The best new Christmas movies of 2026 to stream this holiday season

The best new festive movies of 2026 to stream this holiday season

Will Arnie’s Christmas movie be this year’s ‘Hot Frosty’?

Christmastime is just around the corner, so that means a bunch of new holiday films are about to hit streamers. The crop of 2026 yuletide movies is diverse, with plenty of cozy and spirited fare (think romcoms set in winter wonderlands) and even a bit of seasonal horror (think a very thirsty vampire in a Santa suit). We’ve also thrown in some family-friendly specials and theatrical releases for good measure. Here are the titles to look out for this year, listed in chronological order by US streaming premiere date. Happy holidays… and watching! 

🎅🏻 The best Christmas movies of all-time
🎄 The best Christmas movies for kids to watch this year
🎁 The best Christmas specials of all-time

Photograph: Diyah Pera/Netflix

A Dog’s Perfect Christmas (Netflix) 

Dennis Quaid plays the grumpy, bereaved grandpa at the center of this family-focused holiday newbie, an adaptation of the novel by W Bruce Cameron (the writer ofA Dog’s Purposeand approximately a billion other books with ‘dog’ in the title). Thomas Haden Church voices the four-legged friend in question, while Mary Steenburgen,This Is Us’ Milo Ventimiglia and Brooke Lena Johnson (of theCruel IntentionsTV series) help round out the cast. 

Tyler Perry’s The Gospel of Christmas (Netflix) 

Thirteen years afterA Madea Christmas, Tyler Perry gets back in the holiday spirit with this tale of a preacher (played by R&B artist Tank) at a church in a sketchy New York City neighborhood who’s having a serious crisis of faith. As December 25 fast approaches, his wife (portrayed by fellow singer Fantasia Barrino), a boisterous choir and some helpful congregants try to snap him out of it. 

Apple TV specials 

Apple TV premieres a pair of new seasonal tales featuring long-beloved characters:SnoopyPresents: 12 Days of Snoopy(out Nov 13), in which the mischievous beagle has less than two weeks to learn the real meaning of Christmas to the tune of original songs by the likes of Kamasi Washington; and the musicalFraggle Rock: A Holiday Gift(out Dec 4), wherein the Jim Henson-created clan must retrieve a yuletide-spirit-filled snow globe.  

Disney+ specials  

Mickey’s Home Alone

Disney+ also promises two family-friendly offerings over the holidays: Mickey’s Home Alone (out Nov 27), which follows the nearly 100-year-old mainstay and Pluto as they defend their domicile from two bumbling villains, Kevin McCallister-style; andA Proud Family Wizmas(out Nov 14), a stop-motion instalment that finds the titular crew trying to save the holiday and features guest vocal turns by Anderson .Paak, Gabrielle Union and J. B. Smoove.    

Photograph: Chris Large/Netflix

Guarding Stars (Netflix) 

No list of new holiday movies would be complete without a snow-covered and Christmas-lights adorned romcom, would it?Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester takes on the bodyguard to ‘everyone’s favorite movie star’ (portrayed by Jared Padalecki) in this cozy feature, pretending to be his girlfriend during a trip back to his hometown so that his mother (played by Andie MacDowell) doesn’t have to worry about his safety. 

Clashing Through the Snow (Prime Video) 

Christopher Briney moves fromThe Summer I Turned Pretty’s settings to much more wintry environs in thisPlanes, Trains and Automobiles-esque comedy, playing a book editor who’s forced to travel back to New York with his rival (portrayed by Landman’s Michelle Randolph) by car as all the airports are closed. (But will these two career enemies end up falling for each other on the trip? Only time will tell, my friends.) Julia Fox,The White Lotus’ Lukas Gage,Queer Eyefashion guy Tan France and Paris Hilton (as herself) also appear. 

Photograph: Bettina Strauss/Netflix

In a Holidaze (Netflix) 

‘I keep coming back to this Christmas,’ marvels Maelyn (Maddie Ziegler) in thisGroundhog Day-nodding time-loop comedy. How long will it be before she finally professes her feelings for Andrew (Riverdale‘s Graham Phillips) as they share a cabin in the mountains with their respective families one final time? (Dunno. Ninety minutes?) Rob Lowe, Patton Oswalt, Jackie Sandler andTed Lasso‘s Andrea Anders play some of the grown-ups in this adaptation of Christina Lauren’s bestseller.  

Frosty rating: ⛄⛄⛄⛄⛄

The Man with the Bag (Prime Video) 

No stranger to yuletide fare (who could forget his delivery of ‘Put that cookie down, now!’ inJingle All the Way?), Arnold Schwarzenegger is back in action mode as Santa himself in this comedy. Awkwafina plays a ‘very naughty elf’ who nicks his bag of presents, whileReacherlead Alan Ritchson tackles a dude who helps Mr Kringle track all the gifts down. The cast is rounded out by some very funny folks, includingSNL‘s Kyle Mooney,Somebody Somewhere’s Murray Hill and30 Rock’s Jane Krakowski. 

Red Snow (Shudder)  

If you’re in the mood for something decidedly less wholesome (and far more blood-splattered) than most of the offerings above, the folks at the horror streamer Shudder have you covered. This comedy-tinged shocker from Finland, which premiered in September at Austin’s Fantastic Fest, chronicles aTwilight-loving teen goth who meets not a dreamy young vampire but a past-his-prime, psychotic one in a Santa suit on Christmas Eve. 

Plus, plenty of less-traditional (and sometimes quite bloody) holiday films hit theaters…

Speaking of darker Christmas delights, this season is full of them—although you’ll have to get off the couch and over to the cinema. There’sViolent Night 2(out Dec 4), in which David Harbour dons the Santa suit again to enact bloody revenge on a crew trying to off him and his helpers;Christmas at the Kringles(out now), a comedy-spiked slasher starring Ron Livingston and Thomas Lennon in which the film’s titular, cheery, holiday-obsessed family tortures their neighbors; andEbenezer(out Nov 13), Johnny Depp’s return to the big screen that’s directed by Ti West (X, The House of the Devil).

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