In 2015, I was unable to go see my family for Christmas so I decided to make a list of all the holiday specials, episodes and movies I had enjoyed over the years and spend the days I had off doing that. It was fun. So I began asking for more recommendations.
The list kept growing and growing over the years. I really enjoyed putting this together in the past week or so but it did become a bit of an obsession toward the end. I’m not sure how many hours of material this is, but it should be enough to keep you occupied for a while.
Are all of these good? No. Sometimes I opted for weirdness because that’s fun. I also wanted a great variety, from the sweet to the funny to the nostalgic to the horrific. I also wanted to share some things that people may not have seen or heard of (although, for some of these, there’s probably a good reason for that.)
I stuck with the ones I could find streaming somewhere. When possible, I defaulted to the most popular subscription service. If something wasn’t streaming somewhere (even for pay!), I went with a YouTube link. (And note: I am in the U.S. so all of this is based on what is available in the U.S.)
Links to wikis/IMDB/etc. are for information about each (and they may contain spoilers!). Amazon links are affiliate links, which will give me a tiny bit of money if you choose to buy or rent using them.
This was up-to-date as of Dec. 11, 2019. Due to the nature of streaming services, things come and go quite often.
My favorites are bolded.
Episodes
- Addams Family: Christmas with the Addams Family (S2E15) – Amazon Prime
- Adventure Time: Holly Jolly Secrets (S3E19-20) – Hulu
- The Adventures of Pete & Pete: O’ Christmas Pete (S1E11) – YouTube
- ALF: ALF’s Christmas Special (S2E12-13) – Tubi
- Animaniacs: Twas the Day Before Christmas/etc. (S2E14-15) – Hulu
- Batman: The Animated Series: Christmas with the Joker (S1E2) – Buy on Amazon
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Amends (S3E10) – Hulu
- Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter’s Tale (S1E11)- Netflix
- Fraggle Rock: The Bells of Fraggle Rock – Buy on Amazon
- Gilmore Girls: Forgiveness and Stuff (S1E10)- Netflix
- GLOW: A Very GLOW Christmas (S3E10) – Netflix
- Home for Christmas/Hjem ti Jul (S1E1-6) – Netflix
- Lost: The Constant (S4E5) – Hulu
- My So-Called Life: So-Called Angels (S1E15) – Buy on Amazon
- Pepper Ann: A Kosher Christmas – YouTube
- The Simpsons: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire (S1E1) – Disney+
- The Twilight Zone: The Night of the Meek (S2E11)- Hulu or Amazon Prime
- The Venture Bros.: A Very Venture Christmas (S1 Bonus episode) – Buy on Amazon
- The X-Files: How the Ghosts Stole Christmas (S6E6) – Hulu
- X-Men: Have Yourself a Morlock Little X-Mas (S412) – Disney+
Specials
- A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! – Rent on Amazon
- AD/BC: A Rock Opera – Rent on Amazon
- Blackadder’s Christmas Carol – Hulu
- Black Mirror: White Christmas – Netflix
- Christmas at Pee-Wee’s Playhouse – Netflix
- Christmas Eve on Sesame Street – Rent on Amazon
- The Christmas Toy – Amazon Prime
- Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas – Amazon Prime
- A Garfield Christmas – Buy on Amazon (select “more options” and pick SD)
- He Man & She-Ra – A Christmas Special – YouTube
- Invader ZIM: The Most Horrible X-mas Ever – Hulu
- Max Headroom’s Giant Christmas Turkey – YouTube
- The Monster’s Christmas – YouTube
- A Muppet Family Christmas – YouTube
- Olive the Other Reindeer – YouTube
- Star Wars Holiday Special – YouTube
Cooking/baking shows
- The Great British Baking Show: Holidays – Netflix
- Iron Chef: Battle Strawberry – YouTube
- Nailed It! Holiday – Netflix
Movies
- Arthur Christmas – Rent on Amazon
- Better Watch Out – Crackle (free with commercials) or rent on Amazon
- Christmas in Connecticut – Rent on Amazon
- Elf – Rent on Amazon
- Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever – Tubi
- Happy Christmas – Crackle (free with commercials) or rent on Amazon
- I Am Santa Claus – Amazon Prime
- I Come in Peace: Rent on Amazon
- It Happened One Christmas – Amazon Prime
- Jingle Bell Rocks! – Hulu
- Long Kiss Goodnight – Amazon Prime
- Pooka! – Hulu
- Pottersville – Netflix
- Santa Claus Conquers the Martians – Amazon Prime
- Scrooge (1970) – Rent on Amazon
- The Christmas Chronicles – Netflix
- The Dead – Rent on Amazon
- Tokyo Godfathers – Crackle