32 holiday movies to keep you satisfied all the way through December (and then some)
Crave/CTV Drama
Christmas Unwrapped
Get ready for a holiday movie premiere with Christmas Unwrapped. This new Christmas favourite follows Charity Jones (Amber Stevens West), who is an ambitious and pragmatic reporter. Charity learns the true meaning of Christmas when she investigates Erik Gallagher (Marco Grazzini), a millionaire who insists that all the gifts that arrive on Christmas every year are from Santa Claus.
Tune into the premiere Friday, Dec. 4 at 8 p.m. on the CTV Drama Channel.
The Perfect Holiday
A holiday movie with Gabrielle Union, Morris Chestnut, Terrence Howard, Queen Latifah, Katt Williams and Toni Childs from Girlfriends (we mean, Jill Marie Jones)? Sign us up! The Perfect Holidaystars Union as a divorced mother of three who feels especially lonely during the holidays but her youngest daughter has a plan to make her mom smile again. She asks the department-store Santa Claus (Chestnut) to compliment her mom. Turns out that Santa knows exactly what to say.
Die Hard
Yes, this is a Christmas movie! Bruce Willis plays New York City policeman who is visiting his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia) and their two children on Christmas eve. John joins her at a holiday party at her employer's headquarters but the festivities don't go as planned. The holiday party is interrupted by a group of terrorists who take over the high-rise building and John decides that he's the only one who can save the hostages. We love a holiday-action movie! If you're in the mood for more Die Hard, the sequel also takes place at Christmastime. Yippee ki yay!
Christmas In The City
Christmas In The City has a pretty relatable storyline for 2020. It's about Wendy Carroll (Ashley Williams) getting a foreclosure notice three weeks before Christmas on her father's candy store which she has been running for the last five years. (Support small businesses!) In order to make some extra money to save the store, Wendy and her 6-year-old daughter head to New York so she can work at the department store Wollman's. Wendy gets a job in the toy department and she thinks the store is amazing and filled with holiday cheer until the store manager, Teanna (Ashanti), replaces Santa with a male underwear model surrounded by elfin "babe." Who wouldn't want to watch a Christmas movie starring Ashanti as the Grinch?
Fred Claus
Fred, Santa Claus's bitter older brother (Vince Vaughn), is forced to move to the North Pole after he asks his brother Nick (but actually Santa Claus) for $50,000 to open a betting shop in Chicago. Nick will only loan his brother the money if he helps with the Christmas rush. After his girlfriend breaks up with him, Fred decides to head to Santa's Workshop where he has to review the charts and determine who's naughty and who's nice. Of course, chaos erupts, almost destroying Christmas, but the brothers have to work together to make sure things go smoothly.
A Twist of Christmas
In the frenzy before Christmas, two single parents, played by Vanessa Lachey and Brendon Zub, accidentally mix up their toys at a crowded department store. Remember the days when the words "crowded" and "department store" didn't make us nervous? Although the two parents can't stand each other, they decide to try to help one another salvage their holiday plans. In a Twist of Christmas, the busy working mom and the overwhelmed lawyer end up falling for each other in the process.
Princess Switch 2: Switched Again
The Princess Switch sequel is here and Vanessa Hudgens is taking on the role of three characters this time around. Not only will she play the roles of Duchess Margaret and Princess Stacy, but she will also play Margaret's cousin Fiona. A triple threat! When Margaret unexpectedly inherits the throne to Montenaro, she finds trouble in her long-distance relationship with her boyfriend, Kevin. Princess Stacy steps in to help save the Duchess' relationship but Fiona wants to pull the switch and become queen, making the situation even more complicated.
Streaming now on Netflix.
Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas
Madea (Tyler Perry) serves up her own brand of Christmas Spirit full of hilarious moments. She accompanies her niece, Eileen (Anna Maria Horsford), to the small town of Buck Tussel to pay a surprise visit to Eileen's daughter, Lacey (Tika Sumpter), who refused to head home for Christmas. The reason Lacey didn't want to go home is that she'd been hiding a secret from her mother. She married Connor, a white classmate from college, and when Madea arrives she lies and tells them that he's an employee. In the Madea-style, the lie spins out of control.
The Christmas Setup
It's been a long time coming but The Christmas Setup marks Lifetime’s first-ever LGBTQ+ Christmas movie and it's sweet as can be. Starring real-life married couple Blake Lee and Ben Lewis, the film centers on will-they-won't-they high school besties Hugo and Patrick whose relationship is tested when Hugo gets a huge career opportunity that would send him to London. Fran Drescher also stars as Hugo's meddling matchmaking mother.Watch Friday, Dec. 18 at 8 p.m. ET on CTV Drama Channel.
Last Christmas
This holiday rom-com stars Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke and Crazy Rich Asians actor Henry Golding, featuring the music of George Michael. Kate (Clarke) spends most of her time working in a Christmas shop as an elf, where her boss nicknames her "Lazy the Elf" because she never appears to be working. Tom (Golding) and Kate continue to run into each other in strange ways and he seems too good to be true. After meeting Tom, Kate begins to turn her life around and even begins singing Christmas songs to busk for money for the homeless shelter in Central London. However, things take a turn when Tom keeps disappearing and Kate gets angry with his apparent commitment phobia.
Eight Crazy Nights
Davey Stone (Adam Sandler) is a party animal with a criminal record who is sentenced to community service under the supervision of an elderly referee. Davey has to work as the assistant referee for the youth basketball league... or go to jail. He thinks he's gotten off easy until he meets Whitey Duvall, the head referee who is full of optimism and has a good heart. Prepare to sing along to "The Chanukah Song," with Sandler.
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey
Netflix's Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey is here to serve up some Christmas cheer. Jeronicus Jangle (Forest Whitaker) is a toymaker who owns a shop with his family that’s full of magic. Everything changes for Jeronicus when he invents a living toy named Don Juan Diego (voiced by Ricky Martin). Don Juan convinces Jeronicus's apprentice Gustafson (Keegan-Michael Key) to steal the book of toy ideas and use it to start an empire of his own. Gustafson obliges and creates a giant factory while Jeronicus faces financial and creative hardship. He finds new hope when his granddaughter comes into this life.
Streaming now on Netflix.
Happiest Season
This Christmas season, we are getting a holiday rom-com with Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy and Twilight’s Kristen Stewart playing gay best friends in Happiest Season. Stewart plays Abby, an art history student whose girlfriend Harper, played by Mackenzie Davis, has invited her home for Christmas. Abby decides she will propose to Harper while at her family’s house, but *plot twist* Harper lets Abby know that she hasn’t come out to her parents yet, and they both have to pretend to be straight.
eOne is distributing theatrically in Canada before it heads to Prime Video Canada.
Christmas Comes Twice
Sister Sister's Tamera Mowry-Housley plays an astrophysicist named Cheryl Jenkins who works for the National Science Foundation reviewing grant applications for projects in this holiday film. When she heads home to spend the holidays with her family, she decides to go to the Christmas carnival with her sister Trish (Zarrin Darnell-Martin). While at the carnival she sees a carousel in the distance and goes over to take a ride but when the carousel stops somehow it's five years earlier. Cheryl uses this gift as a chance to change her life by making different choices.
Catch it on the W Network.
The Christmas Chronicles 2
If you're looking for a brand new holiday movie to watch with your family, this is the one! It's been two years since Kate (Darby Camp) and Teddy Pierce (Judah Lewis) saved Christmas and a lot has changed. Kate, who's now a teenager, is spending Christmas in Cancun with her mom's new boyfriend (Tyrese Gibson) and his son Jack (Jahzir Bruno). She decides to run away because she's unhappy with the new version of her family but when a mysterious troublemaker named Belsnickel threatens to destroy the North Pole and end Christmas for good, Kate and her brother get pulled into a new adventure with Santa Claus (Kurt Russell) and Mrs. Claus (Goldie Hawn).
Streaming now on Netflix.
Christmas Ever After
Starring none other than Broadway superstar, the Tony-winning Ali Stroker, this brand new Lifetime holiday movie is actually one of the first of its kind—it completed filming under COVID-19 restrictions. They utilized plexiglass barriers for the kissing scenes and edited them out in post-production. The story follows famous romance novelist Izzi Simmons who is facing writers block while staying at her favourite B&B over the holidays. Enter: a mysterious stranger who acts an awful lot like the main character in Izzi's books.
Watch Friday, Dec. 11 on CTV Drama Channel.
A Christmas Switch
A Christmas Switch is the holiday film version of Freaky Friday. When singer Audrey (Jackie Seiden) and recording executive Julia (Ashley Wood) collide at the mall, they wake up in each other's lives the next morning. As Christmas quickly approaches, the two women try to rush and figure out how to help each other so they can switch back before they miss Christmas morning with their families.
A Christmas Melody
What is Christmas without the queen Mariah Carey? A Christmas Melody tells the story of Kristin Parson (Lacey Chabert) and her daughter, Emily, who move to Ohio and have a tough time adjusting to their new life. But Kristin comes face to face with Melissa (Mariah Carey), her former rival from high school and the current president of the PTA. Emily's music teacher Danny (Brennan Elliott) and Kristin's aunt (Kathy Najimy) decide to help them out and show them the Christmas spirit to help them overcome their differences.
A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
This holiday film is full of laughs. Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) reunite six years after their last adventure. While both of the friends, who have grown apart, are busy making holiday preparations, a mysterious package mistakenly arrives on Kumar's doorstep. He attempts to redirect the package to Harold but his plan goes up in smoke along with a Christmas tree that belongs to Harold's father-in-law... whoops. The pair of old friends go on an eventful adventure across New York City to find a new tree and, of course, stumble upon trouble at every single turn.
A Christmas Love Story
A Christmas Love Story stars actress Kristin Chenoweth playing Katherine Clark, who is a youth choir director that needs to write a big song for a Christmas Eve show. Katherine becomes distracted when a boy with a golden voice joins her choir, which comes as a surprise to his widowed father (Scott Wolf). Millennial plot twist: Katherine and the boy's father meet in an Uber pool.
Catch it on the W Network.
Black Christmas
This isn't your average Christmas movie because it involves murder and mystery. Hawthorne College quiets down for the holidays. Riley Stone (Imogen Poots) and her Mu Kappa Epsilon sisters — athlete Marty, rebel Kris and foodie Jesse (Star’s Brittany O'Grady) — prepare to deck the halls with holiday parties, but instead of holiday cheer, a black-masked stalker begins killing sorority women one by one. Riley and her squad start to question whether they can trust any man as the body count rises. Whoever the killer is, he is about to find out that these brave young women are not about to be anybody's victims.Streaming now on Crave.
A Christmas Story
"You'll shoot your eye out!" This holiday classic is narrated by the adult Ralphie Parker who talks about one Christmas when he was nine years old and all he wanted was a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle. This Christmas movie includes the infamous leg lamp and the triple dog dare for Flick to stick his tongue onto the school flagpole — OUCH.
Streaming now on Prime Video.
The Family Stone
Meeting your significant other's family for the first time can be tough. Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker), a successful Manhattan executive, is dreading meeting the rest of her boyfriend Everett Stone's (Dermot Mulroney) family after having dinner with Everett's youngest sister Amy (Rachel McAdams) who gave her the cold shoulder. Meredith decides to stay at the local inn instead of with the family and asks her sister Julie (Claire Danes) to join her for support. In a twist of events, Everett begins to fall for Meredith's sister and Meredith spends a drunk night with Everett's brother Ben. Prepare to be shocked at the outcomes of the relationships this Christmas with the Stone family.
Santa's Little Helper
This holiday film is for WWE fans. Dax, played by The Miz, is a greedy, corporate hatchet-man who closes a community youth centre just days before Christmas. In what seems like an act of karma, Dax is fired from his job, loses his girlfriend and car, and is about to be evicted from his house. There is a festive job opening at the North Pole because Santa Claus (Eric Keenleyside) is looking to replace Santa's Little Helper. Eleanor (Paige), the daughter of Santa, believes the job should be hers. Billie (AnnaLynne McCord), an elf who is shunned by the others because of a genetic defect that gives her round ears, gives Dax a series of difficult challenges to test his character.
Call Me Claus
Whoopi Goldberg is about to become Santa! When Lucy Cullions (Goldberg), a producer at a home shopping network, hires an actor named Nick to play Santa Claus on the network, she gets the real thing. Nick faces mandatory retirement after 200 years on the job and he has to find his replacement by Christmas Eve. In a time crunch, Lucy becomes his only candidate left.
One Christmas Eve
Chaos is coming to town! Nell Blakemore (Anne Heche) is a newly-single mom who wants this Christmas to be very special for her two kids. This Christmas turns out to be a memorable one but it's not what she had in mind. Basically, everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Cesar Cortez (Carlos Gomes) tries to drop a puppy off at the Blakemore's door but he trips and falls, and Nell and her kids have to take him to the hospital. Other events include the puppy falling down a hole in a construction zone, a car being towed and a nasty nurse harassing everyone.
Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas
No holiday season is complete without the Grinch, Max, and Cindy Lou Who. Welcome to Whoville where the world's biggest grump plans to ruin Christmas. In this live-action adaptation of the beloved children's tale by Dr. Seuss, the green Grinch (Jim Carrey) comes down from his mountaintop home and sneaks into Whoville to steal everything holiday-related from the Whos, including their decorations and presents. But he comes to realize that Christmas is in their hearts and not under their trees with the help of Cindy Lou Who (Gossip Girl's Taylor Momsen).
Streaming now on Prime Video.
Every Day Is Christmas
In this reimaging of the classic story A Christmas Carol, Toni Braxton stars as a ruthless businesswoman named Alexis, who is visited by her deceased mother. The workaholic ends up embracing the spirit of Christmas when her past, present and future collide and force the money manager to let go of money and pay attention to her heart.
The Polar Express
The Polar Express is the perfect movie to watch with your family. It tells the enchanting holiday tale of a young boy (Tom Hanks/Daryl Sabara/Josh Hutcherson) who doubts that Santa Claus is real. On Christmas Eve a magical train appears outside his house and the conductor (also Tom Hanks) invites him aboard. During his journey, the young boy learns that for those who believe, the wonders of life will never fade.
I'll Be Home for Christmas
Young love meets Christmas chaos in this holiday film. College student Jake (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), tries to surprise his girlfriend, Allie (Jessica Biel), by cashing his ticket home for the holidays in for two tickets to Cabo. The only catch? She refuses to go. Jake has to get home for Christmas Eve before Allie finds love with his rival Eddie (Adam LaVorgna).
Streaming now on Prime Video.
Rent-An-Elf
Ava (Kim Shaw) owns Rent-an-Elf, a business that helps busy families set up a memorable Christmas. This year she hires a newly-single Liam (Save The Last Dance's Sean Patrick Thomas) and falls for him and his son, Nathan. Just when things are going great, Liam's ex-wife returns and wants to get back together with him. Ava is determined to put Liam and Nathan's happiness over her own but she is still wishing for a Christmas miracle.
Miracle on 34th Street
This movie focuses on Macy’s executive Dorey Walker (Elizabeth Perkins) and her young daughter Susan (Mara Wilson), who both struggle with believing in the spirit of Christmas. This ’90s adaptation of the 1947 original film sees Dorey hire a man named Kriss Kringle (Richard Attenborough) to play her store’s Santa but he starts to believe he’s the real Saint Nicholas. When authorities threaten to place the man in an insane asylum, a young lawyer comes to his rescue.
