It’s the holiday season, which means you can finally put together Christmas movies that would feel weird to watch any other time of year. While finding family favorites meant digging through a box of VHS or scanning the DVD rack, these days, you can spend the night scrolling through what’s available on streaming services.
To alleviate your time spent endlessly scrolling, I’ve rounded up some of the best Christmas movies currently available on major streaming services, as well as a couple you can find online for free. If you have a particular holiday favorite that you can’t remember tracking down, there’s a strong chance it’s on this list. Unless it’s 2001’s live action How the Grinch Stole Christmas: You’ll have to spend some money on Prime Video for that.
Visit our top Christmas movie picks from specific streaming services:
The best Christmas movies on Disney+
Disney+ has a great selection of holiday movies and specials in its library. It turns out that there are advantages to owning everything on the planet If you subscribe to Disney+ or recently picked up the new Disney+/Max/Hulu bundle, I recommend checking out holiday classics like Home Alone, Jingle All the Way, or the slightly spookier Nightmare Before Christmas. Disney+ also hosts tons of holiday specials for all its properties, from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy to LEGO Star Wars.
Best Christmas Movies on Max
At Max, you can find 2000s Christmas classics like Elf, Four Christmases and the 20th anniversary revival of The Polar Express. Going back a bit further, Max also hosted National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story. In terms of recent holiday releases, Max is the generally acclaimed 2023 romance movie Last Christmas.
The best Christmas movies on Prime Video
Prime Video is probably where you end up when you realize your favorite movies aren’t streaming anywhere, but Amazon’s service also includes a library of movies available to stream without paying (extra) money. Stand-outs include rom-coms like “Didn’t Be Good” classics Love Actually and The Holiday, as well as the animated Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Frosty the Snowman.
The best Christmas movies on Hulu
Max has some overlap with the Hulu library, so on the off chance that you have a Hulu-only subscription, rest assured you still have access to Elf and Christmas Vacation. Hulu has some of the greatest modern sitcoms (like New Girl, Abbott Elementary, and Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and all their Christmas episodes.
Peacock’s Best Christmas Movies
For whatever reason (probably a sweet licensing deal), Peacock is the place to see Grinch movies, especially the original 1966 hand-drawn classic or the 2018 DreamWorks revamp. Peacock is also where you can find the entire Hallmark collection, Christmas rom-coms and everything in between. If you’re looking for something with a slightly less jovial attitude, the Peacock is also home to the Christmas horror movie Krampus.
The best Christmas movies on Netflix
While Netflix may be the most popular streamer, it’s not really the place to watch classic Christmas movies. Much of this has been claimed by streamers affiliated with their original distributors (see: NBC and Peacock). Of course, Netflix will always be Netflix Originals. My number one recommended animated movie from Netflix is Klaus. Netflix has spent years building its own Christmas-themed rom-com universe, which now includes this year’s Hot Frosty.
The best Christmas movies on Apple TV+
While Apple TV+ has a few holiday movies here and there, the service’s main selling point around the holidays is every Charlie Brown special. This includes a Charlie Brown Christmas special, which is an annual must watch for my family. If that’s not enough to sell you on Apple services, you can try dressing yourself up with this collection of Charlie Brown moments from Arrested Development.
A Charlie Brown Christmas Special
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Free Christmas Movies
For the Christmas spirit, some holiday classics are available to watch online for free, no subscription required. Miracle on 34th Street, Die Hard (a certified Christmas classic), and It’s a Wonderful Life are available for free all year, but for a limited time, you can stream Christmas with the Kranks for free on Prime Video. Encountering the ad will only bring back those fond memories of watching classic holiday movies on cable.
Am I missing something? Have you found your favorite Christmas movie on the most special service ever? Let us know what you’re watching over the holidays in the comments below.
