One of the jolliest elements of the holiday season is the original movies that run nonstop all month in December. Rom-coms, mysteries, family dramas and even the occasional horror flick, there’s holiday season movie out there for every taste. While this month brings a flood of new titles, some will be quickly forgotten. But a few may become beloved classics, and that’s what we’re focused on. Here’s our edit of 6 new 2022 holiday movies to watch and love this season on Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix so good that we predict they’ll be future Christmas classics.
which new Christmas holiday movies of 2022 could actually become classics?
The holidays are finally here which means parties, finding the perfect gifts for loved ones, baking and most importantly, taking time for yourself to watch a cozy holiday movie on a cold day (and eat a pile of junk food.) Now, yes, you could go for a real holiday classic like White Christmas or It’s a Wonderful Life. Or maybe a classic from your childhood such as Home Alone or Elf.
But there is nothing like a holiday romance, as evidenced by the fact that it has pretty much become a law for every man, woman and child to watch The Holiday starting the day after Thanksgiving on repeat for the entire holiday season (we still don’t know how Cameron Diaz fit all those coats in one suitcase, and we want to find out!)
The new 2022 holiday movies best to watch this season on Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix that are bound to be future Christmas classics.
giving thanks for the Hallmark Channel!
That is why we are so lucky we live in a world with Hallmark. It went from being a greeting card and tchotchkes company to pumping out nearly 40 new holiday movies starting in October every year. These moves are cookie cutter romances timed down to the minute full of dreamy looking people. Also, gingerbread house contests, sexual tension-inducing snowstorms and all the feelings (and for some reason still skinny jeans with a short bootie). Unlike so much of television today, you can be using your brain for several other things and still completely understand the plot of these films (you could probably even write one if you tried.)
With Hallmark coming up with such a bona fide lucrative moneymaker, other networks (Lifetime, ABC Family) and streaming platforms (Netflix, Amazon Prime) quickly followed suit. Now pretty much everywhere you look there is a holiday movie coming out almost every day.
They usually feature a workaholic 30-something woman who has forgotten about the meaning of Christmas (but not her high school boyfriend who couldn’t go to grad school because he had to run the family tree farm because his uncle sprained his ankle for a month) and has to go back to her hometown. Here, she inexplicably realizes she has been missing out on life by getting that stupid PhD and making a high six-figure salary. Well, that or someone gets amnesia. In other words, there are plenty of new diverse holiday classics out there (but 98% will have some sort of snowman making scene.) Check out these new for 2022 holiday movies that may be future Christmas classics, available now on Hallmark, Lifetime and Netflix on a screen near you.
6 new 2022 holiday movies so good they’ll be Christmas classics
1. Falling For Christmas on Netflix.
I believe we as a society just want Lindsay Lohan to succeed and this film seems to be the first step to that. Already available on Netflix it is a combination of Overboard, and, well, actually that’s it. It’s Overboard meets Christmas with some great shoutouts to Lindsay Lohan’s best films (and that gorgeous red hair is back!).
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Lindsay, as a rich heiress who falls off a mountain and gets amnesia, reminds us why we all loved her in the first place plus CHRISTMAS! Throw in the adorable Chord Overstreet from Glee (as a single dad!) and you’ve got a fun movie on your hands.
2. Spirited on Apple TV.
OK so it’s not exactly a romcom but you have to watch a holiday movie that stars Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds right? Plus, did we mention it is a musical? Plus, it is a retelling of A Christmas Carol?
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Also Oscar winner Octavia Spencer! You can’t go wrong (unless you don’t like musicals, Christmas or Charles Dickens and laughing.)
3. Haul out the Holly on Hallmark.
Well, we have to include at least a few films from the mothership network. Now that Candace Cameron-Bure has exited Hallmark for Great American Family (and is making quite a ripple as she does it) Lacey Chabert is poised to be the new queen of the network. Chabert has done almost as many holiday films for Hallmark as Candace. Also, the Mean Girls star is always charming to watch.
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In her latest film she plays Holly who heads home for the holidays to her folk’s house but they aren’t there. However, their very intense neighborhood association is including the annoyingly handsome Wes Brown. Apparently insufficient Christmas decor is a real thing (well at least in Hallmark world it is.) Hilarity ensues!
4. The Noel Diary on Netflix.
OK, it can’t all be fun and laughs and enough Christmas cookies to give you early-onset diabetes. The Noel Diary based on the novel by the bestselling author Richard Paul Evans sounds like a Hallmark movie but it has a lot more depth.
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This is Us star Justin Hartley plays best-selling novelist and (devastatingly handsome) Jake Turner. He’s a complex bachelor with a sad family life who goes home after his mother dies to deal with her estate when Rachel (Barrett Doss) comes a knocking searching for her birth mother who was a nanny for Turner’s family. They embark on a roadtrip to find answers about her mother and his father and, of course, create sexual tension.
5. The 12 Days of Christmas Eve on Lifetime.
Another film in the vein of A Christmas Carol but you really can’t go wrong with those at this time of year. Especially when it features real life father-daughter duo Kelsey and Spencer Grammer! The Frasier star plays Brian Conway, a successful businessman and workaholic which has led him to nefglect his family including daughter Spencer. When he gets into a car accident on Christmas Eve he is given 12 opportunities to re-do the day.
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So it is actually more Groundhog Day with a bit of Christmas Carol. “The idea of being able to play my dad’s daughter in a film has always been a dream of mine,” Spencer said in a recent interview. “We had a great time. It was so much fun, truly magical. I don’t know if it’s because I spent so much time on set with him, but it felt so natural and easy. I’ve always loved Christmas. I couldn’t have asked for a better story. It was magical to share it with my actual father.”
6. Your Christmas or Mine? on Amazon Prime.
Even Amazon Prime has gotten in on the holiday fun and this one truly looks wonderful. Your Christmas or Mine? Stars Cora Kirk and Sex Education’s Asa Butterfield as a young couple in-love (from extremely different backgrounds but with equally charming British accents) who aren’t planning on spending the holidays together until at the very last minute they decide to!
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But, what do you know, they got on each other’s trains and then get stuck in their partner’s respective towns due to weather. This means super awkward family meetings. But perhaps meeting your significant other’s family without the other present could be the ultimate relationship test? You’ll have to see if they pass or fail. It stars a bunch of talented British actors you have definitely seen before but don’t care enough to learn their names.
new holiday movies to watch this season sure to be Christmas classics
That’s our take on the new holiday movies to watch and love this season on Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix that are bound to be future Christmas classics. What do you think, dear reader? What else should be on this list?
