25 Best TV Christmas Movies — Ranked!
‘Tis the season to put on your PJs, grab some cocoa, and curl up on the couch with TV Christmas movies.
Deciding which ones to save on your DVR is harder than ever now because Lifetime and all Hallmark channels began airing new Christmas movies before Halloween.
So, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite Christmas movies for you. Our list includes a merry mix of every type of festive film the small screen has to offer, whether you like your holiday features irresistibly sweet, prefer heartwarming tales of family and growth, or require furry friends at the center of the action.
Our selections come from Netflix, Lifetime, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and of course — the traditional Hallmark Channel. We’ve tried to compile as diverse a list as the genre will allow.
Take a look at our picks for the 25 best Christmas movies:
25. The Princess Switch (Netflix, 2018)
The Princess Switch offers the best of so many different classic films — festive and otherwise.
The “switch” element allows baker Stacy De Novo and Lady Margaret of Belgravia (Vanessa Hudgens) to escape their lives for enough time to fall in love. It’s The Parent Trap, but the ladies get their own love stories.
Plus, there are festive essentials like a baking competition, a snowball fight, a cute kid, and a royal ball.
We may have buried the lead, though, because stars Hudgens and Sam Palladio are pretty big names to get for a holiday movie.
The budget is why it’s so low on our list, though. The Princess Switch is entertaining, but if you don’t pay a monthly fee for TV you can find similar elements of its story in a few other titles on this list.
24. The Flight Before Christmas (Lifetime, 2015)
When Stephanie’s (Mayim Bialik) boyfriend breaks up with her right before they are supposed to move in together, she takes a flight home for the holidays (she’s half Jewish, yay for acknowledging different traditions) and meets a handsome stranger named Michael (Ryan McPartlin), who keeps adding frustrations to her trip.
Winter Storm Meghan (if there’s a storm in a Lifetime movie, it’s ALWAYS called this) delays their respective homecomings, and when a mysterious man convinces Stephanie to share the last room in town with Michael, she realizes she may have misjudged him.
Will they be able to forget each other and move on with their celebrations when they finally get home or does fate have other plans for them?
Bialik and McPartlin’s surprising chemistry is what lands The Flight Before Christmas on this list. But the movie also reunites iconic Family Matters couple Carl and Harriette Winslow (Reginald VelJohnson and Jo Marie Payton) as inn owners Joe and Marie.
23. Christmas Around The Corner (Lifetime, 2018)
After an unexpected business failure, Claire (Alexandra Breckenridge) escapes to a small town in Vermont she remembers from a painting her late mother did during Christmastime.
When she arrives, she learns that a flood has canceled all of the town’s original festivities that she was drawn to. But she stays as a guest of Fortenbury Bookstore in hopes of reviving the business and bringing Christmas spirit back to the town her mother loved so much.
She doesn’t expect to feel so many feelings for the bookstore or its owner, Andrew (Jamie Spilchuk).
Spilchuk and Breckenridge have natural chemistry, but it’s a mentorship plot with a girl in town and the quaint, rainy day vibes are what make this one stand out.
22. Kristen’s Christmas Past (Lifetime, 2013)
Lifetime veteran Shiri Appleby serves as her own spirit guide when she travels from 2013 back to Christmas Eve 1996 in Kristen’s Christmas Past.
It’s the last time Kristen was home with her family before going to school in New York. So, both Kristen and her younger self Kris have a lot to learn about both of their futures.
It’s a unique twist on the Christmas spirit guide trope and fun to travel back to 1996.
21. The Christmas Parade (Hallmark, 2014)
After some very public on-air humiliation, TV morning show host Hailee Anderson (AnnaLynne McCord) tries to escape the big city.
She gets as far as Carver Bend, Connecticut where she crashes into a judge’s fence and is forced to do community service by helping an art center for kids to build a parade float.
Hailee gets close to the center’s director Beck Thomas (Jefferson Brown) and the kids. When she learns that the center is in financial trouble, she decides to film her Christmas Special from their parade to try to help them reach a fundraising goal.
It’s pretty traditional Hallmark fair, but who doesn’t love watching someone grow into a better preson as they fall in love?
20. Seasons Of Love (Lifetime, 2014)
Seasons Of Love is unlike any other holiday movie you’ll see because it follows a whole family, not just one couple.
Plus, as the title suggests, you’ll follow them through seasons that are not just weather-related. There is love. There is loss. There is Taraji P. Henson and Gladys Knight.
This movie will teach you the importance of family. Plus, there is an ending unlike anything else you’ll ever see in the genre.
19. Crown For Christmas (Hallmark, 2015)
This wouldn’t be a real Christmas movie list if Danica McKeller weren’t on it at least once (spoiler: she makes a second appearance). We’d also have no business writing this if we didn’t acknowledge the “nanny turned royalty” trope that permeates the genre.
McKeller never disappoints in these films. Her chemistry with Max (Rupert Penry-Jones) is as undeniable as the bond her character Allie — an artist who quite suddenly takes a job as a governess — has with her charge, Theodora (Ellie Botterill).
The comradery of the serving staff is so much fun to watch. If you’re going to watch only one Christmas movie set in a palace this season, make it this one.
18. Home For Christmas Day (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, 2017)
In case you’re not familiar with this network, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries has an event called Miracles of Christmas for the holidays.
The movies that premiere as part of this event really pull at the heartstrings in a different way than most, so make sure you have tissues on hand when you watch.
Home For Christmas Day stars Hallmark’s own Good Witch Catherine Bell as Jane, a protective mother who gets worried when her daughter Betsy falls in love with an active-duty soldier.
It’s a coming-of-age story sprinkled with bits of hope for new beginnings, but don’t be surprised if you shed tears along the way.
17. The Sweetest Christmas (Hallmark, 2017)
Lacey Chabert is a Hallmark darling with tons of delicious Christmas movies to choose from.
The Sweetest Christmas definitely lives up to its name. When Kylie Watson’s entry gets accepted into a gingerbread contest, she finds an oven to use at her high school sweetheart’s restaurant and bonds with him and his son.
It’s a time of transition in her life, but she never could’ve predicted the change that comes.
We love a good baking contest, and Chabert and Lea Coco have good chemistry.
16. Time For Me To Come Home For Christmas (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, 2018)
What is the Christmas Season without the “uninspired pop star comes home” trope, right? Heath Sawyer (Josh Henderson) is a country star who needs to write a Christmas song but is uninspired since his father’s death.
Cara (Megan Park) faces a long trip home after a business meeting with some bad news to tell her father about the future of the jam business she’s trying to keep alive in her mother’s memory.
A chance meeting at an airport sets the two on a journey home to Oklahoma in Time For Me To Come Home For Christmas.
Journeys home that lead to personal growth are inspiring to watch and there’s also nothing better to watch than two strangers that meet in an airport falling in love.
The pop star element adds fun to this story, but there are moments of real depth and great chemistry between Park and Henderson.
Esme Mazzeo
Esme Mazzeo is a lifestyle and entertainment journalist from Long Island. When she's not writing for work, she's writing for fun, or searching for something to satisfy her sweet tooth. She thinks rainy days are the best kind of days. Certified night owl.