That Christmas
Richard Curtis gives a snowed-in English seaside town the treatment he once gave London in December: a…
Festive Factor 87 out of 100: Christmas at its heart.Christmas films by year
The best 2020s Christmas films
Every Christmas film from the 2020s that we have scored, best Festive Factor first.
At a glance
We have scored 48 Christmas films from the 2020s. The highest by Festive Factor: That Christmas (87), Violent Night (82) and Candy Cane Lane (76). Certificates: 3 U, 8 PG, 14 12, 3 12A, 8 15, 3 18 and 9 with no UK certificate listed.
Ranked by Festive Factor
Highest ratified score first. A film still waiting for its ratified score comes after them.
Violent Night
Exactly what the title promises, and far more festive than a title like that suggests.
Festive Factor 82 out of 100: Christmas at its heart.
Candy Cane Lane
Murphy in a festive fantasy about a lights competition, a pop-up shop and a bargain he signs without reading.
Festive Factor 76 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Haul Out the Holly
The Hallmark film for anyone who has ever had a stern note from a residents' association.
Festive Factor 74 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
A Boy Called Christmas
An origin story for Father Christmas that takes grief seriously, which is rarer than it should be.
Festive Factor 71 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Red One
Blockbuster first, Christmas film second, and it spent a fortune getting there.
Festive Factor 71 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Christmas Karma
Gurinder Chadha moves A Christmas Carol to present-day London and turns it into a full-tilt musical, with…
Festive Factor 66 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
A Christmas Story Christmas
A legacy sequel that works better than it has any right to, largely because Peter Billingsley clearly adores…
Festive Factor 64 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
The Holiday Sitter
Hallmark's first Christmas film built around a gay couple, and the quiet achievement is that it is otherwise…
Festive Factor 61 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Your Christmas or Mine?
A home-grown romcom built on one neat mix-up: two students swap trains on impulse and each lands with the…
Festive Factor 61 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
8-Bit Christmas
A nostalgia piece that knows exactly which Christmas it is remembering: 1988, a boy, and a games console he…
Festive Factor 61 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
EXmas
Two exes turn up for the same family Christmas and neither will leave, so they compete for the family's…
Festive Factor 60 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
I Believe in Santa
A festive romcom built on one decent idea: a sceptic falls for a grown man who sincerely believes in Santa…
Festive Factor 59 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Three Wise Men and a Baby
Three of Hallmark's most dependable leading men, cast as brothers and handed a baby, is the kind of idea…
Festive Factor 58 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
There's Something in the Barn
An American family inherit a farm in the Norwegian mountains and ignore the old rules about the little elf…
Festive Factor 56 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
A Biltmore Christmas
A Hallmark film about remaking an old Christmas classic, which sounds like a snake eating its own tinsel and…
Festive Factor 54 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
A Merry Little Ex-Mas
A divorce comedy in fairy lights, and a tidy, good-natured one.
Festive Factor 54 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
My Secret Santa
Netflix's big Christmas hit of 2025 is Mrs Doubtfire on skis: a single mum puts on a beard, a belly and a…
Festive Factor 54 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Fatman
Mel Gibson plays a weary, hard-drinking Father Christmas who takes a military contract to keep his failing…
Festive Factor 53 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Falling for Christmas
A spoiled hotel heiress falls off a mountain a week before Christmas, loses her memory and wakes up in a…
Festive Factor 52 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Happiest Season
A coming-out story that happens to be set at Christmas, and a warmer one than its premise suggests.
Festive Factor 52 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Father Christmas Is Back
Plenty of famous British faces, John Cleese and Elizabeth Hurley among them, gathered at a grand country…
Festive Factor 52 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Tinsel Town
Kiefer Sutherland sends up his own action-hero image as a fading star packed off to an amateur Christmas…
Festive Factor 51 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Dear Santa
A lovely premise, and the Farrelly brothers nearly know what to do with it.
Festive Factor 50 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Christmas at Castle Hart
Lacey Chabert, an Irish castle and a case of mistaken identity: if you know Hallmark, you know the shape…
Festive Factor 49 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Robin Robin
Aardman swapped clay for needle felt here, and the whole thing looks stitched by hand on a kitchen table…
Festive Factor 49 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Operation Christmas Drop
A Netflix romcom built around a real humanitarian airlift, filmed largely on the working air base and using…
Festive Factor 49 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Goodbye June
Kate Winslet's debut behind the camera is a deathbed comedy, and it earns its laughs.
Festive Factor 49 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Silent Night, Deadly Night
A remake that keeps the red suit and the grim childhood prologue, then rebuilds everything else as an advent…
Festive Factor 49 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Meet Me Next Christmas
A Netflix romcom built around a gig, with Christmas Eve as the deadline.
Festive Factor 46 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Jingle Bell Heist
A breezy Netflix caper with a romcom running underneath, and it wears both lightly.
Festive Factor 46 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Single All the Way
A man tired of turning up single to his family's Christmas talks his best friend into posing as his…
Festive Factor 44 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Toys of Terror
A box of 1980s-style playthings wakes up in an old children's clinic at Christmas and starts picking off the…
Festive Factor 44 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Hot Frosty
Netflix made a snowman romcom with a straight face and a ripped leading man, and the joke mostly carries it.
Festive Factor 41 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.Oh. What. Fun.
Michelle Pfeiffer plays a mother who does all of Christmas for a family who never say thank you, until they…
Festive Factor 41 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Terrifier 3
A slasher that has worked out a Santa suit makes a very good disguise, and not much more about Christmas…
Festive Factor 40 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
A Merry Scottish Christmas
Less a romance than a family reunion with a romance attached, which is its charm.
Festive Factor 38 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Christmas Bloody Christmas
Joe Begos wanted to make a killer-robot film and put it in a Santa suit, and his glee is all over the screen.
Festive Factor 38 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Red Snow
A vampire romance novelist takes in a wounded bat at Christmas and gets far more research than she bargained…
Festive Factor 34 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
This Is Christmas
A gentle British ensemble piece with a premise anyone who commutes will recognise: a carriage of regulars…
Festive Factor 33 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.Hosts
Hosts spends a long time looking like a fraught but ordinary Christmas Eve dinner, and that patience is its…
Festive Factor 33 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Holidate
A year of holidays with Christmas only at either end, so it counts as festive on a technicality.
Festive Factor 32 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.A Creature Was Stirring
A blizzard traps a mother, her locked-away daughter and two intruders in a house glowing with sickly…
Festive Factor 26 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Boxing Day
Aml Ameen writes, directs and stars as a London-born author who flies home from Los Angeles with his…
Festive Factor 25 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Silent Night
John Woo's first American film since Paycheck is a revenge thriller that opens and closes on Christmas Eve…
Festive Factor 25 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Godmothered
The festive part is mostly a matter of address.
Festive Factor 23 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Carnage for Christmas
Alice Maio Mackay was a teenager when she made this on next to no money, and both show.
Festive Factor 20 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.
Family Switch
A body swap with tinsel on it.
Festive Factor 18 out of 100: A different kind of Christmas.Swipe for more films →