Netflix UK has set its 2026 holiday slate, and the centre of gravity is licensed library fare rather than an all-original push. Across November and December, 11 licensed Christmas features are dated for the UK service, supported by four new Netflix original films and an already available back catalogue of previous original holiday hits.
What the UK slate holds
The licensed run starts early and stretches deep into December:
- A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas – 1 Nov
- Christmas at the Palace – 5 Nov
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas – 10 Nov
- Fred Claus – 12 Nov
- Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch – 15 Nov
- Christmas in Scotland and A Very English Christmas – 25 Nov
- The Holiday – 2 Dec
- Love Actually – 3 Dec
- Last Christmas – 11 Dec
- The Polar Express – 14 Dec
Netflix UK also says family titles Lumo: The Lapland Reindeer and the new Barbie in the Nutcracker will arrive during the festive window, while Nativity! is currently streaming.
The scheduling logic
Rather than dropping everything in late December, Netflix has spaced the big library titles from early November through mid-December. The two Grinch films land five days apart; The Holiday and Love Actually arrive on consecutive days in early December; The Polar Express closes the licensed run on 14 December. That cadence gives the service a new festive reason to open the app roughly every few days during the build-up.
Why it matters for streaming marketers
Licensed Christmas classics are a different asset from original films. They arrive with built-in audience memory, repeat-viewing behaviour and cross-generational appeal; originals are the discovery play. The mix shows how a maturing streamer can use acquired library content to lower the cost of keeping subscribers engaged in the highest-churn quarter, while the four new originals—A Dog’s Perfect Christmas on 4 November, Tyler Perry’s The Gospel of Christmas on 11 November, Guarding Stars on 18 November and In a Holidaze on 2 December—do brand-building work in between.
Previous Netflix original holiday titles such as Carry-On, The Christmas Chronicles, The Princess Switch and Falling for Christmas are already available now, giving the platform a base of festive inventory before the licensed run begins.
Bottom line
For media planners, the practical read is timing. Netflix UK’s slate is a content calendar that maps one or more fresh titles to nearly every week from 1 November to 14 December. That is a retention engine as much as a programming announcement: the platform is using well-known films to create repeated appointment viewing through the quarter. Expect similar licensed-and-original layering to become the default template for holiday slates as platforms fight for Q4 screen time.
Source: What’s on Netflix
