With the return of the Christmas season comes the return of the Christmas spirit. What better way to get into this spirit than by watching some new Christmas movies. So curl up, grab some hot chocolate and watch these new holiday movies from home on your favorite streaming service. 

Love Hard 

The perfect holiday romance story, Love Hard is a Netflix movie that premiered November of this year. Natalie (Nina Dobrev) is a writer from LA who has been unlucky in love all her life. After what seems like years of bad dates and catfish experiences, she thinks she’s found the one through an online dating site. His name is Josh and he is utterly perfect, both personality and looks wise.  Natalie decides to fly out to Josh’s (Jimmy O. Yang)  hometown to surprise him but upon her arrival, she finds out she’s been catfished once again. This story of an unlucky girl soon turns into a holiday romance when the two begin to get along and even fall in love. 

Love Hard is the perfect movie for anyone who loves a good romantic comedy. Although cheesy at times, the movie is a really fun watch for the Christmas season. All of the scenes between Josh and his family are incredibly endearing and are especially heartfelt with his sweet grandmother (Takayo Fischer). Dobrev played the role of a hopeless romantic with ease and it was very believable that she simply wanted to fall in love for the holidays. 

Home Sweet Home Alone 

A continuation of the Home Alone movies of the past, Home Sweet Home Alone arrived on Disney Plus Nov 12. The film stays reminiscent of the original but adds it’s own spin onto the holiday classic. 

The story starts at an open house for the Mckenzie family. The parents, Pam (Ellie Kemper) and Jeff (Rob Delaney) are desperate to not lose their house. When they discover a doll they had was worth thousands of dollars, they begin to scour their house looking for it. When they cannot find it, they accuse Max (Archie Yates), a local boy, of stealing it. Pam and Jeff then take on the role of the robbers as they attempt to break into Max’s house to try and obtain the doll. Similar to the original, Max has been left home alone after his family left for vacation to Tokyo without him. 

Home Sweet Home Alone casts some surprisingly well known actors for a film that had little to no media or press coverage. The Office’s Ellie Kemper playing the mom and Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson, playing the real estate agent, added some really enjoyable comedic lines. 

Overall, the movie is notably funny for a children’s movie. Taking the place of the robbers from the original movie, the couple had some especially funny banter back and forth that was definitely worth the watch.  Even though it is marketed as a children’s movie, I would recommend Home Sweet Home Alone for all ages. 

8-Bit Christmas 

8-Bit Christmas is a charming flashback to the ‘80s that premiered on HBO Max Nov. 24. The story starts out with Jake Doyle (Neil Patrick Harris) trying to convince his daughter she doesn’t need a phone. To pass time during a boring Christmas at their grandparent’s house, Jake shows his daughter his old Nintendo system and is taken back to the 1980s, when he embarked on a quest to get what was the greatest video game system of the time. It quickly becomes clear that 8 Bit Christmas is a new version of A Christmas Story, except for 80’s kids.   

Everything from 6th- grade bullies to the classic snowy scenes, 8-Bit Christmas successfully encapsulates the same childhood awkwardness and embarrassment we saw in the original A Christmas Story. 

That said, one thing that they could have done a better job of would have been the time period. The clothing and sets of the movie felt a little too 2021 for my liking and it would have been more fun to see some classic 80’s attire that we all know and love. Overall, I would recommend 8-Bit Christmas to anyone who loved the original A Christmas Story movie, as this film will definitely take you back in time.