Christmas movies on Netflix 2021: from festive safes to guilty pleasures

It’s (almost) the season to put Scroogey’s cynicism aside and settle in with the cinematic equivalent of mulled wine in a Styrofoam cup: almost definitely overcooked, bordering on sickly sweet, but undeniably festive. all the same.

In recent years, Netflix has dramatically increased its Christmas production, producing a whole new selection of seasonal movies with increasingly ridiculous storylines set to land on the streaming platform as soon as the nights roll on. It is a strategy that is surely determined by the data subscriber: the more you watch, the more they earn. You might be able to talk about a good game on arthouse cinema, but you can’t hide the fact that you’ve watched A Christmas Prince three times in a row in a post-party haze at the algorithm that sees everything.

Netflix Originals Christmas 2021 Slate features the return of Christmas streamer queen Vanessa Hudgens, who returns as three identical characters in The Princess Switch 3, her first gay Christmas romantic comedy, and, in many rare cases, this one sounds good, not just so-bad-its-good ‘news, a stop-motion animation from Aardman Studios.

Add in some Netflix Original guilty pleasures of Christmas past and some old favorites available to stream on the platform and you have a proper viewing schedule for the holiday season. Enjoy at your own risk.

Nothing screams “news of comfort and joy” like a cat fishing trip. Nina Dobrev stars as Natalie, a longtime Californian journalist who tries her luck and hops on a flight to the east coast to surprise Tag, the perfect guy she’s matched with on a dating app. When she lands, however, she very quickly learns that Tag’s childhood friend Josh used his mate’s photos to chain matches. It all sounds as romantic as one of Love Actually’s more problematic storylines, but it’s Christmas, so …

Exactly what our winter viewing times call for: A Christmas family comedy set in a chic ancestral home, starring Elizabeth Hurley. In this British effort, four bickering sisters reunite for the holiday season, only to have their carefully crafted plans scrapped when the father (Kelsey Grammer) who abandoned them years ago shows up on Christmas Eve with a new girlfriend.

Richard Curtis’ seasonal rom-com set returns to Netflix in November just in time for your annual re-watch (and even if you choose not to stream it here, it’ll still find you somehow. , such is its omnipresent power). It’s shamelessly saccharine, some of its plots are deeply sinister (don’t get me started on Andrew Lincoln’s panels – and Keira Knightley’s baker’s hat) and others require a total suspension of disbelief (I don’t don’t think Blue was ever a number one Christmas shoo- even in their heyday). And yet it draws us in year after year and makes us cry for Joni Mitchell.

The Princess Switch 3: Romancing The Star

In The Princess Switch, Vanessa Hudgens played two identical characters. In the follow-up films Switched Again and Romancing The Star, she does one better, playing three. This time a priceless relic has been stolen, so Queen Margaret (Hudgens) and Princess Stacy (Hudgens) enlist another doppelganger, the sleazy cousin Fiona (Hudgens), to help bring her back. She in turn enlists a dashing man from her past, stirring the embers of an old romance. The big question, however, is: will a fourth Hudgens make an appearance? Give people what they want!

There’s nothing like a festive new offer from the masters of stop-motion at Aardman to warm even the most cynical hearts. Robin, voiced by Bronte Carmichael, is raised by a family of mice after her eggs fall into a landfill, but as she begins to grow she begins to feel like a weirdo. In order to prove herself, she embarks on a daring heist, accompanied by her magpie friend (Richard E. Grant). Sure to be a family treat.

The film that brought us Jude Law as Mr Napkin Head is true romantic comedy gold, with a brilliant cast and lots of lovely interiors (it’s a Nancy Meyers film after all). Iris (Kate Winset) and Amanda (Cameron Diaz) decide to swap their homes (a cozy cottage in the Cotswolds and a modern LA mansion) and live for the Christmas period on a proto-Airbnb website to escape their troubles relationship, only to strike up romances when they land on either side of the Atlantic, with Jack Black’s Miles (whose “shooby-dooby-doo” interpretations sung from film soundtracks are, it takes ‘confess, rather rude) and Graham de Law respectively.

Here’s the latest take on Netflix’s age-old formula for festive romance, which boils down to: A woman embarks on a vacation completely out of character to escape the misery at home, initially runs into but ultimately falls for the local man in time for December 25. This time, Brooke Shields plays an author trying to buy a Scottish castle from a thorny aristocrat (Cary Elwes) who is loath to sell to a stranger. Will they one day get along? Smart Money says they will, as soon as it starts to snow and the bagpipes start playing.

A real dream of festive fever, that one. Mom Mia! Former Christine Baranski plays a Scrooge-style heiress who, after inheriting title deeds to her hometown after her father’s death, is determined to sell the land to a real estate developer who plans to demolish and transform it all. in a huge mall – until her glittering Guardian Angel, played by Dolly Parton, who also wrote the songs, arrives to give her some choice lessons on the Christmas spirit. The following is completely nuts, but you can’t argue with a Baranski-Parton double act.

Listen to this track and it’s hard not to conjure up images of a production assistant whose year-round job is to come up with festive puns and then set up a romantic comedy to match. Ugly Betty’s Michael Urie plays the still single Peter who somehow convinces his best friend to pretend they’re a couple to stave off judgment from his family when he returns home for Christmas. His plan goes awry, however, when his mother becomes a matchmaker and decides to put it in place with her personal trainer. This is Netflix’s first Christmas gay love movie, and it also features a Jennifer Coolidge cameo, which is certainly reason enough to press play.

Netflix is ​​keeping the plot details of this Nollywood Christmas offering under wraps for now, but we do know that a Christmas Naija centers on three sons, all rushing to find a partner to make their mother’s wish come true. they are bringing women home on december 25, while mom tries to plan a truly unforgettable Christmas party.

Have you ever wondered what the end result would be if you fed a Never Been Kissed plot AI scripting algorithm with royal biographies and Meghan Markle articles? The answer is A Christmas Prince, which inexplicably spawned not one but two sequels, encompassing a royal wedding. and a royal baby. It all starts when journalist Amber is hired to drop an ax job on Richard, the playboy prince of Aldovie; Once she lands on fictional European soil, she decides to become her younger sister’s nanny to get into the heart of the story (and inevitably, the prince).

The knight before Christmas

Continuing Netflix’s commitment to festive puns and Vanessa Hudgens’ commitment to Christmas romantic comedies, it’s this time travel effort, which stars Josh Whitehouse as the medieval knight who is transported from the 14th century in Norwich to the 21st century in Ohio when an old granny casts a spell and sends him on a romantic quest (Hudgens plays his love today). There’s a scene where the characters watch another Christmas offering from the streaming service – how’s that going with product placement?