Free-to-air TV is half asleep in its non-ratings slump and many of us are lucky enough to have a few spare moments to chill by the box.

Christmas movies are much like the festive party poppers decorating mum's dining table - they're hit and miss.

For every great Christmas film like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Elf, and Die Hard (yes, it's definitely a Christmas movie), there's some god awful ones. Anyone remember Ben Affleck in Surviving Christmas? It's best that you don't.

This Christmas you'll find many festive favourites on streaming services such as Home Alone, The Polar Express and The Santa Claus, but there's also a host of new films that celebrate the season of giving.

Your Christmas or Mine (December 2): The proven rom-com formula of placing lovers in uncomfortable family positions in the countdown to December 25 is in full swing here.

When Hayley and James both swap trains at the last minute to surprise one another for Christmas, they both end up at each other's family homes without the other.

Hayley arrives at a vast mansion where Christmas does not exist, while James heads steps into a working-class home to discover the chaotic pandemonium that only a large family Christmas can bring.

Something From Tiffany's (December 9) New York City is the wintry Christmas setting for this film about the twists and unexpected discoveries of love. When two Christmas gifts - an expensive engagement ring and a cheaper pair of ear rings - are accidentally swapped it changes the lives of two couples completely.

About Fate (December 16): This rom-com pulls off the double whammy of being a Christmas and wedding movie. After being dumped by her boyfriend on the eve of her sister's wedding Margot finds a lost man, Griffin, asleep in her bed. Margot convinces Griffin to be her pretend boyfriend at the wedding, but the only problem is he's planning to pop the question to his girlfriend.

Christmas Ransom (December 1): If you're sick of all the northern hemisphere Christmas snow and reindeer, there's a new homegrown comedy that promises to be an Australian version of Home Alone.

Starring Matt Okine and Miranda Tapsell, the film follows two crooks who break into a toy store only to face two kids keen to deliver their own brand of slap-stick justice.

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (December 2): Charles Dickens' classic Christmas tale is given a supernatural, time-travelling, musical adaptation in this animated feature. On a cold Christmas Eve, selfish miser Ebenezer Scrooge has one night left to face his past - and change the future.

Falling For Christmas (streaming now): Netflix revived Winona Ryder's career with Stranger Things and now they're attempting the same for Mean Girls star and former Hollywood wild child Lindsay Lohan.

Lohan plays a newly engaged, spoiled hotel heiress who suffers amnesia in a skiing accident and finds herself in the care of a blue-collar lodge owner. It all sounds very much like Goldie Hawn's Overboard set at Christmas.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (streaming now): This certainly gets first prize for the most original Christmas release this year. While the superheroes genre long ago reached the point of over saturation, they rarely get festive.

In this 44-minute special Drax and Mantis travel to Hollywood to capture actor Kevin Bacon as a Christmas gift for Star-Lord.

Christmas Comes Twice (December 1): Fans of the soppy Hallmark-style Christmas movies are well catered for here. Cheryl's been stuck as an administrator the last five years. Visiting her family for Christmas, she magically travels five years back for a week, as she had wished, and gets a fresh start on her career and love life.