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It’s the most wonderful time of the year... at least for a few more days! A time for eating, drinking, and catching up with family to watch Christmas movies old and new, good and bad. Most of us turn to streaming platforms for a fix of Christmas joy but, unfortunately, like a lot of other content, Christmas movies are often affected by geo-restrictions.

It's all thanks to licensing restrictions that determine which country a show, movie, or sporting event can or cannot be broadcast in.

The good news is that a VPN can help you access content no matter where you are in the world, whether you’re travelling to see family, or just want to watch a movie that’s not available in your location.

How can a VPN unblock Christmas movies?

The content that streaming platforms are allowed to make available varies from location to location, and it's all thanks to licensing agreements that they enter with various studios. These agreements stipulate both what shows and movies can and can't be broadcast, as well as where.

This is why sites like Netflix have libraries that are massively different across different countries. It also means that the movies you can tune into at home become unavailable when you travel to a different country.

Frustrating, right? But a VPN helps you get around it.

A VPN spoofs your digital location, fooling the sites you visit into thinking that you're somewhere else in the world. Better yet, it's easy to do – just connect to a VPN server in the country where the Christmas content you want to watch is readily available.

Then, reload your favorite streaming platform, and you'll be able to enjoy all of the location-specific content accessible in that region, because the site will see the VPN's IP address rather than your original one.

What makes a good streaming VPN?

There are dozens of VPNs on the market, free and paid alike, and it can be difficult to know which one is the right one for you when it comes to streaming Christmas content or any other movie or TV show.

The Techradar team has put hundreds of hours into testing and reviewing the best streaming VPNs, which means we can tell you exactly what you should be looking for.

• At TechRadar, we typically recommend paid providers over free VPNs, especially when it comes to streaming content. Free VPNs don't have paying subscribers, so they don’t have the money to invest in a wide variety of server locations.
• Free VPNs have limited bandwidth and strict data limits. Streaming just one or two HD movies can use most of your allocation for the month, making the VPN useless for binge sessions. The best paid VPNs, however, don’t restrict your downloads or speeds.
• Streaming VPNs have global networks of VPN servers, so you can always find a speedy, local connection point, or a server around the world in a location with specific geo-restricted content libraries.
• As well as lots of servers, the best providers offer fast connections so you can download and stream withoutrunning into slowdowns. Remember, you'll need a download speed of at least 30 Mbps to stream 4K content smoothly.
• Price is always something that should be considered, and there are great streaming VPNs to suit every budget. We think NordVPN is the best combination of price and features for all your Christmas streaming needs.

After graduating from Stirling University with a qualification in Education, Shaun accidentally fell into the technology sector in the late 1990's and has stayed there ever since, working for companies such as PSINet, IBM and ProPrivacy in a variety of roles from Systems Administration to Technical Writer. Being around since the birth of the modern internet, he's seen the way that technology has expanded to become an integral part of everyday life, and how people's understanding and ability to retain any kind of privacy has lagged behind.

Shaun is a strong believer in the rights of the individual to have their personal data protected and their privacy respected – a belief made all the stronger in an age of surveillance from both governmental bodies and private companies all around the world.

He spends his spare time cooking, riding his motorbike and spending far too many hours in Star Trek Online hunting Klingons and Borg.

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