With every platform from Hallmark to Hulu lobbying for a seat at the seasonal table, new holiday movies aren’t hard to come by—but determining which ones deserve to be named among the best Christmas movies of all time is an art. Filmmakers must find fresh ways of, say, getting a pair of lonely singles beneath some mistletoe, or introducing a version of Santa Claus that has yet to grace the screen. From this necessity comes invention—like Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving-fied slasher film, or what’s being billed as Lifetime’s first official sex scene. (Kids, your hold on the holidays is slipping!) Ahead, a view of the year’s best new holiday movies, including new Batman, The Holdovers, and something called, Yes, Chef! Christmas.

The Holdovers

• Channel/Streamer: Theaters and digital VOD from Focus Features
• Noteworthy Cast: Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Carrie Preston

The strange sadness that often permeates the holiday season is what The Holdovers does best. “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” mocks Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s Mary as she breaks down in grief at a party. A disheveled and historically inaccurate Santa Claus stares down Paul Giamatti during an awkward bowling alley encounter. And it’s a confiscated snow globe that puts newcomer Dominic Sessa’s Angus at risk of expulsion. Like the diner where the student pesters his professor about ordering “the champagne of beers,” this film is “the winning ticket” of 2023’s Christmas offerings, whether filmmaker Alexander Payne intended us to call it a Christmas movie or not.

A Biltmore Christmas

• Channel/Streamer: Hallmark
• Noteworthy Cast: Bethany Joy Lenz, Kristoffer Polaha

Former One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz has become something of a secret weapon for Hallmark in recent years. Back in 2021, she starred in An Unexpected Christmas, which—true to its title—remains one of the network’s most surprisingly well-executed films to date. This year, Lenz plays Lucy, a screenwriter tasked with remaking a beloved 1940s holiday film. While conducting research at the historic North Carolina estate where the original movie was made, she knocks over a magical hourglass that transports her back to 1946. There, she begins to fall for one of the film’s stars. In addition to its compelling premise, the best part of A Biltmore Christmas is that its movie-within-a-movie boasts stunning black-and-white visuals, and a proper aspect ratio to boot.

Candy Cane Lane

• Channel/Streamer: Prime Video
• Noteworthy Cast: Eddie Murphy, Tracee Ellis Ross, David Alan Grier, Robin Thede, Nick Offerman, Jillian Bell

Eddie Murphy reunites with his Boomerang director Reginald Hudlin for a family comedy that exaggerates the plot of 2006’s Deck the Halls, in which a suburban father becomes far too fixated on winning a neighborhood decorating competition. In an effort to prove his Christmas light superiority, Murphy’s character makes a deal with a dubious elf (Jillian Bell), who in turn casts a spell that brings the 12 days of Christmas to life via increasingly chaotic scenarios. A starry supporting cast, from Tracee Ellis Ross as the family’s matriarch to David Alan Grier as Santa, has surely helped the film become one of Amazon’s most successful streaming hits to date, according to Deadline.

Silent Night

• Channel/Streamer: Theaters from Lionsgate
• Noteworthy Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Kid Cudi, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Harold Torres

Not to be confused with Lifetime’s Silent Night, Fatal Night, or David Harbour’s Violent Night, Joel Kinnaman brings to life another Christmas-themed action thriller in the style of Liam Neeson’s Taken. Directed in all of its vengeful glory by Face/Off and Mission: Impossible II filmmaker John Woo, Kinnaman plays a grieving father who, upon losing his son on Christmas Eve to gang violence, goes about making it the bloodiest time of the year.

Yes, Chef! Christmas

• Channel/Streamer: Lifetime
• Noteworthy Cast: Tia Mowry, Buddy Valastro, Luke Humphrey

Thank The Bear’s cultural footprint for this holiday film, starring Tia Mowry as a culinary school instructor who revives her stagnant career for her town’s annual “Kringle Cook-Off.” If she wins the competition, her odds of impressing former boss (yes, that’s Cake Boss star Buddy Valastro in a bewildering bit of stunt casting). But first, she’ll have to make nice with her mentor, a former Kringle champion named Logan (Luke Humphrey). Naturally, their would-be romance is rocked by the reveal of a familial secret and some good old-fashioned repartee in the kitchen.

Round and Round

• Channel/Streamer: Hallmark
• Noteworthy Cast: Bryan Greenberg, Vic Michaelis, Rick Hoffman

For decades, Jews have been largely deprived (or spared) of made-for-TV holiday movies about Hanukkah. (Recent entries have cropped up with Lifetime’s Mistletoe & Menorahs and Hallmark’s Love, Lights, Hanukkah!) But this year, the channel has leveled up its take on the holiday by giving it a Groundhog Day-esque twist. Vic Michaelis is Rachel, who, while en route to her parents’ Hanukkah party, gets propelled into a time loop in which she’s forced to relive the night over and over. Her companion is Bryan Greenberg’s Zach, the very man her grandmother meant to set her up with before superficial forces intervened.

The Velveteen Rabbit

• Channel/Streamer: AppleTV+
• Noteworthy Cast: Phoenix Laroche, Leonard Buckley, Samantha Colley, Alex Lawther

By now, you know how this one goes: On Christmas morning, a young boy receives a stuffed rabbit who endeavors to become real through the love of his keeper. Eventually, that desire comes true thanks to some magic and a devastating development in the life of seven-year-old William. This newly rendered take on Margery Williams’s beloved children’s book retains most of its source material’s heartbreaking DNA while introducing the tale to a new generation.

Christmas in Notting Hill

• Channel/Streamer: Hallmark
• Noteworthy Cast: Sarah Ramos, William Moseley

“Should I star in a Hallmark Christmas movie?” Sarah Ramos (Parenthood) once asked her Instagram followers in a poll that resulted in a 95% “yes” vote. As it turns out, the masses were correct: Ramos’s Hallmark debut, alongside Marilu Henner and Carlo Marks in last year’s A Kismet Christmas, was a network standout. This year, she stars opposite William Moseley (The Chronicles of Narnia) in a breezy film that marries the star-civilian conceit of 1998’s Notting Hill with the soccer (yeah, yeah, “football”) comedy of Ted Lasso.

Thanksgiving

• Channel/Streamer: Theaters from TriStar Pictures
• Noteworthy Cast: Addison Rae, Patrick Dempsey, Gina Gershon

An ode to what is often the most under-utilized holiday in cinema, Eli Roth’s latest horror film starts with the scariest of all scenes—a packed town square on Black Friday. A massacre in Plymouth, Massachusetts, features scenery-chewing performances from Patrick Dempsey, Gina Gershon, and even TikTok’s Addison Rae. The slasher flick was so successful upon its theatrical release that Roth has already been enlisted with delivering a second helping in 2025.

Dashing Through the Snow

• Channel/Streamer: Disney+
• Noteworthy Cast: Lil Rel Howery, Ludacris, Teyonah Parris, Ravi Patel

In a story much like that of Disney’s The Santa Clause, Ludacris plays a disillusioned father who struggles with setting his cynicism aside in order to deliver his child a cheerful holiday experience. That is, until a Santa-esque figure named Nick (played by Lil Rel Howery) gets entangled with father and daughter, transporting them to a magical realm in which Christmas wishes come true and any childhood wounds surrounding the holiday get mended by the time that credits roll.

Christmas on Cherry Lane

• Channel/Streamer: Hallmark
• Noteworthy Cast: Jonathan Bennett, Vincent Rodriguez III, Catherine Bell, James Denton, Erin Cahill, John Brotherton

Several of the network’s preeminent stars convene for Christmas on Cherry Lane, which follows three sets of couples at inflection points in their lives. One pair is preparing for the arrival of their first child; another contemplates expanding their brood during the holiday season; and a set of empty nesters contend with their next chapter. The only thing more surprising than the fact that it took Hallmark this long to do their own spin on NBC’s This Is Us would be some of the more shocking turns this story takes by the end of its brisk runtime.

Merry Little Batman

• Channel/Streamer: Prime Video
• Noteworthy Cast: Luke Wilson, Yonas Kibreab, James Cromwell, David Hornsby

Across portrayals by Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, Michael Keaton, George Clooney, and Robert Pattinson, the Caped Crusader has long avoided one major storyline: parenthood. “Instead of focusing on Batman as the brooding crime-fighting presence, we turned the lens and focused on him as a father raising a son,” director Mike Roth told The Los Angeles Times of his new animated film, which features Luke Wilson as the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman and Yonas Kibreab as his child, Damian. Expect other Gotham stalwarts like James Cromwell as Alfred and David Hornsby as the naughty list’s eternal member, the Joker.

So Fly Christmas

• Channel/Streamer: BET+
• Noteworthy Cast: Luqman Agiya, Tichina Arnold, Jordan Babbs

In recent years, BET and its streaming platform have become a more prominent presence in the holiday programming space. The best of this year’s additions is So Fly Christmas, an ensemble comedy that starts with a broken engagement. After Wyvetta (Tichina Arnold) is left at the altar on Christmas Eve, her holiday spirit appears to be permanently broken. In solidarity with her jilted best friend, Dione (Tami Roman) vows to remain single with her throughout the yearly festivities. But that plan is foiled by the arrival of Clarence (Robert Christopher Riley).

A Cowboy Christmas Romance

• Channel/Streamer: Lifetime
• Noteworthy Cast: Jana Kramer, Adam Senn, Max Ehrich, Cassie Randolph

Call it a shrewd marketing ploy or long-awaited advancement in the made-for-TV holiday space, but this Lifetime original is earning buzz largely for the assertion that it will be the first to contain a full-fledged sex scene. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, let me try to do this thing that’ll get headlines,’” screenwriter Sarah Drew, best known for her performance on Grey’s Anatomy, told Entertainment Weekly. “I was like, ‘No, I think this makes sense. They’re falling in love,’” adding, “And they’re grown-ups.” The sequence itself, between Jana Kramer’s real estate agent Lexi and Adam Senn’s rancher Coby, is still fairly tame, but is indicative of the couple’s notable chemistry. If that isn’t enough to grab you, this lab-tested logline from Drew may do the trick: “Yellowstone meets Bridgerton, with a little Christmas spiced in there.”

Genie

• Channel/Streamer: Peacock
• Noteworthy Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Paapa Essiedu, Denée Benton, Alan Cumming

It’s a wonder that a Melissa McCarthy vehicle with this many bonafides—a script from Love Actually’s Richard Curtis, supporting turns from Marc Maron and Alan Cumming, among others—would get buried on Peacock with such little fanfare. But there are plenty of cozy pleasures to be derived from this mystical tale of an overworked man (I May Destroy You’s Paapa Essiedu) who deploys a magical genie (McCarthy, often in tinsel) to curry favor with those he’s neglected during the busiest time of the year.

EXmas

• Channel/Streamer: Freevee
• Noteworthy Cast: Leighton Meester, Robbie Amell, Michael Hitchcock

This Amazon FreeVee original movie has no business being as freewheeling or inventive as it feels, thanks in large part to the genuine chemistry conjured up between Leighton Meester and Robbie Amell. They star as exes Ali and Graham, a couple of more than five years whose recent breakup is hitting Graham’s dysfunctional but tight-knit family harder than anyone. Without a strong familial presence of her own, Ali decides to join his brood for holiday festivities. On top of the genuinely well-executed banter between our two leads, it’s the supporting performances from the rest of the fam that make this by-the-numbers rom-com sing.

Holiday Road

• Channel/Streamer: Hallmark
• Noteworthy Cast: Sara Canning, Warren Christie, Princess Davis

Although the film borrows its title from 1983’s National Lampoon’s Vacation, the plot itself is reminiscent of another John Hughes film of the era. In this Breakfast Club-esque tale, a group of seemingly disparate travelers get stranded at the airport over the holidays and are forced to improvise other means of transport to their Denver destination. Without romance top of mind, the various characters are allowed to experience more unexpected arcs—and have far more modern careers than Hallmark movies’ past, including dating app creator and social media influencer.

Ladies of the ’80s: A Divas Christmas

• Channel/Streamer: Lifetime
• Noteworthy Cast: Loni Anderson, Morgan Fairchild, Donna Mills, Linda Gray, Nicollette Sheridan

One tunes into a Lifetime Original holiday film in order to experience something like this Avengers-style team-up of five former ’80s soap opera stars, reuniting to shoot one final Christmas episode. Priorities shift for the divas when they must act as cupid for two of their lovestruck coworkers while rediscovering their own bond. This one is best viewed with family members who watched Loni Anderson (WKRP in Cincinnati), Morgan Fairchild (Falcon Crest), Donna Mills (Knots Landing), Linda Gray (Dallas), and Nicollette Sheridan (Desperate Housewives, and also Knots Landing) in their most famous roles and can recall specific storylines at a moment’s notice.

Family Switch

• Channel/Streamer: Netflix
• Noteworthy Cast: Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers, Rita Moreno

In the grand tradition of body-swap comedies/sudden-aging comedies like Freaky Friday or Big, enlightenment and understanding arrive when two suburban parents (Jennifer Garner, star of this genre’s peak, 13 Going on 30, and Ed Helms) trade places with their angsty teenagers (Emma Myers and Brady Noon). Christmastime chaos inevitably ensues with an assist from Rita Moreno, whose mysterious presence facilitates the switch.

A Merry Scottish Christmas

• Channel/Streamer: Hallmark
• Noteworthy Cast: Lacey Chabert, Scott Wolf

Mean Girls’ Lacey Chabert has become front-and-center for Hallmark’s holiday programming in recent years, starring in more than 30 films for the channel. In 2023 alone, she also stars in Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up, a sequel to one of last year’s new holiday movies. But the one to watch this year is a Scotland-set sibling adventure, which reunites her with Party of Five costar Scott Wolf as they unpack a family secret and drop a few meta nods toward their long-running sitcom along the way. Why come to Hallmark if not for festively themed reunions of former costars that make you go, “Yeah, I’ve got 85 minutes and a household chore to complete!”