The Best Things Coming to Netflix in December 2025

It’s a holiday bundle of movies, shows and specials you won’t want to miss

Chris Nashawaty,

Updated November 26, 2025

AARP

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Published January 30, 2025

/ Updated November 26, 2025

kate winslet and toni colette in a scene from goodbye june

"Goodbye June" premieres on Netflix Dec. 24.

Kimberley French/Netflix

Season’s greetings! This is, of course, the month when we hibernate from the cold and write up our wish lists. Personally, we could always use another cozy sweater or spiffy new Crock-Pot under the tree, but the one thing we don’t have to ask for (because it’s already here) is a stocking full of new movies and shows from Netflix. Here are the 12 December titles from the streamer that we’re most looking forward to checking out this month.

Coming Dec. 1

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman and Adam Sandler

If you’re under the impression that David Letterman, 78, retired when The Late Show went off the air in 2015, then you clearly haven’t been watching this excellent one-on-one interview series. Letterman may have a reputation for not being the warmest guy, but he’s always been a smart interviewer who knows how to put his A-list guests at ease while extracting revealing nuggets from them. In the show’s latest installment, he sits down with Adam Sandler, 59, who is also AARP’s latest Movies for Grownups Career Achievement Award winner. This is bound to be an insightful — and very funny — summit between two of comedy’s sharpest minds.

Coming Dec. 3

With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration

In her ongoing bid to become the new Martha Stewart, actor-turned-royal-turned-lifestyle-guru Meghan Markle has brought her cooking and crafting skills to Netflix for two seasons so far. This month, she joins the holiday special game with tips on clipping your own mistletoe and baking the ultimate batch of gingerbread cookies; the trailer promises at least a cameo from her hubby, Prince Harry.

Coming Dec. 4

The Abandons, Season 1

The always-welcome Gillian Anderson, 57, and Lena Headey, 52, head up the cast of this intriguing Western drama series about a pair of very different iron-willed matriarchs in the Washington Territory circa 1854. Anderson plays the head of the Van Ness clan, a dynasty of wealth and power; Headey is her opposite, the leader of a impoverished group of orphans and outsiders. Naturally, the two are on a collision course from the get-go in a saga involving passion, betrayal, greed and secrets. Giddy-up!

Coming Dec. 5

Jay Kelly (2025, R)

AARP’s Movies for Grownups Best Actor nominee George Clooney, 64, really steps outside of his comfort zone (wink, wink) to play a dashing, charismatic Hollywood movie star who travels to Europe with his devoted longtime manager (Adam Sandler) to be honored. But here’s the wrinkle: Clooney’s Jay Kelly may be known by everyone in the world, but he doesn’t know himself very well. As the character spirals through a late-midlife crisis, he wrestles with personal regrets and private missteps. Directed by Marriage Story’s Noah Baumbach (a Movies for Grownups Best Director nominee), 56, this bittersweet film promises stunning locations, some laughs and a sprinkling of hard-won wisdom.

The New Yorker at 100 (2025, R)

While the American magazine industry grapples with its own relevance in the age of TikTok and Instagram, The New Yorker has miraculously managed to find solid footing thanks to its dazzling menu of long-form journalism, fiction, criticism and cartoons from some of the best writers on the planet. As the legendary periodical celebrates its 100th birthday, this wonderful documentary takes readers behind the scenes and shows them how it all comes together each week.

Coming Dec. 12

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025, PG-13)

Writer-director Rian Johnson has assembled an impressive all-star cast (a Movies for Grownups nominee for Best Ensemble) for his third and latest Knives Out murder mystery. Daniel Craig, 57, is back on whodunit duty as the Southern-dandy sleuth, Benoit Blanc. This time around, he’s sniffing out the killer of an upstate New York monsignor who may have been murdered by a member of his flock. The list of suspects and eccentric townsfolk includes — deep breath — Glenn Close, 78, Josh Brolin, 57, Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, 54, Thomas Haden Church, 65, Andrew Scott, Jeffrey Wright, 59, and Josh O’Connor.

Coming Dec. 17

Murder in Monaco

Monaco is known as Europe’s playground for the rich and powerful, and few of its residents were richer or more powerful than billionaire banker Edmond Safra. That is, until the evening of Dec. 3, 1999, when Safra’s lifeless body was discovered inside his burned-down penthouse apartment. This bizarre incident has always been shrouded in mystery, gossip and outlandish conspiracy theories. Now, Netflix’s gripping new true-crime documentary attempts to get to the bottom of what happened on that fateful Mediterranean night — and why.

Coming Dec. 18

Emily in Paris, Season 5

Technically, the fifth season of this fizzy fashionista series should be called Emily in Rome since the adventure-seeking expat heroine heads to Italy. Tomato, tom-ah-to. Either way, Lily Collins’ Emily is back, not so much looking for love as finding it every time she turns her head. Lucky her! After falling for an Italian last season, Emily follows him to Rome, where she’s tasked with opening an office in the Eternal City. Expect chic clothes, mouth-watering meals and amore!

Coming Dec. 24

Goodbye June (2025, R)

Kate Winslet, 50, directs and stars in this moving drama about four adult siblings (including Toni Collette, 53) who head home to see their dying mother (Helen Mirren, 80, a Movies for Grownups Best Supporting Actress nominee), who wants to say her goodbyes on her own strong-willed terms. With that impeccable cast, we wouldn’t dare miss this one.

Coming Dec. 25

NFL Christmas Gameday

Honestly, would you rather spend Christmas Day cleaning up shredded wrapping paper or park yourself on the sofa with a cheese platter for a marathon of pigskin action? I know my answer. This year’s NFL doubleheader on Netflix features the Dallas Cowboys taking on the Washington Commanders at 1 p.m. ET, followed by a battle between the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings at 4:30 p.m. ET. Pass the eggnog!

Stranger Things, Season 5, Vol. 2

Netflix’s blockbuster series about a close-knit group of nerdy misfits who brush up against the supernatural has always been a nostalgic time capsule from the ‘80s. Coming on the heels of the finals season’s first batch of episodes, this is an early present we couldn’t be more excited for. As for the climactic series finale, you’ll have to hold on until New Year’s Eve for that one

Coming Dec. 26

Cover-Up

Investigative journalists don’t come any better or more dogged than Seymour M. Hersh, 88, the legendary muckraker who exposed the shameful My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War in the ’60s and the equally shameful prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib during the Iraq War in the early 2000s. This Movies for Grownups nominee for Best Documentary is bound to be a bracing viewing experience about one reporter’s legendary career and the cost of speaking truth to power.

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Chris Nashawaty, former film critic for Entertainment Weekly, is the author of Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story and a contributor to Esquire, Vanity Fair, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.