Celebrate Christmas 2020 by doing what you've been doing the rest of the year: watching Netflix
A Bad Moms Christmas (2017)
This oft-maligned Christmas rager from writer-directors Scott Moore and Jon Lucas doesn't entirely work as a movie, but it is a delightful companion for multitasking. Gather 'round the not all that compelling world of Bad Moms circa 2016 to enjoy the 2017 sequel, featuring spectacular performances from stars Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn, as well as franchise newcomers Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines, and Susan Sarandon, as those bad moms' bad moms. Come for the promise of Baranski and a gospel choir; stay for Hahn's killer tank tops
Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square (2020)
True Dolly Parton fans understand the country star to be more than the celebrity, hero, legend, and icon popular cultural has whittled her down to be. Dolly, you see, is a lifestyle — a way of being, an all-encompassing perspective on personhood. In Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square, that high-level plane of existence gets the sparkly holiday treatment in a musical romp as shining as Dolly herself. Sure, the whole thing is ridiculously old-fashioned and not surprising in any way. But it's also got exquisite pageantry with Christmas spirit to spare. And of course, the songs are fantastic.
The Christmas Chronicles
If you want to see Kurt Russell slap his butt as Santa, then you've come to the right place. Home Alone director Chris Columbus reimagines the traditional "Someone's gotta save Christmas!" narrative in this familiar, but still fun holiday outing with Russell as his Old Saint Nick. Judah Lewis and Darby Camp star as a brother and sister who, in trying to catch proof of Santa, get more than they bargained for. Should you fall in love with this over-the-top universe, definitely check out The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two, which features Russell's real wife Goldie Hawn as Mrs. Claus.
A Christmas Prince (2017)
Is A Christmas Prince a movie? Nay, it is a journey. Join our heroine American journalist Amber Moore, played by Rose McIver, as she takes on an undercover assignment in the far-off country of Aldovia in this schmaltzy rom-com opposite Ben Lamb as the titular Christmas Prince. This movie is exactly what you think it is, and if that's what you're the mood for? Excellent news: its even more outrageous sequels, A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding and A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby, are streaming now too. God save, King Richard Bevan Charlton. Long may he reign.
Let It Snow (2019)
Director Luke Snellin's feature-length debut is without question the right pick for anyone on a YA kick come the holidays. With a stellar cast including Shameik Moore, Kiernan Shipka, Isabela Merced, Joan Cusack, and more, Let It Snow adapts the popular novel of the same name — telling three stories of love, friendship, and magic on Christmas Eve in a single small town. Sure, this movie is another off-shoot of Love Actually's tremendous influence over the holiday genre catalogue. But it's a good one.
