It’s Christmastime on Netflix, and that usually means a deluge of cheeseball holiday romcoms hitting the streamer. And yes, there are quite a few this year. But there’s much more happening than just guilty-pleasure winterslop. At the top of the highlight pile are a pair of potential award hopefuls: Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly and Wake Up Dead Man, the latest Knives Out murder mystery. There are documentaries about The New Yorker and journalist Seymour Hersh, another season of Emily in Paris and the directorial debut of Kate Winslet. And that’s not to mention the final episodes of Stranger Things… which we don’t, since we talked about them last month, and you likely already know if you’re tuning in. Here are nine other top picks.
What’s new on Netflix December 2025 at a glance:
📍Movies: Jay Kelly (Dec. 5), Wake Up Dead Man (Dec. 12), Goodbye June (Dec. 24)
📍Shows: Emily in Paris season 5 (Dec. 18), The Abandons (Dec. 4), Man vs Baby (Dec. 11)
📍Limited Series: Simon Cowell: The Next Act (Dec. 10)
📍Documentaries: Cover-Up (Dec. 26), The New Yorker at 100 (Dec. 5)
Recommended:
💻 The best Netflix original series to binge
📺 The best TV and streaming shows of 2025 (so far)
The Abandons
It’s Cersei Lannister versus Agent Scully in this Yellowstone-coded western from Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter. Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey are the respective matriarchs of two drastically different European families locked in a conflict over a cattle ranch in 1850s Oregon. Hey, if you’re going to copy Taylor Sheridan’s whole flow, you can certainly do worse than pitting those two actors against each other.
Premieres Dec 4
Jay Kelly
George Clooney as a suave but aging A-list actor? Wonder if he can pull that off. Noah Baumbach directs this midlife-crisis dramedy, in which Clooney and his manager, played by Adam Sandler, journey across Europe, coming to terms with their life choices along the way. Clooney’s character might have the title, but it’s Sandler who’s generating Oscar buzz.
Premieres Dec 5
The New Yorker at 100
This documentary offers a rare inside look at the standard-bearer for magazine journalism as it hits the century mark. Let this be your motivation to finally read the three years of back issues stacked in your closet.=
Premieres Dec 5
Simon Cowell: The Next Act
Simon Cowell takes a break from shattering the dreams of young singers on live television and returns to his A&R roots in this reality competition series, as he looks to assemble ‘the next great boy band’. (Are non-Korean boy bands still a thing?) Think of it like MTV’s Making the Band, minus [redacted].
Premieres Dec 10
Man vs Baby
After spending nine episodes of his previous series fending off an aggressive bee, Rowan Atkinson – Mr Bean if you’re nasty – faces his toughest challenge yet: a tiny infant he suddenly finds in his care. Oh, the faces he’ll make and the pratfalls he’ll take!
Premieres Dec 11
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Yep, another Knives Out sequel – and possibly the best yet. When a priest dies a suspicious death, Daniel Craig and his hilariously bad Southern accent are called in to investigate. Once again, the cast is stacked: you’ve got Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Kerry Washington and the suddenly ubiquitous Josh O’Connor, just to name a few.
Premieres Dec 12
Emily in Paris season 5
Emily in Paris…in Rome? In the fifth season of this guilty pleasure romcom, Lily Collins’ young American marketing exec jets from Paris to Italy in pursuit of a hot new love interest. Two European Christmas vacations for the price of one? Sounds good to us!
Premieres Dec 18
Goodbye June
Similar to last year’s His Three Daughters, this drama, directed by and starring Kate Winslet, uses the death of a parent as a pretense to put a cast of A-list actors in close proximity and watch them emote. Helen Mirren is the ailing matriarch; Winslet, Toni Collette and Andrea Riseborough are the siblings gathered at her bedside, indeed to say goodbye, and work through some long-simmering familial tensions.
Premieres Dec 24
Cover-Up
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has uncovered enough government conspiracies, including the My Lai massacre and the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, that it’s left him naturally suspicious of most people’s motivations. In this buzzy documentary, Oscar-winner Laura Poitras goes in-depth on Hersh’s legendary career, but not without pushback from the subject himself.
Premieres Dec 26
Everything New Coming to Netflix in December 2025
Available Dec. 1:
A League of Their Own
All the Empty Rooms
As Good as It Gets
Bad Teacher
Big Momma’s House
Big Momma’s House 2
Brightburn
Burlesque
Cheaper by the Dozen
Cheaper by the Dozen 2
Christmas Break-In
CoComelon Lane – season 6
Godzilla
Hollow Man
Joy for Christmas
Kung Fu Panda
Kung Fu Panda 2
Kung Fu Panda 3
Little Women
Love is Blind: Italy
My Next Guest with David Letterman and Adam Sandler
Playing Gracie Darling
Pulp Fiction
Stripes
The Ugly Truth
The Wolf of Wall Street
Troll 2
Victoria: Seasons 1-3
What Lies Beneath
Zero Dark Thirty
Available Dec. 2:
Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches: Season 2
Matt Rife: Unwrapped – A Christmas Crowd Work Special
Available Dec. 3:
My Secret Santa
The Northman
Stranded with my Mother-in-Law – season 3
With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration
Available Dec. 4:
A Lot Like Christmas
The Abandons
The Believers – season 2
Forrest Gump
Fugue State 1986
I Wish You Had Told Me
Lali: Time to Step Up
Mean Girls (2004)
Mean Girls (2024)
Available Dec. 5:
Jay Kelly
Love and Wine
The Making of Jay Kelly
The New Yorker at 100
The Night My Dad Saved Christmas 2
The Price of Confession
Owning Manhattan – season 2
Available Dec. 7:
Babylon
Cast Away
Available Dec. 8:
Elmo and Mark Rober’s Merry Giftmas
Available Dec. 9:
Badly in Love
Blood Coast – season 2
Masaka Kids, A Rhythm Within
The West Wing – seasons 1-7
Available Dec. 10:
The Accident – season 2
Record of Ragnarok – season 3
Simon Cowell: The Next Act
Available Dec. 11:
The Fakenapping
Had I Not Seen the Sun: Part 2
Lost in the Spotlight
Man Vs Baby
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft – season 2
The Town (Netflix series)
Available Dec. 12:
City of Shadows
Home for Christmas – season 3
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Available Dec. 13:
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Available Dec. 14:
PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie
Available Dec. 15:
A Cowboy Christmas Romance
Christmas at the Chalet
The Christmas Classic
Christmas on the Alpaca Farm
The Creature Cases: Chapter 6
Available Dec. 16:
Castle Rock – seasons 1-2
Culinary Class Wars – season 2
Available Dec. 17:
The Manny – season 3
Murder in Monaco
What’s In The Box?
Available Dec. 18:
10DANCE
Emily in Paris – season 5
Available Dec. 19:
A Time for Bravery
Breakdown: 1975
The Great Flood
Jake vs. Joshua: Judgment Day
Available Dec. 22:
The Closer – seasons 1-7
Elway
Sicily Express
Available Dec. 23:
Eden
King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch – season 3
Available Dec. 24:
Downton Abbey: A New Era
Goodbye June
Tom Segura: Teacher
Available Dec. 25:
Christmas Gameday: Cowboys vs. Commanders
Christmas Gameday: Lions vs. Vikings
Stranger Things 5: Volume 2
Available Dec. 26:
Cover-Up
Available Dec. 29:
Members Only: Palm Beach
Available Dec. 30:
Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story
Ricky Gervais: Mortality
Available Dec. 31:
Sleeping with Other People
Stranger Things 5: The Finale