Movies on TV

New holiday specials…

8-Bit Christmas

Every generation deserves its own A Christmas Story. This hilarious update on the formula follows 11-year-old Jake Doyle in his quest to celebrate the holiday by acquiring a Nintendo 8-Bit game console—the Red Ryder BB gun of the late 1980s. With Neil Patrick Harris. HBO Max A Boy Called Christmas Santa Claus gets a new origin story in this potential new classic, adapted from a 2015 children’s book. At a time when magic is scarce, a boy named Nikolas journeys into the snowy far north with his pet mouse and a reindeer, seeking a mythical home of elves. Netflix

’Twas the Fight Before Christmas

Jeremy Morris is the neighbor who loves Christmas too much. This wild new documentary chronicles how the Idaho attorney triggered a four-year battle with his neighbors when he tried to turn his home into the site of a multinight pageant, complete with a camel, costumed actors, and 200,000 lights. Apple TV+

Elves

The holiday break turns terrifying in this new Danish series about a family who retreat to their getaway house and stumble into a hidden war between the locals and an imprisoned species of forest inhabitants. Netflix

12 Dates of Christmas

HBO Max hasn’t forgotten that some viewers see Christmas as just another reason to watch a steamy dating series. At a luxury winter resort, singles are gifted with many candidates for bringing home on the big day. HBO Max

A Castle for Christmas Why should Hallmark and Lifetime have all the cheesy holiday fun? Romantic tension fills a Scottish castle when an American author, played by Brooke Shields, purchases it and inherits a cantankerous duke as a tenant. Netflix