What to watch at Christmas: an annual point of much debate, deliberation and compromise, usually proven for naught when most of the family falls into a prosecco-laced stupor about 15 minutes into the chosen option. The advent of streaming hasn’t exactly made this process any easier, but the sheer wealth of options at least slightly reduces the possibility of everyone capitulating to the one senior relative stubbornly set on watching the Queen’s speech.
Netflix, as you would expect, has made an aggressive play to be the family Christmas channel of choice. From November on, they release a steady stream of original festive-themed films, many with largely interchangeable C-word titles: this year’s offerings include Home for Christmas, A Family Reunion Christmas and A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby. They’re equal parts awful and enjoyable in the right half-cut spirit, but I reserve a special place in my heart for the oozing, earnest cheese of seasonal safari romcom Holiday in the Wild. Rob Lowe, Kristin Davis and baby elephants: what more does a Christmas need?
If you want some family viewing that’s less dependent on a healthy sense of irony, however, Netflix’s Klaus is one of the season’s most pleasant surprises. The platform’s first attempt to join the animation big leagues is an exquisitely designed Santa Claus origin story from Despicable Me creator Sergio Pablos. Kids will enjoy the gently goofy storytelling, while their parents can marvel at its richly animated, pastel-gothic 19th-century story world. It’s likely to become a standard.
Elsewhere in their Christmas lineup, Netflix has some pleasingly lateral choices for cross-generational viewing. For slightly older children, Nora Twomey’s gorgeous animated Afghanistan survival story The Breadwinner offers apt, hopeful family values without sugary sentiment, while this year’s delightful, Florence Pugh-led teen-wrestler tale Fighting With My Family is an upbeat romp with some relative grit and texture to it. (Both are streaming from 24 December.)
For more established holiday favourites, however, Now TV is the streaming service to beat. If you’re not a subscriber, even a seven-day trial over the Christmas week will set you up with a library of reliable crowdpleasers. Fancy a Star Wars catch-up marathon to complement your cinema trip to The Rise of Skywalker? They’ve got the three originals. (Or episodes IV to VI, if you insist on counting that way.) The bustling fantasy of the Narnia films? Covered. The not directly Christmassy but somehow seasonally indispensable Mary Poppins? Yep – with Mary Poppins Returns descending on the platform on Christmas Day itself. (Back-to-back viewing won’t favour the newer film, but it’s still a dainty, colourful diversion.)
Alternatively, if you’re a family that bonds over superheroes, they have an ample supply of Marvel spectaculars, Black Panther included. Stream them there – along with such Disney perennials as Beauty and the Beast – before the imminent Disney+ service has Christmas all wrapped up next year. Speaking of new streaming services, if you’ve splashed out on a BritBox subscription, your chief reward is their “Britmas” collection: a veritable archive of Christmas specials from the telly vaults, from Absolutely Fabulous to Downton Abbey to Nigel Slater.
On the classic films front, Now TV is also at your service if your Christmas isn’t complete without an annual viewing of It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street: the latter perhaps slightly under-celebrated outside the US, and still rich in hot-chocolate comforts. Another option is Lawrence of Arabia, whose immersive, size-does-matter grandeur will hold much of the family quietly rapt for an afternoon. If you’re after quirkier Christmas viewing, the BFI Player offers the delirious Finnish Father Christmas horror adventure Rare Exports. Save it for when the pre-teens are in bed, but everyone else can enjoy its perverse twist on Lapland lore.
Amazon Prime, meanwhile, has more to offer Christmas than free overnight delivery. If a Lord of the Rings streaming marathon is your idea of holiday comfort, it’s the place to go. They also have the modest but likably cheery Feast of the Seven Fishes, a 1980s-set Christmas Eve romcom set within the Italian-American rust belt community. It skipped cinemas, but it’s worthwhile for the deep-fried food porn alone.
And finally, if kids and extended family are out of the picture, Amazon Prime has the best option for holiday spent snuggled with a significant other. If you ask me, in just four years, Todd Haynes’s ravishing, snow-coated love story Carol has staked a convincing claim as the greatest Christmas film of all time – but if not, certainly the most romantic.
Also new on DVD and streaming
Dirty God
(Modern Films, 15)
Perhaps not optimum holiday viewing, but a very fine film, Newcomer Vicky Knight is shattering in Sacha Polak’s candid, compassionate study of a young burns victim reasserting her identity in hostile environs.
Never Look Away
(Modern Films, 15)
This Oscar-nominated three-hour saga based loosely on the life of artist Gerhard Richter poses as a return to form for The Lives of Others director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck: it’s handsome and intelligent, but a wee bit turgid.
Dilili in Paris
(Prime Video)
The latest from veteran French animator Michel Ocelot bypassed cinemas and DVD, but is worth a stream for animation buffs. Its mix of traditional techniques with 3D rendering fascinates even when its slender story – a kidnapping plot in belle époque Paris – palls.
