The Lifetime network is one of the most reliable makers of made-for-TV Christmas movies. In fact, just this year alone, Lifetime plans to release 30 new Christmas movies, with programming starting as early as October. And the year 2020 will also mark a special milestone in the channel’s holiday-themed movie-making, as Lifetime is finally featuring its first LGBTQ+ Christmas movie this year. Now that’s one for the books! But before we can get excited about all the new Christmas movie content to come this season on Lifetime, there is still a treasure trove of Lifetime movies from Christmases past—about 88 to be exact—to sort through, watch, cry to and rank. Looking for a way to keep busy this holiday season? Try bingeing all the Lifetime Christmas movies ever, including the 10 best Lifetime Christmasmovies.
Best Lifetime Christmas movies, ever!
12 Men of Christmas (2009)
Starring Tony-award winning actress Kristin Chenoweth,12 Men of Christmas is the classic tale of a Manhattan woman ditching the city to relaunch her life in the countryside of Montana. There, she gets involved with a local fundraiser that asks search-and-rescue volunteers to pose for the holiday-themed calendar…half-naked.
A Country Christmas Story (2013)
If we’re ranking Lifetime Christmas movies by star power, then we absolutely have to put A Country Christmas Story, starring none other than Dolly Parton, right on up there. This one’s great for its quality musical numbers and of course, the celebrities—it also stars Brian McKnight and Desiree Ross—but if you’re looking for a film heavy on the Christmas emphasis, this isn’t it. It’s more about family and the healing power of music—particularly, country music.
Christmas Lost and Found (2018)
Not many Christmas movies tend to focus solely on the relationship between grandchild and grandparent, which is why so many people love the pairing of Whitney Kennison (Tiya Sircar) and Grandma Frances (Diane Ladd) as they meet up to spend Christmas together in Chicago. A loss of family heirlooms and a Christmas-themed scavenger hunt lead both generations to a better understanding of Christmas spirit.
A Christmas Winter Song (2019)
One of the best Lifetime Christmas movies from last year’s lineup, A Christmas Winter Song stars Ashanti as a grieving singer looking for meaning in life after tragedy. It also serves as one of Lifetime’s only films that can really be considered a musical!
All About Christmas Eve (2012)
You guessed it, Lifetime Christmas movie lovers! That title is certainly a play on the main protagonist’s name, Eve, played by Haylie Duff. A successful (but busy) Manhattan party planner, Eve follows the standard Lifetime Christmas movie trope of being too busy to experience the true meaning of Christmas. With both her career and love of her life on the line, Eve has some important lessons to learn.
Love at the Christmas Table (2012)
Remember your days at the children’s table during the holidays? Well, imagine meeting the potential love of your life at that table when you’re just a kid.
Merry Liddle Christmas (2019)
Have yourself a Merry Liddle Christmas, with Kelly Rowland! Inspired by the Destiny’s Child singer’s real experiences, the Lifetime film features new original music from Rowland herself.
The Christmas Hotel (2019)
In the world of Lifetime Christmas movies, reconnecting with an ex during an awkward AF moment is usually a good thing. As in, it leads to rekindled love. Starring Tatyana Ali, The Christmas Hotel is a classic story of love that gets a second chance.
Jingle Belle (2018)
Another Ali Lifetime Christmas movie making the top 10! Belle is a Juilliard music major who returns to her hometown to write the musical score for her town’s Christmas pageant. Of course, while writing for the pageant, she’ll bump into her ex, played by Cornelius Smith Jr., whose heart she broke when moving to Manhattan to pursue her musical dreams.
Christmas Pen Pals (2018)
Sarah Drew plays Hannah, a dating app creator and all-around technology wiz who, like most Lifetime leading ladies, is great at her career but not so great at dating. When she signs up to be an anonymous holiday pen pal, letter-writing with the potential love of her life might just be the thing that helps her get better at love. Spoiler: It is.
New Lifetime Christmas Movies 2020
This year’s lineup features 30 new films, starring favorites Rowland, Melissa Joan Hart, Mario Lopez, Vanessa Lachey, Jason Priestley, Jana Kramer, AnnaLynne McCord and Beverley Mitchell, to name a few. And because the holidays are for everybody, Lifetime is diving “deeper into their commitment for diverse storytelling and inclusivity” with the network’s first Christmas movie featuring an LGBTQ romance. Lifetime’s largest holiday movie slate to date also includes a film centered around a Chinese-American family, as well as one starring a lead actor with a disability and another focusing on a military veteran. Looks like the network sleighed it this year. Some that we’re looking forward to include Christmas on Ice, Christmas Unwrapped, Forever Christmas, A Crafty Christmas Romance, The Christmas Aunt, A Welcome Home Christmas, Feliz NaviDAD, Dear Christmas and People Presents: Once Upon a Main Street.
Every Lifetime Christmas movie ever!
Still want more? The following is every other holiday movie that has ever aired on Lifetime!
The Spirit of Christmas (2015)
A favorite amongst Lifetime Christmas movie lovers, Kate (Jen Lilley) falls head over heels for the ghost of a man haunting an inn. Together, they work out how he died and, as in many other Lifetime Christmas movies, there’s some Christmas magic to be discovered.
On the Second Day of Christmas (1997)
Do you enjoy a good, fluffy-haired Mark Ruffalo moment? Then you’ll fall in love with this pre-13 Going on 30 Ruffalo, who plays a security guard ordered to watch over a niece-aunt duo of con artists after they get caught being naughty on Christmas Eve. It’s cute, it’s quaint, and it’s Curly Sue-esque.
My Christmas Inn (2018)
Successful in advertising, Jen Taylor (Tia Mowry) is in the middle of learning an important lesson come Christmas: That there’s more to life than just your career. When her aunt dies, leaving behind an Alaskan inn, Taylor travels there with intentions to sell the inn. However, she might just stay…
Sweet Mountain Christmas (2019)
There are two types of Lifetime Christmas movies: country-themed ones and ones starring a successful New York woman at a crossroads in her life. (And sometimes if we’re lucky, the two types intersect.) Country singer Laney Blu has chosen fame over family after becoming famous on a reality TV show. Sprinkle in an unexpected snowstorm, baking cookies with mama and of course, a cutie of an ex-boyfriend who just so happens to drive the snowplow, and you have one helluva holiday movie.
Dear Santa (2011)
Amy Acker stars as Crystal Carruthers, a kind-of-spoiled brat who still lives off her parents’ money. But she quickly reassesses her privilege after falling for a soup-kitchen owner whose 7-year-old daughter writes a letter to Santa.
Christmas Reservations (2019)
Starring Melissa Joan Hart, who plays a family ski lodge event coordinator, Christmas Reservations is a combo of four different Christmastime love stories. There’s also a pretty cute plotline for the dog, so it even appeals to animal-lovers. When Hart’s widowed ex checks into the lodge with his kids, you can only imagine just how she’ll be spending the holidays this year.
A Christmas Wish (2019)
In this tiny Louisiana town, Hilarie Burton plays our single heroine who is coerced by her sister to place a wish in the town’s Christmas Wish Box. When Andrew pops up the very next day, it could be her wish come to life or it very well may not work out. But seeing as things rarely don’t work out in Lifetime original Christmas movies, we have a good feeling about this. Oh, did we mention Pam Grier makes an appearance?
Every Day Is Christmas (2018)
An interesting take on A Christmas Carol, Every Day Is Christmas stars Toni Braxton as a workaholic financial adviser who’s, you guessed it, not open to love. Then, like the classic story says, the spirit of Christmas brings her on a journey through all of her relationships: past, present, and future and like Ebenezer Scrooge, she gets it together.
Holiday Spin (2012)
The beginning of Holiday Spin kind of feels more like a Disney movie, as things kick off with Blake (Garrett Clayton of Disney Channel fame) and his mother getting in a fatal car accident that kills her. Blake then goes to live with his dad (played by Ralph Macchio) and ends up stepping in as the local dance studio’s savior when a dancer is left dance partner-less.
Radio Christmas (2019)
Keshia Knight Pulliam plays a radio DJ broadcasting from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, who decides to make things interesting in the little town. After revealing the results of the town’s Secret Santa, things get even more dramatic when a Lifetime throws in an attractive divorcée.
Twinkle All the Way (2019)
Party planner is one of the most common careers in the world of Lifetime Christmas movies and Twinkle All the Way, starring Sarah Drew, is no different. This wedding planner, of course, meets the handsome (and single) owner of a Christmas décor company, Henry, and they find themselves stuck in a snowstorm, planning a Christmas Eve wedding reception together.
The Christmas Pact (2018)
Sadie (Kyla Pratt) and Ben (Jarod Joseph) are best friends who live next-door to each other. We think you know where this story goes…When they were eight, they made a pact to remain friends forever over a Christmas tree, but now that they’re grown, some Christmas magic just might be exactly what they both need to ditch the friend zone for a more rewarding relationship.
Always and Forever Christmas (2019)
As most Lifetime Christmas movies do, Always and Forever Christmas starts with a successful woman experiencing a major life change that may just impact her career. For Lexi Lawson, it’s inheriting a Christmas-themed store in Vermont, a state in which she does not live in nor want to live in. Will she sell it for a whole lot of cash or keep it, fall in love and take the advice of Mrs. Claus (played by Beth Broderick)?
Christmas a La Mode (2019)
A la mode–You know what that means! Ice cream! A dairy farmer struggling to keep the farm open comes up with the idea for a holiday ice cream contest to pump life back into the her family’s business. There’s ice cream, there’s a hunky love interest (duh!) and there’s a strong message about protecting small businesses and farms if you look hard enough.
The Christmas Contract (2018)
If you’re a fan of One Tree Hill, you’ll want to count just how many alums from the series show up in The Christmas Contract. Hilarie Burton plays a work-oriented city woman returning to her home in the South, single and loveless. Her ex still lives there and she wants to make him jealous, so she makes her BFF’s brother Jack (Robert Buckley) sign a contract to perform fake-boyfriend duties.
Holiday High School Reunion (2012)
Georgia (Rachel Boston) was a cheerleader and wanna-be fashion designer back in her high school days but even though she’s grown now, she still wants to win over the heart of her ex-boyfriend, the high school football star, Craig. With the help of her bestie Ben (Jonathan Bennett), she might win back Craig or something else in the process.
You Light Up My Christmas (2019)
The plot on this one is pretty straight forward: Emma (Kim Fields) returns to her hometown, reconnects with a former love and finds the meaning of Christmas. Standard Lifetime holiday fare.
Wishin’ and Hopin’ (2014)
Here you’ll find Molly Ringwald, Chevy Chase, Annabella Sciorra, and Cheri Oteri navigating Christmas in Connecticut in the 1960s. When a young boy’s teacher decides to change up the way the school’s been doing the annual Christmas pageant, things get a little crazy. If it sounds familiar, the star-studded Wishin’ and Hopin’ is based on the Wally Lamb novel of the same name.
Christmas in Louisiana (2019)
In this film, a past pageant queen–known in town as a former Miss Christmas–comes home to help celebrate the annual Sugarcane Christmas Festival. Soon into her journey home, she nabs the guy, and the rest is history.
Kristin’s Christmas Past (2013)
Kristin goes to bed alone on Christmas Eve, then wakes up on Christmas Day…17 years earlier. She “fixes” what she thinks is broken, righting her mistakes, finds a cute guy and even gets a makeover. What could go wrong?
Twelve Trees of Christmas (2013)
Cheri (Lindy Booth) is a librarian fighting against a local real estate developer (Robin Dunne) who wants to flatten her library. With the help of a local tree-decorating contest and the developer’s personal decorator (played by none other than Spice Girl Mel B.), this film might just end with everyone wanting to save the library and learning the true meaning of Christmas.
A Very Vintage Christmas (2019)
Tia Mowry is back at it in Lifetime Christmas movie fashion, this time as a vintage store owner who finds a mysterious box of interesting items. As she goes on a journey to return these items to their owners and the appealing guy who moved into town recently decides, hey, he wants to help her!
Last Chance for Christmas (2015)
Hilarie Burton is back as Annie, a reindeer trainer in Alaska who’s looking for a reindeer to replace the recently injured Prancer. While trying to replace Prancer, Annie, a single mother, meets an attractive stable guy who just so happens to work in Santa’s stable at the North Pole.
The Santa Con (2014)
Not to be confused with the weekend-long drinking fest during which thousands of millennials run around drunk in Santa suits, this feel-good film follows the story of a single mom of a son with a seemingly impossible wish for Old St. Nick: for his parents to get back together. And if you want double the dose of Melissa Joan Hart, The Santa Con is it. Hart both stars in and produces the film, which also features Barry Watson as a conman, Jaleel White, Wendy Williams and John Ratzenberger.
Random Acts of Christmas (2019)
Ah, we haven’t had nearly enough Lifetime Christmas movies with female journalists yet and Random Acts of Christmas is the perfect place to start! Two reporters who are always trying to get the story before each other end up meeting in person while on the case. Will the investigation bring them together or push them even further apart?
Christmas in the City (2013)
Wendy (Ashley Williams) is a single mom who owns a candy shop that’s at risk of closing down. To make ends meet, she takes a part-time job in the toy section of a department store around Christmastime. It’s there that she meets Teanna, her foil (played by Ashanti). At odds, the women actually find a way to repair their friendship in time for Christmas and save Wendy’s shop.
No Time Like Christmas (2019)
Christmas just seems better in Vermont. That’s where No Time Like Christmas takes us: a Vermont inn at which a cunning sister decides to book a stay for her darling sibling. After all, her sister’s ex-boyfriend just so happens to be staying there, too.
The Magical Christmas Shoes (2019)
It seems the title of the movie says it all: there’s a pair of magical Christmas shoes that are well, full of Christmas spirit. With a pair of shoes featuring mystical powers, our heroine might just be able to whip up herself some love.
A Sweet Christmas Romance (2019)
It’s like if The Great British Baking Show was a Christmas rom-com. A bakery-owner thought she wanted to sell the business she worked hard to establish, but now she’s changed her tune and thinks holding a competition to see who can follow her baking recipes best will reveal the perfect heir. Holly and Brad go head-to-head for the title and while we won’t give away who wins, you can probably guess that what they really both win is a sweet Christmas romance.
Seasons of Love (2014)
Featuring a quick cameo from the movie’s producer Taraji P. Henson, Seasons of Love follows an executive in the music industry with a bad attitude and not much Christmas spirit. As the leads attempt to figure out the meaning of Christmas, Gladys Knight also pops up for an appearance or two.
Finding Mrs. Claus (2012)
Oscar-award winning Mira Sorvino is Mrs. Claus, who recently hit a snag in her marriage to Santa himself. When their relationship gets a bit rocky, she takes a solo trip to Vegas. Wouldn’t you?
Heaven Sent (2016)
Things get a little off-the-beaten track in Heaven Sent. But then again, at Christmas, anything can happen. An 8-year-old shows up on the doorstep of a couple headed for divorce. Only he’s an angel and he’s been delivered by UPS. Totally normal.
Christmas 9 to 5 (2019)
Jennifer (Tiya Sircar) is a reporter who, after going undercover at a department store around Christmastime, realizes that her calling might just be in retail. (It also might help that there’s a love interest in the picture, too.)
Christmas on the Bayou (2013)
Workaholic? Check. Single mother? Check. Hilarie Burton? Check. Burton leaves New York to return to her hometown in Louisiana where she…You guess: A) falls in love, B) learns the true meaning of Christmas, C) spends time with her family, or D) all of the above.
A Very Nutty Christmas (2018)
Here’s more Melissa Joan Hart for you. Kate Holiday, the owner of a bakery, is recently single, overworked and in need of a Christmas miracle. Then, a Christmas ornament with mystical powers transports her to a far-away (potentially make-believe?) place where she meets Chip (Barry Watson), a possible Nutcracker Prince.
Holly’s Holiday (2012)
How many Lifetime Christmas movies can star protagonists named Holly? Enough. In Holly’s Holiday, Holly falls in love with a mannequin. The mannequin’s name is Bo and he has a hard-to-deal with ex-girlfriend who also just so happens to be a mannequin. If you’ve seen the movie Mannequin, then you get it; if not, you might want to skip this one simply for the weirdness factor.
Christmas Around the Corner (2018)
Lifetime Christmas movies seem to take place in just about three places only: New York, Louisiana or Vermont. It’s always Christmas in Vermont, right?! Claire (Alexandra Breckenridge) travels to Vermont for Christmas, leaving her successful New York business behind. When she meets the owner of a quaint, local bookstore, Andrew (Jamie Spilchuk), they quickly go from a mutual hatred for each other to you know, falling in love.
The Christmas Gift (2015)
Michelle Trachtenberg is a journalist on a special, personal mission. When she was younger, a boy sent her a Secret Santa gift that’s stuck with her over the years. Now, years later, she’ll use her sleuthing skills she honed on the job to find the boy who sent it to her. Basically, Harriet the Spy grew up.
A Snow Globe Christmas (2013)
More busy, moody executives! In A Snow Globe Christmas, Alicia Witt plays one who gets trapped inside a snow globe where it’s Christmas year-round and there’s also Donald Faison and Christina Milian.
The Real St. Nick (2012)
Kate is a psychiatrist who works in a psychiatric hospital. After being rescued by a man named Nick Claus, they return together to the psych hospital where she works, determined to spread the Christmas cheer to all of its patients.
A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride (2008)
Roxanne (JoAnna Garcia Swisher) is a wedding planner who’s not too keen of her mom’s newly acquired fiancé. The result? Roxanne’s own personal love story and her mom’s developing one as well. A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride also features a quick appearance from the late Luke Perry.
Staging Christmas (2019)
Soleil Moon Frye is a home decorator/stager hired by a widower looking to excite his young daughter with the potential cheeriness of Christmas. He’s a wealthy and hot single dad and she comes by to decorate his house for the holidays. What could possibly happen?
Mistletoe & Menorahs (2019)
What happens when you’re a busy, successful executive? Apparently, you have no time to learn anything about Hanukkah. That’s why the protagonist of Mistletoes & Menorahs enlists the help of the only Jewish person she knows of–a somewhat distant acquaintance. Spoiler alert: They end up helping each other…in more ways than one!
The Road Home for Christmas (2019)
These two musicians are total rivals but both find themselves gig-less on Christmas Eve and in need of a way home for the holidays. Hence, The Road Home for Christmas. Highlights include a guest appearance from Marie Osmond.
An En Vogue Christmas (2014)
It’s called An En Vogue Christmas for good reason! A big fan of the group (played by Genelle Williams) asks them to play a special benefit concert to help save her family’s business and what ensues is a feel-good, musical and magical Christmas film.
Christmas Love Letter (2019)
What would you do if an anonymous writer sent you a love letter? Probably try to find the author. Right? That’s exactly what our heroine does in Christmas Love Letter.
Recipe for a Perfect Christmas (2005)
Lee (Christine Baranski) doesn’t know what to do after she’s fired from her job, so she turns to her daughter, a restaurant critic named JJ. Bobby Cannavale is also in the mix, playing a chef that ends up helping JJ take care of her mom. It’s not hard to guess where things go from there!
Christmas Stars (2019)
Layla is a singer and Spence is a songwriter. They have a good thing going working together but the demands of the music industry are causing a rift in their partnership. Will it cause the end of their relationship or, with a little Christmas spirit, will their love prevail?
The Flight Before Christmas (2015)
Mayim Bialik is now boyfriendless and it’s only a few days before Christmas. With her previous plans canceled, she tries to return home to spend the special day with her family. But, it’s winter, after all, so inclement weather hits, and she ends up in Montana, forced to share the only available hotel room in town with a stranger, played by Ryan McPartlin. Sounds super safe!
A Twist of Christmas (2018)
Abby (Vanessa Lachey) and Ryan (Brendon Zub) are both busy people; Abby’s got her hands full as a mom and Ryan’s a single dad-slash-lawyer. Also, there’s the small plot point that they absolutely hate each other. Well, whenever two people in a Lifetime Christmas movie despise each other, you can bet that by December 25th, they’ll be kissing each other underneath the mistletoe.
Santa’s Boots (2018)
Combine one failing family business with the hopes of a Christmas miracle and voilà, you have a mouthful of a movie. Holly (Megan Hilty) takes a part-time gig as Santa’s Helper in a department store but of course, she gets the hots for him. He kind of like…dies…but not really–just magically disappears, leaving nothing but a boot behind–and now Holly has to visit the boyfriends of her Christmases past in order to find him again.
Rediscovering Christmas (2019)
More Christmas in Vermont in Rediscovering Christmas! A window decorator who specializes in the holiday season thought she wanted to spend Christmas on a beach, drink in hand, but after returning to her hometown of Vermont and attending the town’s Snowflake Festival, she realizes being home for Christmas gives her something much more meaningful than a beach far away ever could.
A Date by Christmas Eve (2019)
That’s the goal! A Date by Christmas Eve features a single brand strategist hell-bent on making sure she has a date to Christmas dinner.
A Storybook Christmas (2019)
What happens when a single event planner is faced with a struggling business? During Christmas? If you’ve seen enough Lifetime Christmas movies, you’ll probably figure it out.
Christmas Unleashed (2019)
It’s about time a dog takes center stage in a Lifetime Christmas movie! Vanessa Lachey stars as a loving dog mama whose pup goes missing. She then unites with her ex-boyfriend as they go on a mission together to find her dog.
A Gift Wrapped Christmas (2015)
The only things you can’t gift-wrap–love, family, the spirit of Christmas—are what Gwen (Meredith Hagner), a personal shopper navigating a business relationship with her new attractive single dad client, Charlie (Travis Milne) will get by the end of this holiday.
A Christmas Reunion (2015)
If you watch The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, you might remember a season where Denise Richards is a bit MIA and that’s because she was on set filming a Christmas movie for Lifetime. A Christmas Reunion is it! Richards plays Amy—a New York executive, obviously—who goes back to her hometown near Christmastime. Her aunt, who raised her, has just passed away and her dying wish was for Amy (and her ex-BF) to inherit her bakery. Will she stay and bake? Or return to NYC?
Hometown Christmas (2018)
Beverley Mitchell was practically made to make made-for-TV Christmas movies on Lifetime, and honestly, there’s not enough of her on this list! She plays Noelle, who is coming back to her hometown in Louisiana with the goal of helping her mom’s favorite holiday tradition live on. While she attempts to manage the town’s live nativity, she’s also simultaneously avoiding her hometown ex, Nick (Stephen Colletti), and really, what could go wrong? Or depending how you look at it, what could go right?
Wish Upon a Christmas (2015)
Wishes hit differently around Christmastime. Amelia comes home for the holidays on a job, offering her business expertise to a Christmas ornament factory that’s struggling. There, she reunites with her dad (Alan Thicke) but is horrified to find out that she’ll be working alongside her ex-boyfriend, who—surprise, surprise—is head of the company.
The Christmas Temp (2019)
This time she’s not a shark of a business executive! Our heroine is actually jobless, then stumbles upon a unique kind of temp agency—a Christmas temp agency—that matches her with the season’s most appropriate gigs. But of course, the head of HR is super hot and things in the office start to get a little, well, heated.
All I Want for Christmas (2013)
A special Christmas pin grants All I Want for Christmas’s protagonist–a successful but of course, constantly busy executive–the unwanted ability to hear people’s innermost thoughts.
Matchmaker Christmas (2019)
What do you do when your boss needs a date to the company Christmas party? Well, she’s a matchmaker by trade, so we’d like to say she’s got his date covered, but things get sticky when her ex is thrown into the mix.
Grounded for Christmas (2019)
When her family invites her ex-boyfriend to Christmas dinner, our heroine freaks out and decides she needs a fake BF. She’s a pilot by trade and the flight gets canceled, so she coerces her single co-pilot into taking the (temporary) job.
Dear Secret Santa (2013)
Now this one is a star-studded picture! We’ve got Ernie Hudson, Jordin Sparks, Lamorne Morris and Tatyana Ali, who plays Jennifer. Jennifer returns home to care for her father but instead of focusing on her dad, she’s plagued by anonymous letters addressed to her. Who’s her Christmastime secret admirer?
Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever (2014)
Ah, Grumpy Cat. We’ll miss you forever. Perhaps the first pet to really go viral on the internet, Grumpy Cat went on to star in her very own Lifetime Christmas movie all about how traditional Christmas clichés, well, make her grumpy.
Christmas in Paradise (2007)
No, we’re not in Louisiana, New York or Vermont this time. We’re on a cruise ship, folks! Colin Ferguson and Charlotte Ross bring both their families (separately) on a cruise ship for Christmas. As they sail off into the sunset on the way to Puerto Rico, an obstacle in the form of an ex-wife makes herself known.
Merry In-Laws (2012)
Mr. and Mrs. Claus have personal problems (in the form of in-laws), too. Featuring Shelley Long and George Wendt, Merry In-Laws has the North Pole’s most famous couple attempting to get everything they have to do squared away in time for Christmas and spending time with their only son’s fiancée and her family.
Will You Merry Me? (2008)
Extra points for a clever title! Here we have a recently-engaged couple, Rebecca and Henry, only their holiday traditions and respective religions seem to be getting in the way. Rebecca’s parents are Jewish and Henry’s last name is Kringle, so, yeah.
Becoming Santa (2015)
If you loved Merry In-Laws, then Becoming Santa is also for you. After all, it’s simply a gender-swapped version of the same premise, this time starring Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross.
Comfort and Joy (2003)
What if your life simply switched to the opposite? Jane (Nancy McKeon) is an overworked advertising executive but suddenly, she wakes up one morning to find her life totally different. All of a sudden, she’s a married woman with two kids. And she’s a stay-at-home mom–her advertising career vanished overnight. Which life will she choose?
A Very Merry Toy Store (2017)
Two rival toy store owners must work together, despite hating each other, to fend off a big box toy store that wants to take over their quaint hometown in Connecticut. Not sold yet? Mario Lopez and Melissa Joan Hart are those two rival toy store owners. The movie also features Mario Cantone and Beth Broderick (a Sabrina the Teenage Witch reunion!).
A Christmas Wedding Date (2012)
According to Lifetime, it’s simply unheard of to be single during the holidays. But imagine being invited to a Christmas wedding and also being dateless. Not in the world of Lifetime Christmas movies! You must find a fake date and then eventually, fall in love with him. Rebecca leaves her job on Wall Street to go to her friend’s Christmas-day wedding in her hometown, where she stumbles upon a magic Christmas ornament that—obviously—teaches her what Christmas is all about.
A Christmas Angel (2011)
Is it just us or are there not nearly enough Lifetime Christmas movies with angel characters? In A Christmas Angel, Ashley is jobless, so naturally, she starts working as an assistant for her neighbor Nick, a kind of Secret Santa who helps people in town without taking credit. Only, she must keep his secret and not spill the beans. Even when a journalist comes poking around.
Deck the Halls (2005)
Holly (Gabrielle Carteris) comes home for the holidays with her young son, Ben. She plans to work at her father’s toy-making biz. However, she didn’t plan that Ben would become obsessed with her neighbor, Nick (played by Steve Bacic).
The March Sisters at Christmas (2012)
It’s Little Women but at Christmas. The March sisters enter present day where they do “normal” contemporary things like use Twitter and pine over their exes (although that’s a timeless activity, perhaps).
The Christmas Consultant (2012)
David Hasselhoff plays the Christmas consultant himself. Caroline Rhea and Barclay Hope hire a party planner-slash-Christmas-consultant (Hasselhoff) to plan their Christmas party and spread a little Christmas spirit.
A Nanny for Christmas (2010)
An advertising executive named Ally (EmmanuelleVaugier) enters a job interview and somehow leaves with a job as a nanny. She goes along with it in the name of making money, but soon realizes the children’s parents are not exactly sweet and cuddly. She may be more meant for this job than she realizes.
12 Wishes of Christmas (2011)
Alternatively titled 12 Christmas Wishes for My Dog, this movie stars Elisa Donovan as Maura, a struggling narcissist who ends up hiring a life coach, named Noel, of course. Noel gives her 12 wishes, which is right about when we start wondering if he’s one of Santa’s elves or an angel or something. More of a Hallmark movie aficionado? We’ve got you covered with Candace Cameron-Bure’s best Hallmark movies of all-time.
