The formula for writing and portraying women in holiday movies is so clear that McSweeney’s has even written a satirical commentary about it: More often than not, the high-powered big-city career woman or small-town small business owner goes home to save the farm or family business or bravely goes abroad, and ends up throwing her career away for love while finding her holiday spirit.
When you first meet her, the holiday movie heroine seems to have a lot of things going for her, but, while it’s not always clearly stated, the fact that she doesn’t have a man is usually a big problem, either to her or the people in her life. Which creates a bit of an underlying message in a lot of holiday movies: She can’t have a happy holiday until she finds romance.
And in films where she is already having a happy holiday on her own with a bustling work and social life, those stories often end with romance taking over. And it becomes pretty clear the plot was never about her wedding-planning business or successful bakery.
Related: Here Are All the New Netflix Original Christmas Movies You’re Going to Want to Watch
OK, that was a downer. But here’s the good news: Thankfully, not all holiday movies on streaming services or Hallmark center totally around romance. In a few films, the women clearly have well-rounded lives. They might find love, but there is more going on in their orbit than who’s under the mistletoe.
There are holiday movies featuring single moms, women who just want to treat themselves for Christmas (with no man in mind) and even a woman who leaves her toxic hetero-marriage and falls in love with another woman. That last one might be about love, but a man doesn’t save the day or come to a woman’s rescue in any way, so it counts.
Here’s your guide to some women you should get to know this season. Happy Holidays!
Let It Snow, 2019
Netflix’s new movie, which is available to stream now, is jam-packed with storylines, but one or two make it worth watching. The biggest, by far, is the rich female friendship between two small-town girls, Addie and Dorrie, whose big plot point at the end is the resolution of their relationship after a rift, as Addie realizes she doesn’t need her dumb boyfriend. She just needs her best friend. As an added bonus, Dorrie’s love interest is another girl, Tegan, which is not super common for the holiday options we’re usually offered.
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My One Christmas Wish, 2015
Glee’s Amber Riley stars in this movie about a young woman who grew up in a home that was hardly loving. She doesn’t have anyone to spend the holidays with, so she places an ad on Craigslist for a family for the holidays. She gets an overwhelming number of responses and decides to help other people who want the same thing.
Noelle, 2019
Disney+’s first live-action, original movie is a holiday movie, which makes sense, considering families across America are tuned into the brand-new streaming service right now. It’s a story about how the role of Santa Claus is passed down through the generations of the Kringle family. But the next in line, Nick (Bill Hader) goes missing just before his first Christmas. His sister, Noelle (Anna Kendrick), is up for the task, but she’s always been told that women cannot be Santa. It’s Christmas cheer mixed with some light criticism of the patriarchy.
Last Holiday, 2006
Queen Latifah plays a woman who is told she has three weeks to live, so she goes on an all-out vacation to Europe to live out her final days in style. If you need a reminder for self-care this holiday season (maybe without the extreme circumstances), this is a good one to pop on.
Carol, 2015
This 2015 flick was not marketed as a Christmas movie, but ask any queer women in your life, and they’ll give you the date of their Carol holiday watch party. Based on the 1952 Patricia Highsmith novel The Price of Salt, the story follows Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett), a married woman from the New York City-adjacent suburbs, and Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), who works at a department store during the holidays. The two fall in love and carry on an affair, which includes a romantic cross-country trip between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Mrs. Santa Claus, 1996
Angela Lansbury stars as Mrs. Santa Claus in a film just as delightful as the first few words of this sentence make it sound. She even sings her own anthem that includes the lyrics: “The moment has come to beat my own drum, because I want the world to know there’s a Mrs. Santa Claus.” She’s driving the sleigh this time.
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A Christmas Miracle, 2019
Hallmark’s new holiday movie features Tamera Mowry-Housley as a single mom who searches for the perfect Christmas miracle to write about this season. She’s helped by her son and a photographer, who happens to be the attractive Brooks Darnell. But romance is not the center of the storyline, which is always refreshing. In fact, Mowry-Housley, who served as executive producer on the film, prioritized creating a character single moms could identify with.
Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2001
At first glance, this movie seems like the opposite of female empowerment. Bridget, played by Renée Zellweger, is completely obsessed with losing weight and her attractive boss, played by Hugh Grant. But any true fan might suggest that all of that is a guise to get us to look deeper at Bridget, who’s whip-smart, a good journalist and clearly doesn’t need any man (even if one of their names is, as it happens, Mr. Darcy). Mark Darcy’s reindeer “jumper” alone makes this a holiday movie must. Case closed.
Related: Anna Kendrick, John Legend, Joanna Gaines & More Stars Share Their Sunday Traditions
Miracle on 34th Street, 1955
This 1955 classic focuses on Doris Walker, a single mother with a high-powered job in Manhattan, which for 1955, is a feat in itself. Doris, played by Maureen O’Hara, has raised her daughter, Susan (Natalie Wood), to be practical and has discouraged fantasy, such as Santa Claus. When a man claiming to be Kris Kringle himself turns up in their lives, both mother and daughter have to make room in their family for magic.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas, 2000
If anyone says Cindy Lou Who is not an empowering character, then clearly they have not watched the Jim Carrey version of this story, in which the little girl is basically the crux of the whole plot. She saves her town, the Grinch’s heart and her own materialistic family from the clutches of holiday capitalism.
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