'Tis The Season For Holiday Rom-Coms!
You can feel it in the air - a thousand mediocre Lifetime and Hallmark movies have hit cable. Almost every two hours, a new one will be starting up, like clockwork. But now, in the age of streaming over cable, those films aren’t exclusively on a network. Netflix is attempting to take the crown for the most holiday films in a season, and they’ve made a really solid go of it.
Some are so cheesy it hurts, some are shockingly enjoyable (like Hulu’s Happiest Season) and some sneak some music in there to get you into the holiday spirit. While there are a ton of options across all the platforms, I decided to tackle as many as I can on Netflix specifically. In previous years, I’ve enjoyed the so-bad-it’s-good films like The Princess Switch (which now has a sequel with THREE Vanessa Hudgens-es), all the Christmas Prince movies and The Knight Before Christmas. An earlier favorite of mine was Holiday in the Wild, starring Rob Lowe and Kristin Davis, which is actually more of a decent romantic comedy.
But here goes nothing - some pros and cons of the holiday films you’ll be seeing all over your Netflix home page - and hopefully I can help you decide if some of these movies are worth your time.
Note: Holidate and the Princess Switch sequel haven’t been watched due to plans to watch them with a friend in the next couple of weeks, but I’m pretty sure they are going to be absolutely ridiculous.
A New York Christmas Wedding
Pro: This movie surprised me a lot, but it’s a unique premise and actually brought up some pretty serious topics you don’t see often in a Christmas film, plus it actually represents a queer couple.
Con: I didn’t expect said heaviness so I was a bit taken aback and expected to be amused by some fluffiness and instead cried on and off for an hour and a half.
Christmas with a View
Pro: The people are stupidly pretty in this movie - and the female lead was definitely cast as a “Meghan Markle type.”
Con: There is a confusing runner of a minor character never remembering names, and it isn’t hilarious the first time, and far from being funny the fifth.
Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square
Pro: Dolly Parton is our queen. Please and thank you. That is all.
Con: This would work a bit better as a stage production (which I believe it was based on), so the cheese factor is a bit high when it translates to a film.
The Holiday Calendar
Pro: Truly unique premise to a holiday film - throws in a hint of magic, a woman with an actual personality and goals (when some of these movies fail at this impressively) and a believable relationship progression.
Con: There is some pretty impressive character assassination that comes out of nowhere to make sure you get on board with a timeline that otherwise would be a bit off.
Christmas Inheritance
Pro: Actual people you may recognize in this movie - including Andie MacDowell (?!) and Pete from The Office. So there’s a higher caliber of acting in this one.
Con: The big-city fiancé is so ridiculous, it’s legitimately impossible to figure out how or why that relationship started in the first place.
Christmas Wedding Planner
Pro: Surprise Kelly Rutherford in this film, so it was great to see an actress I actually recognized - and who proved to be the strongest member of the cast.
Con: Quite possibly the most ridiculous, baffling ending to a movie I’ve ever seen.
Operation Christmas Drop
Pro: It’s so wholesome and sweet that it almost makes your teeth hurt, but manages to avoid the majority of the cheese-factor that others tend to thrive in.
Con: The premise: why would a random congressional aide be investigating the finances of a military overseas base? Am I missing something, or are they?
Midnight at the Magnolia
Pro: It has one of my all-time favorite romantic tropes - fake relationship hides real feelings. The only thing better is the enemies-to-lovers progression.
Con: The main couple (hosts of a radio show) act like they have a teensy little program off the beaten path….but they’re in Chicago. And I just can’t get past that.
Christmas Catch
Pro: Even among mediocre movies, I legitimately can’t really come up with a pro on this one.
Con: This is ridiculous. Everyone’s personalities kinda suck, the plot is insipid, and hardly anyone is redeeming. This is one of the only things on the list that I will beg you not to waste time on.
Dash & Lily (mini-series)
Pro: You root for these people, truly. It’s cute and a little insane, but you get a pretty solid To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before vibe from the heroine of this tale, so that’s fun.
Con: As my friend warned me, it is a bit of a manic-pixie-dream-girl overload, but thankfully there are enough endearing characters to make it still fun to watch.
Let It Snow
Pro: The interlocking storylines remind me of Valentine’s Day, and the combination and variety of relationships shown in it makes this movie far better than I expected.
Con: Every single story feels like there’s a neat little bow tied on it by the end, and while that is often something that irks me, maybe for a Christmas movie, it works.
Christmas in the Smokies
Pro: The scenery is awfully pretty. And I guess….it’s fine?
Con: I don’t even really have much of a con. This was just straight down the middle of the mediocre road.
Bad Moms Christmas
Pro: This isn’t technically a romantic comedy, but it highlights relationships in a very different way, and it’s such a good change of pace from all the others on this list. It just immediately has an air of a “real movie” between the insanely impressive cast and solid writing.
Con: I realized I haven’t seen the other Bad Moms movies so I’m sure I’m missing something. I’m legitimately not sure if I have a con - this movie is pretty delightful.
El Camino Christmas
Pro: This is NOT even kind of a romantic comedy but it was so formulaic for a semi-action movie that I had to leave it on this list. It is utterly ridiculous but weirdly a decent palate cleanser.
Con: The pro is the same as the con: it’s ridiculous. And it is so predictable that within the first fifteen minutes, you can pretty much figure out exactly every “twist” they’re going to try to throw at you.
A Princess for Christmas
Pro: This movie was made in 2011, so there are some very dated and entertaining aspects of it - including Sam Heughan as a prince pre-Outlander fame and a scene involving a video store.
Con: Man, if you think some of these movies filmed in 2020 are cheesy, this one is even more so, with some Full House level of obvious sound effects and music.
Christmas with a Prince
Pro: The female lead is a doctor and the goal of this movie is never once to get her to “cut loose” or be less of a workaholic or anything of that kind. It’s a delightful change of pace.
Con: The very premise of this one doesn’t quite work. A prince breaks his leg and for some reason needs to stay in a hospital for two or three weeks, something I’m pretty sure…never happens to people with a broken bone that is able to be put in a cast.
I did also watch the two Christmas Chronicles movies, but since they aren’t quite fitting in the trope I’m working with, I’ll just say here that the first one is pretty good, and the second one could be skipped.
Now that I’ve made my way through these, I get to spend time with some of my favorites, like Muppet Christmas Carol!