(Credit: Netflix)

It’s that odd in-between time of year where it’s too late for pumpkins but too early for Santa. But let’s be honest, there’s always that moment when you start to feel the holidays coming in. It’s hard to keep your hands away from holiday movies, in which case.

Lucky for you, Netflix has a few animated ones that fit perfectly. These are the kind of films you can watch on a random evening and instantly feel better. No big messages or effort required. And you’ll get just good stories and nice vibes.

And the best part is that you do not need to be in a festive mode for these. You can just grab a blanket and something to snack on, and let the films do their thing.

So, if you’re ready to cheat the calendar a bit, here are five animated Netflix films that’ll gently pull you into the holiday mood.

Five animated Netflix films to watch ahead of the holidays

Klaus (Sergio Pablos, 2019)

If there’s one film that deserves to kick off the season, it’s Klaus. It follows Jesper, a spoiled postman’s son, who is forced to work in a miserable little town where everyone hates everyone else. Delivering letters there is basically impossible because no one speaks to each other. All they do is just fight. Just the way the world’s running today, with wars going on and around, it is very easy to see that in Klaus, but on a small scale. Unlike the real world, Jesper meets a quiet old woodworker named Klaus who makes toys, and together they accidentally start something that slowly changes the entire town.

What’s so lovely about Klaus is that it doesn’t try too hard to be emotional. In fact, there is a subtle humour in the film that feels natural, just like the animation, which feels hand-painted. And though it’s a holiday film, it is less about the true meaning of Christmas and more about how people soften when they let themselves care again.

Robin Robin (Dan Ojari and Mikey Please, 2021)

You know those stop-motion films that feel like they were made by hand, not machines? Robin Robin feels exactly like that. It’s this small, sweet story about a bird who’s raised by mice, which sounds adorable already, but what’s fun is how she spends half her time trying to be like them. She sneaks around for crumbs, whispers when they do, jumps at every sound, and still somehow knocks something over every time. She just doesn’t fit, and you can feel how badly she wants to.

At one point, she decides to prove herself by stealing a crumb for the family, which goes about as well as you’d expect. It turns into this mini-adventure that’s funny and surprisingly touching. You start out laughing at her, then somewhere in the middle, you start rooting for her without even realising it. And that’s what we love about it. This film doesn’t lecture you about being different or belonging; it just shows this tiny bird doing her best, failing, and still trying anyway.

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (Stephen Donnelly, 2022)

Nobody thought that we needed another version of A Christmas Carol, but this one honestly will surprise you. The reason is that it feels lighter and more emotional than you’d expect from a story we have all seen too many times. Scrooge starts with a man named Scrooge, who is still the miserable old man we know, but the animation gives everything around him a glow that makes it easier to feel for him. Then the ghosts show up, not in a scary way but like memories that refuse to stay buried, dragging him through everything he’s lost.

Towards the end, you start expecting the same climax, but somewhere in between the songs and flashbacks, it gets personal. Luke Evans plays him with this quiet sadness that makes his change feel real, not forced. There’s a scene where he sees the life he could’ve had, and it hits harder than I expected. It’s simple, but it gets you. The film doesn’t try to be clever or modern; it just tells the story properly, with heart.

Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas (Steve Cox, 2021)

This one’s for when you just want to sit back and relax. No drama, no deep messages, just easy fun. Shaun decides he deserves a bigger Christmas stocking, and somehow that turns into an overnight rescue mission when a lamb goes missing. What should have been a quiet night at the farm becomes a full adventure. He sneaks around houses, running from dogs and trying not to get caught.

There is a comfort that maybe lies in its stop-motion, or maybe it’s how every little accident turns into something you can’t help but laugh at. It doesn’t try to be clever or emotional; it just makes you feel good the way old cartoons used to. It’s the perfect thing to play before the holidays when your heart wants something light.

That Christmas (Simon Otto, 2024)

From Love Actually writer Richard Curtis comes That Christmas, a film that feels exactly like you hope it will. It is a wee bit funny and a wee bit messy, but most importantly, it is very human. This story takes place in a small seaside town during a heavy snowstorm. Here, Santa’s sleigh gets stuck, and the presents don’t arrive. So a group of kids decides to fix it themselves. The film follows them, their families, and the rest of the town as they try to save Christmas in their own ways.

What I liked is how real it feels. Nobody’s perfect, but everyone’s trying, and that’s what makes it nice to watch. The kids mess up, and the adults don’t always know what they are doing, but somehow it still works out. There’s a bit of humour in how ordinary it all is, the kind that reminds you of your own family when plans fall apart and everyone ends up laughing anyway.