The best Christmas movies of all time
From silly Santas to shoot-outs in the snow, here's our pick of the best Christmas films ever
Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, and Christmas movies are part of that as much as any lit-up pine tree or jolly fat man. No matter how much of a cynical, hardcore cineaste you think you are, there’s at least one holiday-themed flick that instantly transports you back to childhood and fills you with warm, fuzzy memories of childhood – like a cup of hot cocoa for the soul.
Here’s the thing, though: sure, most Christmas movies are fluffy exercises in nostalgia, imparting messages about the importance of showing goodwill toward your fellow man, wrapped up with a tinge of innocent consumerism… but not all of them. As you’ll see on our list of the 50 all-time greatest yuletide classics, some subvert the tropes of the season and cast a critical eye at the more commercial aspects of the holiday. Others feature a lot of swearing, explosions and even a few bloody slayings. Whatever you’re looking for to get in the mood for this next month of merriment and Mariah Carey, you’ll find it under our proverbial tree.
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Best Christmas movies
Tinged with magical passages, buckets of good will and an alternate plotline with the disturbing kick of a Black Mirror episode, this tribute to the efforts of a small-town do-gooder (James Stewart, in his most beloved role) cements the idea of Christmas as a time for giving.
It’s up there with ‘Is a hot dog a sandwich?’ and ‘Is cereal a soup?’ as one of those goofy online debates that’s so played out your eyes cross whenever it heats up again, so let’s just put it to bed right now: yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie. C’mon: it takes place on Christmas Eve. Run-DMC’s immortal ‘Christmas in Hollis’ is on the soundtrack. Some have even argued that it’s secretly a remake of It’s a Wonderful Life. Look, you can and should watch John McTiernan’s action classic year-round – but for our money, ringing in the season with the sound of machine-gun fire, C4 explosions and Alan Rickman’s accent sure beats the heck out of sleigh bells.
Plenty of Christmas presents come with instructions, yet none are as ominous as the following: Never expose to bright light, never add water and, crucially, never feed after midnight. Joe Dante’s horror-comedy turns a well-intentioned gift into a nightmare. Meanwhile, a traumatised Phoebe Cates tells the saddest Christmas story ever.
Will Ferrell’s overgrown-child persona hilariously complements this comedy about a guileless giant elf searching for his dad in NYC, but the film’s focus isn’t just on the funny bone. There’s an abundance of heart and soul in the way the story cherishes holiday cheer; in a genre that’s become generically saccharine, this is one modern Christmas movie that’s genuinely sweet.
Admittedly, this yuletide raunch-fest subsists on a single joke, and it’s basically ‘guy in a Santa suit swears a lot’. But Billy Bob Thornton, in the title role, manages to stretch that premise much further than it should go, and also generates some genuine Christmas warmth through his unlikely friendship with a bullied kid unfortunately named Thurman Merman.
John Hughes penned this rollicking holiday classic that essentially plays like Straw Dogs for children. No matter that everybody’s on the naughty list here, from Catherine O’Hara’s woefully neglectful mom to Macaulay Culkin’s sadistic moppet and Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci’s vindictive crooks. Once the John Williams score kicks in, even the coldest hearts will warm and the most life-altering concussions will heal.
7. A Christmas Story (1983)
Back in the ’80s, who would have thought that this odd slice of life from the director of Black Christmas and friggin’ Porky’s would eventually gain on It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street as America’s favourite holiday movie? Bob Clark’s nostalgic comedy existed as a borderline cult film for decades, and no wonder: it’s pretty weird. But it’s weird in the way most families are, and that few films actually acknowledge. Constructed as a series of vignettes, it plays like the home videos you dust off once a year after a couple of eggnogs, making it infinitely rewatchable – and given how often it now appears on TV every December, you’ve probably seen it enough that it’s getting harder to discern the yuletide memories of little gun-loving Ralphie Parker from your own.
One of the first Johnny Depp performances to suggest he was more than just a set of cheekbones, the actor’s gothed-out title character is a study in pain and pathos. Tim Burton’s suburban fantasy wouldn’t be nearly as touching without Depp’s sad-eyed hero at its center – or its context of Christmas, a time of acceptance, charity and Winona Ryder dancing around ice sculptures.
Raymond Briggs’s book came to life once a year throughout many childhoods, as the animated film was shown on British TV with religious precision. Nominated for an Oscar, the short film tells of a boy whose snowman magically becomes real – but not forever. Add the haunting song ‘Walking In The Air’ and you have a true Christmas classic.
Small-time crook Robert Downey Jr hits Hollywood in this witty crime comedy featuring a memorable turn from Val Kilmer as a private investigator hired to give the wannabe actor background for a role. There are as many complications as belly laughs, while Michelle Monaghan puts in a break-out turn in a sexy Santa costume.
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