulu film, a young girl’s Christmas wish for her divorced parents to get back together just might come true.

Every year, three sisters compete in a Christmas cook-off. But this year, a social-media influencer enters the competition, leaving the sisters no choice but to work together to take her out. The performances in this film are giving Oscar quality.

Cheers and Frasier star Kelsey Grammer hashes out his real-life problems with daughter and ABC Family’s Greek star Spencer Grammer in this “Groundhog Day but it’s Christmas Eve” movie.

Returning to Earth as a complete stranger, new angel R.J. gets the chance to bring his family back together for Christmas.

After accidentally adding him to the family group chat, app developer Gaby’s family invites Alex to their Christmas celebration in Oaxaca.

When addiction threatens her family, a woman who moved to the United States from Jamaica has to reunite with her sister.

Ella returns home for the holidays and encourages her fractured family to celebrate Christmas and Kwanzaa again. 

The McKenzie family tries to cancel Christmas this year and fails miserably.

New Orleans is the perfect setting for a holiday film: It’s urban, vibrant, warm, has its own unique culture with a small-town feel. It is also absolutely magical at Christmastime, speaking from experience.

You won’t believe it, but in this Hallmark film, a fake engagement leads to a real chance at love in the city of New Orleans, whose football team is called the Saints, which is why the movie is called All Saints Christmas.

New Orleans–based architects Grace and Anthony are polar opposites but learn that they might be exactly what each other needs in the romance department when they’re forced to work together on a home for a praline icon played by Patti LaBelle.

Intellectual property has taken over holiday cinema as well as regular cinema with sequels to films from the’ 80s that no one needed to an entire series of films inspired by one Blake Shelton song.

This follow-up to A Christmas Story follows an adult Ralphie as he tries to give his family an unforgettable Christmas just like he had the year he got a BB gun.

In this film from executive producer Blake Shelton, a woman who has never heard about background-checking services attempts to unite a couple after getting a voice-mail from an unknown number. This is the fifth movie in a series of films based on Shelton’s song “Time for Me to Come Home.”

In this sequel to 2021’s Hip Hop Family Christmas, the most famous family in hip-hop prepares for a wedding.

In this sequel to 2020’s The Binge, Binge Day (which is basically The Purge but for getting drunk instead of committing crimes) occurs on Christmas Eve.

Lieutenant Dangle gets to be Jimmy Stewart in this loose adaptation of the Christmas classic.

In the United States, at least, Christmas is associated with northeastern winters: frigid temps, snow, sitting by the fire. In these movies, however, women spend the holidays in tropical locations.

After getting ditched at the altar, hopeless romantics Rachel and her two bridesmaids tag along on what was supposed to be her honeymoon.

All toy-company executive Emma wants this year is a break from the holidays and guys on the beach.

What if a Christmas movie had a concept other than “Woman goes to small town”? From a mall heist to the Christmas-party version of Wedding Crashers to three men trying to be dad at Christmas, these movies at least tried to thicken the plot.

Two hot grifters work together to help each other meet their goals by … crashing corporate Christmas parties.

Despite the child abandonment, this one’s a comedy. Three brothers discover a baby on a doorstep at Christmastime. It’s up to them to watch the baby, and high jinks ensue. Haha, men, right?

Strangers accidentally take each other’s suitcases after a flight and must use the contents of the other’s suitcase to track each other down before Christmas. This film’s premise is a helpful reminder to put a tacky ribbon on your luggage this holiday season so you know it’s yours.

City girl Emma experiences true Christmas magic when she gets the opportunity to experience two Christmases: In one scenario, she stays in the city to explore her new crush, and in the other, she visits her hometown and reconnects with an old friend. You can probably imagine how this one ends.

This film, which follows a pastor and his congregants locked inside a mall as it’s about to get robbed, is an excellent example of being two things at once: a reminder to keep Christ in Christmas and a warning that crime goes up during the holidays. 

In the 1950s, a high-society woman puts her wedding on pause and fulfills her lifelong dream of moving to New York City, New York, to become a Rockette.

In this film starring Sex Education’s Asa Butterfield, British schoolkids who are in love want to spend the holidays together. They both decide to surprise each other for the holidays by showing up to the other’s homes, but since they didn’t communicate, they accidentally swap for the holidays instead of spending them together.

Gabourey Sidibe plays Emily, who, on a mission to improve her life this Christmas, writes letters to Santa. Her wishes start coming true, which is most surprising to Emily, who wrote most of it down after drinking too much wine. I can relate because, while I did not write this guide drunk, I have already forgotten most of what I wrote.

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