Netflix Christmas Rom-coms Ranked

People who only watch the Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas Rom Coms are sleeping on these Netflix gems. They seem to have started around 2017, and get better every year. Some of them are even self-aware and a little meta.

All of these have at least one of the following clichès: The woman has a fiance back home, The man has an adorable daughter, or one of them is a writer.

These are my Top 10 and a bonus surprise.

#1. Christmas Inheritance (2017)

Her: Eliza Taylor - Heiress

Him: Jake Lacy - B&B Manager

Clichès: She has a fiancè

A New York City heiress is labeled in the press as a party girl, so her CEO father sends her to the town where he grew up to hand deliver a box of Christmas letters to his business partner. If she can pass his test then she can take over the company. She has to go incognito so people don’t “treat her differently,” she only has $100 and has to take a bus. In this one she starts to fall for the rude B&B manager who has trust issues because his ex-wife cheated on him with a millionaire. Andie McDowell is the wise diner owner who teaches her how to bake and takes her under her wing. This movie was so fun and silly. Part of me thinks whoever made this thought it was a masterpiece. The movie looked like it had a decent budget for most things, but it looks like they hired their wife’s nephew to do the wardrobe and hair. Of course, she gets snowed in at the B&B and has to work there to earn her keep. It leaves me wondering, what is a Christmas town?

Favorite Part: For the leading lady to be a gymnast she crashes into a lot of things. They must have beat the shit out of their poor stunt person.

#2. Falling for Christmas (2022)

Her: Lindsey Lohan - Ski Lodge Heiress

Him: Chord Overstreet - Owner of a ski lodge

Clichès: She has a fiancè, He has an adorable daughter

A ski resort heiress gets amnesia after getting knocked out in an avalanche. Her team thinks she’s on a romantic getaway with her influencer BF. The local BNB owner who is a widower with a little girl takes her in for the holidays until someone comes looking for her. She gets to live like a normal poor person for the first time and do things for others. She helps clean rooms to earn her keep, and it’s quickly apparent she’s never done physical labor. Lots of physical comedy to ensue! Lindsey is great at the pratfalls! The movie knows exactly what it is. It plays on the silliness and the campiness. I loved seeing Lindsey! She seemed like she was having fun. She said it was her first movie in a decade, and her first time doing stunts. She’s got a fiance! 

Favorite Part: Everything! But especially when she has amnesia and still knows she doesn’t want to stay at a Bed and Breakfast. “What kind of breakfast?”

#3. LoveHard (2021)

Her: Nina Dobrev - Writer 

Him: Jimmy O’Yang - Catfish/Candlemaker 

Clichès: She’s a writer

This should have been called Catfished for Christmas! They tried to make the title a mix of Love Actually and DieHard but no one got it. A writer of a disaster date column in LA travels cross-country to meet a guy she met on a dating app, who turns out to be a catfish. The guy she thought she was dating turns out to be real, and the catfish agrees to help her woo him if she pretends to be his girlfriend for the holidays. They get to know each other while the love triangle gets weirder. She lies and pretends to be the kind of girl the hot guy would go for. The real victim in all this is the hot guy! He gets his photos stolen and a woman lying to go out with him. 

Favorite Part: The karaoke scene is so funny and self-aware. I’m impressed with Nina Dobrev’s comedy chops on that part.

#4. Christmas with You (2022)

Her: Aimee Garcia - Pop Star

Him: Freddie Prinze Jr - Music Teacher 

Clichès: She has a fiancè (boyfriend), He has an adorable daughter, and they’re both writers

An aging pop star needs to write a Christmas song or her career is over. She’s not inspired so she decides to surprise a young fan who just happens to have a cute widower dad who is a music teacher. They get snowed in and can’t leave, so they write a Christmas song and help rehearse for the daughter’s quinceanera. The story in this is fun. It’s a kid’s wildest dream. I like fanciful ones. Why can’t a pop star fall in love with a teacher? We love to see it. 

Favorite Part: When the Pop Star steals the show at the daughter’s quinceanera.

#5. A Castle for Christmas (2021)

Her: Brook Shields - Romance Novelist 

Him: Cary Elwes - Duke losing his home

Clichès: She’s a writer

A famous novelist needs to hide out after killing off her hunky protagonist and angering her fans. She flees to Scotland to see a castle her grandfather worked at and ends up buying it. The Duke who is being forced to sell his castle makes her live with him in it until Christmas as a way to scare her out of the deal. The Duke is a “royal ass” to her but they still fall in love. This one was confusing for me. It’s nice to see a more mature cast, not everyone in a romcom can be 22-30. Brooke Shields is gorgeous as usual, but the leading man was a kinda blah. These movies seem to think all a man needs is an accent and no other good qualities. 

Favorite Part: When Brooke Shields goes on a talk show and gets herself canceled.

#6. Single all the Way (2021)

Him: Michael Urie - Something in Entertainment

Him: Philemon Chambers - Task Rabbit/Artist

Clichès: I think he’s a writer

Also starring Kathy Najimy, Jennifer Coolidge

I don’t know the actors who are the love interests, but it's your basic love triangle. A single guy going home for the holidays asks his BFF roomie to come along and pretend to be his boyfriend. His mom doesn’t buy it and sets him up with her trainer. It’s a movie about gay men but somehow the women steal the show! The real fun is the mom played by Kathy Najimy who keeps trying to explain to the family that just because two gay guys live together doesn’t mean it’s romantic. The real REAL fun comes from the crazy aunt played by Jennifer Coolidge who is directing a Christmas Pageant for the town and expecting broadway perfection. Gays to the rescue to save the show!

Favorite Part: When Jennifer Coolidge has a meltdown over her Christmas Pageant

#7. The Princess Switch (2018)

Her: Vanessa Hudgens - a baker in a Christmas competition

Her: Vanessa Hudgens - a Duchess about to marry the Prince

Clichès: She has a fiancè. He has an adorable daughter

It’s The Prince and the Pauper but with girls. How did no one do this already? I really don’t understand the idea of having one actor play two roles. Why not just cast twins? She clunkily goes back and forth between a proper British accent and a New Yorker. The fun twist is that when they switch, they both fall in love with the other’s person. This movie didn’t keep my attention despite the obvious Parent Trap similarities. You’d think it would, right? There are all these opportunities to put them in awkward positions. The baker is asked by the Queen to play piano in front of a crowd. The Duchess is having so much fun as a normal person she doesn’t want to switch back. There are two more of these movies, but I’m not sold yet.

Favorite Part: This had a little magical man who kept helping them when they were losing the plot. I’ll bite since it’s a Christmas movie. 

#8. The Holiday Calendar 

Her: Kat Graham - Photographer 

Him: Quincy Brown - Photographer

Clichès: He has an adorable daughter

This one has a magical element, which I’m surprised more of these movies don’t do. You can always rely on a Christmas miracle to help you fix a plot hole. A woman who’s a little depressed because she’s not as successful as her sister is given an antique Advent calendar that belonged to her late Grandmother. The ones that look like a house and the doors and windows open. Lights come on and each night at midnight another door opens to reveal a small carved toy. Each toy predicts something that will happen that day. Her best friend (hottie) who’s been backpacking is home and trying to spend a lot of time with her, but she meets a handsome and successful doctor who love-bombs her.

Favorite Part: I kid you not, the Doctor takes her to volunteer at a soup kitchen on one of their dates, and two of the men having dinner warn her that he brings a lot of women there to impress them! I love that she sees through him pretty quickly and dumps him.

#9. The Noel Diary (2022)

Him: Justin Hartley - Famous Fiction Writer

Her: Barrett Doss - Just starting out She has a fiance!

Clichès: She has a fiancè, and he’s a writer

He’s a loner who spends Christmas cleaning out his hoarder mother’s house when she unexpectedly dies. She was adopted and searching for her birth mother who happened to work at this house. This guy who is saccharine sweet to every single person in the movie, he “saves the cat” over and over, then when he meets the heroine, a gorgeous lady in need of his help, he’s a real dick to her!  He consistently shows that he has issues from his parent’s neglect and mental illness. The best part was the ending. It set up this big reunion between the woman and the birth mother, and then it just ended on a freeze frame. We didn’t get the teary reunion! It was implied, but DAMN. This is a movie, show us! I watched Bad Mom’s Christmas after this because it has the same hot guy and it was a fun palette cleanser. This was a good choice for the leading man. I’ll give them that! 

Favorite Part: The woman is TOTALLY uninterested when she thinks he’s a struggling writer. The second she finds out he’s successful she starts going after him.

#10. Father Christmas is Back (2021)

Him: Kelsey Grammar - Absent father

Her: Elizabeth Hurley, Talulah Riley, Nathalie Cox, Naomi Frederick - Sisters

Clichès: This movie is it’s own thing

Absent Father returns to the Christmas family manor to introduce his adult daughters to his young girlfriend. Everyone in the family (except mom) has resentment toward him, which makes for a lot of tension. Maybe this shouldn’t be on the list at all because it’s more of a family drama than a Rom-Com. Nothing funny happens at all, except the characters talking in funny voices. Is that a British thing? There are a lot of big names in this, but they all seemed totally unattached to the plot and each other. It was uncomfortable to sit through. I don’t recommend it. I don’t mind a bad movie as long as it’s fun. This was not fun. 

Favorite Part: The weirdest daughter is named Paulina, the same as me. They say her name a million times, which kept grabbing my attention.

Honorable Mention, this one is not on Netflix.

Christmas in Tune (2021)

Her: Reba McEntire - Country Superstar

Him: John Schneider - Country songwriter 

Clichès: He’s a writer, they have an adorable daughter together

Country’s biggest duo haven’t performed together since their separation, but now their daughter’s PR startup depends on them getting the band back together and performing for the Troops. The plot is silly, but it’s so much fun. They film a lot of Nashville landmarks if you care about that sort of thing. There’s the added component of them writing a Christmas song together.

Favorite Part: Every time Reba says something sincere, her “ex” repeats it, then writes it down. That would get on my nerves, but since he’s a Grammy-winning songwriter, I guess she likes that. I love to see a get-back-together story, especially with people who are old enough to know better!