Netflix has been stepping up its original content in the past year, heavily leaning into a new release every week. For the holidays they have even been encroaching on the Hallmark/Lifetime channels territory with its slate of Christmas movies, but because it’s Netflix, it can stretch to different genres and ratings instead of being limited to PG-esque ratings.

Here are all the Netflix Christmas original movies for 2020 ranked, so you can focus on the good ones and maybe skip over the others.

Arranged from worst to best, here’s how they all stack up:

11. “Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square” — Not even the incomparable Dolly Parton can pull this schmaltzy story from the lands of bad exposition, wooden performances and the most predictable movie in the bunch. Full of unimaginative plot lines, hokey dialogue and so many forced situations it’s almost unwatchable. The pastor’s name is literally Pastor Christian, c’mon.

10. “Operation Christmas Drop” — The typically paced and pretty generic story plops in a forced romance when a career-driven congressional aide, Erica (Kat Graham) is sent to Guam to inspect an Air Force base that is on a shortlist to be closed. There she meets a schmoozy captain (Alexander Ludwig) who organizes the yearly Christmas supply/donation drop to islands in the South Pacific. By showing Erica what good the base does, she begins to see why the base is worth saving … and falls in love. The actual drops are real, and a film just on that would have been far more interesting.

9. “A California Christmas” — Probably the closest to the Hallmark-style movie that Netflix came out with, this one features the uninteresting romance between a big-shot developer named Joseph (Josh Swickard) and the dairy farmer Callie (Lauren Swickard, yes, the stars are married in real life), whose land he’s trying to buy. But when he is mistaken for a ranch hand he takes up the charade in order to try and gain her trust. Of course, he begins to thaw to her situation and falls in love with her in the predictably corny, exposition -filled movie.

8. “Holidate” — The raunchy comedy stars Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey as two habitually single 30-somethings who decide that instead of showing up to holiday events stag, they would be each other’s date to the affairs. The pact establishes a strictly friends boundary, but soon their casual acquaintance turns into something more. While the film finds a nice balance between its stars, it slips in its characterizations. All of them are pretty unlikeable and you don’t really care if they end up together or not.

7. “Christmas Crossfire” — The German thriller set around Christmas is probably trying to hone in on the audience whose favorite holiday movie is “Die Hard” (which is a legitimate choice, no shame here). After witnessing a would-be assassination in the woods, a couple of vagabonds have to run to stay alive. Darkly humorous but disjointed, it keeps your interest but leaves you with little to care about at the end.

6. “Alien Xmas” — The stop -animation movie about a little alien who, in an attempt to steal all the stuff in the world for his race of kleptomaniac extraterrestrials, finds out what love and giving are. It’s pretty cutesy and an easy watch, especially for little ones.

5. “The Princess Switch: Switched Again” — With all the trappings of one of those choose -your -own -adventure games, the film picks up two years after the last one left off. If you haven’t seen the original, read the plot synopsis and you’ll be good to go, it’s not terribly difficult to follow. Vanessa Hudgens does triple duty in this easy, unoffensive watch that ends the exact way you’d expect.

4. “The Christmas Chronicles 2” — Kurt Russell is really the only reason to watch this or its predecessor (which you don’t really need to have seen first). This time around, we have the addition of Goldie Hawn as Mrs. Clause. Both are delightful and Kurt Russell makes a great Santa, but the story isn’t as strong as the first one and they rely on too many of the same beats.

3. “Angela’s Christmas Wish” — The Irish animated film is a short, but sweet, story about a little girl from 1913 Ireland and her attempts to bring her father, who has gone to Australia for work, home for Christmas. The adorable story will tug at your heartstrings throughout and have you crying at the end of its 47-minute runtime.

2. “Just Another Christmas” — The Brazilian movie starts off as a pretty straightforward comedy and then makes a slow and subtle turn. Jorge (Leandro Hassum) doesn’t really like Christmas and after he is apparently cursed, he wakes up the next year at Christmastime with no memory of what has occurred in the year prior. Stuck to only remember the Christmases over several years, he sees his family grow up and he is left to contend with the decisions his other self has made throughout the year. The family is a little obnoxious at first, but stick with it. And make sure you watch it with subtitles, not the dubbed version.

1. Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey — The fantasy-musical is delightful even with some pacing issues and has something in it for the whole family. The music is uplifting and joyful and the plot is heartwarming and will leave you needing tissues. If you want to know more check out my full review on our website, bendbulletin.com.

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