There are more than 120 holiday movies coming to your television between now and December 31. But even if you did nothing but drink hot cocoa and watch TV for the next two months, you probably couldn’t make it through all of them.
So we’ve made our list (and checked it like 50 times!) to come up with the 10 holiday movies you can’t miss this season-ranging from network films to streaming service one-offs.
Here are the 10 holiday movies to watch in 2022:
1. The First NoelleStars: Novi Brown, LaLa Milan, Todd Anthony
Premiere: November 10 on BET+
Historically, holiday movies have not been known for their diversity—not in their casts nor the holidays they celebrated. BET+ offers up 10 new holiday movies this year featuring writers, directors and actors of color. Jasmine Guy headlines A Wesley Christmas (currently streaming). Robin Givens directs The Christmas Clapback (November 24) and Victoria Rowell co-wrote and directed A Blackjack Christmas (December 15). In The First Noelle, Instagram star LaLa Milan stars as Noelle, a woman who broke up with her boyfriend when he moved to London for work. Now he’s back with a new girlfriend…also named Noelle.
2. Falling for ChristmasStars: Lindsay Lohan, Chord Overstreet, George Young, Jack Wagner, Olivia Perez, Alejandra Flores, Chase Ramsey, Sean Dillingham, Antonio D. Charity
Premiere: November 10 on Netflix
Lindsay Lohan and the guy from Glee?!?!? Does it even matter what the movie is about? Netflix has gone all-in on the holiday movie game (Freddie Prinze headlines Christmas with You on November 17 and The Noel Diary starring Justin Hartley premieres November 24) but it’s Lindsay Lohan who we can’t ignore. Here she stars as a wealthy hotel heiress (pot calling the kettle Paris Hilton?) who, while on vacation, has a terrible ski accident and doesn’t remember who she is. Enter Overstreet as the lodge owner who helps her recover. Did I mention that Lohan also sings “Jingle Bell Rock?”
3. One Delicious ChristmasStars: Vanessa Marano, Kathy Maloney, Tom Kingsley, Alex Mallari, Jr.
Premiere: November 11 on Discovery+
Lots of cross-promoting going on in the Discovery+ holiday movies this season. In One Delicious Christmas, Food Network’s Bobby Flay co-stars as food critic Tom Kingsley in one of the four new holiday movies streaming this month on Discovery+. Abby (Vanessa Marano) hires a new chef (Alex Mallari, Jr.) to try to turn her dying restaurant back into a culinary destination.
4. A Waltons ThanksgivingStars: Bellamy Young, Logan Shroyer, Teddy Sears, Marcelle LeBlanc, Christian Finlayson, Tatum Matthews, Samuel Goergen, Calloway Corrick, Alpha Trivette, Rebecca Koon, Richard Thomas
Premiere: November 20 at 8 p.m. on the CW
After the success of last year’s The Waltons’ Homecoming (which the CW will re-air on December 5), television’s iconic family is back, this time to celebrate Thanksgiving. As the family prepares for the annual Harvest Festival Fair, they also decide to open their home to a young boy in need of a family. Richard Thomas, who played John Boy in the CBS series that ran from 1972-1981, returns to narrate the movie.
5. The 12 Days of Christmas EveStars: Kelsey Grammer, Spencer Grammer
Premiere: November 26 at 8 p.m. on Lifetime
Lifetime rivals Hallmark in the sheer amount of holiday movies they release each year. This year’s “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” will premiere 26 new movies featuring stars like Rita Moreno (!!) in Santa Bootcamp (premiering November 19) and the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman reunion of Jane Seymour and Joe Lando in A Christmas Spark (premiering November 27). But it’s the father/daughter duo of Kelsey and Spencer Grammer that is making our list. Here Kelsey plays Brian, a divorced dad with an estranged relationship with his daughter (Spencer Grammer, naturally). After he gets into a car accident on Christmas Eve, Brian gets 12 chances to redeem himself.
6. Candace Cameron Bure Presents: A Christmas…PresentStars: Candace Cameron Bure, Marc Blucas
Premiere: November 27 at 8 p.m. on Great American Family
Some behind the scenes drama happening in the holiday movie arena: Former Hallmark Channel CEO Bill Abbott co-founded Great American Media in 2020 and is looking to make its Great American Family channel your new Hallmark. The channel will debut 18 movies this season. Candace Cameron Bure, who starred in 30 Hallmark movies including its most watched one, 2014’s Christmas Under Wraps, has followed Abbott to his new home and will produce two Christmas movies this season: A Christmas…Present and Christmas on Candy Cane Lane. In A Christmas…Present, Burre plays a married mom who travels with her family to visit her widowed brother for the holidays.
7. A Holiday SpectacularStars: Ginna Claire Mason, Eve Plumb, Derek Klena, Ann-Margret
Premiere: November 27 at 8 p.m. on Hallmark / Peacock
The network that started it all, and the only one with a complete line of products you can buy celebrating their holiday line up, Hallmark will debut 40 new holiday themed movies this season. Set in 1958, A Holiday Spectacular stars Broadway star Ginna Claire Mason (she played Glinda in Wicked) as Maggie, a wealthy young woman who leaves the world people expect of her behind to follow her dancing dreams. The legendary Ann-Margret co-stars and the movie, partially filmed at Radio City Music Hall, features actual Rockettes. Last week, the partnership between Peacock and the Hallmark Channels began so the movie will also be available to stream on Peacock beginning November 27.
8. Hotel for the HolidaysStars: Madelaine Petsch, Mena Massoud, Max Lloyd-Jones, Kayleigh Shikanai, Jami Belushi, Neil Crone, Jayne Eastwood
Premiere December 2 on Freevee
Freevee gets into the holiday movie game with its first holiday movie. Mena Massoud, who played Aladdin in the 2019 live action version of Aladdin, co-stars as Luke, the hotel chef who must entertain all sorts of interesting guests during the holiday season. Madelaine Petsch is the hotel manager caught between Luke and an ex-prince (Max Lloyd-Jones). Nothing says Christmas like a love triangle!
9. It’s a Wonderful BingeStars: Eduardo Franco, Dexter Darden, Zainne Saleh, Marta Piekarz, Danny Trejo, Tony Cavalero, Nick Swardson, Kaitlin Olson, Tim Meadows, Paul Scheer, Patty Guggenheim, Esteban Benito, Eileen Galindo, Karen Maruyama
Premiere: December 9 on Hulu
The movies can’t all be candy canes, presents and mistletoe. In this sequel to 2020’s The Binge, the annual day of drinking and drugging happens to fall on Christmas. The press release for the movie promises that “the new holiday adventure will feature magical storybooks, catchy songs, stop-motion animation… and drugs! Lots of them!”
10. When Christmas Was YoungStars: Tyler Hilton, Grace Sunar, Karen David
Premiere: December 18 at 8 p.m. on CBS / Paramount+
CBS is offering up three holiday movies this season but this is the only one to feature a title song by Sheryl Crow, who also serves as the movie’s executive producer. Set in Nashville, Tyler Hilton stars as a music manager trying to find a hit song for his client when he meets a songwriter who has abandoned her career dreams. Hmmmm…what do we think will happen next? The movie will also be available to stream on Paramount+.
Amy Amatangelo, the TV Gal®, is a Boston-based freelance writer and a member of the Television Critics Association. She wasn’t allowed to watch much TV as a child and now her parents have to live with this as her career. You can follow her on Twitter (@AmyTVGal).