For those wondering what is available to stream this festive season, there are plenty of entertaining choices on offer.
Not everyone wants to spend Christmas making small talk with their in-laws or playing charades after their turkey dinner – sometimes a couple of hours of being a couch potato is just what the doctor ordered.
We’ve packed in enough recommendations in to last you through to 2026 across a ranger of streamers, so you don’t need to worry if you’re only subscribed to a couple.
From brilliant films, to blockbuster shows and the finale of Stranger Things – they’re all in our must-see guide to Christmas TV On Demand.
AMADEUS
Sunday 21 December, Sky/Now
Based on Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play of the same name, Will Sharpe plays Mozart with Paul Bettany as Salieri
Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play Amadeus, about the rivalry between court composer Antonio Salieri and rising force Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is around two-and-a-half hours long.
The 1984 film (Sky/Now) is longer, and Sky’s new series based on the play expands the story to five one-hour episodes.
Black Doves’ Joe Barton wrote this well-cast show, which stars Will Sharpe as the brattish Mozart, who charms those around him with his talent just as he drains them of energy with his entitlement.
Paul Bettany is Salieri, who we first meet as an old man filled with regret and explaining the jealousy that drove him to murder Mozart.
Caught in the middle (isn’t it always the way) is a woman – Constanze (Gabrielle Creevy) – and a good-looking, moreish drama is the result.
FILM: HALLOW ROAD (2025) 15
Sunday 21 December, Sky/Now
Hallow Road stars Matthew Rhys and Rosamund Pike – with the thriller’s action mainly occurring in a car
In a taut, 80 minute-thriller set mostly in a car, Matthew Rhys and Rosamund Pike play parents driving to the aid of their daughter.
The film starts strong, and the spooky vibe it develops makes for good Christmas viewing.
TEA WITH JUDI DENCH
Monday 22 December, Sky/Now
Multi-time co-stars Dame Judi Dench and Sir Kenneth Branagh reminisce over tea in this one-off programme
Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh have known each other for more than 40 years, in which time she’s played his wife, mother and grandmother.
For this cheery one-off the two great actors look back on it all over tea at Dame Judi’s cosy abode. If you like showbiz stories, this is full of them.
FILM: NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON’T (2025) 12
Monday 22 December, buy/rent on Sky, Amazon etc
The third film in the popular Now You See Me series – the likes of Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher and Woody Harrelson return
The solid third instalment in the ‘Ocean’s 11 with magic’ franchise, recently released in cinemas, hits home rental. Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg and Isla Fisher return as three of the illusionists, now dealing with deepfakes.
FILM: SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE (2025) 12
Tuesday 23 December, buy/rent on Sky, Amazon etc
The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White portrays legendary musician Bruce Springsteen in this gripping biopic
The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White makes a plausibly tormented Bruce Springsteen, on the cusp both of super-stardom and mental disintegration, in a biopic that unfolds mainly in 1981 – in the wake of the thunderously triumphant tour to promote his hit album The River.
FILM: A MINECRAFT MOVIE (2025) PG
Christmas Day, Sky/Now
Based on the popular game, this zany film brings together the unlikely team up of Jason Momoa and Jack Black
Jack Black and Jason Momoa are a good comedy double act at the centre of a zany movie adventure based on the video game.
Full-on, wildly nonsensical fun that’s reminiscent of the 21st century Jumanji movies (which Black was also in).
SINNERS (2025) 15
Boxing Day, Sky/Now
Michael B Jordan does double duty in this supernatural horror from Ryan Coogler, playing the roles of twins
Ryan Coogler’s supernatural horror has a great 1930s blues soundtrack, and Michael B Jordan starring as twins who hit a toothy problem when opening a bar in the Mississippi Delta.
FILM: GOODBYE JUNE (2025) 15
Christmas Eve, Netflix
Directed by Kate Winslet from her son’s script, Goodbye June’s cast includes Helen Mirren, Timothy Spall, Andrea Riseborough and Winslet herself
Kate Winslet directs her own son’s script, a surprisingly uplifting account of a grandmother’s death in hospital at Christmas.
It’s all about the ‘good goodbye’, and stars Helen Mirren as the grandmother, Winslet as the over-functioning daughter holding everyone together and Andrea Riseborough as her entirely opposite sibling.
Be prepared for (good) tears before the end.
STRANGER THINGS
Boxing Day, Netflix
Stranger Things’ near decade long journey is coming to an end – but will all of Hawkins’ favourites make it out alive?
The final run has a lot to live up to, but the first four episodes certainly delivered for fans.
If you’ve seen the prequel stage show, this next chunk of episodes should have an added resonance as we pick up events after that ‘chosen one’ moment during the battle with Vecna and find out what’s next for the familiar face Eleven and Hopper found in the lab.
Let’s hope that everyone’s still standing after these three episodes – there’s one more left to come after this, on New Year’s Day.
SANCTUARY: A WITCH’S TALE
Boxing Day, Netflix
Supernatural drama Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale is based on VV James’ novel and takes place in a world where witches live out in the open
The British writer Debbie Horsfield (Poldark) is behind this supernatural drama from US network AMC, set in a world in which witches live out in the open, alongside humans.
Based on a novel by VV James and set in a quaint little English town called Sanctuary, it stars Elaine Cassidy (Belgravia: The Next Chapter) as witch Sarah Fenn, who the locals all trust – until a death occurs, and suspicious eyes start to turn to her.
COVER-UP
Boxing Day, Netflix
This new documentary from Oscar-winner Laura Poitras puts the spotlight on dogged US journalist Seymour Hersh
The dogged American journalist Seymour Hersh has been behind many scoops over the years, including exposing the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.
The 88-year-old has never had a public profile of the likes of Woodward and Bernstein, though – perhaps because no one has made a film about his reporting starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, but also because he doesn’t want one.
This new documentary from Oscar-winner Laura Poitras turns the focus squarely on Hersh, following his methods and seeing his many, many notebooks – and he’s not at all comfortable with the attention. Partly for that reason, it’s a compelling portrait.
THE LOWDOWN
Boxing Day, Disney+
Crime drama The Lowdown stars Ethan Hawke as oddball Lee Raybon, a self-described ‘truthstorian’
Half-journalist, part-time bookseller and self-described ‘truthstorian’, Lee Raybon of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is definitely an outsider.
He’s the oddball centre of this crime drama from US network FX that has notes of comedy, modern western and classic noir, and he is played to the hilt by Ethan Hawke.
Raybon has a tricky relationship with adulthood and his grown-up daughter, but you’ll find yourself rooting for him across an eight-parter that finds him probing the mystery of a local murder in the manner of a private eye.
THE DEVIL’S CLIMB
Boxing Day, Disney+
This one-off programme follows Alex Honnold and his friend Tommy Caldwell on an epic journey
If you’ve seen the top climbing documentary Free Solo (Disney+), you’ll remember Alex Honnold. This new one-off follows him and his pal Tommy Caldwell, who is recovering from injury, as they travel 2,600 miles to ascend the intimidating Devil’s Thumb.
LIVE COMEDY STAND-UP SPECIALS
Monday 22 December, ITVX
More laughs from the good people at Next Up Comedy, who bring you sellout gigs from Britain’s brightest and funniest and put some of them on ITVX for free.
Russell Hicks is Happy To Be Here in his first UK solo show. He might be from America but he’s made the UK his home for the past decade, where his improvisational style has gone down a storm.
Zoe Lyons transforms into a Werewolf for her show. Not literally, you understand, but as a howlingly funny metaphor for how her life has changed.
MISCHIEF MOVIE NIGHT (IN)
Monday 22 December, mischiefcomedy.com
If you’re a fan of The Goes Wrong Show, tune in for these eight festive instalments of Mischief Theatre’s improvised movie stage show.
Titles include The Bourneville Identity and a pass costs from £15 at mischiefcomedy.com.
