As families get together to share Christmas presents this month, Netflix has joined in the celebration with some special gifts. This massive streaming platform has plenty of new festive movies for subscribers to unwrap together this holiday season. It also has many other beloved films from past Christmases for audiences to revisit.
From holiday animations to cheesy rom-coms, Netflix has a wide variety of films that are perfect for the holidays. After you’ve finished unwrapping your gifts on Christmas Day, you should gather around the TV and stream one or more of these five films on Netflix.
Jingle Bell Heist follows Sophia (Olivia Holt), a woman working multiple jobs while moonlighting as sa mall-time thief, desperate to pay for her mother’s cancer treatment. After one of her robberies is uncovered by Nick (Connor Swindells), a security contractor framed for theft, Sophia teams up with him to rob a department store owned by the corrupt Maxwell Sterling (Peter Serafinowicz).
Directed by Michael Filmognari (The Fall of the House of Usher), this new Christmas comedy answers the question: “What if the robbers from Home Alone were the good guys?” With plenty of slapstick humor, romantic tension, and endearing drama, Jingle Bell Heist should make for a perfect watch for those looking for a new kind of holiday rom-com.
Watch Jingle Bell Heist on Netflix.
Fans of Emily in Paris may be interested in this new Christmas rom-com. From writer-director Mark Steven Johnson, Champagne Problems follows investment executive Sydney Price (Minka Kelly) on her trip to Paris to acquire a champagne brand for her company before the holidays. While touring the City of Lights, Sydney sparks a romance with charming Henri Cassell (Slow Horses‘ Tom Woznickza), who turns out to be the heir to the company she’s trying to acquire.
If that wasn’t awkward enough, Sydney is forced to join Henri on a trip to his family’s château, venturing into traditional rom-com territory. This has made Champagne Problems one of Netflix’s biggest new holiday films, having reached the platform’s Top 10 list during its first week with reported 20.5 million views.
Watch Champagne Problems on Netflix.
In this Murderville Christmas special, detective Terry Seattle (Will Arnett) finds pro football player Johnny Blaze (Sean Hayes) killed at City Hall while dressed as Santa, putting him on his biggest case yet. For this job, Terry is paired with several celebrity partners, including Saturday Night Live alumni Maya Rudolph and Pete Davidson, as well as former athlete Marshawn Lynch. Arnett even reunites with his former Arrested Development co-star Jason Bateman.
Given only a handful of clues and zero script, the show’s celebrity guests are forced to improvise their way to the truth as they help Terry solve the murder. This leads to many hilarious holiday moments, making this Murderville special the perfect blend of comedy and crime.
Watch Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery on Netflix.
Klaus is Netflix’s first animated feature to have received an Oscar nomination. Written and directed by Despicable Me co-creator Sergio Pablos, this vibrant holiday film presents a whole new origin story about Santa Claus (or “Klaus”), who is voiced by actor J.K. Simmons long before he starred in Red One.
Set in 19th-century Norway, Klaus follows lazy postman Jesper (Jason Schwartzman), who is assigned to set up a post office in an island town. There, he befriends the reclusive toymaker Klaus and hatches a plan to meet his quota by deliver gifts to all the children who write to them. Audiences who are looking for a fresh new take on the story of Christmas will want to see how Jesper and Klaus’s acts of kindness bring joy to a dreary town, giving birth to a holiday legend.
While this teenage comedy takes place throughout the school year, one of the most iconic scenes in Mean Girls depicts the Plastics dancing to Jingle Bell Rock at the Winter Talent Show. This is one of many memorable moments that have made Mean Girls a hilarious classic perfect to watch all year round.
Throughout this film, we follow teenager Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) during her first year at an American high school after growing up homeschooled by her parents in Africa. As she tries to fit in and make new friends, she becomes part of a revenge plan against the school’s evil “queen bee,” Regina George (Rachel McAdams), unleashing all sorts of comedic chaos.
With so many hilarious moments, quotable lines, and strong performances from its cast, Mean Girls has carved out a huge place in popular culture, and its presence can be felt today. Even after over 20 years, we’re still trying to match fetch happen, proving Mean Girls is the gift that keeps on giving.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.