The best Christmas movies to watch right now on Netflix, Amazon, and Disney Plus

The Christmas season is in full swing and with it the annual festival of all things that are streamed for Christmas and accordingly festive. Christmas is a holiday that has inspired an abundance of ongoing comedies about the value of family, community, love, and selflessness during the darkest and coldest time of the year. It has also produced no shortage of films that push the limits of these well-worn tropics, transforming their holly-like exteriors into cerebral and sometimes macabre stories that explore the very darkness the vacation is designed to ward off.

In the spirit of the season and all of its incarnations, we’ve compiled a list of cherished classics and eclectic curios for audiences to see in the run-up to Christmas. Like Santa’s big toy sack, there’s something here for everyone! Here are 10 of the best Christmas movies to stream on Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Disney Plus, and more!

A Christmas prince

If you’re looking for 100 percent candy fluff (and you can’t pump Hallmark’s Christmas schedule right into your veins), check out this much better Netflix original than you think. Amber (zombie‘s Rose McIver) plays a journalist who was sent to the fictional land of Aldovia for the royal handover of the torch to the evil bachelor Prince Richard (Ben Lamb). Amber ends up in Castle Undercover to get all the shovels, but … she penetrates too deep! The magic of the Christmas season makes everything too romantic, and aww, you know the rest.

A Christmas prince is available for streaming Netflix.

Batman returns

is Batman returns a superhero movie that happens to be set around Christmas, or a gothic Christmas movie that happens to contain superheroes and villains? In any case, Tim Burton’s 1992 sequel to the original Batman is a great movie full of cool visuals, thrilling action sequences, attempted murders, and a nerve-wracking finale that revolves around kidnapped babies, a bat-shaped boat, and an army of rocket-bound kamikaze penguins. It is also a story about two strange people who find solace in each other’s strangeness, a growing up orphan seeking revenge on parents and society who avoided him, and a nefarious industrialist who makes quick money at any cost want. Although it can test the limits of what you might call a “Christmas movie”, Batman returns

is a fantastic seasonal watch and a funny, weird film for the whole family.

Batman returns is available for streaming HBO max.

You better watch out

You better watch out feels like a reaction part 26 years away from the original Home alone. The latter is a family comedy whose premise could easily have been played like a horror movie about a house invasion, if it weren’t for the valiant Ferris Bueller-esque charisma of Macaulay Culkin and the stupid stupidity of Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. You better watch out Reverses this dynamic, introducing inventive twists and turns that transform the unspoken horror story at the heart of the aforementioned film into something far more sinister and disturbing. This is a Christmas story that doesn’t feel good; This is a psychological horror film that plays with the idea of whether or not the behavior of a child like Kevin McCallister could be viewed as a sign of latent sociopathy. Saying more would spoil the movie, but rest assured: You better watch out is addicting vacation horror drama when you have the stomach for the sometimes bloody thrill.

You better watch out is available for streaming Amazon Prime.

Black Christmas

If you’re looking for a simple, tinsel-lined horror film, you can’t do better than Bob Clark’s Canadian slasher flick. (Apology for Jack Frost, the serial killer snowman movie – Black Christmas is just better!) Originally published in the US as Silent night, bad nightthe low-budget horror film crackles like a warm fire blown by a cool gust of wind. Clark uses shadows and lurking horrors to turn a fraternity house into something torn from a Shirley Jackson paperback cover, and while the transgressions it contains don’t find too much inspiration in Christmas iconography, there is a “wrapping job” that Makes you gasp for air.

Black Christmas is available for streaming Channel criterion.

It is a wonderful life

If you haven’t seen It is a wonderful life or if it’s only been a while then you may not know how the movie, from intro to credits, is unmistakably weird and transgressive. All that Christmas song-like stuff, in which an “angel” shows George Bailey (James Stewart) what his city would have looked like had it never existed, is only a fraction of the film. It is prepended 30 years of Bailey’s life interrupted by the Great Depression and World War II. And this helpful angel? He and his “boss” are presented as sentient cosmic dust. The film is a holiday cobbler replete with plays by Charles Dickens, Rod Serling and Billy Wilder. Don’t let its reputation as a gritty holiday junk keep you from enjoying an extraordinary movie – Christmas or whatever.

It is a wonderful life is available for streaming Amazon Prime.

Jingle all the way

What is more Christmassy than a story of loving parents who do everything to keep their child happy? ’80s action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in an overtly bizarre turn in reverse typecasting Jingle all the way as Howard Langston, a mattress salesman whose workaholic attitude is at the expense of his duties as a family man and father. To fulfill his son’s Christmas wish, Howard goes in search of a Turbo Man action figure. The problem is, it’s Christmas Eve and they’re almost all sold out. Complicating his mission is Myron (Sinbad), a postal worker and negligent fellow father who pursues the same goal. Jingle all the way is a Christmas comedy that focuses on the desperation and escalating stakes between Howard and Myron amid a battle of ruthless Christmas shoppers and a jetpack-enabled finale. If that’s not screaming “Christmas” to you, I don’t know what.

Jingle all the way is available for streaming Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, and Hulu.

National Lampoon Christmas Holidays

Chevy Chase for the National Lampoon Christmas Vacation.

I had never seen National Lampoon Christmas Holidays until a few years ago when a friend of mine, appalled by this fact, finally forced me to sit down and watch them. I now understand why my friend was so shocked: it’s a hilarious comedy, so hilarious that I’m surprised I hadn’t seen it before. Chevy Chase is perfect in the role of Clark Griswold, a salaryman and fake dad at the end of his wisdom trying to throw the perfect family Christmas party. Since each of his carefully worked out plans either hits a hook or falls apart completely, this also applies to Clark’s disposition; To transform yourself from a meek family man into a living powder keg of boiling anger that hardly holds it together under a facade of holiday joy. At least he’s got a Christmas bonus, right?

National Lampoon Christmas Holidays is available for streaming HBO max.

The nightmare before Christmas

Christmas movie? Halloween movie? Share the Difference: The macabre Christmas musical by Tim Burton and stop-motion animator Henry Selick is the perfect Thanksgiving movie. The story of Jack Skellington figuring out how to stay on his vacation road is still a whimsical sight, with lots of weird details in every picture. If you’ve seen this too often, then fall into the YouTube rabbit hole Danny Elfman performs the soundtrack live.

The nightmare before Christmas is available for streaming Disney Plus.

Santa Claus

Santa Claus is a classic Christmas comedy that offers a quirky (if slightly macabre) answer to how ‘ol Kris Kringle is such an eternal symbol of the holiday, despite being reportedly a Bajillion year old. Tim Allen plays Scott Calvin, a divorced father and toy seller who lives in Highlanders-esque turn of fate, accidentally kills Santa Claus and then becomes the next man in line to bear his title and responsibility. Struggling to cope with his new identity while trying to convince others of his new role, Scott grows both as a person and as a father; Learn firsthand the true meaning of Christmas through the impersonation of one of its most important characters. It’s heartwarming and hilarious in a way that has stood the test of time and a feel-good Christmas movie for the whole family.

Santa Claus is available for streaming Disney Plus.

white Christmas

white Christmas deserves the biggest and best screen in your home. Director Michael Curtiz shot the 1954 musical in VistaVision, the high-resolution format of its era, and the impact of the decision can be seen in the modern restoration, a presentation that is as colorful and detailed as any modern action film. A huge television flatters the classic sets and elaborate dance numbers, and although the sound is mono, nice headphones or speakers highlight its classic songs worn by Christmas music legends Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. A huge star: the film does without the explicitly racist blackface number of its predecessor, Holiday Inn, however, still contains an entire routine devoted to the joys of a minstrel show. Prepare to explain the terrible context to younger family members and fight back over sensitive complaints from creepy relatives.

white Christmas is available for streaming Netflix.