NOW the calendar is just one page – to quote the 1981 ditty Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses – the fun and revelry of December is in full swing.
While overdoing turkey lunches, cursing Secret Santa present swaps and blowing off steam with colleagues at the office party are perennial staples, you can’t beat a cosy evening at home, snuggled in with a great movie.
But what to watch? Here we pick the best new festive films available on the streaming services – Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV+ – to keep you entertained in the coming weeks.
Falling For Christmas
Netflix
This light-hearted romcom sees Lindsay Lohan play a spoiled heiress who, after taking a tumble from a snowy mountainside, ends up with amnesia and finds herself in the care of a ruggedly handsome lodge owner, played by Glee actor Chord Overstreet.
Its release has generated a bit of a buzz given it stars Lohan in her first leading role in a major movie for almost a decade. The former child star, known for The Parent Trap and Mean Girls, has been largely absent from the acting scene since the late 2000s.
Falling For Christmas doesn’t take itself too seriously and – if you aren’t looking for highbrow viewing – it is a perfectly pleasant way to while away an afternoon.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
Disney+
What do you get the Star-Lord who has everything? The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special charts the adventures of the superhero team as they head to Earth in search of the perfect Christmas present for their leader, the half human/half celestial being, Peter Quill.
Written and directed by James Gunn – the man at the helm for the Guardians of the Galaxy films – this 42-minute extravaganza stars Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan and Bradley Cooper, with a new addition of Kevin Bacon to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Gunn has cited the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) and a childhood love of animated TV classics, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), as being among his inspirations.
Spirited
Apple TV+
Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell have teamed up for this fun-packed musical comedy billed as a modern retelling of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
The 1843 novella has been adapted for the screen in countless formats over the years. This version – which premiered in cinemas last month before arriving on Apple TV+ – centres on a team of afterlife spirits, aka the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet-To-Come.
Present (Ferrell) has been eligible for “retirement” for decades but steadfastly refuses to step down. Determined to keep fighting the good fight, he suggests Clint Briggs (Reynolds), a controversial media consultant, as their next gig.
Things hilariously derail when Briggs proves a tricky customer.
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol
Netflix
Another to riff on the classic redemption tale of Ebenezer Scrooge is what the Hollywood Reporter has dubbed “Netflix’s trippy take on Dickens”.
The animated film packs a stellar cast list, voiced by Luke Evans, Olivia Colman, Jonathan Pryce, Jessie Buckley and James Cosmo among others.
Director Stephen Donnelly has promised “psychedelic, time-travelling and musical surprises”, which should tell you everything you need to know about Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (even if it makes it sound a bit like The Magic Roundabout meets Back to the Future and La La Land).
Something From Tiffany’s
Prime Video
It wouldn’t be Christmas without a comical switcheroo and subsequent frenzied dash to reunite the correct gift with the right person. This Hollywood adaptation by Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine is based on Melissa Hill’s international bestselling novel.
Set in New York, the story follows Rachel, played by Zoey Deutch, as her life is turned upside down when her boyfriend hands her a little blue box from swanky jewellery store Tiffany & Co containing an unexpected trinket.
Across town, another couple are exchanging presents and soon discover that something has gone badly awry at their end too. The cast features Shay Mitchell (Pretty Little Liars), Kendrick Sampson (The Vampire Diaries) and Ray Nicholson (Out of the Blue).
The Noel Diary
Netflix
Granted, the premise sounds saccharine-sweet, but if you like your Christmas films heavy on whimsical romance with a few unexpected sad twists, then this is a sure-fire winner.
When popular historical fiction author Jake Turner (Justin Hartley) returns home during the festive season to settle his estranged mother’s estate, he discovers a diary packed with secrets that may shed some light on the past of his new-found acquaintance Rachel (Barrett Doss).
Can we expect a snowy road trip through picturesque towns and an unravelling mystery that will irrevocably alter their life paths?
That’s a rhetorical question. You can probably guess the answer.
The Hip Hop Nutcracker
Disney+
This one does exactly what it says on the tin: a hip-hop reimagining of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.
Narrated by Joseph Ward Simmons – perhaps better known by his stage name as Run DMC’s “Rev Run” – it features a cameo from ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov, who eagle-eyed Sex and the City fans will recognise from his stint as Carrie’s lover Aleksandr Petrovsky.
Maria-Clara (Cache Melvin) embarks upon a magical adventure through New York in a bid to get her parents back together.
Along the way she finds help from toymaker Drosselmeyer (Comfort Fedoke) and the Nutcracker (Du-Shant “Fik-shun” Stegall), whom she brings to life.
Your Christmas Or Mine
Prime Video
Cora Kirk (Prey for the Devil) and Asa Butterfield (Sex Education) play loved-up couple Hayley and James who are miserable about spending Christmas apart with their respective families.
After bidding a bittersweet goodbye at a London train station, they both decide to pull off a bold romantic gesture, but unwittingly pass each other as they switch trains.
By the time the mix-up comes to light they’re both snowed in – hundreds of miles apart – at one another’s childhood homes. James finds himself thrust into a chaotic whirl with Hayley’s rambunctious kin, while Hayley discovers that James’s family aren’t big fans of seasonal cheer.
Christmas With You
Netflix
Scooby-Doo star Freddie Prinze Jr and Lucifer’s Aimee Garcia lead the cast of this Yuletide offering about a fading pop star seeking to revive her ailing career.
Garcia plays Angelina, a singer struggling to stay relevant in an era of burgeoning social media where she faces constant comparisons to younger upcoming talent. Her record label, meanwhile, has given her only a week to write and produce a chart-topping Christmas song.
Seeking escape and hoping to find inspiration, she decides to pay a surprise visit to teenage fan Cristina (Deja Monique Cruz). Prinze Jr plays the youngster’s father Miguel who happens to be a dab hand in the song-writing department himself.
About Fate
Prime Video, out December 16
Mishaps, misunderstandings and meet-cutes abound in this movie based on the 1976 screwball comedy The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! – one of the most successful Soviet television productions – which has become a cult favourite that is re-watched by millions every New Year’s Eve.
About Fate stars Emma Roberts as Margot, a young woman with high hopes her boyfriend Kip (Lewis Tan) is going to propose on Hogmanay. Wedding bells are also on the mind of Griffin (Thomas Mann) who plans to surprise his girlfriend Clementine (Madelaine Petsch).
A drunken Griffin ends up letting himself into Margot’s apartment by mistake. She arrives home to find a naked stranger in her bed, then Kip rocks up and assumes Margot is cheating. A newly single Margot must find a date for her sister’s wedding.
You can likely fathom where this is headed …
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