Netflix has announced that they will be releasing 28 holiday projects between November and Christmas Day. In recent years, Netflix has been tackling the Hallmark game, producing low-budget holiday content at ever-increasing rates. This approach has largely been a success for Netflix. Several of their longest-running film franchises fall under the holiday banner, even though some argue that the streamer copying the Hallmark model adds to the glut of “bad” Christmas movies.
The Netflix holiday glut can be traced back to the success of 2017’s A Christmas Prince, a film about an undercover reporter falling in love with the prince of a fictional European country. The film has spawned two sequels, and the characters have appeared in other Netflix Christmas films. The film itself even had a cameo when Vanessa Hudgens and her beau watched it in The Princess Switch, another popular holiday franchise that is expecting its third film this year. In addition to playing a variety of identical doppelgangers in that series, star Vanessa Hudgens has also appeared in the Netflix film, The Knight Before Christmas, making her a mainstay of seasonal streaming.
The Princess Switch 3 is indeed included among the huge drop of date announcements that Netflix made today. They have announced an unprecedented slate of 28 features including new films and series from 11 different countries, along with older titles new to the platform. The big-ticket films coming this holiday season include Love Hard (November 5), a catfishing rom-com starring Nina Dobrev and Darren Barnet, The Princess Switch 3 (November 18), which sees the 3 Vanessa Hudgens doppelgangers uniting to retrieve a stolen relic, A Castle for Christmas (November 26), which sees romance blossom between Brooke Shields and Cary Elwes in a Scottish castle, Single All the Way (December 2), an LGBTQ+ romance starring Michael Urie, Philemon Chambers, and Luke McFarlane (a Hallmark Christmas movie staple who is also set to appear in the LGBTQ+ rom-com, Bros next year), and A California Christmas: City Lights (December 16), a sequel to last year’s A California Christmas about a farmer and a businessman’s tumultuous love.
On the TV front is the new series, School of Chocolate (November 26), a competition hosted by famed chocolatier, Amaury Guichon. There will also be special Christmas entries for the glassblowing competition series, Blown Away (November 19), and the ever-popular Great British Baking Show (December 3). For families looking for holiday fun, Netflix is dropping Waffles + Mochi’s Holiday Feast (November 23), Charlie’s Colorforms City: Snowy Stories (November 30), Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas (December 3), and StarBeam: Beaming in the New Year (December 14).
The international drops will include the Dutch-Belgian film, The Claus Family (November 1), U.K. films, Father Christmas is Back (November 7) and Robin Robin (November 24), the French series, Christmas Flow (November 17), and the Danish holiday horror series, Elves (November 28). In December, Netflix will also be dropping the Polish film, David and the Elves (December 6), the Mexican film, Grumpy Christmas (December 22), and the Spanish film, 1000 Miles from Christmas (December 24). Also coming at an unspecified date in December are the Nigerian film, A Naija Christmas, and the second season of the South African series, How to Ruin Christmas. Older holiday titles that will be joining the selection this season include An Elf’s Story, Elf Pets: Santa’s St. Bernards Save Christmas, and My Dad’s Christmas Date on November 1, Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You on November 14, and Snowbound for Christmas on November 15.
Netflix has constantly sought to outdo themselves every holiday season, and this year they’re poised to do the same. The diversity of this collection in terms of genres, audiences, and countries of origin is certainly something to be admired. Although Netflix’s Christmas movies aren’t always the most realistic, they do bring joy to a lot of viewers throughout the holiday season, and this slate certainly has some promising-looking titles.
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