With the holiday season upon us, it’s time to watch some Christmas classics, both new and old. Here are our picks for the top 10 best Christmas movies of all time.
10. Scrooged
While there have been many re-imaginings of A Christmas Carol, Scrooged has such a unique charm. Bill Murray plays a TV exec whose putting on a performance of the classic story, with a smug affect and occasionally rude humor making this more corporate version of the character a classic.
The “modern” take on the classic tale is wonderfully ’80s, showcasing Murray’s comedic chops, including an abundance of improv. As such, Scrooged is one of the best Christmas comedies of all time. That being said, it gets surprisingly serious at times, covering topics that still affect modern adults under capitalism. At its core though, Scrooged is still a great PG-13 take on the classic story.
9. The Muppet Christmas Carol
There are so many retellings of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol story which are classics in their own right. However, The Muppets bring a unique, wholesome charm to the tale which makes The Muppet Christmas Carol a standout.
The Muppets in and of themselves are iconic, with many of the franchise’s most recognizable icons appearing as characters from Dickens’ original tale. They bring lots of added charm and humor to the source material, which is at times grim as far as holiday stories go.
That being said, The Muppet Christmas Carol is still respectful of the original story, and gave it the appropriate love and care it deserves. The inherent silliness of Jim Henson’s iconic puppets contrasts extremely well with an exceptionally serious performance by Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge. The iconic actor is perfectly diabolical, yet finds the warmth required when the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future help him find the true meaning of the season and motivate him to be a kinder man.
8. Die Hard
Die Hard is a bit of a cultural oddity. Despite being way more of an action movie than it is classic holiday fare, the film has become a cult classic in the Christmas season, and a unique standout among a fairly formulaic genre.
This iconic action movie sees Bruce Willis as a NYPD officer who finds himself in a massive office building in LA on Christmas Eve. Here, he must protect the workers as their office party gets crashed by some East German terrorists, led by Alan Rickman’s perfectly smug Hans Gruber.
Due to its setting, Die Hard is as littered with Christmas music and decor as it is with bullets. Ultimately, the result is a delightfully campy late eighties action blockbuster. It’s filled with great action, iconic set pieces, nostalgic fashion and firearms, and a somewhat wholesome theme as main character John McClane efforts to reconnect with his family over the holidays.
7. White Christmas
Whereas our prior entry was an outlier, White Christmas is an absolute classic. This 1950’s musical is a near-perfect piece of holiday Americana from the golden age of Hollywood. Nostalgic, pretty, and full of humor and charm, White Christmas feels like taking a trip to your grandparents for the most wonderful time of the year.
For many, the Christmas music of the 40s and 50s is still the sound of the season. For folks who loves Christmas crooners, White Christmas has them in abundance. It also has some more upbeat humorous numbers, like “Sisters” by Rosemary Clooney, who is exceptional alongside Bing Crosby.
The plot of White Christmas is fittingly wholesome too, with equal parts romance and feel-good American aspiration. After World War II, two buddies start to fall for a pair of singing sisters, and the four team up to help their former commander keep his Vermont Inn afloat.
6. Elf
While many think of Elf as a modern Christmas classic, the film has already stood the test of time for two decades, and skyrocketed Jon Favreau’s career when it became a mega-hit. Let’s address the elephant in the room though; Elf is the “All I Want for Christmas is You” of movies. Which is to say, both absolutely took over the world upon release and have a lasting impact, though their over-play and excessive marketing has likely turned you off to both entirely. I was in the same boat with Elf and took several years off. However, upon my return to the movie as a young adult, I was reminded that it genuinely has a lot to love.
Elf is a loving tribute to lots of classic Christmas movies. It has the aesthetic of classic stop specials like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and an always delightful snowy New York City as its holiday backdrop. Will Ferrel is delightfully awkward as a naive man raised as an Elf when the North Pole’s finest find him as an infant. When he tries to reconnect with his father, things don’t go according to plan as the man is a corporate suit who couldn’t care less about Christmas spirit. However, through his absurd silliness and commitment to his craft, Buddy the Elf helps his family find true Christmas spirit in a heartwarming tearjerker of a finale.
5. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
As far as animated Christmas classics go, Rudolph is still on top. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is a delightfully animated stop motion special, with absolutely iconic and adorable character designs. It is truly impressive how much iconic images and sounds of the holiday season stem from less than an hour of this 1964 classic.
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is an undeniable Holiday classic, with adorable characters, arguably the best Christmas music of all time from Burl Ives, and a wonderful theme about staying true to yourself and finding your family.
4. The Holdovers
Released in 2023, The Holdovers has already cemented itself as a holiday classic. The movie follows Dominic Sessa (left) and Paul Giamatti (right) as a student-teacher duo who reluctantly spend the holidays together at a New England boarding school.
Every year, a few pupils end up at staying the school over the winter break and need to be supervised by an unlucky teacher. What ensues is a holiday story which is at times heartwarming and heartbreaking. It explores such a fascinating dynamic as a screw up kid and an alcoholic teacher go from resenting to respecting eachother, and realize both have quite a bit to learn from each other about how to be better men.
I’d be remiss not to highlight the exceptional performance by Da’Vine Joy Randoplh as the school’s cook, who takes care of others in spite of her having an especially tragic time with life. The Holdovers is a journey about finding family, and one that feels familiar and new at the same time.
While The Holdovers is a recent release, the 1970s setting makes it feel warmly nostalgic. Not only is this a period piece, but The Holdovers is also filmed and has its audio recorded in a way that feels like the film itself came from that era.
3. Love Actually
Love Actually has been described as the ultimate rom-com, which couldn’t be more apt. Set around Christmas, the film follows an ensemble cast of compelling characters, showing vignettes of their love-lives around the Holiday season.
The movie plays out like a bunch of short stories about romance around the holidays, ranging from delightful to devastating. While the set up could lead to it feeling rather segmented, it all comes up wrapped together with a bow on the top. That being said, Love Actually is worth a watch for its incredible cast alone, with Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightley, Alan Rickman, and The Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln just to name a few.
2. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
The Vacation series of films from National Lampoon are a classic of 80s comedy, and Christmas Vacation is far and away their best. This hilarious Holiday romp is filled with crass humor, as the Griswald family try their best to make a magical Christmas for their extended family, even though they make them irate.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is filled with iconic one-liners, hilarious visual gags, and iconic comedians like Chevy Chase and Julia Louis Dreyfus at some of their best. The movie reaches its peak though when Randy Quaid shows up as Cousin Eddie, with a family that just doesn’t know when to leave.
1. It’s A Wonderful Life
It’s A Wonderful Life is both a delightfully nostalgic romp from the 1940s, and a timeless classic. The story follows a guardian angel being brought up to speed on the life of the man whose life he is to save; George Bailey. James Stewart is downright iconic as this leading man, and his charm makes the feature length flashback compelling to watch. It serves almost as an extended coming-of-age montage, but focuses on that magical point in young adulthood when you meet the love of your life and begin to make your own family.
That being said, the movie goes to some really dark and mature places too. The Holidays aren’t all that magic for George Bailey, as his financial troubles begin to overwhelm him so much that he contemplates suicide. Thankfully, the community around him takes care of the man who has ultimately done so much for them. All that being said, if you need a good laugh, a good cry, and an incredible reminder that people are still fundamentally good and kindness is rewarded, It’s A Wonderful Life is a must-watch as the best Christmas movie of all time.
Published: Nov 12, 2024 09:17 pm