Lifetime / Champlain Media
As the Christmas season approaches, Netflix is once again stocking up on festive movies from outside its own studio, and this year’s November haul is the biggest we’ve tracked. Netflix’s “New on Netflix” newsletter for November 2026 (plus a few others we’ve found) lists 26 licensed holiday titles headed to the United States, up from 23 last November and 16 the year before.
Naturally, Netflix has invested a lot in Christmas over the years, and the Originals slate is busy again with Tyler Perry’s The Gospel of Christmas, A Dog’s Perfect Christmas, Sweden’s The Christmas Switch and the Leighton Meester and Jared Padalecki romance Guarding Stars. You can find every Original on our Netflix Christmas movie schedule for 2026. This article covers everything else: the movies and series Netflix is renting from other studios and networks.
We should also note that Netflix Kids & Family is adding another limited time playlist on November 2nd called “Holiday Magic Playlist” which will feature the Christmas episodes of My Little Pony, Hilda, Johnny Test, The Smurfs and others.
We should note that many of these Christmas movies are recent romantic comedies from indie distributors. As we’ve covered for the past decade or so, Netflix always struggles to get the biggest Christmas movies around this time of year given these licenses are most valuable this time of year. That means no Home Alone, The Grinch, The Polar Express or Elf unless we get a surprise license.
The suppliers have shuffled again. Disney’s Freeform and ABC movies return for a second year, Lifetime sends four recent premieres, Great American Family has a few, and indie distributor Nicely Entertainment is the biggest single pipeline with as many as six titles. The headline-grabber is Hallmark, which hands over the first two seasons of Mistletoe Murders days before Season 3 premieres on Hallmark Channel (some of their movies are heading to Netflix internationally), while Lionsgate’s theatrical hit The Best Christmas Pageant Ever rounds out the big names. Six of the 27 streamed on Netflix last Christmas and are returning; the rest are new to Netflix in the US as far as we can tell.
Dates are subject to change, and we’ll update as title pages go live.
Coming November 1st
Half the licensed slate lands in the first week, with seven holiday titles on day one alongside a big library refresh (Air Force One, Bridesmaids, Looper, Whiplash and more).
Shout! Studios
- A Sudden Case of Christmas (2024) – Danny DeVito and Andie MacDowell star in this Italian-made comedy about a divorcing couple who bring their daughter to her grandfather’s hotel in the Dolomites to break the news. She demands one last family Christmas, in the middle of August. Directed by Peter Chelsom (Serendipity). Shout! Studios/Notorious Pictures.
- Barbie in the Nutcracker (2026) – Not the 2001 classic, which returned to Netflix in September, but the new CGI reimagining Netflix and Mattel announced for the original’s 25th anniversary. Debbie Allen choreographs and executive produces, and the late Tim Curry gives his final performance as the Rat King’s father. Mattel.
- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024) – The biggest licensed movie of the month. Dallas Jenkins (The Chosen) adapts Barbara Robinson’s beloved novel about the terrifying Herdman kids hijacking a small town’s Christmas pageant. Judy Greer, Pete Holmes and Lauren Graham star. It grossed over $40 million and holds a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. Lionsgate; Netflix debut.
- Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas (2019) – Aisha Dee plays a woman who dies after the perfect first date and has to resolve her unfinished business as a ghost only her best friend (Kimiko Glenn) can see. Freeform / Disney. Returning for 2026.
Picture Credit: Hallmark Channel
- Mistletoe Murders (Seasons 1-2) – Sarah Drew stars as Emily Lane, a year-round Christmas shop owner who secretly solves murders while a local detective (Peter Mooney) grows suspicious. Season 1 launched Hallmark+ in 2024 and Season 2 aired on Hallmark Channel last November; both arrive four days before Season 3 premieres on Hallmark Channel on November 5. Hallmark Media.
- No Sleep ‘Til Christmas (2018) – Real-life couple Odette and Dave Annable play two insomniacs who discover they can only sleep next to each other, which is awkward given she’s engaged to someone else. Freeform / Disney. Returning.
- Same Time, Next Christmas (2019) – Lea Michele’s first lead film role. She plays Olivia, who reunites every year at a Hawaiian resort with her childhood sweetheart (Charles Michael Davis) until life gets in the way. ABC / Disney. Returning, and the best performer of the Disney trio last year with 4.8 million hours viewed.
Coming November 3rd
- A Cinderella Christmas Ball (2024) – Danica McKellar plays a Chicago dance instructor who travels to the kingdom of Havenshire searching for her birth mother and ends up teaching a reluctant prince (Oliver Rice) to waltz before the Christmas Eve ball. Great American Family. Already on Netflix in the UK and Ireland.
- Christmas Time Is Here (2021) – Rukiya Bernard plays a realtor trying to sell her widowed father’s resort to a client (Dewshane Williams) who may be more interested in her than the property. Great American Family.
- Menorah in the Middle (2022) – The month’s one Hanukkah movie. Lucy DeVito plays a food blogger who brings her finance-bro fiancé home for the holidays, only to find her father in hospital and the family bakery deep in debt. Jonah Platt and Sarah Silverman co-star. It premiered on Hulu and has been unavailable to stream in the US since.
Coming November 4th
Both arrive the same day as Netflix’s own A Dog’s Perfect Christmas.
- A Runaway Bride for Christmas (2025) – Entertainment Tonight host Nischelle Turner’s first lead role. She plays a bride who bolts from the altar and reconnects with her high-school crush (Virgin River’s Mark Ghanimé), just as her ex turns up to win her back. Premiered on Lifetime in December 2025. Lifetime / Reel One.
- Deck the Hallways (2025) – Loretta Devine plays a Chicago grandmother who has quietly dropped her building’s annual holiday party since her husband died, until her granddaughter (Naika Toussaint) comes home. Lifetime.
Coming November 5th
- Deck the Halls (2006) – Yes, a different movie from the one above. Matthew Broderick’s uptight optometrist goes to war with new neighbour Danny DeVito over a Christmas light display visible from space. One of the most critically mauled Christmas movies ever made (6% on Rotten Tomatoes), and a cult rewatch for exactly that reason. 20th Century Fox / Disney.
Coming November 11th
Arriving alongside Tyler Perry’s The Gospel of Christmas.
- How to Fall In Love By Christmas (2024) – Teri Hatcher plays a lifestyle-brand CEO who must write a column about falling in love by Christmas to land a big partnership, and ends up fake-dating the photographer (Dan Payne) assigned to it. Lifetime / Reel One.
- Rodeo Christmas Romance (2025) – Rebecca Dalton plays an equestrian ranch-sitting over Christmas with an injured horse, opposite Corey Sevier as a brooding veteran. Premiered on Lifetime in December 2025. Lifetime / Champlain Media.
Coming November 12th
Great American Family
- A Christmas Castle Proposal: A Royal in Paradise 2 (2024) – The Australian-made sequel to A Royal in Paradise. Rhiannon Fish and Mitchell Bourke return as novelist Olivia and Prince Alexander, who host both families in his kingdom for Christmas. The first movie isn’t on the November schedule. Premiered on Great American Family; distributed by Nicely Entertainment.
Coming November 13th
- A Merry Christmas Wish (2022) – Jill Wagner plays a New York ad exec who heads home to sell the family farm and instead gets roped into staging its annual Winter Wonderland by the farmhand (Cameron Mathison). Great American Family; previously on Hulu.
Coming November 16th
Two Chicago-made movies from the same producers that both premiered as Hulu exclusives.
- Christmas On The Ranch (2024) – Jade Harlow plays a radio relationship expert stranded in rural Ohio on her way to a big New York job, at the ranch of a widowed single dad (Houston Rhines). Not to be confused with the 2021 LGBTQ romance Christmas at the Ranch. Nicely Entertainment.
Nicely Entertainment
- Reporting for Christmas (2023) – Tamara Feldman plays a TV producer sent to small-town Iowa for a puff piece on a family toy company, where she falls for the heir (Matt Trudeau). D.B. Sweeney co-stars. Nicely Entertainment.
Coming November 19th
- A Cherry Pie Christmas (2025) – Katie Leclerc (Switched at Birth) plays a Chicago pastry chef who returns to her family’s Door County, Wisconsin cherry orchard and hunts for her grandmother’s unfinished pie recipe ahead of the town bake-off. Ryan Carnes plays the old flame. Nicely Entertainment.
Nicely Entertainment
- Christmas at Fields Ranch (2025) – Anna Marie Dobbins plays a New York broker who inherits her grandfather’s ranch just before Christmas and must choose between a lucrative sale and the ranch hand (Marc Herrmann) she used to crush on. Mischa Barton co-stars. Nicely Entertainment.
Coming November 21st
All three streamed on Netflix last Christmas, left in May, and return on the exact date they arrived in 2025.
- The Family Holiday (2007) – Dave Coulier plays a con man who can only inherit his uncle’s millions if he proves he’s a family man, so he borrows twin orphans and hires a nanny to play his wife. Returning.
- Marry Christmas (2024) – Joey and Matthew Lawrence play newly engaged brothers who accidentally book the same wedding venue on Christmas Day, with Andrew Lawrence directing. Shout! Studios. Returning.
- Mistletoe Mixup (2021) – The first Lawrence family Christmas movie. Danielle Chuchran plays a workaholic who meets two great guys on the same day without realising they’re brothers. Returning.
Coming November 24th
- All for Christmas (2026) – The mystery of the month. Written by Ansley Gordon (How to Fall In Love By Christmas), it follows a podcaster forced to test online dating who connects with a mystery man who turns out to be the renovator working on her grandmother’s Christmas Eve venue. It hasn’t appeared on any network’s schedule, so this looks like a direct-to-Netflix debut. Starring Whitney Leavitt and Jesse Kove.
- The Trouble With Mistletoe (2017) – Passionflix’s adaptation of Jill Shalvis’s Heartbreaker Bay novel. Rachel Melvin plays San Francisco pet-shop owner Willa, who is less than thrilled when Keane (Thomas Beaudoin), the guy who stood her up in high school, walks in needing a cat-sitter. Not to be confused with Great American Family’s 2026 movie of the same name.
What’s not on the list
Hallmark’s 2026 Christmas movies are once again staying off Netflix in the US. Last year’s Reel One six-pack and most of the 2025 Lifetime picks have rotated out, as have long-running returners A Holiday Engagement, Christmas in the Heartland and My Dad’s Christmas Date. December’s Originals already include In a Holidaze (December 2) and Gabby’s Dollhouse: Makers and Bakers Holiday (December 9), but no licensed December holiday titles have been announced yet.
Which of these new arrivals are you most excited to watch this November? Tell us in the comments down below!
