With Hanukkah just begun and Christmas around the corner, the year is winding down and making room for good old-fashioned holiday cheer. But whatever one’s holiday of choice may be there, plenty of films make the rounds every year, perfectly marketed as family fun for the winter or already established in the classic Christmas canon. For those who wish to venture outside the holiday box and gather around the proverbial fireplace for something a little less expected, Screen Rant has a few options for you.
Though not every selection is from 2022, each one still resonates this holiday season and offers a path less traveled in the face of the usual winter season fare. One movie that is very new, however, is A Christmas Karen, which is a thoroughly modern take on A Christmas Carol and currently streaming on demand and on digital. While the title is tongue-in-cheek, the moral is as heartwarming as the many Scrooges and Grinches that have come before—something equally true of every holiday film on the list below.
A Christmas Karen
Everyone knows what “Karen” means in the current cultural lexicon, so it’s no surprise that one finally got her own holiday special. A Christmas Karen tells the tale of one particularly entitled middle-aged woman (played by the delightful Michele Simms) whose days of picking fights with baristas are numbered when she encounters three Ghosts of Christmas. They stage an attitude intervention, something that is well-known to any reader of Dickens but this time comes with a fun and modern twist.
A Christmas Karen is available through digital platforms such as Apple TV, Amazon, GooglePlay, Vudu, Microsoft Movies, and more.
Mistletoe & Menorahs
Lifetime’s Hannukah film, Mistletoe & Menorahs, first premiered in 2019. In it, ambitious toy company executive Christy (Kelley Jackie) has to take a crash course on Hanukkah in order to land a big account. Her coworker’s friend Jonathan (Jake Epstein, The Umbrella Academy) offers a helping hand, though the two of them have something of a culture clash at first. As the story progresses, however, they each must learn to understand and respect the other’s traditions as they warm up each other’s hearts.
Mistletoe & Menorahs is currently available to stream on Hulu.
Operation Christmas Drop
One of Netflix’s holiday offerings for the 2020 season, Operation Christmas Drop stars Kat Graham (a fan-favorite from The Vampire Diaries) as Erica. She’s a congressional aide sent to the South Pacific on a mission to defund a military base that uses “military equipment to drop Christmas presents” off for villagers in need. The movie was actually filmed on Andrews Air Force base in Guam, and the view is lovely, as is the chemistry between Erica and Captain Andrew Jantz (Alexander Ludwig), who will inevitably show her the meaning of the season so that she can save a time-honored and genuinely meaningful tradition.
Operation Christmas Drop is streaming on Netflix.
Hanukkah on Rye
Another new addition is this year’s Hallmark Channel film Hanukkah on Rye, starring Yael Grobglas (Jane the Virgin) and Jeremy Jordan (Supergirl). These two beloved CW graduates play rival deli owners in a twist on the 1940 holiday classic The Shop Around the Corner. Jacob (Jordan) comes from Californian deli stock and has made his way to New York City in order to grow his family’s sandwich empire. Molly (Grobglas), meanwhile, has her family’s century-old deli to care for with pride, and the two immediately find themselves at each other’s throats. But mothers and matchmakers will have their way, helping the two leads to see each other in a new light.
Hanukkah on Rye is now streaming on Peacock.
The First Noelle
In the grand tradition of rom-coms sent at Christmas, The First Noelle follows book editor Noelle (Novi Brown) as she attempts to reunite with her ex, Terrance (Todd Anthony). The only fly in the ointment of this BET original film is that Terrance already has a new girlfriend of his own, who also happens to be named Noelle (LaLa Milan). While she attempts to recover her romance, she must also decide whether it’s time to make her name as an author as well.
The First Noelle is available to stream on BET+.