Romantic Christmas Movies
These romantic Christmas movies are the cheapest date night there is. No sitter, no reservation, no going back out in the cold once you are finally warm.
Money and time both get tight during the Christmas season, so an evening on the sofa with something good on is usually the realistic option. There are 31 films below, sorted so you can find one that fits the mood instead of scrolling a list of titles you half recognize.
Every entry lists what it is best for, its rating, how long it runs and whether you are buying a disc or renting it on Prime Video. Links are affiliate links. Ratings and run times were pulled from each Amazon listing rather than from memory, and where Amazon does not publish a run time I have said so instead of guessing.
Quick Picks: Where to Start
If you do not want to read the whole list, these five cover most moods.
- The comfort watch: The Holiday
- The classic: White Christmas
- The funny one: Christmas in Connecticut
- Safe with kids in the room: Miracle on 34th Street
- For somebody who hates Christmas movies: The Family Man
All 31 Romantic Christmas Movies
Sorted into four groups: the black and white classics, the modern rom-coms, the Hallmark titles you can actually own, and the ones with a bit more weight to them.
Black and White Christmas Romances
1
White Christmas
Start here if you want the one everybody already half knows. Two army buddies turned stage performers follow a sister act to a failing Vermont inn and end up staging a show to save their old general. I especially like that the romance is the easy part and the loyalty to the general is the real story, which gives it more weight than the songs suggest.Best for: a crowd of mixed ages
Rated: NR
Runtime: 2 hours
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Runtime: 2 hours
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
2
Holiday Inn
The one to pick if you want the original. An inn that only opens on holidays gives Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire a reason to compete over the same women across a full calendar year, and it is where White Christmas the song actually came from. Worth knowing before you put it on: the Lincoln birthday number is in blackface, and most releases leave it in.Best for: anyone who loves the song
Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 41 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 41 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
3
Christmas in Connecticut
My pick for the funniest of the black and white ones. A food writer who has built a career on a farmhouse, a husband and a baby she does not have gets ordered to host a war hero for Christmas and has to produce all three in a weekend. I especially like how modern the premise feels, because it is essentially a lifestyle influencer getting caught.Best for: a laugh, not a cry
Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 41 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 41 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
4
Holiday Affair
Good for a quieter night. A war widow with a small son is caught between a steady, safe man and a drifting department store clerk who keeps turning up. I especially like that it lets her take her time and does not punish her for being careful about it.Best for: a slower, gentler evening
Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 27 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 27 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
5
It Happened on 5th Avenue
A good one for a houseful. A drifter spends every winter squatting in a shuttered Fifth Avenue mansion, and this year he accidentally fills it with other people who need somewhere to go. I especially like that the romance sits inside a bigger story about who gets let in, which makes it easy to watch with family in the room.Best for: a full living room
Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 56 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 56 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
6
Remember the Night
Pick this one if you want something with real teeth. A prosecutor takes a shoplifter home to Indiana for Christmas rather than leave her in a cell over the holiday, and the trial is still waiting in January. I especially like that it never pretends the ending is simple.Best for: grown-ups who want a story
Rated: G
Runtime: 1 hour and 34 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: G
Runtime: 1 hour and 34 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
7
Miracle on 34th Street
The safe choice when you have no idea what the room wants. A department store Santa insists he is the real one, and the quiet thread underneath is a single mother and the lawyer next door. I especially like that the romance is almost the subplot, which makes it the easiest one on this list to put on with kids present.Best for: kids in the room
Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 36 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 36 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
8
I’ll Be Seeing You
The least known one here and worth the trouble. A soldier on leave for his nerves and a woman out of prison on a Christmas furlough meet on a train, and neither one says what they are. I especially like how carefully it handles two people who both have something to admit.Best for: something you have not seen
Rated: NR
Runtime: 85 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Runtime: 85 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
Modern Christmas Rom-Coms You Will Rewatch
9
Love Actually
The one people argue about, which is half the fun. Nine or so London love stories run in parallel through the five weeks before Christmas and knot together at the end. Worth saying plainly: it is rated R, there is nudity and language, and it is not a kids-in-the-room movie no matter how festive the poster looks.Best for: adults after bedtime
Rated: R
Runtime: 2 hours and 15 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: R
Runtime: 2 hours and 15 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
10
Last Christmas
Good if you want something newer. A woman working as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop in London is falling apart quietly, and a man who keeps appearing starts pulling her back out. I especially like that it is built around the Wham song in a way you will not see coming.Best for: a modern pick
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour and 43 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour and 43 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
11
You’ve Got Mail
Not strictly a Christmas movie, but it runs through one and people put it on anyway. Two bookshop rivals who cannot stand each other in person are falling in love by email without knowing who the other is. I especially like the autumn-into-Christmas stretch in the middle, which is the part everyone actually rewatches.Best for: a comfort rewatch
Rated: PG
Runtime: 1 hour and 59 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: PG
Runtime: 1 hour and 59 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
12
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Pick this if you want sharp rather than sweet. It opens and closes at the same awful family Christmas party a year apart, with everything else in between. It is rated R and the humor is frank, so this is a after-the-kids-are-down choice.Best for: adults who want funny
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour and 37 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour and 37 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
13
Just Friends
The one for people who find most Christmas romances too earnest. A man who was the fat, friend-zoned kid in high school comes home for Christmas successful and immediately turns back into his teenage self. I especially like that it is willing to make its lead genuinely pathetic rather than charming.Best for: a mean little laugh
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour and 34 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour and 34 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
14
Sleepless in Seattle
A reasonable pick when nobody can agree. A widower’s son calls a radio show on Christmas Eve looking for a new wife for his dad, and a reporter across the country hears it. Amazon does not list a usable run time on this edition, so I have left it off rather than guess.Best for: a no-argument night
Rated: PG
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: PG
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
15
Mixed Nuts
The odd one out, and worth it if your taste runs strange. A Christmas Eve at a struggling crisis hotline goes completely sideways with an ensemble cast behaving badly. Amazon does not list a reliable run time on this edition so I have left it off.Best for: somebody tired of sweet
Rated: PG-13
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: PG-13
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
16
The Holiday
The best pure comfort watch on this list. Two women on opposite sides of the Atlantic swap houses for the holidays to escape their own lives, and both of them find somebody. I especially like the older screenwriter subplot, which is the part that makes it more than a swap gimmick.Best for: a long quiet evening
Where to watch: Prime Video, rent or buy
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Where to watch: Prime Video, rent or buy
17
While You Were Sleeping
My pick if you want warm rather than romantic. A lonely token collector saves a stranger’s life, gets mistaken for his fiancee while he is in a coma, and quietly falls for his brother instead. I especially like that the family she accidentally inherits is the actual love story.Best for: feeling a bit lonely
Where to watch: Prime Video, rent or buy
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Where to watch: Prime Video, rent or buy
18
Serendipity
Good for anyone who likes being strung along. Two people meet shopping for gloves at Christmas, refuse to exchange numbers, and leave it to fate for years. I especially like that it commits completely to its own ridiculous premise instead of apologizing for it.Best for: a believer in fate
Where to watch: Prime Video, rent or buy
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Where to watch: Prime Video, rent or buy
Hallmark Christmas Romance You Can Own on DVD
19
The Christmas Train
The one to start with if you are new to these. Strangers on a cross-country train at Christmas keep colliding, including a journalist and the woman who got away. I especially like that the train gives it somewhere to go, which is more structure than most of these get.Best for: your first Hallmark
Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 26 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 26 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
20
Christmas in Evergreen
The comfort pick of the Hallmark shelf. A woman stuck in a small town by a snowstorm meets a widowed doctor and his daughter, and the town does the rest. You know exactly where it is going, which is the entire point.Best for: knowing how it ends
Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 26 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 26 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
21
The Nine Lives of Christmas
A good one if there is a pet person in the house. A firefighter who will not commit and a vet student who will not either are pushed together by a stray cat. Amazon lists no run time on this release, so I am not going to invent one.Best for: cat people
Rated: NR
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
22
A Christmas Detour (3-Movie Set)
The best value on this list if you want a stack of them. This is a three-film Hallmark set, so the five and a half hours in the listing is the whole disc rather than one movie. Each one runs about an hour and a half on its own.Best for: a whole afternoon
Rated: NR
Runtime: 5 hours and 36 minutes for all three films
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Runtime: 5 hours and 36 minutes for all three films
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
When You Want More Than a Rom-Com
23
The Preacher’s Wife
My pick when you want the music as much as the story. An angel turns up to help a struggling Baptist minister and ends up complicating things with the minister’s wife. I especially like that the gospel numbers are not decoration, they carry whole stretches of the film.Best for: a soundtrack you keep
Rated: PG
Runtime: 2 hours and 4 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: PG
Runtime: 2 hours and 4 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
24
The Apartment
The most grown-up film here by a distance. An office worker lends his apartment to executives for their affairs and falls for the elevator operator one of them is using it with. It is funny and then it is not, and the Christmas Eve stretch is genuinely bleak before it turns.Best for: somebody who wants a real film
Rated: NR
Runtime: 2 hours and 5 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Runtime: 2 hours and 5 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
25
The Family Man
Good for the person who says they hate Christmas movies. A rich single trader wakes up on Christmas morning in the life he would have had if he had stayed with his girlfriend thirteen years earlier. I especially like that it never fully resolves which life was the right one.Best for: a skeptic
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 2 hours and 6 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 2 hours and 6 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
26
Nothing Like the Holidays
Pick this if you want a family Christmas that feels real. A Puerto Rican family in Chicago gathers for what may be their last Christmas in the house, and everybody is carrying something. The romance is one thread among several rather than the whole film.Best for: a houseful of adults
Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 38 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Runtime: 1 hour and 38 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
27
Little Women (1994)
A reasonable Christmas choice even though it spans years. It opens on a Christmas morning with no money and the March sisters giving their breakfast away, and the Jo and Laurie thread is the romance people come back for. I especially like this version for reading aloud alongside, if you have a child working through the book.Best for: a mother and daughter night
Rated: PG
Runtime: 2 hours and 4 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: PG
Runtime: 2 hours and 4 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
28
An Affair to Remember
The one to save for a night you want to cry. Two people engaged to other people agree to meet at the top of the Empire State Building in six months, and then something happens. Not a Christmas film strictly, but it is the one people reach for in the same mood.Best for: a good cry
Rated: NR
Runtime: 114 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
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Rated: NR
Runtime: 114 minutes
Where to watch: DVD from Amazon
29
The Family Stone
A sharper family Christmas than the poster suggests. A stiff girlfriend is brought home to meet an unruly family who do not take to her, and the holiday goes badly before it goes anywhere good. I especially like that it is willing to be genuinely uncomfortable.Best for: a complicated family
Where to watch: Prime Video, rent or buy
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Where to watch: Prime Video, rent or buy
30
Four Christmases
Good when you want it loud. A couple who normally dodge their families get trapped into visiting all four divorced parents in one day. It is broad and it is mean in places, and it is the right pick when nobody wants to feel anything.Best for: low effort and funny
Where to watch: Prime Video, rent or buy
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Where to watch: Prime Video, rent or buy
31
Christmas with the Kranks
The one for people who skip Christmas and then cannot. A couple decide to cancel Christmas entirely the year their daughter is away, and the neighborhood will not allow it. Broad, silly, and oddly well remembered by people who were kids when it came out.Best for: nostalgia for the 2000s
Where to watch: Prime Video, rent or buy
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Where to watch: Prime Video, rent or buy
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Six of these are on Prime Video rather than disc: The Holiday, While You Were Sleeping, Serendipity, The Family Stone, Four Christmases and Christmas with the Kranks. If you do not have Prime, the free trial runs thirty days and costs nothing if you cancel. Start a free 30 day Prime trial.
How to Pick One Without Arguing About It
Decide the mood before you decide the movie. If you want to laugh, take Christmas in Connecticut or Just Friends. If you want to cry, An Affair to Remember or Remember the Night. If one of you is only half interested, The Family Man and The Apartment both work on people who say they do not like Christmas movies. And if you genuinely cannot agree, Sleepless in Seattle is the one almost nobody objects to.
Check the rating before you start it if there is any chance of a child wandering back downstairs. Love Actually and Bridget Jones’s Diary are both rated R, and Love Actually in particular looks far more family friendly on the box than it plays.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
A few questions I get asked every December about picking a Christmas romance for the evening.
More Christmas Movies to Watch
This post contains affiliate links, which means I earn a commission when anything is bought. This is at no additional cost to you.
I love the Christmas Shoes series and the Christmas Romance! Both were really touching stories!
You listed three of my favorites here! I also love While you were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock. SO many great romantic Holiday movies.. and I just love them all.
You made my @RebelMouse http://t.co/fufLeqigHx