The best Christmas movies on Netflix in the UK

Like a box of chocolates that you gobble up before Christmas dinner is even served, this cutesy romcom – in which Cameron Diaz romances Jude Law in an English country cottage – should make you feel queasy. But there’s something unbearably lovely about The Holiday that reels you in. It doesn’t hurt that the LA-set secondary plot features Kate Winslet on top form as a British journalist who forges an unlikely friendship with an aging Hollywood director and gets cosy with Jack Black.

Playwright David E Talbert enters the Christmas canon with this Netflix original starring Forest Whitaker as an aloof toymaker tasked with caring for his estranged granddaughter on Christmas. An old-school musical fantasy brought to life through new-school VFX and cutting-edge choreography, the film is extremely busy and a little unfocused – not that most viewers would notice. They’ll be too busy being dazzled by the explosive visuals and genuine heart at the core of the film.

Easily the best of Netflix’s avalanche of original holiday content in 2021, this might also be the year’s best romcom: the story of a man who convinces his best buddy to pretend to be his boyfriend in order to placate his matchmaking family. Any film featuring cinematic treasure Jennifer Coolidge as Glinda the Good Witch in a community theatre Christmas pageant is instantly watchable, but it’s the great big heart at the centre that positions Single all the Way for perennial status.

This oddball origin story of Santa Klaus is the first animated feature from Netflix, and it's a doozy. Featuring Oscar-winner JK Simmons as a grizzled proto-Santa who loves toymaking but isn't interested in children, Jason Schwartzman as an incompetent postal carrier and Rashida Jones as a cynical teacher, the film’s eye-popping art direction scored the streamer a Best Animated Feature nomination. And if the setup sounds like a grump-fest, don't worry: Icy hearts melt, fast.

Christmas is at the heart of this unconventional but charming British romantic comedy. Hugh Grant plays Will, a grumpy and jaded bachelor who lives off the royalties of a Christmas song that his father wrote. When he meets the teenage Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), the pair become unlikely comrades, and it’s through this friendship that Will’s icy heart begins to understand the value of family Christmases. Promise it’s not as schmaltzy as it sounds: This is based on a Nick Hornby book, so you can bet that the feelgood vibes are counterbalanced with some solidly acerbic humour. 

Richard Curtis’s ensemble comedy has become a perennial favorite for the holiday set despite the fact that a fair number of the principal characters border on sociopathy. But hey, on the holidays you take the good with the bad, and if that means balancing a tweenage meet-cute with watching Andrew Garfield stalk Keira Knightly, well, so be it. With Bill Nighy’s aging rocker Billy Mack strutting through the margins with a boozy novelty song in his heart, it’s easy to get sucked into the vibes and shrug off the fact that the Prime Minister is probably looking at abuse-of-power charges come New Year. 

What could be more festive than a film about a demonic spirit-cum-goat-man who hunts down people who have lost that Christmas feeling? That’s the premise of this comedy-horror, that takes its story from Austro-Bavarian folklore and which has all the hallmarks of a classic B-movie. The all-star cast – including Adam Scott and Toni Collette – brings the screams and laughs, and there’s even a horrifying clown that eats children, making this a deliciously macabre heir apparent to Gremlins's holiday horrors. 

Nikolas – a young boy who has clearly never seen Game of Thrones – heads to the dangerous snowbound north to find his missing dad in this cockle-warming but never cutesy Father Christmas origin story. Adapted from Matt Haig's novel, its unalloyed joys include a cast of Brit thesps (Maggie Smith, Sally Hawkins, Jim Broadbent), Kristen Wiig hamming it up as Nikolas's mean aunt and Stephen Merchant voicing a sassy mouse called Miika. It'll be a Christmas favourite for years to come, so why not gather the family round and break your duck – sorry, goose – now.

Why it took until 2018 for someone to cast Kurt Russell as Santa is a mystery, but thank Klaus Netflix did so in this slight but lovely live-action tale of two kids determined to capture the St Nick on camera. The 2020 sequel one-ups that inspired casting by bringing in Goldie Hawn as Mrs Claus. Somewhere, a Netflix exec is surely thinking of ways to entice Wyatt Russell and Kate Hudson into elf costumes for a threequel. 

For some unknown reason, former High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens has become the face of Netflix’s Christmas original movies. The Princess Switch comes complete with all the hallmarks of a trashy, cheesy and irresistible festive favourite. Set in the fictional Kingdom of Belgravia (yes, really), Hudgens plays Stacy DeNovo, a Chicagoan who discovers that she bears a striking resemblance to Lady Margaret Delacourt (also played by Hudgens), the Duchess of Montenaro and fiancée of Crown Prince Edward of Belgravia. Naturally, like a candy cane take on Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, the pair agree to swap lives and romance ensues. Even better, last year Netflix released a sequel, The Princess Switch: Switched Again, last year, and will drop The Princess Switch: Romancing the Star in time for Christmas 2021. 

It’s a tale as old as time: an ill-placed and cranky authority figure has their cold heart melted when they agree to put on a performance of some kind with a group of young people. Director Debbie Isitt’s festive take on the genre doesn’t quite do it as well as Sister Act or School of Rock, but there’s enough quaint English charm and Christmassy spirit in this film about a cantankerous primary school teacher (Martin Freeman) who directs his school’s nativity play to keep you entertained while the turkey is cooking.

Based on the young adult novel by Maureen Johnson, John Green and Lauren Myracle, this ensemble romantic comedy is frothier than a glass of eggnog and just a calorific. Set on Christmas Eve, it follows a group of teenagers from Laurel, Illinois who are all embroiled in various romances. There’s some cute LGBTQ+ representation, an outlandish plotline involving a pop star plucked straight from fan-fiction forums and an endgame party at a waffle house where all the romantic conflict is tied up with a ribbon.

There’s more plot stuffed into this so-bad-it's-good Netflix original Christmas movie than sage and onion into a turkey. Amber Moore (Rose McIver) is an ambitious young journalist who wants the scoop on Richard, the playboy prince of Aldovia, who is rumoured to be rejecting his ascent to the throne. Amber heads to Aldovia to investigate, only to get mistaken for young Princess Emily’s new tutor. In a move that would likely cause an inquest into journalistic ethics, Amber decides to play along, getting closer to the royal family and, most importantly, Prince Richard, whom she falls in love with. But when she discovers a royal secret, it threatens to expose her own lies and brings the future of the Aldovian royal family into question. As the first film in a trilogy, you won’t want to miss A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding and A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby, which somehow take the concept and crank up the craziness. Which is to say, this is a series best paired with a generous pour of nog. 

Benedict Cumberbatch frees Dr Seuss’s Christmas-hating anti-hero from the grip of Jim Carrey for this computer-animated take on the beloved holiday favourite. Cumberbatch plays the Grinch as a grouchy American, all prissy and nasal and mischievous but with a sad, soft aspect too. He’s still a grump, of course, but this is the twenty-first century, so he’s a grump with issues and a bit of a backstory. This version also features Pharrell Williams as the narrator, who dips in and out of Dr Seuss’s warming rhymes, binding the film to its authentic source. And while kids will love the film, there’s enough inbuilt seasonal cheer to semi-defrost the hearts of more demanding adult viewers, too.