20 Best Christmas Movies of All Time
I’ll bet your favorite made it onto my list of 20 best Christmas movies to watch this holiday season — and that you’ll find a new one to love too.
What better way to celebrate the holidays with your family than a good old-fashioned movie night!
These movies aren’t all about getting stuffed on Christmas cookies or about the familial meltdowns that happen at so many family gatherings.
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Enjoy the crazy movies as well as the sappy ones.
My personal favorites? The Miracle On 34Th Street (the original, of course!) and A Christmas Story.
And my all time favorite is It’s a Wonderful Life. I have to watch it every Christmas!
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20 Best Christmas Movies of All Time
Feel the love this holiday season with the Love Actually 10th Anniversary Edition!
Funny, charming and heartwarming, this delightful romantic comedy follows eight couples whose lives intersect shortly before Christmas.
Headlined by an incredible roster of stars, this beloved film also features early movie appearances by Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), Andrew Lincoln (The Walking Dead), January Jones (Mad Men) and Thomas Sangster (Game of Thrones).
From the makers of Bridget Jones’s Diary and Notting Hill, it’s the perfect companion for every Christmas.
George Bailey has so many problems he is thinking about ending it all – and it’s Christmas!
As the angels discuss George, we see his life in flashback.
As George is about to jump from a bridge, he ends up rescuing his guardian angel, Clarence.
Clarence then shows George what his town would have looked like if it hadn’t been for all of his good deeds over the years.
Will Clarence be able to convince George to return to his family and forget suicide?
Superstar comedian Tim Allen delivers the perfect gift as he stars as the big man, himself, in three warm and wonderful movies about discovering the true magic of Christmas.
See how it all began with Disney’s original classic, and hop on Santa’s sleigh for an exciting ride filled with belly laughs and family fun.
Christmas gets a little nuttier when Scott Calvin unknowingly inherits the role of the legendary St. Nick.
His ordinary life snowballs into a hysterical series of outrageous events as he fills out his Santa suit, meets the future Mrs. Claus and faces his ultimate test against the mischievous Jack Frost.
With a blizzard of bonus features and three magical movies, this box set is hours of holiday entertainment your whole family will enjoy again and again.
This hilarious Christmas film tells the tale of a young orphan child who mistakenly crawls into Santa’s bag of gifts on Christmas Eve and is transported back to the North Pole and raised as an elf.
Years later Buddy learns he is not really an elf and goes on a journey to New York City to find his true identity.
High-spirited high jinks on Christmas Eve put Frank Cross (Bill Murray) in a ghostly time warp in this hilarious take-off of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
Cross, who has made the meteoric rise from the depths of the mailroom to TV network president, is mean, nasty, uncaring, unforgiving and has a sadistic sense of humor – perfect qualities for a modern-day Scrooge.
Before the night is over, he’ll be visited by a maniacal New York cab driver from the past, a present-day fairy who’s into pratfalls and, finally, a ghoulish, seven-foot headless messenger from the future.
Part of a 4-movies series, Home Alone started it all.
Eight-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) has become the man of the house, overnight!
Accidentally left behind when his family rushes off on a Christmas vacation, Kevin gets busy decorating the house for the holidays. But he’s not decking the halls with tinsel and holly.
Two bumbling burglars are trying to break in, and Kevin’s rigging a bewildering battery of booby traps to welcome them!
Six year old Susan has doubts childhood’s most enduring miracle Santa Clause.
Her mother told her the “secret” about Santa a long time ago, so Susan doesn’t expect to receive the most important gifts on her Christmas list.
But after meeting a special departement stare Santa who’s convinced he’s the real thing, Susan is given the most precious gift of all – something to believe in.
Now digitally restored and remastered with state-of-the-art technology, The Nightmare Before Christmansis deeper, darker and more brilliant than ever — just as Tim Burton originally envisioned it.
Can Christmas be saved?
Bored with the same old scare-and-scream routine, Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, longs to spread the joy of Christmas.
But his merry mission puts Santa in jeopardy and creates a nightmare for good little boys and girls everywhere!
The comic misadventures of the beleaguered Griswold family continue in this latest “Vacation” outing, the third and most successful of the series.
This delightfully funny holiday gem tells the story of Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsly) a 1940’s nine-year-old who pulls out all the stops to obtain the ultimate Christmas present.
Iris (Winslet) is in love with a man who is about to marry another woman. Across the globe, Amanda (Diaz), realizes the man she lives with has been unfaithful.
Two women who have never met and live 6000 miles apart, find themselves in the exact same place.
They meet online at a home exchange website and impulsively switch homes for the holiday.
Iris moves into Amanda’s L.A. house in sunny California as Amanda arrives in the snow covered English countryside.
Shortly after arriving at their destinations, both women find the last thing either wants or expects: a new romance.
Two talented son-and-dance men (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) team up after the war to become one of the hottest acts in show business.
While the song White Christmas was out before this film, the movie made it an American favorite.
Taking place during the holiday season, the fun begins when the rich and greedy Duke Brothers (Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy) wager a bet over whether born loser Valentine (Eddie Murphy) could become as successful as the priggish Winthorpe (Dan Akroyd) if circumstances were reversed.
Lucy, a lonely subway worker, she becomes smitten with a handsome stranger.
Right before the holidays, she (Sandra Bullock) saves his life after he’s been mugged and fallen into a coma, his hilariously offbeat family mistakes her for his fiancee!
Soon, the mix-ups escalate as Lucy fabricates a life between herself and a man she’s never met!
And when Lucy falls for his charming brother (Bill Pullman) the situation really gets uproarious as she’s forced to make a choice between the two!
JOYEUX NOEL (Merry Christmas) tells the true-life story of the spontaneous Christmas Eve truce declared by Scottish, French and German troops in the trenches of World War I.
Enemies leave their weapons behind for one night as they band together in brotherhood and forget about the brutalities of war.
Diane Krüger (Troy), Daniel Brühl (Good Bye Lenin!) and Benno Fürmann (The Princess and the Warrior) head a first-rate international cast in a truly powerful, must-see film.
Part of TCM’s Greatest Holiday Classic Films Collection, The Shop Around the Corner stars James Stewart as a Budapest store clerk who finds himself feuding with his co-worker, Margaret Sullavan, only to unknowingly fall in love with her.
Oscar-winning director Ron Howard and Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer bring Christmas’ best-loved grump to life with the help of the irrepressible Jim Carrey as The Grinch.
The Grinch is a celebration of the holiday spirit no home should be without! Why is The Grinch (Carrey) such a grouch?
No one seems to know, until little Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) takes matters into her own hands and turns both Whoville and The Grinch’s world upside down, inside out… and funny side up in her search for the true meaning of Christmas.
The baddest Santa ever comes to town with the hilarious Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, and John Ritter! Ill-mannered store Santa Willie Stokes (Thornton) is really a safecracker with a holiday tradition of making one big score every Christmas Eve with his clever Elf-partner-in- crime Marcus.
But this year’s heist-fest could be completely foiled by a snoopy store manager (Ritter), savvy mall detective (Mac), sexy Santa fan, and an innocent 8 year old misfit who thinks the intoxicated and felonious Willie is the real Santa he seeks.
The Muppet’s rendition of Charles Dickens’s classic tale puts a unique twist on a favorite holiday story.
No list would be complete without the Polar Express!
A doubting young boy takes an extraordinary train ride to the North Pole that shows him that the wonder of life never fades for those who believe.
A true classic with today’s kids!
New York City Detective John McClane becomes the only hope for a small group of hostages, one of whom is his estranged wife, trapped in a Los Angeles high-rise office building when it is seized by terrorists on Christmas Eve.
big smile <3
YEAH. You have Love Actually. That is the best.
I do love that movie 🙂
So funny you chose Die Hard! It’s one of my favorites and I can still remember where I was when I saw it in theaters.
White Christmas is my favorite followed by Elf. Although Meet Me in St. Louis isn’t technically a Christmas film, Judy Garland’s rendition of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is my 2nd favorite Christmas song.
I had completely forgotten that song was in Meet Me in St. Louis! Now I think I’m going to have to go rent it 🙂
I really enjoyed your list, especially since you included “Scrooged” (Bill Murray is my cousin) and “Die Hard.” Because nothing says Christmas like Bruce Willis, if you ask my husband..
Looking forward to reading your future holiday posts. I will be sharing this post via my FB page this week to get my readers in the holiday spirit! https://www.facebook.com/queenofthelandoftwigsnberries
LOL! My husband completely agrees that you gotta watch Die Hard. And Bill Murray — oh my goodness I love that man! Thanks for sharing 😀
My favorite? A Christmas Story “You’ll shoot your eye out!”
I adore that movie– I even remember seeing it in the theaters when it came out. (Did I just date myself? 😉
My fav xmas movie is borrowed hearts 🙂
I actually don’t know that movie!
This is a great list but I can think of at least 3 more I would add to this list. “Christmas In Connecticut”, “The Bishops Wife”, “A Christmas Carol (1999)” and there are others too. Great job on the list though! I love each and every one on it. Merry Christmas to all… 🙂
I don’t know Christmas in Connecticut… I will definitely have to go check it out. Thanks for the tip 🙂
Christmas in Connecticut is my husbands and my favorite. Followed by Miracle on 34th Street, and it happened on 5th Avenue. All very enjoyable.