Whether you're looking for holiday movies and TV shows for the kids, adults, or the whole family, you'll find your fill of them on these Roku channels. And they're all free!
Tubi - Who can make it through the holiday season without watching It's a Wonderful Life, the classic 1946 film about a suicidal family man, played by Jimmy Stewart, who is saved by his guardian angel? This is just one of 200 titles available on-demand on Tubi. Although It's a Wonderful Life is celebrating its 75th Christmas season, most of the movies on Tubi are much more recent, including Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You (2017) and the recently-released Christmas on My Block (2021).
Some of the titles on Tubi a a bit off-beat, like The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas (1996), but there's no shortage of traditional feel-good tales like My Adventures With Santa (2019) and The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. There is also a good amount of animated children's fare, such as He-Man & She-Ra: A Christmas Special (1985), Magic Gift of the Snowman (2018), and The Nutcracker Sweet (2015).
To find the full Tubi library of holiday titles, select Categories from the left-hand menu on the Tubi home screen, then scroll down to Holiday Hits.
Crackle - If you want to re-watch holiday episodes of popular TV shows you grew up on, Crackle has over three dozen selections. These include Father Knows Best (S01 E12: The Christmas Story) and Hazel (S01 E12: Hazel's Christmas Shopping), along with modern-day shows like Highway to Heaven (S01 E13: Another Song for Christmas) 21 Jump Street (S02 E11: Christmas in Saigon) and NewsRadio (S02 E12: Xmas Story). Crackle also has a holiday films collection with 65 titles that include A Frozen Christmas 3 (2018), An American Christmas Carol (1979), and Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman (2000).
To find the holiday TV shows on Crackle, select Watch Now from the left-hand menu and then scroll down to Christmas TV on Crackle. The movies are found under Holiday when selecting Movies from the left-hand menu.
Pluto TV - Can't decide what to stream? Pluto TV offers several live-stream channels with holiday selections. Pluto's on-screen guide shows only a few hours of upcoming programming, but at the time this article was written you could look forward to The Dog Who Saved The Holidays and holiday episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show, Taxi, Happy Days, and Laverne & Shirley on Pluto TV Christmas (channel 116), and A Kiss On Candy Cane Lane and This is Christmas on Pluto TV Mistletoe (channel 117). Also available is Home for the Holidays, which includes Jamie's Quick & Easy Christmas and holiday episodes of Baking with Julia and Classic Mary Berry; Cine Navideno, with Spanish-language offerings like Navidad para Belle and Simplemente Nigella; and two fireplace channels, Classic Yule Log Fireplace and Christmas Fireplace.
Holiday channels on Pluto TV are in the programming grid; press the up or down button on your Roku remote, press OK when "Guide" is highlighted, then select Season's Greetings from the categories to the left of the grid.
VUDU - Although VUDU offers videos for sale and rent, the streaming service also has a good selection of free titles, including a Holiday Movie Collection that includes the categories Winter Wonderland (52 titles), Tis The Season (144 titles), Holidays With the Family (87 titles), Pumpkin Spice Romance (252 titles) and Holiday Horror (99 titles). (Note that some film are offered in multiple categories.) The holiday movies on VUDU are relatively new and include family-friendly content like Golden Winter (2012), in which a runaway boy befriends a pack of homeless puppies, along with movies for a more mature audience - Hansel & Gretel Get Baked (2013), where the stoner siblings battle an evil witch who uses a magical blend of marijuana to lure in teenage bait, is one such offering.
Although you can access VUDU content from the Movies selection on your Roku's home screen, you won't find the Holiday Movie Collection there. You will need to launch the dedicated VUDU app, Select Free from the top menu bar, then scroll down and click on the Holiday Movie Collection banner just above New Releases.
Those are our top picks for Roku channels with holiday movies and TV shows, but those are the only ones. XUMO, for example, has 129 movies and TV specials and holiday episodes (go to Free Movies then scroll down to Holiday Hits). Redbox has a livestream channel called Redbox Holiday plus a collection of 49 free on-demand titles (go to Free on Demand in the left-hand menu, then scroll down to STream Free this Season). Plex has a number of free movies in their Holiday Marathon collection (found under the Movies & Shows On Plex menu option), although these are courtesy of Crackle and may be the same title found on that Roku channel, although we haven't cross-checked to find out. And, of course, you'll find good children's holiday shows on PBS Kids. Interestingly, The Roku Channel had two categories of holiday content earlier this month, but those categories have been removed with less than two weeks before Christmas Day.
And remember, if you're looking for a specific title you can always use the search function on your Roku's home screen to find out which, if any, Roku channels have the movie or TV show you want.
