There’s no better way to get into the Christmas spirit than to watch a holiday movie. I’m here to make sure you get a great Christmas surprise, not a lump of coal. Here are some short reviews of of the Best Christmas movies to stream on Hallmark, Netflix, and Amazon Prime!
Be sure to grab your freebie at the end of the post: Holiday Movie Bingo Card!
I’m no Grinch, so I’m grading these Christmas movies on a holiday curve!
Written and edited by Jen Ryland. Last updated on:
Jen’s Rating of Netflix Christmas Movies
Holidate (2020) starring Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey
This was more a holiday movie than a Christmas movie. It was also surprisingly snarky, surprisingly PG-13 and surprisingly professional. Sloane and Jackson both wish they had a date just for holiday events. So they make an arrangement to be each other’s plus one at Christmas and Thanksgiving (and Cinco de Mayo and St. Patrick’s Day). The movie follows them for a complete year, from Christmas to Christmas. If you have a little Grinch in you, definitely check this one out. Kristin Chenoweth’s cameo as a creepy cougar was not a high point; watch her instead in A Christmas Love Story on Hallmark (below)
Jen’s Rating of Holiday: 5/5 Chocolate Santas!
A California Christmas (2020) starring Lauren and Josh Swickard
A California Christmas won’t be for everyone. It has every Hallmark movie cliche in the book and then some. So this douche-y city slicker who whines to his mom for a promotion at their family business is sent to try to steal the land (sorry, buy the land) of a no-nonsense farm girl with a sick mother and adorable younger sister. On the upside, it does flip the city girl/country guy trope. Plus the stars are married in real life (awww…) On the downside, it’s pretty cheesy. It’s probably a four Santa film but I’m taking off half a Santa for lack of Christmas atmosphere, as it takes place in sunny California instead of a snowy fictional village called Holly Springs. But if you just want to zone out and watch a cheesy romance , check this one out!
Jen’s Rating of A California Christmas: 4/5 chocolate Santas
A Christmas Prince (2017) Starring Rose McIver and Ben Lamb
Amber’s a journalist sent to get a story about the bad boy prince of Aldovia, who is about to be crowned king. When Amber arrives, she’s mistaken for his young sister’s governess, so she goes with this mistaken identity to get her scoop. The story is actually pretty cute and the prince’s sister is the best character by far. I wish Netflix had spent a little more on production – the outdoor settings (wolves and snow!) were stunning but the costumes and indoor settings didn’t feel very royal.
Jen’s Rating of A Christmas Prince: 4/5 Chocolate Santas
A Christmas Prince: Royal Wedding (2018) Starring Rose McIver and Ben Lamb
Amber heads back to Aldovia, her deli owner father in tow, to plan her royal wedding. There’s a wacky wedding planner and some wedding dress hijinks. Except … Aldovia is running out of money. (Meanwhile, they keep planning their expensive wedding. Hello?) I have faith they will figure it out. As Amber wisely says, “when numbers don’t add up, there is usually a reason.” The script felt like children’s theater and the costumes, hair and makeup were janky (maybe there really was a $$ shortage lol) but wedding planning is always fun and Honor Kneafsey lights up the screen again as the prince’s younger sister Emily. I’m waiting until 2027 when she gets her own movie!
Jen’s Rating of A Christmas Prince: Royal Wedding: 3.5 Chocolate Santas
A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby (2019)
Queen Amber is back and pregnant! Now that she’s queen she has hired better hair people – yay! The kingdom of Aldovia is hosting the king and queen of Penglia, a neighboring kingdom (see map below), for a treaty re-signing. The Penglians are Asian, stuffy, and traditional, shrugging off Amber’s folksy American chats about royalty and feminism. But then a blizzard traps them all in the castle together and they discover that the priceless treaty has been stolen, an event that will possibly curse their royal baby. The mystery aspect was cheesy good fun and I’m always happy to hang with Princess Emily!
Jen’s Rating of A Christmas Prince: Royal Baby: 4/5 Chocolate Santas
The Princess Switch (2018)
A pastry chef from Chicago heads to a country called Belgravia (it borders Aldovia from Netflix’s A Christmas Prince. I’m not even joking.)
She’s there to enter a baking competition, dragging along her male friend and his adorable daughter. At the same time, a duchess shows up to meet her betrothed, a prince. The two women bump into each other, notice their striking resemblance and, Parent Trap-style, decide to switch places. None of it makes much sense, but it’s still a fair amount of fun! It’s really more of a 3.5 Santas, but because I’m such a sucker for twin switch plots, I’m bumping it slightly.
Jen’s Rating of The Princess Switch: 4/5 Chocolate Santas.
The Christmas Catch (2018) starring Emily Atalo and Franco Lo Presti
Mackenzie is a small town police detective hot on the trail of a crime ring that has stolen … a diamond reindeer. Yes, this is as cheesy as it sounds. I kept changing my mind about whether the love interest was the suspected jewel thief or Mackenzie’s attractive and funny partner at work. I wasn’t a fan of the jewel thief, who had a massive gelled mop of hair that belonged back in another decade and seemed like less of a hot bad boy and more of a goofy guy who made bad life choices. I did like the cameo by Lauren Holly as Mac’s mother, the police captain.
Jen’s Rating of A Christmas Catch: 3.5 Chocolate Santas.
Merry Happy Whatever (2019)
Um… okay. If you are looking for a Christmas sitcom, here you go. But heartwarming Christmas movies should NOT have a laugh track. Just … no.
Jen’s Rating of Merry Happy Whatever: DNF
Knight Before Christmas (2019)
Not as good as The Princess Switch. When a medieval knight gets transported to modern day, he falls in love with a teacher. If you’re really into time-traveling romance, give it a try, but I found it kind of weird.
Jen’s Rating of A Knight Before Christmas: DNF
Let it Snow (2019)
Low on plot but with some cute moments, this movie follows a group of teens in a small town on Christmas Eve. There’s a welcome amount of diversity and a good cast, but to me this felt slow-paced, uneventful, and lacking in holiday warmth.
Jen’s Rating of Let it Snow: DNF
The Christmas Wedding Planner (2017) Starring Jocelyn Hudon, Stephen Huszar, featuring Kelly Rutherford and Joey Fatone
This felt a little more rom com than Christmas movie, but it definitely held my interest. Kelsey is in charge of planning her beloved cousin’s winter society wedding. Then the cousin’s ex turns up, revealing that he’s a private eye digging for dirt that might ruin the wedding. Kelly Rutherford (Lily van der Woodsen from Gossip Girl) plays the bride’s mother with her usual amused haughtiness and a member of NSYNC turns up as the love interest’s brother. The ending should have been rethought, but I found this one a bit crazy but surprisingly watchable!
Jen’s Rating of The Christmas Wedding Planner: 4/5 Chocolate Santas
The Christmas Inheritance (2017) Starring Eliza Taylor and Jake Lacy
A spoiled heiress must learn the meaning of Christmas. After landing in the tabloids again, Ellen (this is the name of a spoiled heiress?) gets punished by her father, who makes her travel by bus (the horror!) to deliver some sort of Christmas letter. I liked the actors, but the script was pretty painful.
Jen’s Rating of The Christmas Inheritance: DNF
Christmas in the Heartland (2017)
Two girls meet on a plane headed to the same small town and decide to switch Christmases: Jessie goes to stay with Kara’s wealthy family and Kara goes with Jessie’s grandmother (Shelley Long from Cheers in a very odd role.) I made it through the first twenty minutes or so and then it was a no.
Jen’s rating of Christmas in the Heartland: DNF
Jen’s Rating of Amazon Prime Christmas Movies
Snowed Inn Christmas (2017) Starting Bethany Joy Lenz and Andrew Walker
Jenna and Kevin, rival writers at an online magazine, are told by their boss that she can’t afford to pay both of them and whoever writes the article that gets the most website traffic will keep their job. They both end up stranded by a blizzard in a small town, and desperately compete to find a story. This one had all the typical formula: characters touched by tragedy who find the meaning of Christmas in a small town. It wasn’t amazing, and the characters didn’t have a ton of chemistry, but it was cute enough.
Jen’s Rating of Christmas in the Heartland: 3.5/5 Chocolate Santa
Falling for Christmas (2016) Starring Leah Renee and Niall Matter
Claire, a talented figure skater, suffers an injury and is sent to some kind of inn/clinic in the woods to recover. There she meets Luke, a former hockey player and now single dad. Claire is pushed by her somewhat intense coach, supported by her mom (Lisa Whelchel of The Facts of Life) and adored by Luke’s daughter Chamonix (um, yeah.) I love skating movies and the chemistry between Luke and Claire felt convincing. A little slow-paced but definitely not terrible! Also features the actor who played Betty Cooper’s serial killer dad in Riverdale.
Jen’s Rating of Falling for Christmas: 3.5 Chocolate Santas
Jen’s Rating of Hallmark Christmas Movies
A Christmas Love Story (2019) starring Kristen Chenoweth and Scott Wolf.
Boring title aside, this had SO much going for it. Kristen Chenoweth is a great Hallmark addition and seemed to be having a good time. It felt like she was playing herself a bit — a choral director and former Broadway star who’s a bit of a self-deprecating diva — but that was not a bad thing. I just wish she sang more in the movie! Scott Wolf (formerly of Party of Five and now of Nancy Drew) plays an Ivy League educated father who wants his son to go to business school, not sing in Kristin’s choir. This felt pretty light but then took a surprising turn in the last quarter – whoa, I did not see that coming. Also starring Keith Robinson (who should get his own movie) as Kristin’s choir co-director and Kevin Quinn as Scott Wolf’s son.
Jen’s Rating of A Christmas Love Story: 5/5 Chocolate Santas
Christmas Scavenger Hunt (2019) starring Kim Shaw and Kevin McGarry
This one had EVERY cliche in the book (watch it using my bingo card below and you’ll get bingo in about five seconds): a small town girl who’s now a career woman returns to her hometown over the holidays and ends up in a Christmas scavenger hunt with her ex. It was still pretty charming!
Jen’s Rating of Christmas Scavenger Hunt: 4/5 Chocolate Santas.
Mistletoe Promise (2016) Starring Jaime King and Luke Macfarlane
Two Christmas-hating characters meet cute in a mall and decide to make a pact to get through Christmas together. Elise runs a travel agent with her jerky ex-husband. Nick is a lawyer who needs to find a wife to fit in with his firm’s “family values” culture. While Jaime King looks more like a former runway model than a sad, mall-going divorcee, she made Elise an appealing main character. The plot was classic romance novel — fauxmance-about-to-be-exposed — but worked overall. The movie even gently reminds Hallmark viewers that (gasp!) divorced women deserve a second chance at love.
Jen’s rating of Mistletoe Promise: 4/5 Chocolate Santas
Christmas at the Plaza (2019) Starring Elizabeth Henstridge and Ryan Paevey.
I had high hopes for this, because it was set at the Plaza in New York. But the main character was such a cranky and joyless person that I couldn’t continue.
Jen’s Rating for Christmas at the Plaza: DNF
A Wish for Christmas (2016) Starring Lacey Chabert and Paul Green
The main character is a doormat who makes a wish to Santa that she can stand up for herself. After that, she magically becomes a weird mix of assertive and oversharing. That plot would be enough, but the male character (her boss) has a whole backstory with an estranged family. I didn’t like the main character or the premise and, while I made it through only one hour of this movie, it felt like ten.
Jen’s Rating of a Wish For Christmas: DNF
Christmas Cookies (2016) Starring Jill Wagner and Wes Brown
Businesswoman Hannah is sent to a town called Cookie Jar (yes, seriously!) to “seal the deal” to buy a failing business: Aunt Sally’s Cookie Company. Of course, Hannah soon discovers that the magic in Aunt Sally’s cookie recipe is small town values. I’m all for promoting entrepreneurship over corporate greed, but when it was revealed that the cookies couldn’t be made anywhere but Cookie Jar because none of the recipes were written down, I was choking on my cocoa. While I hated that Hannah’s feminist ambitions got translated as selfishness, she did not endear herself to me by not telling the love interest that she had a boyfriend back home. On the other hand, Hannah did have personality and a sassy sister played by Chelsey Reist (Harper in The 100.)
Jen’s rating of Christmas Cookies: 3/5 Chocolate Santas
A Cookie Cutter Christmas (2014)
Two schoolteachers compete to win a holiday baking competition and try to win the attention of a handsome single father. I watched a few minutes, but the premise of two female teachers trying to bake the best cookies for a DILF is just … ughhhh. It’s the 21st century, Hallmark.
Jen’s rating of A Cookie Cutter Christmas: DNF
Every Christmas Has a Story (2016) Starring Lori Loughlin and Colin Ferguson
I’m not sure if Hallmark has banned this movie after Lori Loughlin’s legal troubles, so I’m glad I watched it when I could. Every Christmas Has a Story features a typical reprogram-the-Christmas-hater plot. When Kate, a local television reporter, doesn’t realize her mike is still on and says she hates Christmas, the townspeople (hilariously) picket the station. Her boss immediately sends her to the most Christmas-loving town in the US., accompanied by her producer (and former college boyfriend) Jack. Soon the two of them are hot on the trail of the story of the missing Christmas tree in the town square … and hot for each other. The story of the missing town tree was so convoluted and that I couldn’t explain it to a family member who wandered into the room. But this movie also features Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade (!) playing a town local. As for the romance, I couldn’t get past the fact that the love interest was also…
…the Maytag repairman. I don’t know, I just kept thinking about kitchen appliances, not Christmas kisses.
Jen’s rating of Every Christmas Has a Story: 3/5 Chocolate Santas
My Christmas Dream (2016) Starring Danica McKellar and David Haydn-Jones
I loved The Wonder Years and had high hopes for this one. Danica looks fantastic and seems like a cool girl IRL. But as I watched My Christmas Dream, my mind kept drifting. You know how every town has the good mall and the sad mall? Well, poor Christina (Danica) is the boss of the sad department store in the sad mall. In the part where I was still paying attention, the love interest spills paint on Christina’s dress and then she fires him. He’s a divorced dad with a adorable kid, and she wants some kind of promotion from Dr. Marlena Evans from Days of Our Lives. There might be more to the plot than that, but I kind of zoned out and gave up.
Jen’s Rating of My Christmas Dream: DNF
A December Bride (2016) Starring Jessica Lowndes and Daniel Lissing
A December Bride was cheesy Christmas perfection!
Layla is an interior decorator who toils thanklessly for her mocha latte-loving boss. Layla also experienced heartbreak when her cousin stole her fiancé.
When Layla is asked to decorate some corporate offices for the holidays, she runs into Seth, the man who introduced her fiancé to her man-stealing cousin.
She makes it clear that the least he can do is accompany her to her cousin’s wedding so she’s not dumped and dateless. (Layla should feel better that the wedding seems to take place in the saddest venue ever.)
At the wedding, Seth feels so bad for Layla that he tells everyone they’re engaged and … a fauxmance is born. This couple’s chemistry was adorable. Seth is clearly crazy about Layla, but she’s too oblivious to see it. I also loved the fact that the man-stealing plot was actually fully developed, exploring the cousins’ relationship so that the whole thing wasn’t just a stereotypical catfight.
Jen’s Rating of A December Bride: 5/5 Chocolate Santas!
Want a fun game while you watch? Play Holiday Movie Bingo – Grab THREE different full size versions of my Holiday Movie Bingo card here!
If you can’t get enough Christmas movies, check out my Holiday Movie Showdown, where I stack uptwo Christmas movies with similar themes against each other.
