It's the most wonderful time of year - and a time Hollywood studios love to try and capitalise on.
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The Christmas movie genre is about as generic and prolific as they get. As proof, just check out this list of more than 100 Christmas movie posters with white heterosexual couples wearing red and green.
But, formulaic as they might be, most of us can't help but look fondly upon Christmas movies and all the warm memories that come with them.
The family is together and, after a nice big dinner, you want to relax in the lounge and chuck on a movie.
These are the eight best Christmas movies to stream this silly season.
Love Actually
This modern classic is the real favourite among most Kiwi families, and for good reason. New Zealand-born filmmaker Richard Curtis scientifically crafted the ultimate family Christmas movie. The formula has suffered many poor imitations, none coming close to getting it all as right as this one. It's available on Neon and Netflix.
A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding
The best Christmas movies are super cheesy and the Christmas Prince movies are as cheesy as they come. Seriously, this is corniness on an extreme level; it goes past the level of awful, past the level of hilarious and somehow comes back to genuinely heartwarming, and hilarious at the same time. It also has one of New Zealand's greatest Hollywood exports, Rose McIver, in the lead role and she's just delightful. Only on Netflix.
Home Alone
This one isn't on a streaming service, it's playing on Three - but you can stream that live for free on ThreeNOW. It's the delightful tale of a kid accidentally left alone at his family's luxurious home on Christmas, who has to use cunning traps to viciously maim a pair of would-be robbers. It's playing on Three this Christmas Eve, at 7pm.
Bad Moms 2
This is not a great movie. It tries and fails to be a meaningful drama, while also being a raunchy comedy. But it has a fair few laughs in it, an all-female main cast (rare for Christmas movies) and an emphasis on bad behaviour. Sometimes that's all you need. Streaming on Neon and Lightbox.
The Christmas Chronicles
Kurt Russell as Santa is reason enough to check this out, but it's also produced by Chris Columbus - the man who brought us Home Alone. It's fun for all the family and may serve as a warning to kids who want a little too desperately to see Father Christmas with their own eyes. Available on Netflix.
Elf
For a while, Will Ferrell was the funniest guy in movies. His shtick was perhaps put to best use in Anchorman, but this good-natured family comedy has probably aged the best out of all of his hits. It's charming, funny and good for the whole family. Available to Netflix and Lightbox customers.
Almost Christmas
A bog-standard tale about an older family member trying to get everyone to put aside their many differences and have a good Christmas together. You've seen this story before and there's nothing remarkable about this take on it - but sometimes, this sort of predictable, easy familiarity is just what you need to chuck on and half-watch. Available on Neon.
The Night Before
If you like Seth Rogen comedies and want a tripping scene in your Christmas movie, this is the one for you. Obviously not one for the whole family, but it is pretty damn funny and has a nice message about friendship. Lightbox and Netflix have this in their catalogues.
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Newshub.
