The Best Holiday Romance Films To Watch In 2020
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Holiday romance season, of course.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Holiday romance season, of course. The time when Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix overwhelm us with dozens of movies about big city gals returning to their hometowns and realising their flannel-wearing high school crushes are actually the key to their happiness. That, and hot chocolate. So much hot chocolate.
With many, many movies to choose from, it’s hard to know what to spend your valuable time on. As someone who spends a ridiculous number of hours consuming these movies, here’s my suggestions for the 2020 holiday romances that are worth checking out…
Christmas Tree Lane
This one is a pretty classic Hallmark movie formula: woman tries to save community icon from destruction while accidentally falling for the man working for the big bad company responsible for said destruction.
In this case, she’s a music store owner trying to save her street — the titular Christmas Tree Lane. As the plots of these movies are frequently completely interchangeable, what makes individual holiday romances stand out is the chemistry and charisma of the cast. In this case, our hero is played by Andrew Walker, or, as I like to call him, Charming McHandsomeface, and he has it in SPADES. Leading lady Alicia Witt is pretty great too.
Chateau Christmas
This is another one worth watching because of the cast — the always-delightful Merritt Patterson, and Luke Macfarlane, aka Handsome McCharmingface (not to be confused with Charming McHandsomeface). Patterson plays a famous pianist who returns to her family chateau (as you do) for the holidays and meets up with her ex-boyfriend/former bandmate (McCharmingface) who helps her rediscover her passion for music and, of course, Christmas.
Christmas With the Darlings
If you guessed I’m recommending this based on the cast alone, you are correct! Katrina Law is one of the most charismatic actors in holiday romance land, and can sell almost anything. Here, she plays an assistant who quits her job right before Christmas but winds up helping the younger brother of her boss as he tries to take care of his orphaned nieces and nephew. Because if there’s one thing that stirs up romance in these movies, it’s the presence of orphans.
The Princess Switch: Switched Again
If you loved The Princess Switch in 2018, you’ll already be excited about its follow-up, The Princess Switch: Switched Again.
This time Vanessa Hudgens plays not one, not two, but THREE different characters. The two original Vanessas switch places again in order for the European Vanessa to rekindle her romance with the hot baker guy, but the third Vanessa — an evil one! — switches places with the American-pretending-to-be-European Vanessa in order to steal her money. Got it? Cool. The problem with sequels to any of these movies is they tend to shift the focus away from romance, which is like 89% of the reason we’re tuning in. Still, Vanessa Hudgens seems to have the best time and it’s fun to watch.
Dashing in December
A gay cowboy Christmas! Peter Porte, a solid holiday romance staple, stars as a big city guy who goes home for the holidays to convince his mother — played by Andie MacDowell — to sell their Winter Wonderland business as well as the family ranch. Enter a ranch hand ready to remind him of all those hometown holiday comforts he’s been missing.
Feliz NaviDAD
The pun in the title alone is enough to make this movie worth checking out.
Mario Lopez plays the NaviDAD in question, a single high school principal whose daughter sets him on a dating app that thankfully leads him to connect with the customer he’s been getting to know in real life (oh, yeah, he’s also a deliveryman in his spare time?). AnnaLynne McCord plays the love interest, and the movie is directed by Melissa Joan Hart. It’s the kind of holiday romance that feels like a fever dream — and I mean that in the best possible way.
A Little Christmas Charm
If you ever thought to yourself, I wonder what Alice from Twilight is up to these days, here’s the answer: Christmas rom-coms!
In A Little Christmas Charm, she plays a jewellery designer who discovers a lost charm bracelet and enlists the help of an investigative reporter to find its owner and return the bracelet before Christmas. Because that’s the kind of thing investigative reporters do? Anyway, he’s played by Brendan Penny, aka the hot brother in Chesapeake Shores, a show I exclusively watch when struggling with insomnia.
The Christmas House
Robert Buckley of One Tree Hill and iZombie fame plays an actor who returns home for a traditional Christmas, with literally all the bells and whistles, as his parents turn their house into a holiday wonderland.
He reconnects with his high school crush who happens to be a real estate agent and possibly selling his beloved childhood home. The drama! There’s also a subplot with Mean Girls’ Jonathan Bennett, who plays Robert Buckley’s brother and who is trying to adopt a baby with his husband.
Happiest Season
This is a movie movie (it’s even getting a cinematic release in Australia!) so it’s perhaps unfair to include it on this list, but it is a holiday romance. Just on another level.
Directed and co-written by Clea DuVall, it stars Kristen Stewart as Abby, who wants to propose to her girlfriend Harper (Mackenzie Davis) at her family’s holiday party, but then realises Harper hasn’t actually come out to her family yet. The supporting cast includes Mary Steenburgen, Alison Brie, Dan Levy, Mila Kunis, and Aubrey Plaza. Like I said, it’s on another level.
Dear Christmas
Speaking of another level: Melissa Joan Hart (a busy woman come holiday season) stars opposite Jason Priestly, with cameos from Hilarie Burton and Antwon Tanner (another One Tree Hill reunion!).
Hart plays a woman who hosts a podcast all about true holiday romance stories, but who has never experienced love herself — until she goes home and meets a local firefighter who gets her all lit up.
Five Star Christmas
Let me just say that I will watch Bethany Joy Lenz in anything. Yes, I am One Tree Hill trash, but also she is one of the best actors doing this holiday romance thing, bringing an endearing and natural charm to all of her roles.
Here, she plays the daughter of a B&B owner who, along with her other family members, pretend to be guests to make a visiting travel writer think the place is successful. It’s like that one episode of Dawson’s Creek where Pacey and the gang helped Joey and her sister with their B&B. But Christmas!
People Presents: Once Upon a Main Street
A People-branded Lifetime holiday romance? Why not. It stars Vanessa Lachey and Ryan McPartlin (yet another charming white guy with a chiselled jaw) as a pair competing to buy a property and doing the most to win over the owner. And by the most, I mean heading up the decoration committee for a holiday competition on the town’s mainstreet. Because that’s totally a thing.
Let’s Meet Again on Christmas Eve
I’m a sucker for second chance romance, and this one looks cuuute. It’s about a pair of college sweethearts who part ways and agree to meet up on Christmas Eve — but for ~reasons~, they never see each other again. Until years later, and another Christmas Eve, on which they find themselves working together. Oh, the fate of it all!
Time For Us to Come Home for Christmas
Lacey Chabert is the queen of holiday movies, so at least one of hers from this year’s crop deserves a mention (yes, there is more than one). This one is a cosy mystery in which five strangers are invited to an inn at Christmas by an unknown person. They soon discover an event in the past might connect them in unexpected ways. Of course, there’ll be some romance happening too.
Christmas Ever After
Tony-winning Broadway star Ali Stroker stars as a romance novelist dealing with writer’s block who heads to a B&B for Christmas. The B&B’s owner turns out to have an uncanny resemblance to the hero from her novels, and might just be the key to unblocking her. Ahem.
The Christmas Setup
After years of holiday romances being a hetero-only event, there is actually more than one featuring gay characters in leading roles this year — and this one stars an IRL married couple, Blake Lee and Ben Lewis. They play former high school friends who reunite at Christmas and reconnect in new ways, with a little nudging from Lee’s character’s mother — played by none other than Fran Drescher.
A Sugar and Spice Holiday
It’s 2020 and this is the first Lifetime movie centred on an Asian American family. Progress? Starring Tony Giroux, Jacky Lai and Tzi Ma, A Sugar and Spice Holiday is about a big city gal who returns to her hometown and teams up with her former high school friend to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps and enter the local gingerbread house competition (a big thing in these movies). Fun!
Jenna Guillaume is a Sydney-based writer who loves all things TV and pop culture. She tweets @JennaGuillaume, and her new book, ‘What I Like About Me’ is available now.