21 Christmas Movies on Netflix for Kids
The hard part of a Christmas movie night is never finding a Christmas movie. It is finding one that suits the kid actually sitting on the couch, before everyone loses interest and wanders off to do something else. A three year old and a eleven year old do not want the same film, and nobody wants to start something that runs two hours at half past seven.
So this list is sorted by age first and then by how long each one runs, shortest to longest. Twenty one films, every one of them on Netflix as I write this, and I checked each title against what is actually streaming rather than trusting a list from a few years ago. If you want more to choose from once you have worked through these, my Christmas movies list for kids covers the ones you can rent or buy anywhere.
Each film below has its age guidance, runtime and rating up front, so you can decide in about four seconds. Where a title is also on DVD or came from a book, there is a second button for that. Most of these are made by Netflix, which means there is nothing to buy and nothing to miss out on, and it also means they are not going to vanish from the service in January.
Christmas Movies for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Nothing in this group runs to an hour and nothing in it will frighten a three year old. These are the ones to reach for when bedtime is close and the attention span has already gone.
Angela’s Christmas
Ages 2 and up · 30 minutes · TV-Y
Six year old Angela decides the baby Jesus in the church nativity looks cold, so she takes him home to warm him up. Set in Ireland in 1914, half an hour long, and told with real tenderness. Frank McCourt wrote the story behind it.
Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas
Ages 2 and up · 30 minutes · TV-Y
Shaun wants a bigger stocking and the whole flock gets dragged into it. Thirty minutes, no dialogue to keep up with, and nothing scary. Start here if your youngest loses interest halfway through a full length movie.
Robin Robin
Ages 3 and up · 32 minutes · G
A robin raised by a family of mice slowly works out that she is not, in fact, a mouse. Stop motion from the Aardman team, with songs, and it is done in half an hour. Probably the gentlest thing on this whole list.
Alien Xmas
Ages 3 and up · 42 minutes · TV-Y
A tiny alien is sent to Earth to steal everything that is not nailed down, gravity included, and gets sidetracked by Christmas instead. Stop motion, silly rather than sweet, and the one most likely to get an actual laugh out of a four year old.
Spookley and the Christmas Kittens
Ages 3 and up · 45 minutes · TV-Y
Spookley the square pumpkin helps three lost kittens find their way home through the snow. Built around being kind to the one who does not fit, which is the point of every Spookley story and the reason they hold up.
Angela’s Christmas Wish
Ages 4 and up · 48 minutes · TV-Y
Angela is back, this time trying to get her father home from Australia in time for Christmas. A bit longer and with more plot than the first one, so watch that one first if you have the choice.
Christmas Movies for Early Elementary Kids
Still short, but the jokes are pitched higher and the characters are ones your five to eight year olds already know from somewhere. Good for the stretch between dinner and bath when nobody wants to start a whole film.
The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday
Ages 5 and up · 22 minutes · TV-Y7
The crew plan one more heist for the holidays and it goes roughly as well as you would expect. Twenty two minutes makes this the shortest thing on the list, which also makes it the school night option.
Trolls Holiday
Ages 5 and up · 25 minutes · TV-Y7
Poppy finds out the Bergens have no holidays at all and sets about fixing that, loudly. Twenty five minutes, bright as a bag of sprinkles, and the songs will be stuck in your head for a week. Consider that fair warning.
The Boss Baby: Christmas Bonus
Ages 5 and up · 45 minutes · TV-Y7
Boss Baby swaps places with one of Santa’s elves and ends up running the North Pole operation. If your kids already know the films they will be happy here, and if they do not it still holds up on its own.
Full Length Christmas Movies for the Whole Family
Proper hour and a half films, the kind you put on with the lights off and a blanket. Two of these have a genuinely sad stretch in the middle, and I have said so where it matters rather than letting it ambush you.
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Scrooge: A Christmas Carol
Ages 6 and up · 1 hour 36 minutes · TV-Y7
Dickens as a musical, with Luke Evans singing Scrooge. The ghosts are handled gently enough for younger kids than you would guess, though Christmas Yet to Come is still the part that gets them.
Klaus
Ages 6 and up · 1 hour 36 minutes · PG
A spoiled postman gets shipped off to a frozen island at the end of the world and accidentally invents Santa Claus. Hand drawn, Oscar nominated, and one of the best looking animated films in years. There is a sad thread running through the middle, so it lands better with kids who can sit with a story than with a wriggly four year old.
That Christmas
Ages 6 and up · 1 hour 36 minutes · PG
Richard Curtis wrote this one and it shows. Several storylines in a snowed in English town tangle together on Christmas Eve, including a Santa who gets the deliveries badly wrong. Warm and funny, with a melancholy streak that sneaks up on you.
The Claus Family
Ages 6 and up · 1 hour 36 minutes · TV-G
A Belgian film, dubbed into English, about a boy who discovers his grandfather is Santa. The dubbing takes a few minutes to settle into. Worth it for a quieter, less frantic Christmas story than the American ones manage.
The Christmas Chronicles
Ages 7 and up · 1 hour 44 minutes · TV-PG
Two kids stow away in Santa’s sleigh, crash it, and then have to help him finish the night. Kurt Russell plays Santa and is clearly having the time of his life. Some mild peril and a stretch where Santa lands in jail, so this suits the older end of the house rather than preschoolers.
A Boy Called Christmas
Ages 7 and up · 1 hour 46 minutes · PG
A boy heads north looking for his father and for a village of elves, and ends up becoming the person who turns into Father Christmas. Darker and stranger than most of these, with a genuinely sad opening. Matt Haig wrote the novel.
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey
Ages 7 and up · 2 hours 2 minutes · PG
A toymaker loses everything and his granddaughter turns up to put it right, with original songs and some of the best costume design in any Christmas film. It is two hours though, so save this one for a night with room in it.
Christmas Movies for Older Kids and Tweens
Live action, ninety minutes or more, and aimed at kids who have outgrown talking animals. A couple of these are really for the grown ups with the kids tolerating them, which is its own kind of family movie night.
Best. Christmas. Ever!
Ages 8 and up · 1 hour 20 minutes · TV-PG
Two old friends collide at Christmas when one turns up uninvited and spends the week picking apart the other’s suspiciously perfect holiday newsletter. Light, quick, and the shortest full length film here.
Holiday Rush
Ages 8 and up · 1 hour 34 minutes · TV-PG
A radio DJ loses his job and has to move four very comfortable kids into a much smaller house. There is a real lesson in here about what everyone expects at Christmas, and it manages to land it without a lecture.
Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square
Ages 8 and up · 1 hour 38 minutes · TV-PG
Dolly plays an angel. A woman comes back to the town she grew up in planning to evict everyone in it. There are fourteen original Dolly songs and the whole thing is exactly as much as that sounds like, in the best way.
The Princess Switch
Ages 8 and up · 1 hour 42 minutes · TV-G
A baker and a duchess discover they are identical and swap lives for a week. It is daft and it knows it. Tweens love it, and there are two sequels waiting if this one lands.
Family Switch
Ages 8 and up · 1 hour 46 minutes · PG
A body swap comedy where the entire family trades places days before Christmas. Loud and broad and not trying to be anything else, which makes it the one everyone can half watch while wrapping presents.
Make It a Movie Night
None of this is required. Every film above is free with the subscription you already pay for. But if you are making an evening of it, these three are worth having in the cupboard.
- A pair of big stainless popcorn bowls. One each stops the argument before it starts.
- Hot chocolate bombs. Watching them melt is most of the appeal, which is fine.
- A hot chocolate station set with the mix, marshmallows and toppings together, if you would rather they built their own.
This list is going to be a life saver for me during Winter Break! Thanks so much for sharing with us over at the Mommy Monday Blog Hop!
Great list. We were making our Christmas movie watch list over breakfast today. It is not on Netflix, but we really love Arthur’s Christmas.