So, here we are. The final page of the calendar. While some are launching into the festive party season with wild abandon, others are craving cosy nights in, snuggled up on the sofa with blankets and snacks for a movie marathon.
If you fall into the latter category, we’ve got you covered with a round-up of the best new Christmas romcoms, horrors, comedy dramas, tear-jerking animations and action thrillers to enjoy watching from the comfort of your home, via on-demand and streaming services.
We are talking big-city girls returning to sleepy hometowns, airport dashes, merry mix-ups, meet-cutes and magical chance encounters – all with obligatory jingle bell charm.
The Holdovers
Despite its festive setting, The Holdovers was given a mid-January release date in the UK, which could have led to it flying largely under the radar were it not for Da’Vine Joy Randolph bagging the Oscar for best supporting actress earlier this year.
Her portrayal of no-nonsense cook Mary Lamb in the comedy-drama saw off a glittering list of fellow nominees in the category, including Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer), Danielle Brooks (The Colour Purple), America Ferrera (Barbie) and Jodie Foster (Nyad).
Set in 1970, Randolph stars alongside Paul Giamatti, who plays a self-loathing, curmudgeonly teacher at a boarding school, duly tasked with looking after a group of pupils that are unable to travel home for the Christmas break.
Buy and rent on digital platforms now, including Prime Video, Sky and Apple TV+
Hot Frosty
‘Tis the season for hunky men and chiselled washboard abs? That certainly seems to be the case if Hot Frosty and fellow Netflix offering The Merry Gentlemen (see below) are anything to go by.
On paper, the premise of Hot Frosty is a tad nonsensical. Two years after losing her husband, grieving Kathy brings a handsome snowman called Jack to life. His endearing naivety and thoughtful gestures help to thaw Kathy’s heart as she learns how to love life again.
Yet, despite it being variously described as “unhinged” and “absolutely ridiculous”, Hot Frosty has already won a legion of loyal fans. At one stage, the film reportedly achieved a perfect rating on Rotten Tomatoes – ranking higher than The Godfather.
Mean Girls actor Lacey Chabert, widely considered the “queen of Christmas movies” thanks to her raft of leading roles in the genre, plays Kathy, with Dustin Milligan of Schitt’s Creek fame as Jack.
Craig Robinson and Joe Lo Truglio, who both appeared in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, round out the cast as an overzealous local sheriff and his deputy.
Watch now on Netflix
Imagine The Full Monty-meets-Magic Mike but set at Christmas time and packed with Hallmark-style schmaltz? Buckle up for The Merry Gentlemen.
An ailing small town, family-run performing arts venue looks set to close its doors. Only one thing can save it: a steamy, all-male musical revue set to thrill audiences with a heady combo of Santa costumes, hip-thrusting dance moves and washboard abs (told you it was a theme).
One Tree Hill alumnus Chad Michael Murray and Britt Robertson, known for her roles in sci-fi flicks Tomorrowland and The Space Between Us, lead a cast that also features 1980s and 1990s movie stalwarts Maxwell Caulfield (Grease 2) and Michael Gross (Tremors).
Watch now on Netflix
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Carnage For Christmas
If you like your Christmas movies with a splash of blood and gore, then this Australian horror film should be just the ticket.
A true-crime podcaster returns to a conservative town for the first time since running away to undergo her gender transition. There she finds that the vengeful spirit of an urban legend, known as The Toymaker, is reenacting the murders of a historical killer.
Watch now on Apple TV+
Meet Me Next Christmas
A woman crosses paths with the man of her dreams in a snowbound airport as they both head home for the Christmas holidays.
Sparks fly. The only hitch? Layla – played by Christina Milian – already has a boyfriend, but the dashing chap makes her promise that if she happens to be single this time next year, they’ll meet in New York to attend the annual sold out Pentatonix Christmas Eve Concert together.
Fate conspires and Layla is once again thrown into the orbit of her dream man, but not without an unexpected twist or two in the tale.
Watch now on Netflix
Ben Stiller stars as a hotshot estate agent who unexpectedly ends up caring for his quartet of rambunctious and recently orphaned nephews.
There are echoes of Uncle Buck (if Uncle Buck was a strait-laced workaholic) as he swaps his city slicker, bachelor lifestyle in Chicago for a rural family farm in Ohio. Cue mischief, adventures aplenty and a Christmas epiphany.
Watch now on Disney+
Our Little Secret
Following in the footsteps of her Mean Girls co-star Lacey Chabert, Lindsay Lohan is becoming a dab hand at sprinkling seasonal cheer.
Having previously dabbled in the genre with 2022 romcom Falling For Christmas – in which Lohan played a spoiled heiress who ends up with amnesia after taking a tumble down a snowy mountainside – she returns with a new festive offering.
Our Little Secret sees Lohan’s character Avery stuck in yuletide purgatory after discovering that she and her ex-boyfriend Logan (Pretty Little Liars actor Ian Harding) must spend Christmas under one roof because their new partners are siblings.
Watch now on Netflix
That Christmas
Billed as his first festive film since Love Actually in 2003, Richard Curtis has written That Christmas, an animated fantasy comedy based on his trilogy of children’s books.
According to the blurb, it weaves together a series of “entwined tales about family and friends, love and loneliness, and Santa Claus making a big mistake”. Oh, and not to forget “an enormous number of turkeys”.
Or as Curtis told Netflix’s Tudum: “I hope it’ll remind people of the joy and complexity of Christmas, and some of the joys and comedy and heartbreak of childhood.”
The A-list cast lending their voices to the characters includes Brian Cox, Bill Nighy, Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker and Lolly Adefope, with music by Ed Sheeran.
Available on Netflix from December 4
Bad Tidings
Described as “part Home Alone, part Deck The Halls”, Bad Tidings is a feel-good comedy starring Lee Mack and Chris McCausland as chalk-and-cheese neighbours/sworn enemies who must team up and save Christmas.
McCausland, who most recently has been gracing our screens in Strictly Come Dancing, is also a co-writer for the Sky Original film, penning it alongside Laurence Rickard and Martha Howe-Douglas, who were part of the team behind Ghosts and Horrible Histories.
Coming soon to Sky and Now
A Sudden Case of Christmas
After learning on a summer break to Italy that her parents plan to separate, a 10-year-old girl hatches a cunning plan to stop the split by insisting they all celebrate one last Christmas together (never mind that it is only August).
Danny DeVito plays the youngster’s grandfather, with his real-life daughter Lucy also in the cast, alongside Andie MacDowell and Line of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar.
A remake of the Italian film Improvvisamente Natale, the comedy is directed by Peter Chelsom, known for early 2000s romcoms Town & Country, Serendipity and Shall We Dance?
Buy and rent on digital platforms now, including Prime Video, Sky and Apple TV+
An Almost Christmas Story
This animated short tells the story of Moon, a young owl who ends up stuck in a Christmas tree destined for the famed Rockefeller Plaza in New York. As he attempts to escape the city and return home, Moon befriends a lost girl named Luna.
Watch now on Disney+
Rounding out the six-strong list of new festive movies debuting on Netflix this year, Carry-On is an action thriller that should appeal to aficionados of Die Hard (director Jaume Collet-Serra has said the film drew inspiration from the 1980s classic).
An airport security agent screening passengers at Los Angeles International Airport is blackmailed by a murky figure, known only as The Traveller, who is intent on slipping a dangerous package on board a Christmas Eve flight.
Taron Egerton (Rocketman and Kingsman) and Jason Bateman (Ozark and Arrested Development) provide its big-name star power.
Available on Netflix from December 13
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