Your friends are at the pool and the beach. Let them have it. You’ve turned down your third invitation to a barbecue, and that’s completely fine. While those people frolic in the sun, the rest of us are cozied up inside, celebrating Christmas in July. You’ve likely found this list because you’re the friend who completely bypasses pumpkin spice season because you’re constantly in your peppermint mocha era. If it weren’t for you, who would host the ugly Christmas sweater party?

This is a list for the jolliest movie lovers among us, the ones who can’t contain Christmas cheer (or Christmas movies) to an approximately 45-day season. So dig out that Santa hat early this year, and get ready to kiss that big job opportunity in the big city goodbye. We’re staying in this year. We’re keeping it small town. And above all, we’re getting cozy because it’s Christmas in July, baby.

A Bad Moms Christmas

Fans of the original Bad Moms film know that a “bad mom” has to get her start somewhere — and what better place to find inspiration than her mother? This sequel shows us what happens when Amy (Mila Kunis), Carla (Kathryn Hahn), and Kiki (Kristen Bell) have to navigate time with their own mothers during the Christmas season. Problem is, those matriarchs (played by Christine Baranski, Susan Sarandon, and Cheryl Hines) might be even worse than the daughters they brought into the world. The good news is that if there’s anything that can make sense out of a crazy familial relationship, it’s the good-natured (if not strenuous) nature of the holidays. God bless us, everyone.

A Bad Moms Christmas

2017

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Best. Christmas. Ever!

Listen, we all know there’s a stark difference between what we post on social media and what’s actually happening outside our screens. Best. Christmas. Ever! tells the tale of what happens when the truth of our little digital lives is exposed. When Charlotte’s (Heather Graham) college friend Jackie (Brandy Norwood) sends out her holiday newsletter every year, Charlotte feels a pang of frustration. Jackie’s life is seemingly too perfect, and a snowed-in situation allows Charlotte the opportunity to expose the truth behind Jackie’s facade. What follows is a tale of the lengths we go to keep up appearances and why, at the end of the day, the holidays are a time for friends and family … not the illusion of perfection.

Best. Christmas. Ever!

2023

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The Christmas Chronicles

The best of us have tried (and failed) to capture Santa Claus. Not sure why this is something so many children aspire to — maybe it’s the promise of unlimited presents, or maybe it’s just an opportunity to get a good look at the man who brings so much joy each December. But in The Christmas Chronicles, Kate (Darby Camp) and Teddy Pierce (Judah Lewis) get more than they bargained for when a plot to capture Santa (Kurt Russell) puts them in cahoots with Saint Nick himself. The three must work together to save the holiday before the most special day passes and it’s too late. (And if that’s not enough Kurt Russell-as-Santa for you, pair it with The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two, which brings in Goldie Hawn as Mrs. Claus.)

The Christmas Chronicles

2018

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Christmas Inheritance

Ellen Langford (Eliza Taylor) might have thought she was a shoo-in to take over her father’s business, but the Christmas Inheritance has other plans for her. To test his daughter, Ellen’s father (Neil Crone) tasks her with carrying out a years-long tradition that he and his business partner share: exchanging letters in person in their hometown of Snow Falls. Once Ellen arrives, though, a snowstorm derails her plans to get in and get out quickly. But the tides turn in her favor when she meets a handsome inn manager named Jake (Jake Lacy) who helps her realize that there might be more to life than money and privilege.

Christmas Inheritance

2017

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Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square

Dolly Parton can do it all, and that includes playing a literal angel in a joy-filled, Emmy-winning Christmas musical. Loosely inspired by A Christmas Carol, the story follows Regina Fuller (Christine Baranski), a curmudgeonly, wealthy woman who returns to her hometown to try and evict the good people who live there. With the help of Parton’s angel and a killer supporting cast including Treat Williams and Jenifer Lewis, Regina may just have a chance of correcting her ways before she makes a tragic mistake. Oh, by the way, did we mention that Parton wrote every song for the film? Holiday perfection.

Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square

2020

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Holidate

Not every Christmas film needs to be teeming at the brim with optimism and cuteness. Sometimes, the best you can do is just get through the holidays in one piece as the single icon you are. That’s where this story picks up. Starring Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey, Holidate focuses on two holiday haters who commit to being each other’s holidates for a year. At first, the jaded duo find good company in one another, if for no other reason than to dodge their families’ lines of questioning about their futures. But when their relationship grows and the plan goes awry, the two begin to realize that maybe this whole holiday thing isn’t about the holiday, but the people you want to spend it with.

Holidate

2020

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Falling for Christmas

Let us all stop and thank Santa Claus for the glorious and overdue return of Lindsay Lohan. In Falling for Christmas, Lohan stars as the magnificently named Sierra Belmont, a spoiled heiress in a relationship that looks a lot better on Instagram than it does in real life. But everything changes when she crashes down a mountain in a ski accident, hits her head, gets rescued by the impossibly beautiful Jake Russell (Chord Overstreet), and discovers that there’s more to life than a Fendi purse. It’s somehow both fresh and nostalgic at the same time, and Sierra’s sweater collection is the stuff of dreams.

Falling for Christmas

2022

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Holiday in the Wild

When Kate’s (Kristin Davis) husband abruptly ends their marriage right before a second honeymoon in Africa, she decides to still go on the trip solo. It’s there that she meets Derek (Rob Lowe), and through the power of adopting and rehabilitating an elephant — a cause Davis herself has long been passionate about — the two develop a connection that becomes a holiday gift of its own. Eventually, Kate comes to realize that maybe this new life of hers is exactly what she needed.

Holiday in the Wild

2019

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Let It Snow

Everything hits harder when you’re a teenager — love, loss, big decisions, chance encounters with pop stars. There’s something electric about those years. In Let It Snow, a group of high schoolers find themselves at the mercy of a snowstorm that blows through town and brings to light three different love stories bubbling just beneath the surface. Packed with major life choices, complicated families, and even more complex romances, Let It Snow — which has a cast that includes Kiernan Shipka, Odeya Rush, Shameik Moore, and Jacob Batalon — is the kind of holiday movie that subverts expectations for standard Christmas fare and still manages to leave you with all the warm fuzzies.

Let It Snow

2019

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The Princess Switch

Everyone loves a trilogy: Dante’s Divine Comedy, the original Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings, to name a few. If you don’t think The Princess Switch films belong in that storied company, then this isn’t the list for you. The first film introduces Vanessa Hudgens as both Chicago baker Stacy De Novo and Lady Margaret Delacourt, Duchess of Montenaro. The two, bearing an uncanny resemblance to one another, decide to secretly switch places and come to realize that they might like the other side of the fence more after all. The supporting characters are fun, the plot is a blast, and, most of all, Hudgens makes the most of her dual roles — which gets even more impressive when another look-alike gets added into the mix for the second and third films. 

The Princess Switch

2018

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Single All The Way

This gay holiday rom-com is a charming love story packed with all the warm and fuzzies that have become Christmas-movie staples. The film stars Michael Urie and Philemon Chambers as Peter and Nick, two gay best friends who, despite their closeness, never seemed to develop a romantic spark. When Peter’s boyfriend turns out to be married (yikes!) to a woman (double yikes!), he convinces Nick to come home with him and be a buffer between him and his family. Insert the likes of Jennifer Coolidge, Kathy Najimy, and a cheeky Luke Macfarlane, and the result is a perfectly wonderful queer romance.

Single All The Way

2021

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Christmas Movies To Stream This Holiday Season