It’s now December, which means it’s OFFICIALLY CHRISTMAS SZN. With Christmas season comes special food, twinkly lights, joyous music, and perhaps most importantly, Christmas Movies. The streaming wars have joined in Christmas season, with Netflix and Disney+ along with Hallmark and Lifetime pumping out cheesy Christmas movies. But this list is not for that (well it’s a little bit for that). This list aims to appreciate beloved Christmas movies and categorize the priority levels of the numerous Christmas movies to choose from. Sometimes it feels overwhelming – there are so many to choose from and so many new ones every year. I’ll also recommend some new ones I plan on checking out AFTER I consume all of the Important Christmas Movies. I know I probably missed a lot of them… I didn’t include movies that I never really watch so movies like Jingle All the Way are not featured here. You know the drill… starting from the bottom:
New Cheesy Movies I Plan on Checking out This Year After I Watch Everything Else
34. Last Christmas (2019)
This is that Emilia Clarke movie that came out in early November to truly horrible reviews. I still want to see it.
33. The Knight Before Christmas (2019)
Vanessa Hudgens: Christmas Queen – I’m ready for another terrible movie from you… Princess Switch was incredibly Good Bad last year.
32. Noelle (2019)
The new Disney+ Anna Kendrick movie… looks good enough to put on if you’re really bored and want a fluff movie.
31. The Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby (2018)
The third movie in the Christmas Prince trilogy and I’m not embarrassed… I can’t wait to consume this movie.
Well If I’m Going to Watch Those Movies, I Have to Watch the Originals
30. The Princess Switch (2018)
Vanessa Hudgens plays the two main characters; a normal woman and a princess. The two are somehow identical and switch places. It’s great and I’m lying if I say I don’t enjoy this movie.
29. The Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding (2018)
28. The Christmas Prince (2017)
A journalist travels to a fake country to get the scoop on the Royal Family and ends up falling in love with the Prince. They fall in love and get married over the course of these two movies. Extremely Bad movies but definitely entertaining.
Fairly Mediocre Movies That I Enjoy And Will Watch If I Have Time
27. Bad Santa (2003)
Billy Bob Thorton in his prime… he was also the President in Love Actually in 2003, so he truly was the asshole of Christmas that year. This movie is like Bad News Bears times Bad Moms Christmas and is a good time, but has a lot of outdated jokes. I haven’t really watched this movie in a while but it’s on cable a lot around Christmas so sometimes I’ll turn it on.
26. Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas (1999)
I remember loving this movie when I was little for all the little Christmas vignettes with all our familiar Disney characters. I always loved the Donald Duck storyline.
25. Unaccompanied Minors (2006)
A bunch of kids are stuck at an airport without their parents over Christmas. An amazing kids movie that made me want to be one of them when I was younger.
24. Fred Claus (2007)
Vince Vaughn’s much worse Christmas movie entry (Four Christmases being the good one, of course). Vaughn is Fred Claus, Nick’s, aka Santa, angry, bitter, older brother. I feel like this would make a good double-feature with Santa Baby, both mediocre movies with the main characters extremely reluctant to be a part of their family’s Christmas traditions.
23. Home Alone 4 (2002)
They made like 8 more Home Alone movies, but none of them are worth watching besides the first two and if you really have nothing else to watch during Christmas, the fourth one isn’t so bad. It involves a remote control car and the family’s series of traps for the bad guys.
22. Santa Baby (2006)
Jenny McCarthy is a high powered, no bullshit business woman… and also Santa’s daughter. Unfortunately, her dad, Santa, gets really sick right around Christmas and she has to take his place so all the kids get their toys at Christmas. She is too harsh and bossy to all the elves but eventually learns to soften. This movie is very mediocre but still fun.
21. Deck the Halls (2006)
Danny Devito and Michael Broderick are the most annoying dads of all time, allowing their selfishness to overshadow their families on Christmas. Devito attempts to get his house to have such intense lights that you can see them from space and his neighbor, Broderick, is having none of it. It’s a bad movie, but can be entertaining if you have literally nothing else going on. Kristin Davis and Kristin Chenoweth are the fed up wives. Neither Devito nor Broderick can hold a candle to Christine Baranski’s Martha May Whovier in Grinch though.
20. Scrooged (1988)
Bill Murray in his ideal role, a grumpy old man at Christmas, who has to be convinced by three ghosts to become a charming, Saint Nick-like person.
Very Good Christmas Movies That I Also Always Watch
19. The Family Stone (2005)
This movie always makes me think Wedding Crashers meets Father of the Bride meets Meet the Parents meets Christmas… essentially any movie where someone, usually a significant other, is thrown into the lions den of meeting a new family with huge personalities. This genre has so many good movies and comedies because it’s a never-ending source of humor with seemingly a million possible stories to tell with different family members creating various problems for the significant other. This is a fun one to enter into the Christmas lexicon.
18. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Chevy Chase, a comedy legend, brings his famous Vacation movies to Christmas. My dad absolutely loves this movie, so we always end up watching it. His string of unfortunate accidents and tendency to make his family miserable are both endlessly funny.
17. All I Want For Christmas (1991)
Parent Trap meets Christmas. Starring Ethan Randall, who was the cutest freaking kid – he and his sister (Thora Birch), attempt to get their divorced parents back together at Christmas, and use the Miracle on 34th Street ploy of asking Santa to get her parents back together. Plus the movie includes an adorable diner shtick, which plays a crucial role in the Home Alone-esque elaborate plan to get their parents back together. This movie is so sentimental and weaves together so many different iconic movies, it makes it a must-watch for me over Christmas.
16. Christmas With The Kranks (2004)
Tim Allen, King of Christmas, teams up with the hilarious Jamie Lee Curtis to make a Christmas movie. Allen, instead of being Father Christmas himself, this time is the opposite, acting as the Grinch-like figure for most of the movie. In a community obsessed with Christmas, which honestly looks like a delightful neighborhood, Allen and Curtis decide to skip Christmas since their daughter isn’t joining them that year and get essentially ostracized and attacked by their neighbors. I love this movie; I think it’s funny and feels homey and relatable.
15. Four Christmases (2008)
Two of my favorite RomCom actors in a cheesy Christmas movie? Yes. Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn crush it in this movie. The two both have divorced parents and have to go to each of their different in-laws for Christmas, bringing about a series of unfortunate events. It feels so right that they undergo such disasters at each of their family’s places; sometimes you can forget (can you?) how stressful family time during the holidays can be and this movie makes it so pointed and funny. I love it.
14. Polar Express (2004)
This was one of my favorite Christmas stories growing up. This movie weirdly got a lot of heat for having creepy animation, but I don’t mind it at all. I’m usually all in for anything Tom Hanks so with him in the lead role combined with a time-old Christmas tale, I usually make it a point to watch this movie.
13. The Holiday (2006)
I feel like I’m going to get some hate for not putting this on the main list but I feel like the main list is very nostalgic and while I have a soft place in my heart for this as well, I don’t think I’d feel like a Christmas failure if I didn’t get to this over the Christmas season (although I usually always do…). Combining Christmas and RomComs is obviously a match made in heaven and this movie does it almost perfectly. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I love this movie mainly for the Cameron Diaz / Jude Law relationship… they’re both so beautiful and as much as I love Kate Winslet, I’m not a big Jack Black fan (besides School of Rock, obviously). With Jude Law in that specifically English style with his chunky sweaters, sexy dad vibes and English fireplaces, he and Diaz make this movie hard to resist.
Elite Christmas Movies that are MUST WATCH Every Year
12. Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
I chose this version because I just am not a big fan of many black and white movies (It’s a Wonderful Life is a different story). I grew up watching Mara Wilson, playing Susan Walker in this movie, be the perfect little girl (cc: Matilda, Mrs. Doubtfire) so this version just resonates with me more. I feel just as enchanted by Christmas as she does in this movie and it has a happy ending that I’m completely a sucker for: she gets her wish of getting a dad and attributes it to Kris Kringle, who turns out to actually be Santa. I just love these movies that insert magic into the real world; Susan’s mom Dorey is a high-power businesswoman at Macy’s who stands for no bullshit and has raised her daughter to be a very serious, if not very sweet little girl. When Dorey needs to find a replacement Santa for the Macy’s day parade, she runs into Kris Kringle aka the Perfect Santa. He insists he’s the actual Santa, which we find out he is but Susan’s only wish is for her mom and Brian to get together so that she has a Dad in her life; they of course do and Susan thanks Kris, but we know that believing in love and magic make it happen. I think that’s a very clever story-telling device and ends up making for a lovely movie.
11. Grandma Got Runover By A Reindeer (Cartoon) (2000)
Just a classic. This one is not on streaming services so you have to search it on Cable and DVR it. It’s just so sweet and silly and reminds me of being 8 years old. I’m probably too old for it, but if there’s any time of year I feel it’s okay to regress into being a child, I think it’s Christmas.
10. The Santa Clause 2 (2002)
9. The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006)
8. The Santa Clause (1994)
I must admit, when I picture a movie Santa in my head, I immediately think of Tim Allen’s Santa in this trilogy. The original is definitely my favorite; Charlie is so cute and watching Tim Allen transform from a grouch (some might’ve called him the Grinch), into Santa Clause and embracing Christmas was really fun. Getting introduced to Santa’s Village and the elves at the North Pole who play important roles in the movies to come, especially Bernard, feels magical when you’re watching it as a kid. Seeing this movie now and remembering that feeling of oh wow this could be real is a blast of nostalgia. In the second one, we’re introduced to Carol (played by Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) from Lost) the soon-to-be Mrs. Clause, which I enjoy, but I don’t love the creepy Toy Santa which is why this is in third place out of the three for me. In the third movie, instead of our enemy being creepy evil Toy Santa, we get a comedy master, Jack Frost (played by Martin Short). This movie expands the canon by introducing us to the Council of Legendary Figures which includes Father Time, Mother Nature, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, the Sandman and Cupid. The trilogy takes us full circle with the characters, with Tim Allen now being the Best Santa, Charlie being a great older brother, Bernard being an excellent leader, and introducing us to new kids who are just as enchanted by Christmas as ever.
7. Home Alone (1990)
6. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
I love these movies a lot. There are a few symbols that immediately make people think of Christmas, such as a Christmas Tree or Macaulay Culkin. In what is obviously his most iconic role (sorry Richie Rich) Culkin is funny, sarcastic, witty, smart, cunning and everything that a 8 year old shouldn’t be. Culkin’s incredible charisma paired with Daniel Stern and iconic actor Joe Pesci’s own bumbling, angry performances make for such an entertaining duo of movies. Is Lost in New York the best sequel of all time? It might be. I’ll always love the scene of Kevin going to Rockefeller Plaza and praying to the Christmas tree to be able to see his family again; the scene where he and his family come downstairs in their perfect hotel room at the Plaza to tons of presents; the scene where he gets the turtle doves from Mr. Duncan, the scene where he gives the turtle dove to the Pigeon lady in Central Park (this is also an incredible New York at Christmas movie). It also doesn’t hurt that the most decorated and iconic Music Scorer of all time, the great John Williams, worked on these movies; if you don’t have at least half of the Home Alone soundtrack on your own Christmas playlist, I don’t know what you’re doing. Williams was nominated for Best Original Song and Best Score for his work on the original Home Alone.
5. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Jim Carrey’s reimagined Grinch is nothing short of genius. His version of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” is my personal favorite version of the song, plus this movie birthed the song “Where Are You Christmas” by Faith Hill, which is in my top 5 favorite Christmas songs of all time. People also forget how insane this cast is!! Molly Shannon, Christine Baranski, Jeffery Tambor, Jim Carrey and Taylor Momsen! Not bad for a kids movie. Plus, if you haven’t seen a meme of the Grinch going through the phone book saying “hate, hate, hate, hate, loathe ENTIRELY” or him going through his list of things to do including “wallow in self pity, stare into the abyss, solve world hunger, tell no one, dinner with me–can’t cancel that again, wrestle with self-loathing” then you’ve probably never been on the Internet before.
4. Elf (2003)
Will Ferrell at his comedy peak, who can say no?? It took me several years to realize that Will’s love interest in this movie was actually played by Zooey Deschanel. This movie has been memed to no end and I think if you polled people ages 15-30 they would say that Elf is their favorite Christmas movie. Somehow “bye buddy! Hope you find your dad!” is something I say at least three times a week when I say goodbye to people. The pasta with candy, running around NYC in the tights, the Central Park Rangers, his travels through the Candy Cane Forest and the swirly-twirly gumdrops are all iconic. It’s just such a funny, feel good movie and feels very important to Christmas.
3. Love Actually (2003)
This is my favorite movie on this list. I emailed my mother a week ago saying T-5 days until we can watch Love Actually to which she responded “Can’t wait!!!!!!!” At this point I know every single word and music cue. I often laugh before the punch line hits because I know it’s coming and I love it. I sing along to Billy Mack’s “Christmas is All Around” (even though it has too many syllables in the fourth line). I root against Billy Bob Thorton’s President of the United States and cheer for Hugh Grant’s UK Prime Minister’s speech referencing Harry Potter and Sean Connery. I laugh as Collin Frissel picks up a bunch of hot girls at a random Wisconsin bar. I cringe as Laura Linney leaves Carl to tend to her sick brother just as they’re finally about to have sex. I cry as Colin Firth proposes to Aurelia, despite it not being feasible that either learned the other’s language in that amount of time. I’m angry at Alan Rickman for cheating on Emma Thompson. I’m excited as Sam reaches Joanna just before she gets to the gate to go back to America. To me, this movie is perfect. I know there are a lot of possible critiques, and I myself have a lot of nits to pick (this movie was just post-9/11 and in many ways a response to it so how can there be a plot with someone running through security at an airport???) but I’m so incredibly invested in these characters and this story. Plus it has an amazing soundtrack and I connect with the message. There really is love all around.
2. It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed were the King and Queen of a different era in the United States. I love this movie, as I’m sure a lot of people do, for very personal reasons, mainly because Stewart and Reed look exactly like my grandmother and grandfather; a fact stated every time we watch this movie. This is the movie we watch every single year on Christmas Eve. It’s an iconic story of love and sacrifice, centered around Christmas and puts a clear moral compass on full display: be generous, be kind, be silly, cherish the ones you love, and remember that you matter. These are all important lessons that always feel especially important at Christmas time; a holiday that emphasizes embracing the joy and love in your life.
1. A Christmas Story (1983)
As I’m sure most of you know, this movie plays on repeat every single year on TBS on Christmas Day. That is the only time it’s acceptable to watch this movie. It’s my Dad’s favorite; he belly laughs when the Dad opens the sexy lady leg lamp and the mom freaks out every single time. The chopping the ducks head off at the Chinese restaurant. You’ll shoot your eye out. There are so many iconic moments from this movie and it gets first place because not only is it of superb quality and extremely rewatchable, not just year over year, but also 10 times in a single day, but also because it’s watched on Christmas and therefore feels like the most quintessential Christmas movie.
