FilmCave

What a Christmas television film is

The Christmas television film is a young tradition with old roots. Hollywood made holiday pictures from its early decades, and American networks filled December with specials and family dramas through the 1970s and 1980s. The form that viewers know today took shape in the 1990s, when cable channels began commissioning their own seasonal films, and it grew quickly after 2010, when a handful of channels started to release dozens of new titles each winter. By the 2020s the season began in October, and more than a hundred new Christmas films were reaching North American screens every year.

The films share a grammar. The heroine usually has a career she is good at and a reason to travel. The setting is a place with a name like Homestead, Angel Falls, Maple Creek, Pine Valley or Cookie Jar. There is a deadline, most often Christmas Eve. There is a town event that needs saving: a tree lighting, a parade, a pageant, a bake sale, a factory, a family inn. And there is a second lead, often a single father, a childhood friend or a charming competitor, whose plans seem at first to run against hers. The pleasure lies in watching familiar pieces arranged in a fresh order.

The catalogue on FilmCave spans three decades of this tradition. The oldest title, A Holiday to Remember from 1995, stars Connie Sellecca as a mother who takes her young daughter back to the town where she grew up. The newest, from 2025, include A Grand Ole Opry Christmas, A Royal Montana Christmas, Christmas Above the Clouds and Melt My Heart This Christmas. Between them lie films with Kelsey Grammer, Debbie Reynolds, Neil Patrick Harris, Jennifer Grey, Chevy Chase, Kelly Rowland, Toni Braxton, Teri Hatcher and Leighton Meester.

Six films to begin with

The front of FilmCave features six titles that show the range of the shelves. EXmas, from 2023, is the most watched film in the catalogue. Robbie Amell plays Graham, who travels home to surprise his family for Christmas and finds them already celebrating with a guest of honour: his former fiancée Ali, played by Leighton Meester. The two compete for the family's favour, with the loser to leave before Christmas Day. It is a bright, quick comedy directed by Jonah Feingold.

Switched for Christmas, from 2017, gives Candace Cameron Bure two roles. She plays identical twins Kate and Chris Lockhart, who agree to trade places, one at the office and one at a school, and to plan each other's Christmas events. The sisters set one rule for themselves about romance, and the film has fun testing it. Eion Bailey co-stars and Lee Friedlander directs.

A Dream of Christmas, from 2016, belongs to the long family of wish stories. Nikki DeLoach plays a restless young wife who is granted a wish by a Christmas angel and wakes to a life as a single woman with a glittering career. She soon sets out to win her husband back. Andrew W. Walker plays the husband, and the film is one of the best loved of its year.

Miss Christmas, from 2017, stars Brooke D'Orsay as Holly Khun, who finds the great tree for a Chicago plaza each year. With the lighting ceremony ten days away, she reads through letters from the public and discovers the perfect tree in the town of Klaus, Wisconsin, on the land of a family whose son, played by Marc Blucas, would rather keep it standing.

Merry Liddle Christmas, from 2019, is led by Kelly Rowland as a successful technology entrepreneur whose lively family descends on her gleaming new house for the holidays. It carries one of the highest ratings in the catalogue. And A Christmas Carol, from 2004, is a musical version of the Dickens story with Kelsey Grammer as Ebenezer Scrooge and Jesse L. Martin among the spirits, the grandest production on these shelves.

Small towns, farms and inns

The small town is the natural home of the Christmas film, and thirty-two titles on FilmCave make it their subject. In Christmas in Homestead, Taylor Cole plays a famous actress who arrives in the Christmas-loving town of Homestead, Iowa, to make a holiday film and grows close to a local innkeeper who is also the mayor, played by Michael Rady. In A Christmas to Remember, Mira Sorvino is a sharp-tongued television personality who drives into the mountains for a rest and wakes in the care of a small-town veterinarian, played by Cameron Mathison, with her memory gone for the moment.

Dear Secret Santa sends Tatyana Ali, as a Beverly Hills banker, home to northern California, where cards from an anonymous admirer begin to arrive. Christmas on the Vine follows a young marketing executive back to her home town to help a family winery. A Very Charming Christmas Town takes a travel writer to Solvang, the Danish-style village in California, and The Mistletoe Secret has Kellie Pickler persuading a famous travel writer to feature her beloved home town.

Inns have a shelf to themselves in spirit. In A Cozy Christmas Inn, Jodie Sweetin plays a property executive who travels to Alaska to acquire a bed and breakfast and finds that it belongs to someone she once knew well. Inn Love by Christmas brings a hotel executive from Miami back to the family inn, and Writing Around the Christmas Tree gathers a group of writers at a quaint retreat. Christmas Hotel, with Tatyana Ali again, sets a city hotelier the task of opening a new hotel in the town where she grew up.

Farms and ranches supply the widest skies. Christmas a la Mode is set on a dairy farm whose owner invents a holiday ice cream contest to keep it going. Christmas in Montana sends Kellie Martin to help a rancher, played by Colin Ferguson, put his books in order. Mistletoe in Montana stars Melissa Joan Hart as the owner of a guest ranch, and Christmas on the Alpaca Farm follows a designer of Christmas sweaters who leaves a New York fashion house to enter a competition with wool of her own. The small towns page lists more.

Some towns are saved by their factories. In Christmas Cookies, Jill Wagner plays an executive sent to close the sale of a cookie company that is the lifeblood of a town called Cookie Jar, where she meets the factory owner played by Wes Brown. In A Christmas in Vermont, a young executive is sent to wind up a small outerwear company and meets its founder, played by Chevy Chase. All She Wants for Christmas is set in a town that depends on a decorations factory, and You Light Up My Christmas, with Kim Fields, in a town built around a family maker of Christmas lights. Christmas at Maple Creek pairs a romance novelist with a blacksmith to save a village.

Angels, wishes and friendly ghosts

A touch of wonder runs through fifty of the films. Angels come first. In Christmas in Angel Falls, Rachel Boston plays Gabby, a guardian angel known for bending the rules, who is sent to restore the Christmas spirit of a town and meets a volunteer fire chief played by Paul Greene. A Heavenly Christmas stars Kristin Davis as a workaholic who finds herself training to be a Christmas angel under the eye of Shirley MacLaine, with Eric McCormack as the singer she is sent to help. A Christmas Angel Match, from 2025, imagines two angels who usually work alone being assigned to the same pair of soulmates.

Wishes follow close behind. Eve's Christmas, from 2004, grants a wealthy career woman a wish that carries her back in time eight years, to the week of the wedding she walked away from. Saying Yes to Christmas casts a spell on a career-minded heroine so that she accepts every invitation while she is home. Holiday Switch lets a wife and mother step into the life she might have had with a wealthy old flame, and The Magical Christmas Shoes gives Erin Karpluk a pair of shoes that lead her back to the joy of the season.

Dickens casts a long shadow, and several films play with his ghosts in a gentle way. Ghosts of Christmas Always makes its heroine a Ghost of Christmas Present whose assignment, a man named Peter, turns out to stir memories of her own. Boyfriends of Christmas Past sends four former boyfriends to visit a marketing executive, and Karroll's Christmas, with Tom Everett Scott, delivers the three spirits to the wrong house. Christmas Encore follows an actress cast in a small modern staging of the same story, and A Christmas Carol gives it in full with songs.

Santa appears in person as well. The Case for Christmas puts him in a courtroom with Dean Cain as the attorney who takes his side. The Housewives of the North Pole, with Kyle Richards and Betsy Brandt, is set in North Pole, Vermont, where two friends have long reigned over the house decorating contest. Just Like a Christmas Movie zaps a busy heroine with faulty lights and drops her into a world that follows the rules of the genre. The angels and wishes page sorts these by kind.

Music and the stage

Twenty-three films have a song at their heart. Country music leads the way. A Grand Ole Opry Christmas, from 2025, stars Nikki DeLoach as Gentry Woods, who gave up music after the loss of her father and is drawn back to Nashville's most famous stage; Kristoffer Polaha co-stars, and the film holds one of the highest ratings on FilmCave. In Our Christmas Love Song, Alicia Witt plays a country star who goes home for the holidays while a question hangs over her new single. A Country Christmas Harmony reunites a former duo who were once sweethearts.

Pianos get their turn in The Road Home for Christmas, where two rival musicians from a duelling piano show share a long drive, and in A Carol for Two, where a hopeful singer takes a job as a singing waitress and finds a duet partner. My Favorite Christmas Melody, with the singer Mya, follows a songwriter who has drifted into writing jingles and is asked to help a school music programme. The Christmas High Note and The Christmas Choir, in which an accountant starts a choir at a shelter, complete the set.

The stage and the film set are close cousins of the concert hall. The Snow Must Go On brings a Broadway performer home to upstate New York, where he is drawn into directing the school musical. The 5-Year Christmas Party follows two former theatre school rivals who meet each December to work for the same catering company. Lights, Camera, Christmas! has a holiday film arrive in a small town in need of a costume designer, and Ladies of the '80s: A Divas Christmas reunites five stars of a long-running serial, with Loni Anderson and Morgan Fairchild among them. The music page has the full list.

Princes and princesses

Eight films wear a crown. The royal Christmas romance is a small genre with firm customs: a kingdom with an invented name, a prince travelling quietly, and a heroine whose good sense wins the palace over. In A Royal Christmas on Ice, a prince comes to the United States to start a business and meets a former figure skater who runs the local rink. In A Royal Christmas Holiday, a reporter arranges an interview with a European prince who is visiting for the season. Christmas with a Crown sends a prince in plain clothes to a home town festival.

Christmas with a Prince: Becoming Royal is a sequel that follows Dr. Tasha, a year after meeting Prince Alec, to his kingdom for the holidays. A Merry Royal Christmas hands a top wedding planner a royal wedding set for Christmas Day. Royally Yours, This Christmas has a prince fall for a hotel housekeeper who is also a single mother. And A Royal Montana Christmas, from 2025, turns the pattern around: Fiona Gubelmann plays a princess who seeks a quiet week on a Montana ranch, where Warren Christie is her guide. The royal page arranges all eight.

Weddings and proposals

Sixteen films lead towards an aisle. In Meet Me at Christmas, Catherine Bell plays the mother of a groom who must organise his Christmas Eve wedding together with the bride's uncle, played by Mark Deklin. A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride has a wedding planner trying to slow down her own mother's sudden engagement. Marrying Father Christmas is the third chapter in the story of Miranda, played by Erin Krakow, who went looking for her father's family in Engaging Father Christmas and now plans her own wedding.

The pretend engagement is a favourite device. In Marry Me For Christmas, an advertising agency owner invents a fiancé to quiet her family. In A Fiancé for Christmas, a wedding registry made for fun brings a whole town to a bridal shower. The Holiday Proposal Plan pairs a travel columnist with her former boyfriend to help two friends get engaged, and Will You Merry Me? brings two sets of parents together over Christmas and Hanukkah. Even the dogs marry in A Christmas Wedding Tail, with Jennie Garth. See the weddings page.

Bakeries, kitchens and vineyards

Fourteen films are set where something good is cooking. Deliver by Christmas stars Alvina August as a bakery owner charmed by a mystery client she knows only by telephone, while a widower new to town, played by Eion Bailey, keeps crossing her path. Gingerbread Miracle brings two old school friends together to sell a family Mexican bakery whose gingerbread is said to grant wishes. Christmas, Love and Fudge teams a pastry chef with an entrepreneur to recreate a famous recipe.

Chefs and critics share the next table. A Christmas to Savour sends a chef to a holiday cooking getaway, Christmas à la Carte sends a food correspondent to help open a restaurant in Angel Heights, and Recipe for a Perfect Christmas, with Christine Baranski, sets a new food critic between her spirited mother and a chef in need of a good review. A Chestnut Family Christmas has a gifted pastry chef hosting her family in a house that belongs to her employers, and A Christmas Blessing follows a television chef, played by Lori Loughlin, to a community pantry.

Sweet shops and cellars round out the shelf. In Christmas in the City, Ashley Williams plays a mother who takes a job in a city department store to keep her father's candy shop open. Candy Cane Christmas celebrates a street famous for its decorations. An Ice Wine Christmas returns a sommelier, played by Roselyn Sánchez, to her family's harvest, which takes place on the coldest nights of the year. The food and drink page gathers the rest.

Reporters, executives and other busy people

Sixty films on FilmCave give their leads a demanding job, and the newsroom is the busiest workplace of all. In Random Acts of Christmas, Erin Cahill plays Sydney, a journalist tracing the source of anonymous kindnesses appearing around her city, who meets a competing reporter played by Kevin McGarry. In Christmas Unwrapped, Amber Stevens West is an ambitious reporter assigned to look into a generous townsman who insists that every gift he hands out comes from Santa himself. The Christmas Edition moves a journalist to Alaska to run a small-town newspaper, with Marie Osmond in the cast, and Mistletoe Match sends a writer to cover a Secret Santa event for singles.

Television studios come next. Every Christmas Has a Story stars Lori Loughlin as a presenter whose slip on air earns her an invitation to the most Christmas-loving town in America, where the producer travelling with her, played by Colin Ferguson, is a man she once dated. Two weather forecasters have films of their own: Snowy with a Chance of Christmas, in which a daily holiday challenge is meant to rescue a local station, and Cloudy with a Chance of Christmas, set during a live broadcast from the Bavarian-style town of Leavenworth.

The executive with a full diary is the classic heroine of the genre. Christmas on the Bayou takes a New York marketing executive, played by Hilarie Burton Morgan, home to Louisiana with her young son, where Tyler Hilton plays a childhood sweetheart and the country singer Randy Travis has a twinkling supporting part. Christmas Takes Flight sets a pilot, played by Katie Lowes, against the careful new owner of her family's airline over a charity flight for children. Christmas Above the Clouds, from 2025, puts a chief executive played by Erin Krakow on a flight to Australia in the company of three spirits and a former love, played by Tyler Hynes.

Other professions add variety. An astrophysicist helps to open a planetarium exhibit in Under the Christmas Sky. A glassblower shows her work under another name in Melt My Heart This Christmas. A painter takes a teaching post in The Art of Christmas. A canine therapist finds homes for a dozen puppies in 12 Pups of Christmas, a home stager decorates a widower's house in Staging Christmas, and a builder constructs a small house for a neighbour in need in A Tiny Home Christmas. Teri Hatcher runs a lifestyle company in How to Fall in Love by Christmas. The careers page sorts them by trade.

The players of the season

Christmas television has a company of regular players, and following a favourite is one of the best ways through the catalogue. Jill Wagner appears most often on FilmCave. She is the executive in Christmas Cookies, an interior designer decorating a businessman's estate in Christmas Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses, a professor of military history helping to return a soldier's keepsakes to his family in Bringing Christmas Home, and a daughter travelling with her father, played by Bruce Boxleitner, to see the aurora in Christmas Under the Northern Lights.

Erin Krakow has three films here, two of them from the Father Christmas series, in which Wendie Malick also appears. Erin Karpluk leads The Magical Christmas Shoes, New Year's Kiss and Christmas, Love and Fudge. Tatyana Ali stars in Dear Secret Santa, Christmas Hotel and The Holiday Proposal Plan. Paul Greene, Jesse Hutch, Dillon Casey and Colin Ferguson are among the leading men who return several times, and Candace Cameron Bure, often called a queen of the season, appears in Switched for Christmas and The Christmas Contest.

Famous guests add sparkle. Debbie Reynolds plays the grandmother in The Christmas Wish, with Neil Patrick Harris as her grandson and a young Naomi Watts in the cast. Shelley Long and Barry Bostwick lead A Different Kind of Christmas. Jennifer Grey and Clark Gregg, married at the time, star together in The Road to Christmas. Toni Braxton takes the Scrooge role in Every Day Is Christmas, David Hasselhoff plays a hired expert in good cheer in The Christmas Consultant, Terry O'Quinn is the sailing father in Christmas Sail, Tia Carrere joins A Big Fat Family Christmas and Beau Bridges anchors Our Italian Christmas Memories. The stars page keeps a longer list.

The early years, 1995 to 2014

Twenty-seven films come from the first two decades of the catalogue, and they show how the form grew. The films of the 1990s are family dramas with a seasonal setting. In A Different Kind of Christmas, from 1996, Shelley Long plays a city attorney whose father has turned his house into a year-round Santa's castle for the children of the neighbourhood. In The Christmas Wish, from 1998, a Wall Street trader returns to his home town to settle his grandfather's affairs and is asked by his grandmother to solve a small family mystery. A Chance of Snow, from the same year, strands a couple at a Minnesota airport during a blizzard, with time at last to talk.

The 2000s brought larger productions and more comedy. A Christmas Carol of 2004 was filmed as a full musical with songs by Alan Menken. Eve's Christmas, Karroll's Christmas and Recipe for a Perfect Christmas followed within a year. The Road to Christmas, from 2006, strands a fashion photographer on the way to her wedding in Aspen and gives her a lift with a teacher and his daughter. Christmas on Chestnut Street builds a neighbourhood competition around sixty thousand lights ordered by mistake, and Will You Merry Me? and A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride close the decade with weddings.

From 2010 the modern pattern is in place. The Christmas Ornament, from 2013, stars Kellie Martin as a young widow who meets the owner of a tree shop, played by Cameron Mathison, and is given an ornament that stands for hope. The Christmas Shepherd, from 2014, follows a children's author, played by Teri Polo, whose German shepherd goes missing in a storm and is taken in by a father and daughter. Baby's First Christmas, Holiday Road Trip, Christmas in Palm Springs and Marry Me For Christmas belong to the same years. The page on films before 2015 lists them by decade.

The boom, 2015 to 2019

Forty-five films date from the five years in which the genre became a season of its own. The year 2016 alone supplies A Dream of Christmas, Christmas in Homestead, Every Christmas Has a Story, Christmas Cookies, A Christmas to Remember, A Heavenly Christmas, Looks Like Christmas and A Perfect Christmas. In Looks Like Christmas, Anne Heche and Dylan Neal play two highly organised single parents who each expect to run the school's holiday events. In A Perfect Christmas, a newly married couple host both families for the first time while each keeps a piece of news for later.

The year 2017 added Switched for Christmas, Miss Christmas, Christmas Next Door, A Bramble House Christmas, Christmas in Angel Falls, Engaging Father Christmas and Christmas Encore. In Christmas Next Door, Jesse Metcalfe plays an author of books for bachelors who is left in charge of his young niece and nephew and turns to the neighbour across the way, played by Fiona Gubelmann. A Bramble House Christmas sends a son to a bed and breakfast to learn about the nurse who cared for his father, played by Autumn Reeser.

The last two years of the decade brought Christmas Bells Are Ringing, set on Cape Cod, Memories of Christmas, with Christina Milian as a daughter who inherits her mother's famously decorated house, Winter's Dream, set on a ski mountain, and Christmas Cupid's Arrow, set at a small college. From 2019 come Christmas in Vienna, A Christmas Miracle, A Date by Christmas Eve, A Beauty & the Beast Christmas, My Best Friend's Christmas and Christmas Princess, which draws on the true story of a young woman chosen for the Rose Parade court.

The 2020s

Eighty-eight films, more than half of the catalogue, were made from 2020 onwards. The first years of the decade are well stocked: Deliver by Christmas, Swept Up by Christmas, in which an antique seller and a cleaner prepare a grand estate for sale, Homemade Christmas, Christmas in the Rockies, set at a family lumber company, and Candy Cane Christmas all date from 2020. The year 2021 brings The Christmas Contest, in which two former partners compete on live television for their chosen charities, Time for Them to Come Home for Christmas, Christmas for Keeps, Rebuilding a Dream Christmas and A Great North Christmas.

From 2022 and 2023 come Reindeer Games Homecoming, with Sarah Drew as a teacher defending her late father's town tournament, Christmas Class Reunion, A Royal Christmas on Ice, Fit for Christmas, Christmas in Pine Valley, Mom's Christmas Boyfriend, in which a ten-year-old wins a wish on her mother's behalf, 12 Dares of Christmas, Me and Mr. Christmas and Christmas in Maple Hills, where a dairy farmer and a veteran search old records to prove who owns the family land.

The newest shelf, from 2024 and 2025, holds Confessions of a Christmas Letter, with Angela Kinsey as a mother who hires a novelist to write the family's annual letter, Unwrapping Christmas: Tina's Miracle, Meet Me at the Christmas Train Parade, Christmas, Love and Fudge, A Suite Holiday Romance, set in a grand New York hotel, and A Christmas Angel Match. The 2020s page follows the decade year by year.

Journeys at Christmas

Although most of these stories end at home, many begin with a ticket. Two films cross the Atlantic. In Christmas in Vienna, Elisabeth Harnois plays Amy, who leaves Chicago to spend the holidays with her brother and takes ballroom lessons that lead to a place at one of the city's great balls. In Joyeux Noel, a copy editor and a practical-minded reporter travel to France in search of the artist behind a romantic Christmas painting.

Closer to home, the mountains and the far north are favourite destinations. The Christmas Edition and A Cozy Christmas Inn are both set in Alaska. A Great North Christmas sends a Los Angeles attorney on a surprise holiday arranged by her two best friends. Christmas in the Wilds follows a couple through the backcountry, and Winter's Dream stays on the slopes. For warmer weather there are Christmas in Palm Springs, in which two children plot to bring their parents to the same desert resort, and Christmas Sail, with Katee Sackhoff as a daughter who returns to her father's harbour town.

The road itself is the setting of three films: The Road to Christmas, The Road Home for Christmas and Holiday Road Trip, in which an executive crosses America with her company's mascot and the son of its president. Time for Them to Come Home for Christmas is a road story of another kind: a woman who has lost her memory travels with her nurse to follow her single clue, a newspaper clipping about a Christmas festival. The journeys page maps the routes.

Films for a full sofa

All 160 films were chosen with a mixed audience in mind, and some suit a full sofa especially well. Children enjoy The Case for Christmas, with Santa in court, and Meet Me at the Christmas Train Parade, in which a boy persuades his mother to revive a parade of decorated trains. Animal lovers have 12 Pups of Christmas, The Christmas Shepherd and A Christmas Wedding Tail. In Christmas Next Door, a niece and nephew teach their uncle how the season is done.

Large families fill the screen in Merry Liddle Christmas, A Big Fat Family Christmas, in which a photojournalist covers a famous annual party that happens to be her own family's, Welcome to the Christmas Family Reunion and The Christmas Consultant. Grandparents are central to Our Italian Christmas Memories, in which the Colucci grandchildren try to recreate their grandmother's pasta sauce for their grandfather, and to The Heiress of Christmas, in which a grandmother sends the heir to a department store to work on the shop floor in December. The family page suggests films for each kind of company.

The top rated shelf

Thirty-seven films hold a place on the top rated shelf, which gathers titles with an average of six or above from at least twenty viewers. Christmas with a Prince: Becoming Royal and Merry Liddle Christmas stand at the head, both above seven. Christmas in Montana follows at seven, and Ghosts of Christmas Always, The Mistletoe Secret and Christmas a la Mode sit close behind. Switched for Christmas, Deliver by Christmas and Bringing Christmas Home share a score of six and a half.

The shelf has its surprises. A Bramble House Christmas, Random Acts of Christmas and Time for Them to Come Home for Christmas, three films with a gentle puzzle to solve, all score well, as does the musical A Christmas Carol. Among the most recent releases, A Royal Montana Christmas, A Grand Ole Opry Christmas and Christmas Above the Clouds have opened with averages above seven and will join the shelf as more viewers rate them. The rows on the home page begin with this shelf for a reason: it is the quickest route to a film that many people have enjoyed.

Second chances and old friends

If one theme unites the catalogue, it is the second chance. Old classmates meet again in Christmas Class Reunion, where a group who once called themselves the cursed class gather for their fifteenth anniversary, and in Christmas for Keeps, where childhood friends come home after ten years to honour a favourite teacher. My Best Friend's Christmas and Rebuilding a Dream Christmas both bring a heroine face to face with someone she admired at school. In Reindeer Games Homecoming, the boy from the next desk returns as a rival captain.

Families are mended as often as romances. Christmas Sail reconciles a daughter and her father on the water. Christmas Under the Northern Lights gives a father and daughter a last holiday in the old family house. Christmas Time Is Here sets an estate agent the task of selling a resort that turns out to be her own father's. Swept Up by Christmas reunites the owner of a great house with his memories, and The Christmas Ornament and A Chance of Snow show two people learning to begin again. These are quiet films, and they are often the ones viewers remember longest.

Friends matter too. In A Great North Christmas, it is two friends who book the trip. In The Great Christmas Switch, twin sisters trade households for a few days to rest from their own. In ensemble pieces such as The Housewives of the North Pole and Ladies of the '80s: A Divas Christmas, the friendship is the love story. And in Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas, a best friend is the one person who can still see and hear the heroine.

The look of FilmCave

FilmCave is drawn in deep navy and slate with a single bright yellow. A slate bar stays at the top of every page, with the yellow and white wordmark on the left, a row of links to the main shelves, a rounded search field and a yellow My List button. On the home page a wide still from a featured film sits under the bar with a yellow button that opens its page. Below it, rows of poster cards run under headings marked with a yellow stroke, and each card shows the title, the year and a small star rating in the corner of the poster.

The same parts serve every screen. On a telephone the links fold into a menu behind a three-line button, the cards form two columns, and the featured still keeps its title and button within easy reach of a thumb. Film pages place the poster beside the facts, with the Watch now button and the country selector directly beneath the title, followed by the cast with photographs, the director and related films from the same shelves.

Finding a film

There are four ways to reach a title. The first is the search field, which answers as you type and accepts a title, an actor's name or a word such as ranch, bakery or prince. The second is the row of links in the slate bar: Movies, Small towns, Angels and wishes, Music, Royal, Top rated and A to Z. The third is the home page, where each row carries a View all link showing the size of its shelf. The fourth is the A to Z page, which sets out all 160 films in alphabetical order. The finding titles page describes each route.

Because nearly every title contains the word Christmas, the shelves do most of the sorting. A viewer who wants snow and horses can open Small towns; one who wants a little magic can open Angels and wishes; one who wants a brand new film can open The 2020s. The Careers, Comedy and Drama shelves cut across the others, and the three period shelves divide the catalogue by date.

My List and Watch now

Every film page has an Add to My List button. Pressing it places the film in a personal queue, which opens from the yellow button in the slate bar. The queue is kept in your browser on your own device, so it is ready each time you return on that device, and each saved film has a Remove button beside it. The list page can also save the queue as a file, which is a handy way to carry it to another computer or to share a December viewing plan with the family. The My List page gives the details.

When a film is chosen, the Watch now button does the rest. Select your country from the fifteen offered and press the button. JustWatch opens on the page for that film and shows which subscription services include it, where it can be rented or bought, and any free services with advertising that carry it. Christmas television films move between services from one winter to the next, and many return to free channels each November, which is why FilmCave points to a live source.

How the catalogue was chosen

The 160 films were selected by hand from a much longer list of Christmas television films. Each summary was read, and the selection favours romantic comedy, family drama and light fantasy. The aim is a shelf from which any title can be played in front of grandparents and children alike. Every film on FilmCave is also particular to FilmCave: the catalogue was assembled so that these titles belong to this guide and give it a character of its own.

Posters, stills, cast lists and running times come from TMDB, the community film database, and the star ratings shown on the cards are TMDB averages. The guide you are reading and the help pages were written for FilmCave by its own editorial team.

The films come chiefly from the United States and Canada, where most of the genre is made, and many were filmed in the towns of British Columbia and Ontario that double so convincingly for Vermont, Montana and Alaska. A viewer who watches several in a row will begin to recognise the same main streets, the same gazebos and the same generous snowfall, and that sense of returning to a familiar place is part of the charm that FilmCave sets out to share.

A plan for twelve evenings

For a newcomer, here is one way to spend twelve evenings. Begin with the favourites: EXmas, Switched for Christmas and Miss Christmas. Add wonder with A Dream of Christmas and Ghosts of Christmas Always. Visit a ranch in Christmas in Montana and a palace in Christmas with a Prince: Becoming Royal.

In the second half, bake along with Deliver by Christmas, sing along with A Grand Ole Opry Christmas, fill the house with Merry Liddle Christmas, reach back to 1998 for The Christmas Wish, and finish on Christmas Eve with Kelsey Grammer in A Christmas Carol. By then you will know your favourite players and your favourite kind of town.

Questions and answers

The questions below are those most often asked about FilmCave, with short answers. Fuller help is on the help pages named throughout this guide, including the how to watch page.

Questions