We’ve come a long way since the days of cable channels airing the same Christmas specials every year. The holiday movie canon has expanded exponentially since the era of A Charlie Brown Christmas and Rankin-Bass stop-motion films. And, while some classics are a must-watch every holiday season, there is always room for more titles to add to your rotation, especially while cooped up with cold weather and excess family bonding.
However, many of us have reached somewhat of a Gift of the Magi-esque dilemma in recent years. While streaming services have exponentially expanded the Christmas movie genre, their lack of programming has left many of us yearning the cozy comfort of having a cable channel decide your 25-day viewing schedule of all of the classics. But fret not: We’ve compiled a viewing list fit that you can browse through for your favorites. Or treat it like an advent calendar of movie nights selections this holiday season.
Whether you’re looking for the warm blanket effect of a formulaic Lifetime movie, a Christmas classic, or a hidden gem that’s as fresh as fallen snow, these are the best Christmas movies to watch this holiday season.
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55. The Snowman
The perfect length for a quick watch before tucking in, The Snowman is a gorgeous animated tale of a young boy’s short-lived adventure with his snowman. Though it’s based on Raymond Briggs’s children’s book of the same name, the film’s themes of impermanence and innocence make it a tear-jerker for any age.
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54. Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town
Another Rankin-Bass stop-motion classic, Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town tells the off-beat backstory of Kris Kringle himself, voiced by Mickey Rooney, with a postman-narrator voiced by none other than Fred Astaire.
Netflix
53. A Christmas Prince
A Christmas Prince was one of Netflix’s first forays into the Christmas genre, and upon first glance, it’s full-on Christmas garbage. But if you really sit back and let go of the fact that you can call literally every twist and turn, then you come to realize that A Christmas Prince is actually the perfect Christmas movie. There’s no plot to follow or anything: it’s just full on Christmas spirit, bottled in the story of a journalist and a rogue prince in a country that isn’t even real.
Disney
52. One Magic Christmas
Before there were Netflix holiday movies, there was this forgotten 1985 Disney release, which flopped at the box office, in which the iconic Harry Dean Stanton plays an angel who watches over a struggling working-class family whose matriarch, played by Mary Steenburgen, experiences some close calls as she learns the true meaning of Christmas. It has the rare mix of grit and sentimentality, borrows heavily from It’s A Wonderful Life and, call us crazy, contains shades of Groundhog Day, which wouldn’t come out for another eight years.
Paramount Pictures
51. Last Holiday
Queen Latifah kills it (pun intended) as a terminal patient mistakenly diagnosed by a faulty MRI machine. What ensues is a woman who has always played it safe taking her savings and embarking on a European vacation to meet her culinary inspiration. The problem with all of that is, when you don’t have a terminal disease and spend all your money, what comes next? You have to watch.
IFC Films
50. White Reindeer
Right before Christmas, Suzanne’s world is turned upside-down when her husband Jeff dies unexpectedly. But things are thrown into even more upheaval when she discovers that he had been having an affair with a stripper—in whom Suzanne finds an unlikely friend (if potential bad influence), turning this indie feature into a sweet, sad, and raunchy sex comedy.
Paramount Pictures
49. Office Christmas Party
T. J. Miller and Jennifer Aniston play feuding siblings who have different perspectives on how to run the company they inherited. Tasked with winning the business of a high-stakes client, Miller’s Clay sets out throw the office Christmas party to end all office Christmas party—an event so debauched that it might end their company, too.
Columbia Pictures
48. The Night Before
The Night Before is messy in the way you’d expect any Seth Rogen movie to be, but it’s also the stoner-Christmas movie that’s worth putting on your list. It’s also a perfect story for those guys you know who just refuse to grow up and eventually have time come and kick them in the ass to remind them that they’re not kids anymore, and if they were, Santa would absolutely not be stopping at their houses.
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47. Jack Frost
Sure, Michael Keaton gets a Christmas movie, too. He plays a man literally named Jack Frost, who lived his life as a bitter, aging rocker and meets a tragic end in a car accident on Christmas Day. A year later, his son plays a song on his old harmonica and brings him back to life; this time as a snowman. Bad special effects might make this one more of a horror film than a heartwarming Christmas movie, but nonetheless, here it is.
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46. Four Christmases
Let’s give Reese Witherspoon some play at Christmastime. In this 2008 movie, she and Vince Vaughn play a couple who have to do a grand tour of all four of their divorced parents’ homes. Have you ever wanted to analyze your childhood so much?
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45. Batman Returns
Sure, it’s the kind of action movie that isn’t really about Christmas despite being set during the holiday season. Tim Burton’s second chance at a Batman film has all of the trimmings of his similarly gothy Christmas tale, The Nightmare Before Christmas—only this one is violent, dangerous, and sexy (we dare you to name a more memorable mistletoe moment on screen).
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44. Just Friends
Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart play Jamie and Chris, old high school friends wrapped up in a similar plot: Chris is in love with Jamie, and Jamie just wants to be friends. Ten years later, Chris returns to his hometown at the holidays and tries to win Jamie’s love.
Magnolia Pictures
43. Happy Christmas
Christmas gets the mumblecore treatment with Joe Swanberg’s indie feature, which sees the flighty young Jenny (Anna Kendrick) descending upon her brother and his wife’s idyllic, grown-up life and creating a fissure in their tight-knit domestic bliss.
Columbia Pictures
42. The Holiday
Nancy Meyers is the Queen of Cozy, and this Christmas-set romantic comedy might be her most warm and snuggly film yet. Two women—one in London (Kate Winslet), one in Los Angeles (Cameron Diaz)—face simultaneous romantic disappointments, which leads to them swapping apartments over the holidays and, in turn, finding new men to swoon over.
Universal Pictures
41. Love Actually
Richard Curtis’s star-studded ensemble romantic comedy is probably equally beloved and reviled. Even if you’re a hater, you can’t deny the multi-narrative film’s influence on holiday-centered comedies over the last decade—and it’s as cheesy of a Christmas movie as you can get on the big screen.
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40. Jingle All the Way
Arnold Schwartzenegger plays a busy man who has continuously let his young son down, and promises, this Christmas, that he will get him the Turbo-Man action figure, the most coveted toy of the holiday season. But he’s not the only dad who’s made this promise, which leads to a real showdown with another father, hilariously played by Sinbad.
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39. Prancer
Jessica Riggs discovers a hurt reindeer in the woods. She soon discovers that this reindeer might be, indeed, a magical reindeer. This sound terribly saccharine, but this film also touches on some class and familial grief issues.
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38. Mixed Nuts
This Steve Martin movie is an underrated Christmas flick clearly unappreciated in its time. Co-written by Nora Ephron just one year after Sleepless in Seattle, it’s got all the best qualities of an Ephron film: smart comedy, quippy lines, and a well-known leading man. At the time, this movie, about a man who manages a suicide-prevention hotline, might have been a little dark for the Rudolph-sweater-wearing set, but it’s certainly something different.
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37. Deck the Halls
Matthew Broderick plays a dad whose entire ordered world turns into disarray with the arrival of his kooky neighbor, Danny DeVito. There’s then a contest of who can have more elaborate Christmas decorations and things turn predictably out of hand.
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36. The Family Stone
It’s an all-star cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams, Luke Wilson, and Diane Keaton. And that list is leaving some reasonable star power out. If you’ve ever been a part of a family (or even known one) who was hostile to outsiders, you’ll understand where the Stone family is coming from. But what starts as a tense family comedy about kicking Sarah Jessica Parker out of the family takes a serious turn for a heartfelt twist by the end.
New Line Cinema
35. Metropolitan
Whit Stillman’s debut feature follows a tony crowd of Upper East Siders (infiltrated by a young man from the opposite side of the park) as they banter and schmooze over the holiday debutante season in late-’80s Manhattan.
TriStar Pictures
34. Silent Night, Deadly Night
Doing its best to sully everything good about Christmas, this notorious slasher film—which, due to its subject matter, was pulled from American theaters—concerns a psycho who goes on a murder spree while wearing a Santa suit.
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33. It Happened on Fifth Avenue
This post-World War II movie is about veterans who need shelter and find it in a beautiful Manhattan home — while its owner is wintering in the South. The film actually touches on some very real themes of homelessness in the veteran population and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story.
20th Century Fox
32. Edward Scissorhands
Johnny Depp’s pale, leather-suited, scissor-handed Edward stands out amidst the colorful suburban Christmastime landscape of Tim Burton’s 1990 fantasy, although his story is one that ultimately proves perfectly in tune with the season’s spirit of open-hearted inclusiveness.
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31. The Santa Clause
In 1994 a very specific Christmas fear formed for some children: that Santa would fall off their roof and to his death. Way to make a lovely holiday into a complete nightmare, mid-1990s filmmakers. When Tim Allen inadvertently causes Santa to die on his property, he has to assume the role of the next Santa Claus. There’s a lot of body-shaming stuff here that likely doesn’t fly as well in 2019, but this movie is featured in enough Christmas movie marathons that it belongs on the list.
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30. Carol
No, Carol was never intended to be a Christmas movie. But neither was Love, Actually. And still, watching Rooney Mara as a retail worker in a Santa hat fall for a mink-wearing Cate Blanchette can bring as much warm jitters as watching Keira Knightley open her door to the, “Say it’s carol singers,” sign.
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29. The Polar Express
For those who saw the behind the scenes process of this motion-captured animated hit, you might wish you could unsee the image of Tom Hanks in a bodysuit with hundreds of little dots all over him. For those who haven’t, don’t ruin the magic for yourself. This classic tale of a Christmas Eve trip to the North Pole is told in such hyper-realistic animation that you might just start to feel like you’re on the locomotive yourself.
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28. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
In 2000, Jim Carrey put on a big green Grinch suit to bring the famous cartoon to life. Because it’s Jim Carrey, there’s a lot of improvised humor. There’s also a pretty gross cheese-eating scene that only passes because Jim Carrey can pull it off.
Warner Brothers
27. A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas
John Cho and Kal Penn’s stoner buddies find themselves at odds after the latter destroys their Christmas tree, leading to an all-night adventure of holiday madness in the best of the duo’s big-screen outings.
20th Century Fox
26. Die Hard
Ho-ho-ho, he’s got a machine gun—Bruce Willis’s John McClane, that is, while battling terrorists in John McTiernan’s peerless one-against-many action classic.
Buena Vista Pictures
25. While You Were Sleeping
If Die Hard gets to be a Christmas movie, so does While You Were Sleeping. After Sandra Bullock saves a man pushed in front of an L train on Christmas Day, she finds herself in quite a predicament. After admiring the man from afar from some time, she mutters, “I was going to marry him,” which a nurse mistakes as meaning that she’s his fiancee. Soon after she befriends his family who welcomes her with open arms. The only problem is, she ends up falling for the man’s brother.
Warner Bros.
24. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Writer-director Shane Black sets virtually all of his films around Christmas (see also: Lethal Weapon and Iron Man 3), although none embrace the season quite as heartily as the filmmaker’s 2005 neo-noir comedy starring Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer as a thief-turned-actor and a private eye, respectively, who wind up partnering on a case.
MGM
23. Gremlins
There’s far more naughtiness than niceness on display in Joe Dante’s terrific 1984 horror comedy in which a cute, mystical Chinese creature known as a “mogwai” named Gizmo—when fed after midnight, or touched by water—gives bubbling birth to mischievous monsters.
MGM
22. The Shop Around the Corner
Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan are employees at a Budapest leathergoods shop who can’t stand each other—even as they’re falling in love as anonymous pen pals—in this memorable romantic comedy set during the holidays.
Bac Films
21. A Christmas Tale
French auteur Arnaud Desplechin crafts a sprawling, spellbinding portrait of familial dysfunction—and, ultimately, reconciliation and togetherness—with this 2008 drama about a clan reuniting, uneasily, at Christmas–only to learn that their matriarch (Catherine Deneuve) is dying of leukemia.
Warner Bros.
20. Black Christmas
Bob Clark’s 1974 gem (starring Olivia Hussey, John Saxon, Margot Kidder, and Keir Dullea) is the granddaddy of modern slasher movies, recounting the gruesome tale of a group of sorority girls who are preyed upon by a mysterious, psychotic killer.
Warner Bros.
19. Eyes Wide Shut
It may be better known for its other elements–like, say, that unforgettable masked-participant orgy–but Stanley Kubrick’s final feature is, at heart, a study of individual desires and marital tensions encased in a velvety Christmastime atmosphere.
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18. Little Women
Just like sisters, the 1994 and 2019 adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s novel were conceived from the same source and have transformed into their own unique interpretations. And, just like the March sisters, every Little Women fan usually has already picked their favorite interpretation. Still, these two films both feature star-studded casts with a heart-warming tale of sisterhood at its core. And, as far as Christmas movies go, they both feature picturesque vignettes of white Christmases in New England filled with feasts, fires, frolicking, and family.
Universal Pictures
17. The Best Man Holiday
Director Malcolm D. Lee reassembles the cast from his 1999 feature, with his group of old friends reuniting for the first time after 15 years for Christmas, which serves as a backdrop for various interpersonal issues.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
16. Meet Me in St. Louis
Vincente Minnelli’s 1944 musical is comprised of vignettes set during a variety of seasons, but none are as famous as the one featuring star (and Minnelli’s future wife) Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
NBC
15. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph is a legend, and as an adult in these trying times, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer feels a bit like the underdog story we need. There’s clearly some social justice themes going on, but at the core of this story of Rudolph and his dental-savvy friends is a time-tested tale that proves that being different isn’t something to be ashamed of—it’s something to embrace.
CBS
14. A Charlie Brown Christmas
Listen. Charlie Brown is an institution, and can you really say it’s the holiday season if the Peanuts theme hasn’t played in a Starbucks near you? After finding himself in a bout of seasonal depression (relatable), Charlie Brown tries to put together a Christmas play before Linus reminds him what the true meaning of Christmas is.
New Line Cinema
13. Elf
Will Ferrell is a clownish orphan raised by Santa and his elves in the North Pole who journeys to New York City to locate his biological father–a cynical book publisher played by James Caan–in this absurd (and surprisingly sweet) fish-out-of-water fantasy.
United Artists
12. The Apartment
A single man (Jack Lemmon) lets his co-workers use his residence for their affairs—but then falls in love with his boss’s mistress (Shirley MacClaine). Billy Wilder’s 1960 comedy won the Academy Award for Best Picture, with good reason: It’s one of American cinema’s all-time greats. And that, in turn, makes it one of the all-time great Christmas movies as well, given that its tale of loneliness and love takes place on and around December 25.
Touchstone Pictures/Skellington Productions
11. The Nightmare Before Christmas
It’s a debate for the ages: is The Nightmare Before Christmas a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie? For the sake of this conversation, we’re going with Christmas. The Tim Burton specialty is a masterful work of visual tricks and treats, in a creepy way that only he can accomplish. As long as he’s as charming at Nightmare is, we’re okay with a skeleton Santa showing up on Christmas.
Renown Pictures
10. A Christmas Carol
Still the finest adaptation of Charles Dickens’ legendary tale, this superb 1951 feature charts the familiar Christmas Eve ordeal of nasty miser Ebenezer Scrooge (Alastair Sim), who’s visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.
Buena Vista Pictures
9. The Muppet Christmas Carol
Jim Henson died during pre-production of this 1992 film, but his spirit lives on in its seamless blend of zaniness and heart–both of which help make this musical Dickens adaptation an underrated triumph.
Dimension Films
8. Bad Santa
Billy Bob Thornton’s thieving department store Santa injects some nasty deviancy into the Yuletide season in this uproarious black comedy from director Terry Zwigoff.
20th Century Fox
7. Miracle on 34th St.
You can’t go wrong with this perennial Christmas staple about the trial of a man claiming to be Santa Claus (the original is great, but the 1994 remake starring Richard Attenborough and Mara Wilson is pretty good, too).
Paramount
6. Scrooged
Riffing on Dickens, Bill Murray is an arrogant and thoughtless TV executive who, while planning to stage a live production of A Christmas Carol, winds up living out a crazed variation of that very story in Richard Donner’s amusing update.
20th Century Fox
5. Home Alone
Macaulay Culkin is forgotten by his family and forced to battle a couple of dimwit thieves (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) around Christmas in this enduring children’s adventure from director Chris Columbus and writer John Hughes.
Paramount Pictures
4. White Christmas
Featuring a new version of the song from which the film gets its title (and which was originally sung by star Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn), this 1954 musical features Crosby and Danny Kaye as music-act partners who team up with two sisters (Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen) to help their former military commander save his Vermont lodge.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
3. A Christmas Story
Nine years after Black Christmas, director Bob Clark made another holiday classic—albeit of a very different sort—with this beloved nostalgia-soaked saga of nine-year-old Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley), who wants nothing more for Christmas than an air rifle. If you have cable, it’ll no doubt be playing on a 24-hour loop on some Turner network this December 25.
Warner Brothers
2. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Rarely has a series’ third installment been the equal of its two predecessors, but such is the case with this threequel involving Clark (Chevy Chase), Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo), Audrey (Juliette Lewis), and Rusty Griswold’s (Johnny Galecki) mishap-besieged family get-together.
Liberty Films
1. It’s a Wonderful Life
Few films define Christmas like Frank Capra’s 1946 fantasy starring Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, who, on Mid American Herald of committing suicide, is visited by an angel who shows him the true importance of his life.
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