I enjoy finding watchable Christmas movies and Netflix has been bringing the holiday spirit with some new options that are funny, edgy, and sweet. Thanks, Netflix! Here are my picks of the Best Netflix Christmas Movies of 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025!
Review of the Best Netflix Christmas Movies of 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025!
Note: as always, my ratings are graded a holiday curve, with one being unwatchable and five being cheesy Christmas perfection!
Jen’s Top Picks of Netflix Christmas Movies
- Love Hard (2021)
- Family Switch (2023)
- Meet Me At Christmas (2024)
- Our Little Secret (2024)
- Merry Little Ex-Mas (2025)
- Jingle Bell Heist (2025)
Jump to the Year you want:
Best Netflix Christmas Movies of 2025
Best Netflix Christmas Movies of 2024
Best Netflix Christmas Movies of 2023
Best Netflix Christmas Movies of 2022
Best Netflix Christmas Movies of 2021
The Netflix Christmas Universe and how these movies connect
Reviews of Netflix Christmas Movies of 2025: Merry Ex-mas, The Jingle Bell Heist, Champagne Problems and My Secret Santa
I was really impressed with this year’s selections!
I reviewed them all on this post: Best New Christmas Movies of 2025 but here’s the short and sweet.
The Jingle Bell Heist might have been my favorite. Edgy and surprising, this movie was about two unlikely heist partners with different reasons for robbing a department store magnate.
My Secret Santa is a comic holiday romance, with a single mom disguising herself as an elderly Santa to help fulfill her daughter’s Christmas dream.
Merry Ex-mas is a second chance at love story about a divorced couple who is struggling through their first holiday after the divorce and all the changes that brought to them and their adult children. Can they get past their differences and rekindle their love?
Champagne Problems is perfect for fans of Emily in Paris. An American businesswoman heads to France for a meeting, meets cute with a guy in a bookstore, and finds him across the negotiation table.
Reviews of Netflix Christmas Movies of 2024: Our Little Secret and Meet Me next Christmas
It’s been a busy holiday season for me, but I managed to watch two Netflix Christmas movies that I really enjoyed!
Review of Our Little Secret (2024)
You will see below that I was NOT a huge fan of Lohan’s Falling for Christmas, giving it only 3.5 Chocolate Santas.
I am happy to tell you that Our Little Secret is much better.
Lindsay Lohan has enlisted Ezra the hot teacher from Pretty Little Liars who, weirdly to me, is now an ordinary thirty-something dude, to play her love interest. How old was he back then???
Lohan plays a high powered business woman who is also a highly sensitive person who is VERY upset that her parents are selling her family home.
Hot Teacher (Ian Harding) is her ex-boyfriend, whose proposal she awkwardly and publicly rejected years ago.
Now, years later, they are thrown together for an awkward holiday as they realize they are now dating siblings. (I said to the person I was watching with, “oh, they can switch partners,” and they were like “uh NO they are siblings. Oops.)
For flimsy reasons, the two decide to keep their prior relationship secret. So they don’t make things “weird.”
Of course, keeping the secret makes things VERY weird.
This show had a lot of humor, including Kristin Chenowith playing the siblings’ scary mommy.
My verdict: four and a half Chocolate Santas (on my nice, not naughty scale…)
Review of Meet me Next Christmas (2024)
Meet Me Next Christmas felt like a mash-up of some of my favorite rom coms:
- Serendipity with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale
- The Wedding Pact with Haylie Duff
- Sleepless in Seattle with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan
- Pitch Perfect with Anna Kendrick
This movie is LONG but very charming and full of Christmas cheer.
First, a woman named Layla misses a flight home for Christmas. As she’s stranded at the airport, she meets two cute guys: one in the hotel lounge buffet line and the other in the seating area.
She really hits it off with guy #2 as they both love the music group Pentatonix. As his flight finally boards, they agree to meet at the group’s Christmas concert in New York City the following year if they are both single (hello Sleepless in Seattle + The Wedding Pact.)
Fast forward one year. Layla is suddenly single but can’t get a ticket to the concert. She hires former chef, now concierge Teddy to help her and the two run all over Fake New York City (Toronto?) trying to beg, borrow or steal a ticket.
This includes a meeting at a dive bar with a ticket scalper, a Christmas karaoke contest (hello, Pitch Perfect), and a lot of DMing with the manager of Pentatonix.
Will Layla get her ticket? Will Layla realize she’s actually in love with Teddy? I’ll leave that to you to discover.
My rating: four and a half Chocolate Santas
Reviews of Netflix Christmas Movies of 2023: Best. Christmas. Ever, Virgin River Christmas, and Family Switch
Family Switch and Best. Christmas. Ever. are both full-length movies, while the Virgin River episodes are Episodes 11 and 12 of season 5 and take place during the holidays.
Review of Family Switch (2023)
Netflix claims this movie was based on a children’s picture book (uh …really?!?)
We all know the truth:
Family Switch is a fun but obvious and oddly uncredited holiday remake of Freaky Friday, which WAS a 1972 book and then a 1976 movie with Jodie Foster and then a 1995 TV movie with Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffman and then a 2003 film with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan and Chad Michael Murray.
Family Switch stars Jennifer Garner in the Jamie Lee Curtis role, having the time of her life, with Matthias Schweighöfer in a small but hilarious role as meddling neighbor/babysitter/dog trainer Rolf.
Seriously, this is 100% a Holiday Freebie Friday. The family attends a Christmas carnival and gets body-switched. They all wake up horrified as mom and daughter and father and son have switched bodies. Plus the family baby switches with the family dog.
Mom Jennifer Garner has to play in a major soccer tournament and her daughter does her work presentation. The family’s father does his son’s Yale admissions interview.
Parents and teenagers switching bodies is a premise that is ALWAYS funny and never gets old.
Family Switch obviously had a huge budget, big stars and a famous director (McG) so my expectation, both as a Freaky Friday fan and a holiday movie fan, were HIGH.
And it was funny and enjoyable. Families will love this one!
My rating: 4.5 Chocolate Santas because of the pretending it wasn’t a Freaky Friday remake
Review of Virgin River Christmas (S5 episodes 11-12)
I love the tradition of British TV shows doing holiday episodes and was excited to see that Virgin River was borrowing the tradition. They released Season 5 Episodes 1-10 back in the fall and then saved two episodes to release right after Thanksgiving.
If you haven’t watched Season 5, there are some spoilers, but I thought the execution of these episodes was good. If you like Virgin River or like to hate-watch it.
The Christmas spirit is high, with a Christmas tree decorating competition, a rather weird Christmas pageant in which a few of the town’s children compete with Cameron, the town’s new-ish junior doctor, and Muriel, who has been portrayed as the town cougar and has finally found a May December romance with Cameron. (There seems to be about a 15-year age difference.)
Despite all the space (and the actual river) in Virgin River, there is a tiny, postage stamp-sized skating rink as well.
The episodes explore family tensions between Lizzie and her mother, between Jack’s squabbling separated parents. Poor Charlene, Jack’s spurned ex, who was sadly turned into a villain and had to be pregnant for about four seasons, finally gets a moment of happiness. But just a moment.
On a Virgin River cheesy soap opera scale, I will give these episodes:
Review of Best. Christmas. Ever (2023)
WOW. The hate that Best. Christmas. Ever is getting online!
IS Best. Christmas. Ever. the WORST Christmas movie ever?
Is the title just too aspirational? Is misogyny focusing viewers on the cosmetic surgery choices of the female stars? I do NOT think Best. Christmas. Ever is the most amazing Christmas movie ever, but it’s not as bad as people are saying.
Here’s my take:
The positives of Best. Christmas.Ever:
- Best. Christmas. Ever. focuses on the pressure we all feel to have picture-perfect holidays. That explains the title, haters! It’s IRONIC!
- It’s a story that acknowledges that female friendship can have a competitive element
- It features some favorite 90s icons: Brandy and Heather Graham. Plus Jason Biggs.
The negatives of Best. Christmas.Ever:
- The script is a little clunky
- (Surprise!) the plot is predictable. But can’t that be said for most holiday movies?
My rating: 3.5 chocolate Santas for a cheesy script but also for acknowledging that Christmas does not have to be perfect
Reviews of the Best Netflix Christmas Movies of 2022: Falling For Christmas, Christmas With You
Review of Falling for Christmas: starring Lindsay Lohan, Jack Wagner, and Chord Overstreet (2022)
I am a Lindsay Lohan fan from way back. I loved her in The Parent Trap so much and after her … break from Hollywood, I was actually pretty excited to try her new Christmas movie, Falling for Christmas.
I told my kids (also Parent Trap fans) that I was watching this, and they independently had the same reaction: “I can’t watch it if her face looks weird.”
Okay, I am here to tell you that 1) her face does not look (very) weird. It looks no weirder than the face of any other late thirties year old Hollywood star. Also 2) her hair is now back to its lovely natural auburn.
In Falling for Christmas, Lohan plays Sierra, a spoiled hotel heiress who, while being proposed to by her hilariously shallow British boyfriend, falls down a mountain, hits her head, and gets amnesia.
Maybe this is just me, but given the way Lindsay’s movie mom Natasha Richardson died, I found this to be in a tiny bit of bad taste, but it was probably accidental. Natasha, you were the coolest movie mom ever!
Sierra is found but can’t remember who she is, so Jake, a kindly (widowed) bed and breakfast owner, offers her a room for the holidays. There she learns that she actually has no practical life skills, so learns how to clean toilets, make beds, flip pancakes, and more.
When Sierra is finally found by her family, will she go back to her shallow old life or try to help Jake pull his B & B out of financial ruin?
Honestly, I was hoping for a little bit more. This movie was pretty much a rehashed Hallmark movie with (much!) better production values. It was entertaining enough, and I did love the charming small town setting, but the romance was pretty blah, with little chemistry between the leads.
Jack Wagner (from General Hospital) seemed to be having a great time, though. I think he needed a love interest!
My rating: 3.5/5 chocolate Santas
Tropes: rich girl learns the true meaning of love, amnesia, cute widower
You can watch Falling for Christmas on Netflix here.
Review of Christmas With You Starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Aimee Garcia (2022)
I am ALL about a Notting Hill style romance and I remember Freddie from the 90s, so I was super-excited about this one .
I was amused when, at the start of the movie, poor pop star Angeline is basically told that she and her music are old and irrelevant. She’s a millennial in her 40s who wears jeweled accents around her eyes, while her young rival Cheri, who knows that is so y2k. Yikes!
When Angelina stumbles on a video made by a passionate young fan of hers, she decides to surprise her, manager Monique in tow.
In real life this could turn creepy. And for a while I thought Angelina was going to Queens. But no, she’s headed to a small town in driving distance of New York City. But where? New Jersey? Long Island? Upstate?
OF COURSE a blizzard hits, and Angelina and Monique get stuck in the snow with inappropriate crop tops, coats made of feathers, and expensive shoes.
Freddie Prinze, Jr. is Miguel, a sweet single dad who once had a garage band. His daughter, Cristina, is the young fan. She’s close to her dad and grandma and is planning her quinceañera. When she and her friends get together to practice dances for the big event, Angelina is happy to help them out with some dance moves.
I LOVED all the Latin culture in this one: cooking posole, the tias, the abuela, and all the excitement leading up to the quince. It gave Christmas With You such a lovely, warm family feel. I wish the setting had been something like Queens instead of a generic small town
The music element was fun too. I really enjoyed this one and I think it would appeal to viewers of all ages!
Tropes: cute single dad, cute kid, celebrity romance
My rating: 4/5 Chocolate Santas
Watch Christmas With You on Netflix here!
2022 Netflix Christmas Movies I Was Not a Fan Of
Review of The Noel Diary on Netflix
I also tried The Noel Diary (2022) which I was SO excited about. Justin Hartley playing a famous author character? Yes, please. But this one had very little Christmas spirit and a plot that was too draggy. It was two characters with a LOT of family drama and a bit of Christmas tinsel haphazardly thrown on top. To me, this was not a Christmas movie, but a drama that takes place in the winter. DO NOT BE FOOLED!
Review of Christmas on Mistletoe Farm on Netflix
Christmas on Mistletoe Farm (2022) was British and might be better for kids. There were a lot of poop jokes (it’s a farm!) and wacky British humor.
And Netflix, WHAT is with all the dead mothers and sad orphaned children in the 2022 movies?
Um, like EVERY single one. This is not cheerful, Christmasy, or fun. Please rethink this for 2023!
Reviews of the Best Netflix Christmas Movies of 2021: Lovehard, Single All The Way, and A Castle for Christmas
Review of Lovehard: starring Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O. Yang, and Darren Barnet
Okay, first off: I think Lovehard is a terrible title, even if it has a backstory. (There’s a running joke in Lovehard that Natalie, the main character, thinks that Diehard is the best Christmas movie.)
As in 50% of all rom coms, Natalie makes enough money as a writer (more specifically, a dating columnist) to have an adorable apartment and a huge wardrobe.
Having exhausted all the acceptable guys on her dating app within her region of California, Natalie is convinced by a friend to expand her boundaries to the entire United States.
Now that she’s open to finding love in, say, upstate New York, she matches with Josh, a guy with some very attractive profile photos. Not only does she swipe right, she impulsively decides to surprise him with an in-person visit. (Okay, to me, this is a bit of a red flag and if a guy did it we’d call him a stalker, but okay.)
But uh-oh, Natalie finds out that she’s been catfished. Josh, who used a friend’s photo for his profile (and whose very mean family is shocked that he actually has an attractive date) is super-apologetic and offers to introduce Natalie to his friend from the photo. If she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend over the holidays. (Awwww… and YES a fauxmance.)
I am the hugest Jimmy O. Yang fan so I was jumping up and down when I figured out he was in this movie. Yes, it had its tropes, but it also had its funny moments and I loved watching Natalie realize that Josh was a great guy that she shoudn’t let out of her life!
Tropes: mistaken identity, fauxmance, big city girl in a small town, shy nerdy guy
My rating: 5/5 chocolate Santas
Watch Lovehard on Netflix here!
Review of A Castle for Christmas: starring Brooke Shields and Cary Elwes (2021)
Who could resist a story about a famous writer who, embroiled in a messy controversy, runs off to a Scottish castle and finds love in the process?
A Castle for Christmas features Sophie Brown, who writes romance novels (see, another writer!) It seems that one of her main characters was based on her now ex-husband.
Sophie kills him off (fictionally!) angering her fans, and then compounds matters by losing her cool on the Drew Barrymore show, ranting about all the ways she wanted to kill him. The character, that is. Maybe. Sophie’s teenage daughter is surprisingly cool about all this, rather than mortified.
Instead of posting on social media about her upcoming stint in anger management (or claiming she had a bad reaction to allergy medication) Sophie packs a single suitcase and flounces off to Dun Dunbar castle, where her father lived as a child when his father was the castle groundskeeper.
Okay, this was a cute touch. I expected Sophie to hang around Scotlant anonymously, but she uses her real name. And I guess she really is famous, because an entire Scottish knitting club (who meets in the castle and has read ALL of her books) welcomes her with open arms. They’ll teach her to knit and explain haggis to her.
Less welcoming is the Duke of Dunbar, who is struggling to pay for the upkeep of his drafty castle. Like all dukes in rom coms, he is aloof, cranky and attractive.
A Castle for Christmas didn’t have much plot except some grumpy-sunshine banter. But Brooke Shields and Cary Elwes were obviously having a good time, which made me enjoy this more than I would have otherwise.
The location was stunning, and although some true Scots have objected to the fake accents, I didn’t notice. Also, the Scots would like to point out that movie was filmed at a mansion, not a castle. Duly noted.
My rating: 4/5 Chocolate Santas
Review of Single All the Way starring Michael Urie and Philemon Chambers (2021)
As the poster suggests, Single All the Way was by far the most star-studded of the bunch, featuring Michael Urie, Kathy Najimy, Barry Bostwick and Jennifer Coolidge.
The plot is a classic friends to lovers romance, with high-maintenance social media manager Peter being completely oblivious to the fact that his bestie Nick is the most adorable, patient, and kind-hearted person on the planet. (Nick is not only gorgeous and completely unaware of it, he’s also a children’s book author who is super-handy around the house and freelances for a handyman app.)
The plot of Single All The Way was .. there was no plot. The movie was sort of like every millennial meme and cliche got put into a blender: a houseplant obsessed guy with an Instagram devoted to his plants, a rescue dog, the gig economy (was Taskrabbit a sponsor?), tech-incompetent parents, an aunt who is a cougar, and repeated guncle jokes.
Peter is actually kind of terrible, like that friend who somehow manages to talk you into doing things that are inconvenient, expensive, and not even fun. He gets dumped for Christmas, so he convinces Nick to put his beloved dog in a kennel, come home to the East Coast with him, and pretend to be his boyfriend.
After all this sacrifice, Nick gets ditched himself when Peter’s mom, oblivious to the fact that Nick is the only one patient enough to put up with her son’s charming narcissism, sets Peter up on a blind date. Then there’s a weird photoshoot with shaving cream. Don’t ask. Finally, the HEA was achieved and all was right in the world.
My rating: 3.5/5 chocolate Santas! (Nick was one of the best holiday movie love interests ever. But I wish Peter had been nicer. And they sent the poor rescue dog to a kennel over Christmas! Not okay, Nick. Even for love.)
Want even more great Christmas Movies? You can find my reviews of Best Christmas Movies of 2020 here!
Also, please check out my Holiday Movie Showdown, which compares Christmas movies with similar themes (and picks the most romantic and festive!)
What is the Netflix Holiday Universe (or Netflix Christmas Universe)?
Just like all good Christmas stories, it started with a birth.
The Netflix Christmas Universe began with The Christmas Prince in 2017. That movie was extremely popular and set in the fictional country of Aldovia. A second Christmas Prince movie introduced the neighboring country of Penglia.
Meanwhile, The Princess Switch takes place in nearby Belgravia.
King Richard, Queen Amber, and Princess Elleri, attend the Coronation of Queen Margaret in The Princess Switch: Switched Again. Count Simon runs into Fiona at a party in The Princess Switch: Romancing the Star.
If you want a rundown of all the connections, you can find that here.
Netflix Holiday Universe Connections in 2024
In Hot Frosty, the main character, played by Lacey Chabert, says (sarcastically) “yeah, and I’m the Queen of Aldovia.”
She also sees a scene from Falling for Christmas and mentions that Lindsay Lohan looks like a girl I went to school with. Yes, that’s more like a Mean Girls tie-in but I laughed.
In The Merry Gentlemen, the main character watches The Christmas Prince.
Netflix Holiday Universe Connections in 2023!
Love Hard is one I want to watch this month! However, I feel like they showed the entire movie in the trailer, haha. Glad to see you enjoyed it though. 🙂
Lindsi @ Do You Dog-ear? 💬
It was super cute! Predictable but that didn’t bother me.
Love Hard is my favorite so far. I thought that was so much fun and kind of original.
We watched Single All the Way yesterday and that was cute too but not a fave.
I liked the castle one way more than I thought I would.
Karen @For What It’s Worth
I agree – Castle for Christmas was cheesy but also enjoyable.
Wow. I did not know that Lovehard was a play on Diehard. I’m watching Single All the Way tonight, but I mostly agree with your ratings. I think I gave Castle 3.5 stars.
Well I think it was?!?!? And I tend to round up for Christmas movies so remove one-half star if you want my tougher rating lol
I haven’t watched any of these but I don’t usually watch Christmas movies.
haha they are an acquired taste!
“50% of all rom coms, Natalie makes her living as a writer.” lol
I just saw Love Hard over at Karen’s site and it sounds fun. the trailer sold me. 🙂
It’s so true. Most are dating columnists and you know that’s a thriving job market lolol
Yay! I adored all three of these too! I was very pleasantly surprised by Netflix’s new Christmas movies this year. 🙂
I know! Great job Netflix!
I only watched Love Hard and really loved it. Now I will watch the other two.
Let me know what you think of the others!
Not all of these movies are available on netflix in my country, why I know because I used purevpn to change my libraries to find them
Netflix is a Grinch!!!