Netflix’s 6 New Christmas Movies Ranked: From Male Strippers to Lindsay Lohan

It’s the most wonderful time of the year—snow, gifts, family, and most importantly, cheese. Not the edible kind (though that rules too), but rather good old-fashioned Christmas Movie cheese. There’s a certain kind of Christmas movie, largely popularized by the Hallmark Channel, that has become synonymous with the holiday: extremely comforting romantic comedies that are utterly nonsensical if you think about them for too long. But they’re not designed to think about, they exist to relieve the stress of the holiday season.

These kinds of Christmas movies are no longer just found on the Hallmark Channel—everyone wants in on the action, including Netflix, which has become a go-to destination for sweet, easy Christmas movies. The streamer has gone all out with not one, not two, but six different Christmas films and specials. To celebrate the holiday season, we watched them all—and ranked them to see which Netflix Christmas movie reigns supreme.

6. The Merry Gentlemen

The concept of The Merry Gentlemen is intriguing—what better way to shake up the Christmas movie than to twist things up with a male strip show? When Broadway dancer Ashley (Britt Robertson) returns to her small town, she launches an all-male Christmas revue to save her parents’ bar. It’s there she finds Luke (Chad Michael Murray), and…does it matter?

This one feels dead on arrival, vaguely going through the motions of a typical Christmas movie, including tropes like losing your job right in time for Christmas, and plenty of rose-tinted glasses for small towns. There’s a complete lack of chemistry between the leads, which makes the central romance unsatisfying. And for a movie about stripping, it’s remarkably unsexy.

5. Hot Frosty

Kathy (Lacey Chabert, who’s been in 40 Hallmark movies as of this year) is a recently-widowed cafe owner who’s not interested in love anymore—until she meets Luke (Dustin Milligan), a literal snowman who comes to life.

The chemistry between Milligan and Chabert is believable, and Milligan has a lot of fun with the wacky conceit behind his character. Some decent jokes abound, though the romance is lacking, and there’s a weird (though not unwelcome) number of Mean Girls references. Annoyingly, Hot Frosty doesn’t lean nearly enough into the absurdness of its premise—a sexy snowman come to life!—which leads it to feel far more generic than it should.

4. That Christmas

Santa Claus recalls one of his most challenging Christmases in the fictional English town of Wellington-on-Sea in That Christmas, co-written by Richard Curtis. It’s got plenty of Curtis-isms, including a young boy hopelessly in love, and a very specific reference to his Christmas classic Love Actually. The animation is simple and sweet and there’s a healthy amount of charm, but That Christmas veers too readily into twee, and forgets to be funny along the way. It’s perfectly fine Christmas fare, but lacks that special something to push it from safe, comfortable territory.

3. A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter

We’re cheating slightly, as A Nonsense Christmas isn’t really a Christmas movie. It’s a Christmas variety special, featuring sketch comedy and a bevy of musical performances. Carpenter already hosting her own holiday special is pretty surprising since her meteoric rise to fame only properly happened this summer, but her undeniable charisma and impressive vocal talent is immediately apparent. She’s incredibly charming, and a host of musical guests including Shania Twain, Tyla, and Chappell Roan (whose “Last Christmas” duet with Carpenter is a huge highlight) keep things fun. It’s a pretty irresistible 50 minutes, and A Nonsense Christmas proves Carpenter is well on her way to super-stardom.

2. Meet Me Next Christmas

Meet-cutes have been a romantic comedy staple for eternity, and Meet Me Next Christmas is all about a fateful one. In the airport lounge, Layla (Christina Milian) meets the wonderful James (Kofi Siriboe). Since she’s in a relationship, he suggests that on the off-chance she’s single next Christmas they meet at the Pentatonix concert. I didn’t realize people were so passionate about acapella music (Pentatonix is an acapella band, if, like me, you had no idea who they are), but I guess the passion from Glee lives on.

And to make things sweeter (and gayer) there’s a surprising amount of queerness, with plenty of time devoted to celebrating drag queens (specifically, Priyanka). Christmas movie tropes run throughout Meet Me Next Christmas; they’re enjoyable, funny, and sweet rather than tired here. Milian is a very likable lead. This is one people will be adding to their annual Christmas-viewing rotation.

1. Our Little Secret

All hail Lindsay Lohan. Watching the actress’s career comeback has been delightful, and though she’s been in some admittedly awful movies, Our Little Secret is not one of them. Ten years after breaking up with her boyfriend, Logan (Ian Harding), Lohan’s Avery has a new man—but that man’s sister, unbeknownst to Avery, is now dating Logan. When all four are under the same roof for a family Christmas, Avery and Logan (rather inexplicably) decide to keep their past a secret.

It’s easily the funniest Christmas movie of the year, with a scene involving Lohan’s character forgetting the words to a church reading being especially hysterical. And while its central romance may be a bit of an afterthought, Lohan’s star power (and a wonderful back and forth with co-star Kristen Chenoweth) make this the bright star on top of the Netflix Christmas tree.