I love Christmas movies. I mean, I love the Christmas season as a whole. The music, the food, the general atmosphere. But the movies, I can’t get enough of the movies. Once Thanksgiving hits I’m watching Christmas movies all the time. The problem is, there are so many to choose from. How do you decide which to watch? Well that’s what I’m here for. I’ll be laying these out nice and clear. What you have to watch, what you should skip, and everything in between.
Disclaimer: Before you have the chance to admonish me for not including it, for the purposes of this list, I did not include Die Hard. I wanted to keep it to the movies actually about Christmas. It seemed unfair to compare an awesome, bad-ass action movie to these Christmas-specific movies.
The Movies You Can Skip
I’ve watched these so you don’t have to. I’ve suffered to spare you the same pain. Rare is the circumstance where you should watch any of these movies. You can read on for more, or just let this GIF tell you all you need to know.
Christmas with the Kranks
Nope. Just a big fat no. Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis star as a husband and wife who decide to skip Christmas when their daughter leaves with the Peace Corps. Their plans change when she decides instead to come home for Christmas. It’s not that the jokes didn’t land, I think the writers simply forgot to include them.
Fred Claus
Hard pass. It stars Vince Vaughn (as Santa’s…brother? Okay I guess we can accept that as being a thing) so it has a few okay moments, but all in all it’s a total bore. Even the usually reliable John Michael Higgins falls flat. I just don’t see how anyone could have read this script and thought, “Yes, this is a movie I have to be in!” And Paul Giamatti as Santa? Normally a fan, but for this role, no thank you.
A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
Wow. Just…wow. These movies really fell off. White Castle was and still is great. Guantanamo Bay had its moments. But Christmas was awful. Harold and Kumar head out on another misadventure to accomplish yet another mundane task: replacing a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. Over the course of the evening, some of their troubles include running afoul of a Russian mobster, inadvertently getting a toddler high on various drugs, and shooting and nearly killing Santa Claus (yes, out of nowhere Santa is real in this movie). I didn’t go into this one with very high hopes, but the one part I was holding out hope for was the NPH cameo. Unfortunately it was just as terrible as the rest of it. This is not worth watching, even for the biggest Harold & Kumar fans.
Bad Santa 2
Real, real bad. Not much to say except that you should just do yourself a favor and pretend this movie doesn’t exist.
The Children’s Classics
The same things can be said for each of these movies. They’re each a must watch if you have kids (or if for some ridiculous reason you haven’t seen one of them yet). But otherwise, just watch these whenever the mood happens to strike.
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Frosty the Snowman
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The Every-Once-in-a-Whiles
Watch these if you haven’t seen them yet. Or just watch them every once in a random while or if you happen to come across them playing on TV. These are listed in no particular order.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
I’m very “eh” on this movie. It’s hard to explain why exactly but this movie just doesn’t do it for me. Though it does have a couple great songs in “This is Halloween” and “What’s This?” But those aren’t enough to make it a yearly watch.
Bad Santa
This movie is…not for everybody. Billy Bob Thornton stars as Willie T. Soke, an alcoholic and all-around degenerate con man. He goes from city to city getting jobs as a mall Santa Claus. He, along with his partner, Marcus, then proceed to rob each on Christmas Eve. It’s crude, vulgar, and actually surprisingly sweet at times. It has its funny moments, but really it’s nothing special.
Four Christmases
Even with Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, this is only an average movie. They play a couple planning a vacation over Christmas to get away from their families. Their flight gets cancelled and they end up being interviewed by a local news channel. Various family members see this, resulting in them having to fit in four Christmas gatherings in one increasingly stressful day. Vince Vaughn is Vince Vaughn so it definitely has its moments. If you’re a Vaughn fan, it’s worth a watch. If not, you’re likely better off skipping it.
Office Christmas Party
Employees of a tech company throw the biggest, wildest Christmas party you’ve ever seen in hopes of wooing a big time client in order to save their branch from being shut down. While it’s a solid, if not great, movie, I definitely expected more out of a movie with this cast. Jason Bateman, T.J. Miller, Jennifer Aniston, Olivia Munn, Jillian Bell, Kate McKinnon, Rob Corddry, even Matt Walsh appears in a small role. Jillian Bell’s role is small but as she tends to do, she kills it. T.J. Miller is his usual self, which means he’s great; but he’s just not on screen enough. With such a collection of comedic talent, this movie could have been so much more.
A Bad Mom’s Christmas and Daddy’s Home 2
I haven’t yet seen either of these, but I have high (okay, medium) hopes for both. I feel pretty confident these would both fall under this category.
#10-8: The Not Quite Every Year Watches
These aren’t necessarily yearly must watches. Watch them any year you feel like it, however often that might be. And if you find out a friend or family member has not seen one of them, then you pop into it right away.
Note: I’m assuming most will be at least somewhat familiar with the top ten. But if you want more info, each title will link to the movie’s IMDB page.
10. The Santa Clause
I had to re-watch this one before I could properly rank it for this list. I would guess it’s been a good 15 years since I’ve seen it. And I have to say, it holds up. It’s just a solid movie through and through. It doesn’t hurt that I’m a sucker for 1990’s Tim Allen. Throw in the tried and true plot of “Let’s use a fantastical situation to get these so-called enlightened adults to believe in the Christmas Spirit again” and you’ve got a Christmas hit. Plus who can forget this lasting image of Judge Reinhold blowing longingly into that wiener whistle?
9. The Night Before
One of the movies I watched for the first time specifically for this post. And boy was I pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. With any Seth Rogen movie, you have an idea of what to expect and The Night Before is no exception. But it still works. Rogen carries the movie and Jillian Bell is fantastic in a limited role. And there is a great cameo (which I won’t spoil) that results in one of the best scenes in the movie.
8. Love Actually
This is just a really enjoyable movie. The rare R-rated Christmas movie that doesn’t get it’s rating from being a raunchy comedy, like Bad Santa or The Night Before. There are really only two obvious problems with this movie. The first, and most egregious, fault is that Liam Neeson is in the movie but he doesn’t spend any of his screen time cracking skulls. That one is pretty hard to move past. The second thing is that there are so many different plot lines, it can be hard for the viewer to be truly invested in each and every one. But the cast is so great that it’s a bit easier to live with this one. Among others, some of the story lines include:
- A married Hans Gruber dealing with his flirtatious secretary
- Bryan Mills helping his stepson, Jojen Reed, navigate his conflicting emotions of dealing with his mom’s recent death while at the same time developing his first serious crush
- Rick Grimes grappling with the fact that his best friend is marrying Elizabeth Swann, the woman he is secretly loves
- Lovelorn Colin journeying to America where he ends up in the exotic town of Milwaukee and immediately finds himself in the company of four beautiful women: Nadia, Kim Bauer, Betty Draper, and… Emma Watson’s Beauty and the Beast stunt performer? Sorry, I didn’t have anything better for her.
While I don’t consider this a must watch, I wouldn’t argue if it was on your own yearly watch list.
#7-1: The Best of the Best
These are the movies you should be watching every single year, possibly more than once each.
7. A Christmas Story
The Bob Clark-directed classic, A Christmas Story provides many iconic moments in Christmas movie history. “You’ll shoot your eye out!” The tongue stuck to the flag pole. The Old Man’s rivalry with the neighbor’s dogs. The Easter Bunny costume. Ralphie beating the tar out of Scut Farkus. And of course, the Leg Lamp. The list goes on. I could do without the TBS 24-hour marathon, but the movie remains a must watch.
6. Just Friends
Ryan Reynolds crushes it as overweight outcast turned crazy-successful playboy turned sensitive man who finally realizes what true love is. It’s Anna Faris, though, who is the real star of this movie. She plays the dim-witted, delusional, and lest we forget, slightly psychotic pop star, Samantha James, to a T. She steals the scene every time she’s on screen.
Class of ’95!
5. It’s a Wonderful Life
There was no way this movie wasn’t cracking the top 5. It’s a truly uplifting and inspiring movie showing you that you just never know what kind of impact you have on those around you. It serves as an excellent reminder to everyone that no matter if you see it or not, there is value in what you do and how you live your life. And George on the bridge, pleading to Clarence? Goosebumps every time.
4. Home Alone 2
Do you love the first Home Alone but can’t get past the fact that the violence just wasn’t outrageous enough? If so, then this is the movie for you. Director Chris Columbus takes it up a notch…or two…or three…okay, a lot of notches, and unleashes an unbelievable amount of pain and suffering on the newly named Sticky Bandits. While your average human being would surely have died multiple times over, Harry and Marv display super human abilities (again) in surviving Kevin’s onslaught. But hey, it worked so well the first time. Why mess with a good thing?
3. Home Alone
An all-time classic with tons of great physical comedy. Ever wondered how two people could go through what Harry and Marv do and somehow come out alive? Well, they couldn’t (to no one’s surprise, I’m sure). Go check out this great video by the geniuses over at Screen Junkies examining the real-life damage of the injuries inflicted upon the Wet Bandits. It covers both Home Alone and Home Alone 2, but you get the idea.
2. Elf
Will Ferrell is dynamite as Buddy, the ever lovable man-child. Every part of this movie is gold and remains hilarious year after year. There’s really not much to say about this movie. It’s simply great from start to finish. On top of it all, it features a pre-Game of Thrones Peter Dinklage, and that never hurt anybody.
1. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
While a strong argument could be made for every movie in the top five deserving the number one spot, this was a no-brainer for me. I watch it every Thanksgiving weekend as I put up my Christmas decorations. Following that I watch it weekly (at least). Everything about this movie hits. It has classic one-liners, physical comedy, great gags, everything. One thing that makes this movie so great is the supporting cast. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Nicholas Guest crush it in their supporting roles of Margo and Todd, the obnoxious neighbors. William Hickey and Mae Questel are fantastic as Uncle Lewis and Aunt Bethany.
Even though I’ve seen it too many times to count and know most, if not all, of the jokes by heart, it still never gets old. I don’t have a list of the best moments of Christmas movies, but if I did, Christmas Vacation would have more than a few right near the top. Clark’s rant gets mentioned a lot, and there’s no doubt it’s great. But the shopping scene is underrated and I don’t think it gets enough love. But it’s one of the best scenes in the movie.
Well there you have it. Your definitive guide to Christmas movie season. Now move your butt to that couch and get to watching!
Unbelievable that The Polar Express wasn’t even mentioned… I am going to assume you just haven’t seen it, or it would be on here.
The Polar Express is for lack luster children! It’s void of a strong story arch and deep, rich character development. You would be better served watching something superior like Game of Thrones.