If you like this Christmas movie, try this book



KNIVES OUT

Everyone watched it at Christmas, it takes place in New England, the knitwear made a splash, and it's about a horrible family all forced together at the family home and who is naughty or nice. It's a Christmas movie.

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

Knives Out if the main characters were two feuding mystery writers locked in a house trying to figure out if their host has been killed or kidnapped or disappeared and ALSO they fall in love while solving the mystery.


WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

The Holiday Mixup

While You Were Sleeping if you love the whole thing down to the coma and the falling in love with the brother

The Christmas Swap

While You Were Sleeping if you just liked the fake dating and the sibling switcheroo but not the coma and would love if it were queer and someone was named Ellie

Kiss Her Once for Me

While You Were Sleeping if you just liked the fake dating and the sibling switcheroo but not the coma and would love if it were queer and someone was named Ellie (this is not a mistake, there are two!)


THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER

Stuck on You

The Shop Around the Corner if you love an epistolary story where two people fall in love on paper (post it notes on a hot desk) but unknowingly despise each other in person and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation if you love a big, somewhat wacky family Christmas


THE SANTA CLAUSE

The Merriest Misters

The Santa Clause if you pretty much want literally the Santa Clause except it's queer and new Santa/Tim Allen is having problems in his relationship with his husband, not son


THE FAMILY STONE

Most Wonderful

The Family Stone if you love when siblings reunite at home with their mom with a big personality at Christmas


THE CUTTING EDGE

Revolve

The Cutting Edge because you want exactly The Cutting Edge and agree with me that it's a Christmas movie (they exchange gifts) but you wouldn't care if it weren't because its winter love story is Enough

From Lukov with Love

The Cutting Edge again but they're both figure skaters this time and you prefer the slowest burn on the planet


SERENDIPITY

Eight Perfect Hours

Serendipity if you agree the best way to deal with having a magic moment in the snow where you meet someone you could love is to walk away with no way to contact them again


PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES

Holiday Romance

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (which I know is technically a Thanksgiving movie but there is no better holiday movie about the nightmare of holiday travel) but you wish it included international travel and that Steve Martin and John Candy fell in LOVE

A Second Chance Road Trip for Christmas

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles for the holiday travel with a little of When Harry Met Sally for the two people on a road trip aspect


THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

The Nightmare before Kissmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas if you thought it would be better if Jack and Santa fell in love

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MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET

Window Shopping

Miracle on 34th Street if the main thing you liked about it was the Manhattan department store at Christmas setting (I don't blame you, that's a great part of it)


LOVE ACTUALLY

Pasko Na, My Love

Love Actually if you love the anthology style but wish the stories were about members of a big Filipino family on Christmas Eve

Amor Actually

Love Actually if you wanted each storyline to be retold from a Latin perspective


JINGLE ALL THE WAY

The Christmas Clash

Jingle All the Way if you like the idea of two heated rivals at a mall and White Christmas if you like people having to pull together to save a local landmark (the mall!)


HALLMARK MOVIES

ROYALS

Royal Holiday

a Hallmark movie if you like the royal ones but you actually don't believe in the monarchy (but are fine with watching the Queen's royal secretary fall for an American)(inspired by Meghan Markle's mom!)

A Princess for Christmas

a Hallmark movie if you like the royal ones, specifically when a royal from a made-up country falls for a working-class American (Bronx cabbie!)

SMALL TOWN MOVIES

Sleigh Bells in the Snow

A Hallmark movie if you love when a big city Christmas hater learns to love small town Christmas and White Christmas if you love the gorgeous ski resort setting

Only for the Holidays

a Hallmark movie if you like when a big city girl falls for a country guy and there's some townwide Christmas festival everyone's always breathless talking about

Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe

a Hallmark movie where a Christmas-hating business person falls for a small town Christmas lover (and it's a Pride and Prejudice retelling)

Christmas People

a Hallmark movie if you like when a Christmas hater ends up trapped in a snow globe (I think I saw this exact movie)

Just a Taste

a Hallmark movie if you love when a snowstorm forces two people who don't really like each other (a personal chef and her billionaire boss) to fall in love

Christmas in Spite of You

a Hallmark movie if you like when someone who loves Christmas has to show someone who's too busy to care about Christmas that Christmas is the best (and also they're staying in the same airbnb because of a mixup)

The Christmas You Found Me

a Hallmark movie if you love small town Christmas but miss when they were heartfelt tearjerkers

Make the Season Bright

a Hallmark movie if you love small towns at Christmas but want it queer and a second chance romance

The Tourist Attraction

a Hallmark movie if you like when a city girl has to convince the small town Alaskan people (and the grumpy local) to accept her at Christmas


DECK THE HALLS

How My Neighbor Stole Christmas

Deck the Halls if you like the Christmas decorating rivalry and The Grinch if you like the secret Christmas hater's heart growing three sizes part


HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS

You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince

How the Grinch Stole Christmas if you wanted the Grinch to be a canonically queer poor little rich boy when his heart grew three sizes


FROSTY THE SNOWMAN

A Mannequin for Christmas

Frosty the Snowman if you wanted Frosty to be a mannequin who comes to life with a Beauty and the Beast-esque ticking clock to fall in love or lose his humanity forever (I seriously have to applaud Timothy Janovsky for these creative takes on unexpected Christmas movies. This is a mashup of Frosty, Beauty and the Beast, Barbie and the '80s movie Mannequin all at once somehow)


CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT

Lovelight Farms

Christmas in Connecticut but I worry people no longer know Christmas in Connecticut , where an extremely successful magazine writer who writes a column about homemaking on her farm with her husband and kids is actually a glamorous single New York City girl who has to pretend to be her alter ego because the head of the magazine is coming and she needs to save her career. SO: Christmas in Connecticut but a Christmas tree farmer pretends to have a boyfriend to win an instagram contest and save her farm

I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm

Christmas in Connecticut if it was YA and queer about an instagram influencer pretending to have a girlfriend for brand sponsorships

Make my Wish Come True

Christmas in Connecticut it was YA and queer and about a movie star who needs to rehab her image by pretending she's dating her ex at Christmas in her hometown


THE HOLIDAY

Just the English parts

Twelve Dates of Christmas

The Holiday if it were just the English parts with the beautiful setting and the snow and the coziness of the pub

The Christmas Bookshop

The Holiday if it were just the English parts, but it's not England, it's Scotland and it's mostly set in a bookshop, and White Christmas but just the let's save a local landmark part

House swaps

The Most Wonderful Time

The Holiday if you love the house swap but wish it were Malibu and Chicago and the one serious subplot was about racism instead of the Hollywood blacklist

I’ll be Gone for Christmas

The Holiday if you love the house swap but wish it were small town America and the big city was San Francisco and also it was queer

The Holiday Trap

The Holiday if you love the house swap but wish it were small town America and the big city was San Francisco and also it was queer

Wrapped with a Beau

The Holiday if you love the LA loving movies part and White Christmas if you love the let's save this place with a show part and Hallmark movies if you love when a small town heroine just loves her small town and Christmas


WHITE CHRISTMAS

The Holiday Switch

White Christmas if you love the let's save our town landmark part and The Holiday if you love the LA part where everyone loves the movies

Kiss Me at Christmas

White Christmas if you like the let's put on a show to save a local landmark part and It’s a Wonderful Life for the community all coming together in a heartwarming reminder of the power of community


IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

It’s a Fabulous Life

It’s a Wonderful Life but queer and Clarence is a drag queen


ELF

Just Like Magic

Elf if you think a childlike being of Christmas magic makes perfect sense as a love interest


HOME ALONE

Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal

Home Alone if your favorite part was all of the sabotage and horrifying injuries the Wet Bandits sustained but you think it would be better if it were sexy


THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE-OFF HOLIDAY EDITION

Mangos and Mistletoe

The Great British Bake Off: Holiday Edition but it's queer and sexy

The Holiday Swap

The Great British Bake Off: Holiday Edition but it's also a twin swap


THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL

A Holiday by Gaslight

The Muppet Christmas Carol if you like a severe rich man in 1800s England but wish he were falling in love instead of being terrorized by ghosts.

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A Christmas Carol

The Muppet Christmas Carol if you love The Muppet Christmas Carol because it's actually a very faithful adaptation! It preserves so many bangers - the description of Scrooge as “secret and self-contained and solitary as an oyster” alone, are you kidding me - but be aware that one or two of the best lines are from the movie. (I’m trying to tell you you’lll have to softly sing "no cheeses for us meeses" to yourself.)


BLACK CHRISTMAS

NOS4A2

Black Christmas if you like a Christmas horror with a female protagonist


KRAMPUS

Krampus

Krampus if you like Krampus