What To Watch
12 Animated Holiday Movies to Stream with Your Whole Festive Family
Let them make your movie nights merry and bright.
By Dalene Rovenstine
Oct. 13, 2025
12 Best Animated Holiday Movies to Stream With Your Whole Festive Family - Netflix Tudum
The holidays are a joyous (if also sometimes chaotic) time — with festive decor decking every hall, family and friends coming together, and gifts and treats of all kinds to unwrap and enjoy. It’s no surprise, then, that movies set out to capture that holiday spirit year after year, and animated movies are especially suited to the magic of the season.
From new versions of classic Christmas stories to out-of-this-world celebrations, there are many holiday animated films (and shorter, but no less delightful, animated specials) to help you celebrate the season, and we have a few of them right here for you to watch with the whole family. So, pop the popcorn, grab a Christmas cookie or other sweet treat, and add these films to your queue to wind down together from the hustle and bustle of the holidays.
Alien Xmas
Things are going extraterrestrial this holiday season: X, an alien from the race of Klepts, is sent to the North Pole on an evil mission. See, the Klepts are thieves. They move from planet to planet plundering resources, and they’ve set their sights on Earth’s gravity. The problem is, once X is in our world, an elf mistakes him for a doll and gifts him to his daughter, Holly. One small act of kindness from Holly could change X’s motives and save Earth.
Angela's Christmas
Set in 1914 Ireland, Angela’s Christmas tells the story of a girl who just wants everyone to have a great holiday. When her family goes to Mass, she sees a figurine in the manger playing the role of Jesus. Believing the doll to be cold, she steals him to keep him warm on Christmas. But hiding the stolen nativity doll turns out to be more work than Angela anticipated.
Angela's Christmas 2
The adorable Angela is back. A year older, she’s found another doll she wants for Christmas, but more than that, she wants her father to come back from Australia, where he works. When her mother tells the kids a story about a pauper given wishes by a genie, she and her brother Pat set out to find a way to have their holiday wishes come true. Through more than a few misadventures, the pair start to doubt themselves, but there’s still time for a Christmas miracle or two.
The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday
Starring everyone’s favorite reformed criminals, this holiday featurette shows us the bad guys before the events of their hit movie. The crew is planning their annual “Bad Guys Holiday Heist-tacular” — a bank robbery. During a chase through a Christmas parade, the gang accidentally destroys the city’s favorite Santa balloon. Now everyone is too depressed to celebrate Christmas, and if they don’t celebrate Christmas, they won’t be distracted enough for the team to pull off their bank job. Thus begins an operation to cheer up the city and save the Holiday Heist-tacular.
The Boss Baby: Christmas Bonus
Boss Baby has found himself in a lot of predicaments he’s unhappy with, but when he inadvertently ends up at the North Pole, he gets especially cranky. In the holiday special, we learn that Santa Claus is a former colleague — they both worked at Baby Corp. Boss Baby accidentally swaps places with a look-alike elf and gets stranded in Santa’s toy factory.
Klaus
Set in 19th-century Norway, Klaus is an alternate tale of the origin of Santa Claus. In this world, the Santa story is born when Jesper (voiced by Jason Schwartzman), a postman to a distant island town known as Smeerenburg, befriends a reclusive toy maker named Klaus (J.K. Simmons). Jesper’s postmaster general father has given his son the task of shipping 6,000 letters in a year, but when Jesper learns the town is dominated by two feuding families, he has to intervene and sets in motion the tradition of mailing letters to Klaus.
Robin Robin
The stop-motion animated film Robin Robin tells the story of a young robin who’s a fish out of water, so to speak. The robin hatches underground with a family of mice who raise her. With no birds around for her to learn from, she doesn’t know who — or what — she is. So, when she first sees the Christmas Star, she makes a wish to discover her background … and maybe even learn to fly.
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol
They may already know the story, but this animated version of Charles Dickens’ classic novel is sure to be a hit with your family. Scrooge: A Christmas Carol was written by Leslie Bricusse and Stephen Donnelly, who also directed the film; it’s an adaptation of the ’70s musical film Scrooge, which Bricusse also wrote. In this fantasy musical version, Luke Evans (Good Grief) voices Ebenezer Scrooge and Olivia Colman (The Crown) voices Past, who appears to Scrooge as a candle-like being with a flame on her head.
Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas
Shaun the Sheep may already be known in your household for his antics at Mossy Bottom Farm. The stop-motion series Shaun the Sheep — which is a spin-off of Wallace & Gromit — follows Shaun’s day-to-day life, but The Flight Before Christmas shows what he gets up to around the holidays. When stockings are put on the chimney, Shaun the Sheep decides he needs a bigger one, and the whole farm ends up getting in on the adventure.
Spookley and the Christmas Kittens
The lovable, oddly shaped pumpkin introduced in Spookley the Square Pumpkin is back for Christmas. It’s winter at Holiday Hill Farm, and a red and green cat crash-lands on the barn and loses his memory, though his collar states his name is Mistletoe. As he tries to remember who he is and where he’s from, he meets three kittens also in search of a home. Leave it to Spookley to help them figure it out and stay out of trouble.
That Christmas
Prepare for lots of laughs when everyone sits down to watch That Christmas. The animated comedy from Love Actually director Richard Curtis is set in Wellington-on-Sea, a coastal town that experiences its biggest snowstorm ever. Although white Christmases can be fun, this one causes a lot of issues — including delaying Santa from delivering gifts to children in the area. See how the children band together to save the day. Brian Cox is Santa Claus, and the voice cast also includes Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker, Bill Nighy, and Lolly Adefope.
Trolls Holiday Special
After the Bergens and Trolls made peace in the original Trolls movie, the Bergens find they no longer have holiday traditions (their former tradition was eating trolls!). Queen Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick) decides to travel to Bergen Town and share her own Troll traditions with the Bergens. The Trolls Holiday short film features the reprisal of original voice actors Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, and Zooey Deschanel.
Additional reporting by Ananda Dillon
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