10 of the best LGBT+ Christmas films to make your Yuletide a whole lot gayer
Brad Harder and Mean Girls’ Jonathan Bennett in The Christmas House. (Hallmark)
LGBT+ Christmas films are the best way to get into the festive spirit – and these titles are sure to make your Yuletide a whole lot gayer.
Here is a list of the best queer Christmas films to get you into the festive spirit this season.
1. Happiest Season.
First on our list is 2020’s hottest LGBT+ Christmas film, Happiest Season. It follows lesbian couple Harper (Mackenzie Davis) and Abby (Kristen Stewart) as they go to stay with Harper’s ultra-conservative family for Christmas, where they are forced to go stealth when Harper reveals she hasn’t come out to her family.
The all-star queer cast includes also include Dan Levy, Aubrey Plaza and Victor Garber. Despite Plaza not getting nearly as much screen time as we would have liked, the film does feature Stewart being unbelievably awful at pretending to be straight. It’s definitely not one to miss.
2. Carol.
Carol has been voted the best LGBT+ film of all time – and it fully deserves this reputation. Based on the Patricia Highsmith novel The Price of Salt, it stars lesbian favourites Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and Sarah Paulson.
Set at Christmastime in 1950s New York, Mara plays a shop clerk who falls for an older woman (Carol, played by Blanchett) who is trying to break out of a loveless marriage.
3. Let It Snow.
Netflix original Let It Snow delivers everything you would want from a queer romantic comedy.
Based on a young adult book of the same name, the film is an ensemble piece following three Christmas Eve tales in small-town Illinois, including one of a teenager (played by non-binary actor Liv Hewson) who has a secret romance with a popular but closeted cheerleader.
4. Season of Love.
Another romantic comedy, this follows the interrelated stories of three queer female couples over Christmas and New Year. It follows a similar structure to the painfully heterosexual Love, Actually.
Steering away from lesbian stereotypes, this is one of the best films for queer female representation out there. It manages to be light-hearted while deftly handling difficult subject matter, including mental health and disability.
5. Dashing in December.
Another small town love story (it is Christmas, after all) this follows Wyatt, played by Peter Porte from Young and the Restless, who returns to his hometown for Christmas. He falls in love with a stable hand, played by Juan Pablo Di Pace from Fuller House.
Di Pace said creating this film was “very therapeutic” because he rarely gets to play gay characters on screen. He said the film was a great start to diversifying the rom-com and Christmas film genres.
6. Scrooge & Marley.
This 2012 film retells A Christmas Carol, but with a queer twist. The gay owner of a piano bar, Ben Scrooge, is visited by the three ghosts. The first takes him to the gay disco of his past, the second takes him to his lesbian niece’s Christmas Eve party, and the third shows the reactions to his death.
Scrooge, of course, sees the error of his ways and makes amends with his friends, family and employees. Along the way the film brings all of Dickens’ original characters into the 21st century, making for an easy, heart-warming and super gay watch.
7. Make the Yuletide Gay.
If you like an unbelievably cheesy Christmas film, this camp coming out story is for you. It follows Olaf, a college student who goes home for the holidays, but hasn’t come out to his parents.
The plot is essentially the same as Happiest Season, with a less infuriating ending. It won several film festival awards when it was released in 2009.
8. A New York Christmas Wedding.
Another release from Netflix’s extra-gay roster of 2020 Christmas films is A New York Christmas Wedding. In the run up to her Christmas Eve nuptials, a bride named Jennifer is visited by an angel who shows her what life would have been like if she had ended up with her childhood best friend, Gabrielle.
This film brings some sorely needed bisexual Black representation to the Christmas genre. It’s set in a Christmastime New York that for once hasn’t been white-washed. We’re here for it.
9. Anna and the Apocalypse.
This is not your classic LGBT+ Christmas film. Zombies have taken over a small town called Little Haven, and the titular hero Anna has to save her friends who have been trapped in a school.
It’s a musical that follows Anna and her friends Steph (a lesbian choreographer) and Jonathan fighting, singing and dancing while civilisation collapses. For an alternative Christmas film, this one really delivers.
10. The Christmas House.
The Christmas House is Hallmark’s first film to prominently feature a same-sex couple. They are part of an ensemble cast who play a family reunited for Christmas.
Homophobia doesn’t exist in this world. Characters Brandon and Jake are just a wholesome couple trying to adopt a child. There are also storylines for his parents and his straight brother, but they aren’t as good (or gay).
