Most, if not all South Africans, have taken leave from work or are on holiday for this festive season. As such it means time with friends and family, and for us, this includes enjoying movies. While some may choose to brave shopping malls and head to the cinemas, other may be looking to streaming services in order to get their holiday content fix.

Luckily there are now a number of platforms available locally, but which is the best?

We have done some of the leg work in this regard, looking at what Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix, and Showmax have on offer over the next few weeks, deciding on which of the locally available streaming platforms offers the best mix of festive and original content.

With that in mind, here are our thoughts.

The best bet

We’ll look at things alphabetically, starting with Amazon Prime Video, which scores a bit higher in the festive season content is than some other options, as it has more offerings available to those who are specifically looking for that type of content.

The platform’s originals are solid too, but in our experience are good at satisfying the comic / pop culture crowd, with shows like The Boys, Invincible and The Rings of Power shining brightest.

Again here, Prime Video does not tick as many of the boxes we need in finding an all-around option for the festive season.

Of the aforementioned platforms, Apple TV+ is perhaps the least used in South Africa, but it does have some notable shows like Ted Lasso, See, Foundation, and Severance.

As such, it the original content stakes it scores highly, with plenty of interesting series to bingewatch. Where it is lacking, however, is festive content, or should we say festive content that is available to stream as part of your subscription. This as many of the usual suspects in terms of holiday movies are only to rent or purchase for an additional fee.

It therefore does not offer the best balance of both criteria for this festive season, but is well worth checking out next year.

It is now time to turn our attention to the platform that launched in South Africa most recently – Disney+. We’d be lying if our experiences on the platform have been completely smooth, but compared to the other streaming platforms written about here, Disney+ has a very strong mix.

It scores particularly well with its originals, many of which are festive-themed in nature, such as The Santas, and The Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special – which is warm and lighthearted – along with featuring a cameo from one Kevin Bacon.

Our own gripes with the UI, apps on consoles, and logins aside, the offerings from Disney+ are looking stronger and stronger.

Next is Netflix, and we have a genuine contender here. We have lamented in the past the lack of good content on the platform, but when it comes to offering a little something for every kind of viewer, this may be the best placed streaming option.

Netflix also has a large library of festive-themed content, not to mention a few new original shows that may be of interest.

It may not be festive in nature, but Glass Onion is one film on our radar on 23rd December, not to mention Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Matilda the Musical, The Witcher: Blood Origin, and more.

Our final platform for consideration is Showmax. It has steadily been growing its number of originals, with a solid slate of movies and TV series too. Unfortunately it is not as strong on the festive side of things than the other options here, but if you’re are a fan of anything HBO-related, it may be the best choice.

This as shows like House of the Dragon just landed, and there is talk about the upcoming Last of Us series arriving too, but we still need confirmation of the latter.

If you are a DStv Premium subscriber already, picking up Showmax too makes sense, but if your concern is the festive period in particular, other platforms offer a little more.

If we look at the above options objectively, it is Disney+ and Netflix that stand out. Should you be wanting to go with one option this festive period, it would have to be one of those two, with it ultimately coming down to personal preference in terms of the type of content you want to enjoy in the long run.

Disney+ has a growing lineup of originals, and easily bigger blockbusters in the form of Marvel-related movies on the way. Netflix, however, offers the most balance, which is not something we would have said only a few months ago.