By: Evi Fromm

During the winter season, do you ever just want to cuddle up on the couch and watch a heart warming movie? Whether it is Home Alone or Elf, you cannot go wrong with a good holiday movie. If you are having trouble deciding on what to watch, here are five festive romantic comedies that will make you smile.

Love Actually came out in 2003 and is the iconic Christmas romantic comedy that fans religiously watch every year around the holidays. The film is set in London and consists of ten interconnected stories about love, family, and friendships. The characters include a newly-elected minister played by Hugh Grant, a widowed father played by Liam Neeson, and Colin Firth plays a man falling in love with his housekeeper.

Holidate was released on Netiflix in 2020 and is about two single strangers, played by Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey, who bond over the fact that they are over spending holidays alone. The film includes themes of love, family expectations, and the pressure of social norms around the holidays. Over the course of the movie, they agree to become “holidates,” fake dates for family gatherings and holiday events throughout the year to avoid the pressure of relationships placed on them by society…and to have fun. Over time their relationship turns into more than just fake romance, and they are both forced to face their feelings for each other.

Love Hard stars Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O. Yang. When Dobrev’s character Natalie travels to surprise the man she has been talking to online through a dating app for Christmas, she realizes that he is not the man she thought he was. In reality, she was catfished by Yang’s character Josh who used someone he knows in his profile. To make up for this, Josh attempts to help Natalie win over the affection of the man who she thought she had been talking to, but in the end, Josh and Natalie fall end up falling in love with each other.

Our Little Secret was released this year on Netflix, and revolves around a young girl named Holly, played by Lindsay Lohan, who returns home to see her family for Christmas. While home, she unexpectedly runs into her ex-boyfriend and things begin to rekindle. She also has to navigate her journey of emotional growth, love, and holiday cheer while discovering a secret that her family had been keeping from her.