Eight new Christmas movies for 2022: a guide to new festive films and how to watch them

Two new takes on 'A Christmas Carol' are coming to streaming services this year, including one starring Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell

Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell in 'Spirited', available to stream from November 18. Photo: Apple TV+

David Harbour in 'Violent Night'. Photo: 87North

Lindsay Lohan as Sierra, Chord Overstreet as Jake, Olivia Perez as Avy in 'Falling For Christmas'. Photo: Netflix

Justin Hartley in 'The Noel Diary'. Photo: Netflix

Guillermo del Toro's 'Pinocchio', featuring the voices of Gregory Mann and Christoph Waltz. Photo: Netflix

Aimee Garcia and Freddie Prinze Jr in 'Christmas with You'. Photo: Netflix

A still from 'Scrooge: A Christmas Carol'. Photo: Netflix

A behind the scenes photo from 'Best. Christmas. Ever.' starring Heather Graham, Jason Biggs and Brandy Norwood. Photo: Instagram / Brandy

It may only be mid-October, but before we know it, Diwali, Halloween and UAE National Day will be behind us and we'll be in the throes of the 2022 festive season.

This year, as has become a modern tradition, there is a crop of new Christmas films being released on streaming sites and in cinemas.

Here we round up the new Christmas movies for 2022.

'Falling for Christmas'

Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Chord Overstreet, George Young

Release date: November 10

Watch it: On Netflix

Netflix has made a name for itself with cheesy Christmas films in recent years, and Falling for Christmas looks set to be its 2022 show-stopper.

Lindsay Lohan makes her movie comeback in festive fashion. With all the tropes of a holiday classic, newly engaged spoiled hotel heiress Sierra Belmont (Lohan) gets into a skiing accident. She wakes up in a small town with amnesia, unable to remember her name or where she came from.

Cue the handsome stranger (Overstreet), with a precocious daughter, who takes her in in the run-up to Christmas.

'Spirited'

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell, Octavia Spencer

Release date: November 11

Watch it: On Apple TV+ and in cinemas

With an A-list line-up of Reynolds, Ferrell and Spencer, Spirited is one of the most anticipated festive flicks of the season.

It a modern musical Charles Dickens adaptation, reinterpreting the classic A Christmas Carol.

With all the classic tropes of the Dickens' novel, Reynolds plays Ebeneezer Scrooge, a "miserly misanthrope who is taken on a magical journey".

The ghosts of Scrooge's Christmases past, present and yet to come are featured, with Ferrell taking on the role of the present.

The film will have a limited run in cinemas from November 11, ahead of its streaming release on November 18.

'Christmas with You'

Starring: Freddie Prinze Jr, Aimee Garcia, Gabriel Sloyer

Release date: November 17

Watch it: On Netflix

Christmas with You, starring 1990s heart-throb Prinze Jr, looks like it also ticks off plenty of festive film tropes.

Angelina is a burnt-out pop star, who grants a young fan's Christmas wish in small-town New York. Naturally, she doesn't just find that the good deed has a morale-boosting impact, she also finds love in an unexpected place.

'The Noel Diary'

Starring: Justin Hartley, Bonnie Bedelia, James Remar

Release date: November 24

Watch it: On Netflix

Author Jake Turner (Hartley) returns home at Christmas to settle his estranged mother's estate and discovers a diary that could hold the secrets to his past.

'Violent Night'

Starring: David Harbour, Beverly D'Angelo, John Leguizamo

Release date: December 2

Watch it: In cinemas

If Die Hard is the archetypal anti-Christmas film, Violent Night might be coming for its crown.

Starring Stranger Things actor Harbour as Santa Claus, as we've never seen him before, he is a jaded take on Father Christmas.

However, it is down to Santa to save the day when a group of mercenaries take a wealthy family hostage on Christmas Eve, just before ol' Saint Nick arrives to step in and save the day.

Based on the trailer, the film will be packed with violence and a few gory moments. There are also plenty of seasonal puns — think "time for some season's beatings" and "these bad men are on my naughty list"— along with the title itself.

'Scrooge: A Christmas Carol'

Starring: Jessie Buckley, Luke Evans, Olivia Colman

Release date: December 2

Watch it: On Netflix

There is not one but two new takes on the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol this year. Netflix is throwing its Santa hat in the ring with Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, voiced by a star cast that includes Buckley, Evans, Colman and Jonathan Pryce.

Evans lends his voice to Ebenezer Scrooge and Johnny Flynn is Bob Cratchit, while Colman is the Ghost of Christmas Past and Trevor Dion Nicholas voices the Ghost of Christmas Present.

'Pinocchio'

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Cate Blanchett, Christoph Waltz, Finn Wolfhard

Release date: December 9

Watch it: On Netflix

Although it's not an all-out Christmas film, the story of Pinocchio is a classic pantomime tale, so it's likely that family members of all ages will gather in front of the tree this December to watch Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro's reimagining of the story.

The film is a stop motion take on the Carlo Collodi tale, immortalised in Disney's 1940 animation.

It tells the story of the fabled wooden boy, with a slightly darker edge from previous retellings, but with the same foundations of adventure and love.

'Best. Christmas. Ever.'

Starring: Brandy Norwood, Heather Graham, Jason Biggs

Release date: TBC

Watch it: On Netflix

A film that looks set to be a Christmas comedy, every year Jackie (Norwood) sends a humble brag-filled holiday newsletter that makes her old college friend Charlotte (Graham) feel like her life isn't up to scratch.

This year, however, a twist of fate lands Charlotte and her husband Rob (Biggs) on Jackie’s snowy doorstep only days before Christmas. Charlotte quickly seizes the opportunity to prove her old friend's "perfect" life can’t possibly be that perfect.