Top 5 Christmas Movies (updated for 2021)

This is an update to a story that originally ran on November 4, 2020. While there may not be much (if any) snow on the ground where you live, the holiday season is officially in full swing! This also means that our Netflix and other streaming service watch lists are recommending all kinds of classic Christmas movies. With that in mind, here is a list of 5 Christmas movies that should be candidates to make just about any list of top holiday movies.  

A few quick caveats. To make this list, the movie really does have to be about Christmas. So, while some movies take place during Christmas, we may not include them here if it isn’t a central theme of the film.. Basically, we’ll leave the argument of what constitutes a Christmas movie for another post.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

It’s a rare thing when the third movie in a series (sort of a series anyway) outshines its predecessors and becomes a classic. But, that’s pretty much the case with National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. From the opening scenes with the Griswolds on their way to cut down a Christmas tree to the arrival of cousin Eddie to the angry squirrel, the movie is filled with memorable scenes, quotable dialog, and general hilarity.

However, a word of warning. A friend of mine showed the movie to her two young kids for the first time last year (they were probably around 10) and they both thought it was lame and not at all funny. So, this might be the movie that helps you discover your kids have no sense of humor.  

A Christmas Story

If you have somehow escaped watching A Christmas Story, you clearly have never had your TV on during Christmas day. For years, at least one cable channel has simply but this movie on repeat and plays it over and over for 24 hours. Another solidly quotable movie (‘you’ll shoot your eye out”), with so many great memorable scenes (the pink bunny suit!), this one has carved out a place on literally every list of top holiday movies.

Will the kids like it? Hard to say. It is set in the 1940s, which may make it funny for parents and grandparents, but some of the content may be a bit dated for the kids today. When a kid’s favorite Christmas gift is a BB gun instead of a video game system, you know it’s probably a bit out of date.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

It wouldn’t be a proper Christmas movie list without some animation, but we’ll go a bit off the traditional Rudolph track (a fine movie in its own right) and go straight to Tim Burton with The Nightmare Before Christmas. Using classic stop-motion animation, the film introduces an unfamiliar cast of spooky Halloween characters to mix with Christmas favorites and delivers an original take on the holiday.  

Here’s one the kids might actually like. It’s a little edgy compared to the rest and mixes Halloween and Christmas like no other movie. But don’t worry. Despite its general creepiness, it comes through with a message about the Christmas spirit in the end.  

It’s a Wonderful Life

I’m pretty sure there is a law somewhere that any list of Christmas movies must include Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life from 1946. Before they ran A Christmas Story marathons, this movie was the one you could find running on some broadcast TV channel at just about any time from Thanksgiving until Christmas every year. 

The kids will probably be pretty bored by this one, honestly. It’s in black & white (so they will wonder if your TV is broken) and at least a decent portion of the movie is fairly sad. But, you never know. Maybe they will be thrilled when Clarence gets his wings. 

A Christmas Carol/Scrooged

OK, cheating a bit here, but both are based on the same story written by Charles Dickens. At this point, most of us know the story of Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol, written in 1843. To date, there have been 135+ visual adaptations of the story. That in and of itself makes the story worthy of inclusion on any Christmas movie list. But which adaptation to pick? I would suggest bookending it with the 1951 version and then Scrooged from 1988. You get an older (it’s in black & white) more serious adaptation and then Bill Murray’s take on the classic.

The kids might not like the black & white version, since they may wonder if your TV is broken, but they might get more of a kick out of Scrooged.  

Bonus Christmas Move

Die Hard

OK so, we’re kind of breaking our rule here. Die Hard takes place over Christmas, but is it really about Christmas? Maybe not. But, there is an annual argument about whether this movie counts as a Christmas movie, so we thought it was well worth including here. Seriously, there are ‘scientific’ studies to prove that Die Hard is in fact a Christmas movie. I mean, Die Hard is a classic film without question. One of the best action movies of all time and the owner of a 92% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It mentions Christmas a number of times, has Christmas music, etc. So, let’s not argue over it and just appreciate the greatness of this movie and add it to our Christmas movie watch lists.