Streaming Santa Style

No matter how much the sun is shining in Santa Barbara in December, there’s something about the holiday season that makes me want to curl up inside and binge watch Christmas movies. As overwhelmingly corny and underwhelmingly clever as the vast majority of them may be, there’s something so comforting about them that my usually higher criteria for entertainment flies straight out the chimney.

My husband may mock them mercilessly (at this point, that’s part of the fun), but I continue to make it my mission to watch as many holiday movies as I can every year around this time.

Here’s what I’ve seen so far, with some very brief takes on their merits.

A Very Jonas Christmas Movie

This was the first movie I watched this season, so I may have a little bit of the “first bite of cake is always the best bite” bias, but I found this mockumentary film, where the real Jonas Brothers play a version of themselves, to be super entertaining and so, so much better than I anticipated. The premise: The band is wrapping up a huge tour and bickering as they try to get home for Christmas. Thanks to some meddling by Santa, getting home to their families may prove to be impossible until they get their brotherly mojo back. The Jonas Brothers sing several songs and Will Ferrell plays a superfan version of Will Ferrell — what’s not to like!

Streaming on: Disney Plus, Hulu

Trailer: https://youtu.be/oOOdswIJJYU?si=yyps8Iq_DylxzNxW

Jingle Bell Wedding

Two musicians plan a New Year’s Eve wedding when one gets sidetracked by the opportunity to write for and tour with a famous superstar. Apparently, it’s a sequel to a movie called Jingle Bell Love, but you don’t need to see the first one to fall for the sweet comfort of this one. Sappy as hell, but I still got teary.

Streaming on: Roku

Trailer: https://youtu.be/O7wZg0Oq-ps?si=OUiSM6eIYJsGNe0e

My Secret Santa

Alexandra Breckenridge (from Virgin River) is charming as always, and her teenage daughter (Madison MacIsaac) is quite good, but the basic stupidity of this movie’s premise — single mom needs money to send her daughter to an elite snowboard school so she fakes her way into a job as Santa Claus to get the money and a huge discount — is too much to overcome.

Streaming on: Netflix

Trailer: https://youtu.be/I9Y5qYp8ro8?si=m3pYj53Vpg_ZlINO

Joy to the World

It’s hard to go wrong with Chad Michael Murray as your leading man (see last year’s The Merry Gentlemen or 2023’s Christmas on Windmill Way, or 2021’s Colors of Love, or 2020’s Too Close for Christmas or … you get the picture), but this movie about a Martha Stewart–like author who’s faked her perfect home life and family is a little too silly, even for this season of suspended disbelief. The cast, which includes Emmanuelle Chriqui from Entourage, deserves a better script.

Streaming on: Disney Plus, Hulu

Trailer: https://youtu.be/HWGLra-jDek?si=wxImX4-fpC-N6kW4

Champagne Problems

Minka Kelly, who has barely aged since her Friday Night Lights series days, is sent to France during the holiday season to purchase a historic champagne vineyard on behalf of her greedy employers. She meets the owner’s son accidentally beforehand, then there are some trust issues they have to work out before admitting they’ve fallen in love. It’s a classic romantic comedy formula — the child of a company owner versus the person sent in to represent the big-business buyer — for a reason, and I thought it worked pretty well in this one.

Streaming on: Netflix

Trailer: https://youtu.be/eba-EoMPBX8?si=kQ70-CE9hEN7TmED

Merry Little Ex-Mas

It’s a pretty winning cast, with Alicia Silverstone and Oliver Hudson as almost divorced spouses who just can’t quite quit each other despite some very attractive — and noticeably younger — love interests for them both. It’s a pretty goofy movie, but enjoyable and I definitely had a few laughs.

Streaming on: Netflix

Trailer: https://youtu.be/zLuOjCbDuwY?si=VMY72aZDKLqkI7Jv

Jingle Bell Heist

A romantic comedic, heart of gold, caper movie with the heroine trying to steal money for her mom’s cancer treatment, this one’s about as silly as it sounds, but the chemistry between the leads (Olivia Holt and Connor Swindells from Sex Education) saves it a bit.

Streaming on: Netflix

Trailer: https://youtu.be/AAEzB2LzFfM?si=juoqZ5IxxZAtxht3

Just Like a Christmas Movie

Apparently, this is actually a 2023 release that I missed (it does happen). The self-aware plot — a workaholic woman is not feeling the holiday spirit so Santa magically zaps her into a typical Christmas movie town that she’s forced to stay in — brings a few laughs, but they don’t quite get the tone right to sell it.

Streaming on: Netflix, Amazon Prime

Trailer: https://youtu.be/tGKlCd0DJDs?si=x9dXe11L7CoOn5rf

Christmas in the Ballroom

A Christmas movie about a dance competition show judge who is humiliated on TV and retreats to a small-town studio, rediscovers her love for dancing, and finds romance with a charming new partner who turns out to be a pretty good dancer. This is a totally feel-good movie. Although the dance competition show is not Dancing with the Stars, the movie stars former DWS pro Kym Johnson Herjavec, and former DWS competitors Gilles Marini and Carson Kressley, so there’s that! Johnson Herjavec (who married her Dancing with the Stars partner Robert Herjavec of Shark Tank in a plot twist worthy of its own Christmas movie) is also a producer, which is kind of fun.

Streaming on: Amazon Prime

Trailer: https://youtu.be/quINYRZftNo?si=O25S97a6u5LMrZCa

Hope’s Hollywood Christmas

This is another older movie (2024) that I missed last year. I could have missed it this year too. The story of a struggling single mom who takes a temp job with an aging movie star sounds much better on paper than it was in reality.

Streaming on: Amazon Prime

Trailer: https://youtu.be/3l24tCjCx4Q?si=UdTtBpgeEi1L-1QS

A Brush with Christmas

A 2022 movie about two artists who are working day jobs and need each other’s inspiration to do what they’re meant to do. The cornball premise works because the two leads, Jillian Murray and Joseph Cannata, have great chemistry and you can’t help but root for them.

Streaming on: Netflix

Trailer: https://youtu.be/Mvc037YtAl4?si=oDd3KZl1Si4ti9MS

Oh. What. Fun.

A promising cast with Michelle Pfeiffer and Denis Leary, and a pretty good premise, which is that a Christmas crazed mom has finally had enough of being taken for granted, and she cracks after her family leaves her behind on a group outing and runs away to have an adventure of her own. An Oprah-ish TV show is involved and a few other odd plot twists that make for a movie that starts out badly but ends up being okay. But with a pedigree like this one (other stars include Chloë Grace Moretz, Felicity Jones, Dominic Sessa, and Eva Longoria) it should be much, much better than it is.

Streaming on: Amazon Prime

Trailer: https://youtu.be/FRfj0OHlcvo?si=vYvbQD7m1bEnk6BT