Queerguru’s MUST SEE LIST OF QUEER CHRISTMAS FILMS for 2024 in the comfort of your own home

Part of the tradition of spending Christmas at home is escaping reality for a few days and indulging yourself with an excess of food and drink and way too much sentimentality.  The latter part comes from spending more than your usual allocation of time with family : inherited or chosen.  When you are too full to move (or even care…lol) then TV takes over.  Up to a few years ago the programs they churned out were all so very heteronormative, but then some (gay) TV programmers had one of their lightbulb moments and remembered we queers celebrate Christmas too.  Not only that but many of us get totally chilled and keen to forget the world outside, plus we really loved sentimentality over substance for this Holiday in particular.

Hallmark and Lifetime led the way with commissioning gay Christmas movies, often starring and directed by gay men (and women)  and so before we sit down to review this year’s offerings we have looked at all TV channel’s past output for our MUST SEE LIST OF QUEER CHRISTMAS FILMS 

 

 

A Boy Called Christmas is a cheesy kid’s tale with an overload of cheap sentiment that we are all meant to wallow in at that time of year.  BUT it stars the doyenne the late great  Dame Maggie Smith and a host of our fav Brit actors such as Sally Hawkins, Toby Jones, Jim Broadbent plus Kristen Wiig, and Michiel Huisman.  So it’s worth taking a chance on all the schmaltz to see them and Dame Maggie in action.  We think ….. or bah humbug to you 

A Boy Called Christmas can be streamed on NETFLIX

 

 

A CHRISTMAS TO TREASURE starred a contemporary gay couple but in a chocolate box story that was obviously taken from the  1950s.  I kept thinking that Bing Crosby would burst in any moment singing White Christmas.  However kudos to Lifetime at least for its gay crew: director Jake Helgren and stars married real-life couple Taylor Frey and Kyle Dean Massey, who deserved a much better story.

The movie can be streamed on https://www.gagaoolala.com/

 

 

In THE CHRISTMAS SET UP. Fran Drescher  plays the mother of Hugo (Ben Lewis) a gay man who has left the  family’s home in a  small country town to become a big shot in the city.  Reluctant to come home for the Holidays but he suddenly changes his mind when he bumps into local hunk Patrick (Blake Lee) when he delivers the Christmas tree…….yep this one has a happy ending Plus Lewis and Lee happen to be a married gay couple off the screen so their chemistry is  very authentic for a change,  although suitable circumspect not to shock the audience too much.

The Christmas Set Up cn be screened on LIFETIME TV …FREE

 

 

Unquestionably the best Christmas movie of 2020, Dana Nachman’s totally compelling and affectionate profile is of the US Postal Service’s Operation Santa program for answering children’s letters to Santa Claus.  This particular girl mispels SANTA (think about it for a minute).  Every single letter is dealt with despite the sheer enormity of the task. Many are sent to regional centers where Santa’s Lead Elf’s  set about organizing as many people possible to come in and read them.  They in turn opt to ‘adopt’ specific letters  and their writer’s’ and on behalf of Santa undertake to deliver whatever has been requested.  The Lead Elves leave boxes of tissues of the desks as it is impossible to read any of the letters without  having at least a quiet weep.

There are so many  wonderful key moments, but probably the one that touched us most was a letter from young gay kid who wrote 

“Dear Santa, do you support the LGBTQ community and if you can speak to God, can you tell him I love him, and if he loves me for being gay[?]” 

Don’t just share the movie with as many people as possible,  BUT also seriously think of being an Elf next year too  https://www.uspsoperationsanta.com/

The movie is now streaming on all major platforms such as Amazon Prime. Itunes, Google Play etc)

 

 

THE HOLIDAY SITTER : Mean Girls’ Jonathan Bennett plays Sam Dalton, a proud bachelor working as a wealth consultant for we guess wealthy people. His very successful  career is  balanced by his dire dating history,  hence he is about to fly to Hawaii for Christmas alone. However his sister Kathleen (Chelsea Hobbs)  has to hit the road because the baby they’re adopting is arriving earlier than expected. So could he PLEASE take care of their two kids  

So Sam somewhat begrudgingly postpones his holiday in Hawaii and makes tracks to the suburbs.  The surprise is his sister’s next-door neighbor  Jason DeVito (George Krissa).  Kathleen had never told him about Sam as they were  total opposites (not physically!!) Jason not only wanted to settle down there in the burbs, but he was also actively looking for the love of his life AND to adopt a baby with him,

No Spoiler alert here, but we can tell you that you will love the onscreen chemistry between Bennett and Krissa which positively sizzles.  There are naturally too handsome for words but more importantly, they both give convincing pitch-perfect performances.

The Holiday Sitter can be screened on HALLMARK TV 

 

 

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Looking For Her : We gave this movie to one of Queerguru’s reviewers who told us she disliked Christmas movies, BUT to the  surprise of us all, she loved this lesbian rom-com.  Written and directed by Alexandra Swarens, who also stars in it with Olivia Buckle, the film provides what is needed…. attractive characters who have chemistry. Swaren’s Taylor is believable as a career-oriented perfectionist, whose live-in partner, Jess, recently broke up with her. She finds herself in a bind when her parents, who had not reacted well when she came out to them, have experienced some growth and absolutely insists that she bring Jess along and spend Christmas with them.

So rather disapoint her parents  Taylor hires Olive to play the part of Jess, and it works like a charm. Taylor’s mom likes her so much, that Taylor almost feels left out! And while acting their roles as lovers, they manage to fall in love for real.  Well, it is Christmas after all.

Looking For Her can be screened FREE on You Tube 

 

 

And now for something totally different : “Nelly and Nadine “ is the unlikely love story between two women falling in love on Christmas Eve, 1944.  This documentray  film has been made with exquisite delicacy to tell a story of survival in the 20th Century.  It is also a tale of profound love and intimacy that portrays moments in Nelly & Nadine´s apartment in Caracas, Venezuela, and Sylvie´s home, a place sweeter than home in the French countryside. 

Each frame of the documentary is a picture in itself, perfectly composed and edited. Off voices add warmth to the narrative and thanks to a skillful selection of photos and Super-8 footage, we know about Nelly and see her through Nadine’s eyes.  In a particularly moving moment, we listen to Nelly singing  Puccini´s “Un bel di vedremo”.   You should probably have a full box of tissues handy for this one 

Nelly and Nadine can be streamed on Amazon Prime 

 

 

When Charles Dickens published his novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ in 1843 it’s runaway success was credited with restoring the Christmas season as one of merriment and festivity in Britain and America after a period of sobriety and somberness. Never been out of print since then, this classic tale of finding the good inside even an old miser, was chosen by Richard Knight Jr a film critic turned filmmaker as the source for the possibly first ever gay Christmas holiday movie in 2016.
The setting is transposed from the darkly-lit Victorian London to an equally dark Screws, a gay club in contemporary Chicago. The mean-spirited proprietor is Ebenezer Scrooge who seems to take great pleasure in firing people even though it is Christmas Eve. After he has managed to upset all the staff and patrons and they have left, Scrooge is alone in his small apartment when he is visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley his late unscrupulous business partner.  Marley is there of course to point out the error of his ways and to plead with Scrooge to change before it is too late.
This is a well-intentioned high-spirited low budget production which is entertaining enough even though it will hardly rank as a new Christmas classic

Scrooge and Marley can be streamed FREE on TUBITV

 

 

Single All The Way, from 2O21 is Netflix’s’ first foray into making gay Christmas movies.  From where we are looking it seems that are taking it all seriously with such a first-class cast and crew.

The film stars queer actors Philemon Chambers and Michael Urie as Nick and Peter, respectively, a pair of longtime roommates in Los Angeles. Peter works as a photographer, while Nick makes his living writing children’s books. When Peter’s parents (Kathy Najimy & Barry Bostwick) lobby him to return to the east coast for the holidays, Nick tags along. Then Peter’s mom tries to set him up with a handsome trainer, and Peter and Nick both must confront questions about their future amid the holiday madness. Luke MacfarlaneJennifer Robertson and Jennifer Coolidge also star.

The last line is from the much treasured gay Icon  a puzzled-looking Jennifer Coolidge who says “the gays always know how to do stuff  ….. for some reason, they’re always obsessed with me !

Single All The Way can be streamed on Netflix

 

 

Of all the queer love stories released for the Christmas season in 2022, , Netflix’s SMILEY stands heads and shoulders above the rest …..it’s so refreshing to see something so authentically queer. However, its creator Guillem Clua who adapted the 8-part series from his own very successful award-winning stage play stresses it’s a gay story, but not just for gays, because first of all, it’s a love story which everyone can relate too

Its the story of a group of friends who live in Barcelona, and who are all looking for love, often in the wrong places.  The background of the city sets it all off so beautifully but it’s the magnetic chemistry and energy between this talented ensemble of actors that have you hooked right up until the final credits roll. 

SMILEY can be screened on NETFLIX

 

 

The movie TOO COOL FOR CHRISTMAS was made in 2004 for Canadian TV and was the story of two gay dads and their family. That evidently was considered far too advance for us in the US, so they filmed another version at the very same time and substituted one of the gays dads with a woman, and turned the other gay dad straight. Check it out below it is the most unthreatening piece of lightweight filmmaking we have ever seen AND it stars George Hamilton who was wearing heavy bronzer years before Trump.

Too Cool For Christmas can be streamed FREE on TUBITV

 

 

for full reviews of over 2000 queer films check out www.queerguru.com and whilst you are there be sure to subscribe to get all the latest raves and rants on queer cinema …best of all its FREE

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