Is there anything that can get you into the festive spirit more than grabbing a thick blanket, a tub of popcorn, and watching an iconic Christmas film? From films to make you laugh like Elf and The Grinch, to rom-coms like Love Actually and The Holiday, this list has a real mix of movies, so you’ll be sure to find one you fancy watching.
Some of my favourite Christmas films include A Muppet’s Christmas Carol and The Christmas Chronicles – the first one, of course. The 2020 sequel was good, but I found the first to fill me with more Christmas magic, therefore making it the superior film.
Here are 24 films to get you in the festive spirit this Christmas!
1. Love Actually – Love Actually follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London.
2. The Holiday – Two women troubled with guy-problems swap homes in each other’s countries, where they each meet a local man and fall in love. Two women – who have never met and live 6,000 miles apart – find themselves in the exact same place. They meet online at a home exchange website and impulsively switch homes for the holiday.
3. The Grinch – On the outskirts of Whoville lives a green, revenge-seeking Grinch who plans to ruin Christmas for all of the citizens of the town.
4. The Muppet’s Christmas Carol – The Muppet characters tell their version of the classic tale of an old and bitter miser’s redemption on Christmas Eve.
5. Home Alone – The film follows Kevin, an eight-year-old boy, who must defend his home from two burglars, Harry and Marv, after his family accidentally leaves him behind on their vacation.
6. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation – In December 1989, Chicago resident Clark Griswold plans to have a great Christmas with his entire family. He gathers his wife Ellen, daughter Audrey, and son Rusty and drives out to the country to find a tree. After walking through the snow for hours, Clark finds the largest tree he can.
7. Miracle on 34th Street – The story takes place between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day in New York City, and focuses on the effect of a department store Santa Claus who claims to be the real Santa.
8. The Christmas Chronicles – The story of sister and brother, Kate and Teddy Pierce, whose Christmas Eve plan to catch Santa Claus on camera turns into an unexpected journey that most kids could only dream about.
9. The Nativity – An uptight but secretly heartbroken primary school teacher’s little white lie about Hollywood coming to see his class’ nativity play grows like wildfire in his rag-tag school low on self-esteem.
10. Bad Santa – A miserable conman and his partner pose as Santa and his Little Helper to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. But they run into problems when the conman befriends a troubled kid.
11. The Nightmare before Christmas – Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion.
12. Jingle all the Way – A father vows to get his son a Turbo Man action figure for Christmas. However, every store is sold out of them, and he must travel all over town and compete with everybody else in order to find one.
13. Jack Frost – A father who can’t keep his promises dies in a car accident. One year later, he returns as a snowman, who has the final chance to put things right with his son, before he is gone forever.
14. Die Hard – An NYPD officer tries to save his wife and several others taken hostage by German terrorists during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.
15. Scrooge – A musical retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic novel about an old bitter miser taken on a journey of self-redemption, courtesy of several mysterious Christmas apparitions.
16. Polar Express – On Christmas Eve, a young boy embarks on a magical adventure to the North Pole on the Polar Express, while learning about friendship, bravery, and the spirit of Christmas.
17. Christmas with the Kranks – With their daughter, Blair, away, Luther and Nora Krank decide to skip Christmas all together until she decides to come home, causing an uproar when they have to celebrate it at the last minute.
18. Fred Claus – Fred Claus, Santa’s bitter older brother, is forced to move to the North Pole to help Santa and the elves prepare for Christmas in exchange for cash.
19. Mrs Miracle – Overwhelmed widower Seth Webster is searching for a housekeeper to help him with his unruly six year old twin sons. “Mrs. Miracle” mysteriously appears and quickly becomes an irreplaceable nanny, chef, friend and matchmaker.
20. Last Holiday – Upon learning of a terminal illness, a shy woman decides to sell off all her possessions and live it up at a posh Central-European hotel.
21. Last Christmas – Kate is a young woman subscribed to bad decisions. Working as an elf in a year round Christmas store is not good for the wannabe singer. However, she meets Tom there. Her life takes a new turn. For Kate, it seems too good to be true.
22. Deck the Halls – Two neighbors have it out after one of them decorates his house for the holidays so brightly that it can be seen from space.
23. Elf – After discovering he is a human, a man raised as an elf at the North Pole decides to travel to New York City to locate his real father.
24. Arthur Christmas – Santa’s clumsy son Arthur sets out on a mission with Grandsanta to give out a present they misplaced to a young girl in less than two hours.
