Five romance-free holiday films to ring in the new year

Written by: Shannon

Word count: 681

Reading time: 5 mins

When it comes to the winter holidays, I’ll admit – I lean toward team Grinch. I love good food and hearing from old friends, but shutting everything down for a holiday you may or may not celebrate? Not so much for me. Don’t get me started on in-your-face consumerism, travel chaos, or sappy rom-com holiday movies clogging my streaming suggestions.

If you’re like me and will likely spend your NYE and Jan. 1 staying-in and looking for something seasonal but different to watch, here are five offbeat, romance-free holiday flicks. I excluded horror options, only because there are so many holiday horror movies - I didn’t have the time to get into them! But these aren’t mainstream, and note that most are not very kid-friendly (check out the trigger warnings!). If you’re looking to skip cheap meet-cutes and predictable endings, hopefully, they will offer something different.

Got a favorite holiday film to add? Share it in the comments below!

Rare exports (Finland, 2010)

Such a good one to watch alone or with family, including older children. It's a dark comedy, but some parts could scare younger kids. Santa has been frozen in ice beneath the earth in Finland for a really long time until the Americans (of course) screw everything up and unearth him. But in this story, Santa is not cool, he’s scary and bad, and it’s up to the locals to distinguish him from his team of resurfaced evil elves and save the children! If you’re looking for an out of the box Christmas movie, look no further. (watched free on Tubi)

TW: violence, kidnapping

Go (US, 1999)

If you aren’t sold on holiday cheer, this might be the one for you. While it is set during the holiday season, Go! is not specifically about the holidays. A girl who’s short on rent schemes her way into being an ecstasy dealer for a night, but she’s really, really bad at it and sets off a series of events told from multiple perspectives. Hardly a classic, but it is a great time killer – it’s quirky, moves quickly, and has several plot twists. (watched free on Pluto TV)

TW: violence, substance abuse, sexual assault, sexual situations

Tokyo Godfathers (Japan, 2003)

Three people, a transgender woman, a middle-aged alcoholic, and teenage runaway, who live together as chosen family on the streets of Tokyo, find a baby in a dumpster on Christmas. They set out on an adventure to find the child’s parents, confronting demons of their own along the way. Japanese anime, it is a sweet film and wraps up pretty at the end, and could be family friendly - keeping in mind the mature themes involved (homelessness, estranged families, alcoholism). (watched free on Tubi)

TW: substance abuse, child neglect

Bad Santa (US, 2003)

Here’s the story of a boy and the bad Santa he loves. Or a bad Santa and the boy who wins over his heart. And well… I would not watch it with my grandma (for reference, I totally would watch Die Hard with my grandma). While the film scores low on romance there are sexual situations and graphic sexual language. Alcoholism is a major theme. It’s a pretty dark film. But the endearing relationship between the boy and Santa got me, which I wasn’t expecting. If you’re feeling dark, but not horror movie dark, this is a good choice with a happy(ish) ending. (watched free on Pluto TV)

TW: abusive language, sexual situations, substance abuse

Nisser ([“Elves”, series], Denmark, 2021)

In general, I excluded any series from my search, but how could I not share this one with you? Limited to six episodes at 30 mins each, this would be great New Year’s Day binge watching. A family rents a house in the country for the holidays to get away from it all. While driving on the country roads, they plow down a baby elf and leave it for dead. The daughter sneaks out that night to find it and starts to uncover the dark secret of the isolated town. Potentially a good one for family, although there is content that could be scary or upsetting to young children. (watched on Netflix)

TW: human and animal death, violence