As Christmas draws near, free streaming services are getting into the act with plenty of festive videos to throw on your TV. Whether you’re looking for a good ol’ story of a heart-warming connection, a yule log, or some background video for your holiday party, there’s a lot to be found for free.
Willing to pay for your Christmas classics? Here's where to find all the best holiday films.
Pluto TV
Pluto TV has a free “Season’s Greetings” section of channels:
- Holiday Movie Favorites by Lifetime: Enjoy some holiday-themed films, straight from the Lifetime library.
- Hallmark Movies & More: Hallmark is one of the most popular creators of Christmas films, and this channel plays them 24/7.
- Pluto TV Christmas: Assorted Christmas movies.
- Festive Fireplace: Watch the fire burning on your TV while listening to instrumental Christmas tracks.
- Crackling Fireplace: If you don’t want music, fire up this channel and listen to the wood crackle and pop.
- Holiday Lights: Watch twinkling lights, falling snow, and beautifully wrapped presents as you hear instrumental Christmas songs in the background.
- Home for the Holidays: Get some tips on entertaining with this channel. Stars like Gordon Ramsay and Nigel Slater are here to help you create festive food.
- Vevo Holiday: Catch a rotating lineup of music videos from pop stars like Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, and more.
- Cine Navideño: Have a feliz navidad with Christmas films in Spanish.
If you’d like to watch on demand, Pluto TV also has a lot of shows and films including titles like “Runaway Christmas Bride,” “The Christmas Switch,” “My Christmas Grandpa,” and “Christmas Cupid’s Arrow.”
Of all the services we checked, Pluto TV seems like the best option for free holiday entertainment.
Tubi
Just type “Christmas” into the search box and you’ll be flooded with options. It’s a wide array of titles. Can we interest you in “Christmas With Lorne Greene”? Or “Gumby’s Christmas Capers”? Why not “Spend the Holidays with Liberace”? Maybe you want something more jarring like “Christmas Twister” or “Christmas Blood.”
You’ll also find various yule logs and light shows to use as video backgrounds for your parties.
Tubi does require a bit more digging than some other services, but you’ll be happy when you stumble on something like “Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas.” (It’s worth watching for the voices of Jim Parsons, Kate Micucci, Ed Asner, Fred Armisen, Gilbert Gottfried, and Jay Leno.)
Peacock
Some Christmas content is paywalled at Peacock, but you can watch a small library for free. “A Garfield Christmas” is free, and “Tim Janis: All is Bright” features some lovely piano music backing video of snow landscapes. You’ll also get throwbacks like “Happy Holidays: The Best of the Andy Williams Christmas Shows.”
You will be tempted when you see the thumbnail for the classic “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” but you’ll need to jump to the paid tier to see that.
Roku Channel
Roku Channel has a small holiday lineup, including the George C. Scott version of “A Christmas Carol.” You also have two karaoke collections: Christmas is for Family and Karaoke Carols.
Local Now
This service offers a small selection of holiday films like James Garner and Julie Andrews in “One Special Night,” “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol,” and the beloved production of “A Christmas Carol” with Alastair Sim.
Plex
Choose your favorite Scrooge (Alastair Sim or George C. Scott) and it’s free to watch. There is also the usual assortment of meet-cute Christmas films. You’ll also get access to the immortal “Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas,” which has a 1.3 rating on IMDb.
And since Chanukah overlaps with Christmas this year, you can also watch “Mama Doni’s Jewish Holiday Party.”
If you have home movies on your hard drive, you can also connect Plex to share those movies with any family members as long as they have a free Plex account - it’s like your own private Netflix.
Xumo
Xumo is the rare streaming service that has original holiday films. It’s the only place to watch “My Favorite Christmas Tree” or “A Royal Christmas Match.” Xumo has a helpful Holiday Hub with 18 dedicated channels, so you can scroll through the various options. There’s not much here, but you’ll find the obligatory thumbnails of smiling couples who presumably find love thanks to the magic of Christmas.
Freevee
Freevee offers your standard grab-bag of assorted Christmas titles with a few interesting ones like Dolly Parton in “Unlikely Angel.” There’s very little here with an IMDb score above 7, so Freevee’s holiday offering feels like a lump of coal.
Redbox
Redbox has a holiday hub on its menu screen, though you will be tempted to pay for the premium rentals, you’ll find a fair amount of free movies, including the rare “A Christmas Carol: The Musical” with Kelsey Grammer as Ebenezer Scrooge, Jason Alexander, Jane Krakowski, Jesse L. Martin, and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Disney fans will get familiar tingles from the music by Alan Menken.
You’ll find a handful of channels featuring standard romantic holiday movies or holiday scenes with orchestral music, which work well for parties or relaxing nights at home. Redbox’s best feature is probably the music video channels: Vevo Holiday, Stingray Greatest Holiday Hits, and Stingray Hot Country Christmas.
Hoopla
If your local library is connected to Hoopla, you can watch films like “It's a Wonderful Life,” Tim Allen’s “Christmas With the Kranks,” “Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas,” and lots of Hallmark or Lifetime Christmas movies with stars like Candace Cameron Bure, Lacey Chabert, Kristy Swanson, Keisha Knight Pulliam, Mira Sorvino, Jennie Garth, Malinda Williams.
You’ll also get relaxing nature titles like “Christmas in Yellowstone.”
The service also features “Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas.”
Hoopla also allows you to download Christmas music from Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and John Denver & the Muppets to keep your party lively. You can also download the new Taylor Swift album if that strikes your fancy.
Kanopy
Kanopy is available to patrons of participating libraries. It has a limited Christmas assortment, including the musical documentary “Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas,” Jim Henson’s “The Christmas Toy,” “Secrets of Diana’s Last Royal Christmas,” “A Big Lego Christmas,” and the 70s horror film “Black Christmas.”
It’s short on Christmas classics, but Kanopy offers treats off the beaten path.