These are the ingredients that make up a Netflix Christmas boyfriend (and I don't want to date him).

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Netflix has truly perfected exactly what their leading man should be in their seasonal films.

I like to call him the Christmas boyfriend. You know just the one.

This is the sort of forgettable fella who exists purely for the leading lady to encounter in a classic Christmas meet-cute. They will fight over the last festive scarf; they will brush each other's arms while passing on a crowded train; they will catch each other's eye while choosing a pine tree.

This man could literally be anyone, as almost all of Netflix's Christmas movies are about the woman at the centre. But he has to be a specific flavour of vanilla, a man so mouldable that he can be plopped into any holiday movie and have any kind of fantasy projected onto him.

And look, he's fun to watch, but would I want to date this man? Absolutely not. The Christmas boyfriend is a breed of bland unlike any other genre of movie man.

So without further ado, these are the ingredients that make the perfect Christmas boyfriend.

The Christmas boyfriend is grumpy.

This man is always a little grumpy — at least, at first. It's the classic Beauty and the Beast kink we all secretly crave: a fancy ice man with a cold exterior and guarded nature is melted by the heroine to become a romantic, sweetie underneath.

The leader of the grumps is The Merry Gentlemen's Luke, played by Chad Michael Murray. This man is super moody and reluctant to participate in the all-male dance revue, even throwing a tantrum about the show he volunteered for. Bit rude!

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Then there's Holidate's Jackson, played by Luke Bracey. He starts off as the classic noncommittal f**kboy type, who doesn't want to get attached, well… until he meets his Christmas girlfriend.

The same goes for A California Christmas, Christmas Inheritance and A Castle For Christmas — they all start off as absolute grumps.

The Christmas boyfriend has a nondescript face.

He has a nice face, but it's a face that I instantly forget as soon as he leaves my screen.

Look no further than the leading male character in The Princess Switch aka Prince Edward of Belgravia, played by Sam Palladio. Or Prince Richard in A Christmas Prince, played by actor Ben Lamb.

I'm not entirely convinced these men are different people, but whatever.

Image: Netflix.

The Christmas boyfriend is either dirt poor or an English nobleman.

There is no in between.

In Falling For Christmas, we meet Jake (Chord Overstreet) who is struggling financially, and needs an investor.

Over on Christmas Inheritance there's another Jake (it's always a Jake!) played by err… Jake Lacy. He is the quintessential humble, small-town man who contrasts sharply with the spoiled, big-city female protagonist.

Then, of course, we have our princes in The Princess Switch, A Christmas Prince, and finally A Castle For Christmas, where we meet Myles, the Duke of Dun Dunbar, played by Cary Elwes.

Image: Netflix.

He is a quintessential brooding, grumpy British nobleman, but he's also… poor.

The best (aka worst) of both worlds! No thanks!

The Christmas boyfriend (probably) has an accent.

What can we say? The ladies love an accent and that accent is almost always British or French.

In my personal fave holiday flick, The Knight Before Christmas, we have Sir Cole Christopher Fredrick Lyons, a 14th-century English knight magically transported to modern-day Ohio.

Image: Netflix.

Basically, if any royals are introduced into these movies, you can count on them having a posh English accent.

Most recently, Champagne Problems introduced us to Frenchman, Henri, played Tom Wozniczka.

The Christmas boyfriend has to run the family business.

The Christmas boyfriend arrives to ground and humble the leading lady with his strong family values.

In many cases, he will be an innkeeper because the ladies (apparently) love an innkeeper!

This was the case for Christmas Inheritance and Falling For Christmas, with both Christmas boyfriends running their family's small town motel.

Image: Netflix.

The Christmas boyfriend is a widower, a jaded ex or magical knight from the past.

Whether it's Falling For Christmas widow Jake, Our Little Secret's Logan, played by Ian Harding, who is the jaded ex of Avery (Lindsay Lohan), or A Merry Little Ex-Mas which sees the heroine reunite with her ex-husband for Christmas.

The Christmas boyfriend will be a widow or an ex with an axe to grind — or else a knight from the past or the animated snow man from Hot Frosty. That's just what women want!

The Christmas boyfriend is the saviour.

In a classic rom-com trope (I wish would die a quick death), in most of these movies, the Christmas boyfriend is the woman's saviour — may it be literally or spiritually.

In Falling For Christmas, Jake finds Sierra (who suffers from amnesia) literally at the bottom of the mountain and, along with his family, nurses her back to health until her memory returns.

In A Knight For Christmas, Sir Cole as an actual mediaeval knight, who performs acts of valour like rescuing children from a frozen lake and chasing down a pickpocket, akk in his quest to become a true knight.

(Okay, I do enjoy Sir Cole but I don't love all this patriarchal BS.)

And that's why, a Christmas boyfriend ain't for me, (but I will watch every single movie he's in).

Feature image: Netflix.