As a child I was always really excited for Christmas. I even started counting the days down in November. Over the years, the excitement for Christmas sadly got lesser and lesser, with school and work and other things that are making my everyday life a little less child-like. For me, going to Christmas markets, seeing the Nutcracker Ballet or just going downtown to see all the lights increases the holiday spirit a bit. But there is no better way to get into the Christmas spirit than watching all my favorite Christmas movies. As there are a lot of them out there and constantly new ones coming out, I created a little list of my least and most favorite Christmas movies on Netflix to help you get in the spirit as well.
Rating system:
?= makes you less excited about Christmas
??= only watch if you have seen all the others
???= good
????= nearly perfect
?????= absolute perfection (have tissues near you)
The Holiday Calendar
A young photographer with an unfulfilling job gets an old advent calendar from her Grandfather that once belonged to her Grandma which seems to be a magical and special one. Everyday a door opens and a small figure comes out which happens to appear in the protagonists day and make it more special for her. I found the idea really cute and was really looking forward to seeing it. Sadly it didn’t exactly meet my expectations. In my opinion the actress who plays the lead role doesn’t bring the magic that the Calendar is supposed to stand for on the screen and the chemistry between her and her best friend is really not there. All in all I found that the casting was not really good for this one and that the cute story couldn’t help this.
Rating: ?
The Princess Switch
It has a princess, it has love, it has cake, it has all the cheesiness that a Christmas movie could ask for. Vanessa Hudgens is the main actress in this new Christmas movie and again I was really looking forward to seeing it. The story is not new – two look alikes switch places. One of them is a real princess and one of them a baker from Chicago. Naturally they both love the other’s role and both fall in love when they are undercover. It’s nothing new and kind of predictable, but the setting was nice and the princess aspect added some royalty to the movie. What annoyed me the most was the weird accent that Hudgens did for her princess role. All in all, not my favorite Christmas movie, but not the worst I could find either.
Rating: ??
A Christmas Inheritance
Ellen Langford is soon supposed to take over her father’s company, but he feels she is not quite ready for it yet. He sets up a plan to make her stay in Snowfalls, the town where he started up the company, and help her really understand the importance of it. Her fiancée isn’t really happy about this and you can feel from the beginning of the movie that he really isn’t a good fit for Ellen. In Snowfalls she learns about the joy of giving and helping and gets to know Jake, the hotel manager/taxi driver of the town. Of course, they fall in love. Again the outcome of this movie is really predictable but the actors go quite well together and the movie has some cute settings in a lovely town with lights and snow and ice sculptures. It also adds a bit more than just a love story as it is also about the love between children and parents and about friendship. I enjoyed watching this one, although it was very predictable.
Rating: ???
The Holiday
This Christmas movie classic is a must: Amanda, a successful business exec from LA, and Iris, a columnist from London, switch houses for the holidays because they are both not quite happy at their homes. Iris is madly in love with an engaged man and Amanda hasn’t cried in years and feels like she is emotionally blocked. Naturally they both find what they are looking for in the least expected place. This movie is an absolute classic and just did not make the highest rating because there is one movie that beats all the other Christmas movies.
Rating: ????
Love, Actually
The mother of all Christmas movies and, although it’s from 2003, it’s still the most popular one around. And that’s for good reason. Love, Actually is a funny, tear-jerking, clever and emotional Christmas movie with a great soundtrack and great actors. It contains ten different stories about love, all interwoven into each other, and each story holds a unique kind of love and portrays it differently. This and all the great actors (Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Bill Nighy and so many more) makes this movie my favorite movie to get into the Christmas spirit and will remain my favorite movie until they make a proper sequel.
Rating: ?????
I hope I could help some of you to get a little more excited about Christmas with my little advice on the best and worst Christmas movies on Netflix.