Remember when Christmas was for family? Or maybe even for Jesus — like, the guy it’s literally named for? (Quick Biblical lesson: Dec. 25 is Jesus Christ’s birthday. It’s also Rickey Henderson’s.)
For those who don’t celebrate — Christmas, not Rickey Henderson’s birthday — Dec. 25 was always a day for the the movies. And there’s still plenty of that. This Christmas Day will see the release of The Housemaid starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, Timothée Chalamet in Marty Supreme and Jack Black, Paul Rudd and Steve Zahn’s comedic take on Anaconda, originally a 1997 thriller starring Jon Voight, Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube. It’ll be an interesting battle at the box office, though the day’s ultimate winner will likely be a release from six days earlier: Avatar: Fire & Ash.
But these days, like everything else, Christmas will be streamed.
Specifically, there are two NFL games on Netflix Christmas Day and one on Amazon Prime Video, five NBA games, and the debut of Stranger Things 5 Vol. 2 on Netflix. Not into it but super into children’s music? Documentary Happy and You Know It, directed by Penny Lane, will be on HBO Max that day. (For the same crowd, the 2025 Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade will stream on Disney+ and Hulu.)
Netflix has the Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Commanders at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT and the Detroit Lions vs. Minnesota Vikings at 4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT. Given that Christmas 2025 falls on a Thursday, Prime Video, the home to Thursday Night Football, has the primetime game, the Denver Broncos vs. the suddenly Patrick Mahomes-less Kansas City Chiefs at 8:15 p.m. ET/5:15 p.m. PT. The NFL and Amazon certainly weren’t counting on Mahomes tearing his ACL and the Chiefs being out of playoff contention for the first time in a decade when they booked this one.
Last Christmas, the NFL first gave Netflix its heart, er, games. The very next day, Nielsen gave away the viewership stats: more than 30 million people worldwide watched the games on average. A not-insignificant attraction was the second game’s halftime show, Beyoncé, which peaked the day’s streaming tune-in.
This time, Snoop Dogg will headline the halftime show at Netflix’s second game, joined by the singing voices of HUNTR/X,EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, from KPop Demon Hunters, the streamer’s biggest-ever movie. Country star Lainey Wilson will also perform, and Netflix says it is keeping a few additional performers up its sleeve. Like last year, the 1 p.m. ET game does not have an official halftime show.
The singing voices from KPop Demon Hunters — HUNTR/X,EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami — during iHeartRadio 102.7 KIIS FM’s Jingle Ball 2025 in Los Angeles.
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
The new ESPN app has all the NBA action: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. (the NBA Cup Champion!) New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs vs. Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks vs. Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Denver Nuggets.
The Christmas 2024 games averaged more than five million viewers, which is great for the NBA.
Feel free to fire up your Fire Stick way earlier than any of that stuff for a fire. (It’s not rude to have the TV on during presents if it is streaming a yule log.) Netflix will have themed options like Wednesday and Stranger Things. For Frozen folks, Disney+ has an Arendelle Castle one. (If you’re actually frozen, use the real fireplace.) Hulu’s got Calcifer from Studio Ghibli’sHowl’s Moving Castle and Peacock has the Grinch. For a classic, go with Amazon Prime Video — nothing fancy, just fake dancing flames on digital wood. Since I shouted out Amazon’s Fire device, let me also plug Roku’s Holiday Yule Log here.
But the main event come Thursday may include exactly zero balls — well, aside from the ones needed to battle Vecna. Santa Claus will be cramming episodes five through seven of the final Stranger Things season down your chimney; the series finale will wait for New Year’s Eve. When Netflix sees the viewing totals for that one, it’ll pop the good champagne.
Stranger Things 5 has been split into three parts, basically spanning three holidays. The first four episodes debuted on Thanksgiving Eve. The next three come on Christmas Day, and the feature-length series finale drops on Dec. 31. In our very-online world, these drops bring back appointment-television about as much as live sports can. Stranger Things 5: Vol. 1 had Netflix’s second-largest opening week ever, behind only Squid Game 2. (And if you want to get technical about it, Stranger Things 5: Vol. 1 had Netflix’s best-ever opening for an original series.)
Look, it’s the holidays and you’re already binge-eating — why not add binge-viewing?
“The sheer number of fans who have already watched Volume 1 is staggering — the response has been more than we ever could have dreamed,”Stranger Thingscreators Matt and Ross Duffer said, in part, in a statement at the time. “We are beyond excited to share Volume 2 — there’s so much more to come.”
Are those prancing reindeer hooves I hear? Or is the Demogorgan coming for me?
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation: Chevy Chase, 1989.
Courtesy Everett Collection
Anyway, all of that is just the new stuff. Streaming will simultaneously be packed with endless on-demand and scheduled holiday classics. There’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Elf and A Christmas Story on HBO Max, Home Alone and The Santa Clause on Disney+/Hulu, A Charlie Brown Christmas on Apple TV, and Die Hard (if you want to go there) on Peacock, Disney+ and Hulu.
There will also be some new options, like Netflix’s My Secret Santa, Jingle Bell Heist and Champagne Problems. How bad can they be? Well, according to Rotten Tomatoes, not as bad as the same streamer’s A Merry Little Ex-Mas! That said, as someone who wrapped presents to My Secret Santa (I was with my wife!), I’d recommend sticking with the NFL games.
Happy Birthday, Rickey Henderson.