My Top Thirty One Christmas Movies

Christmas movies are our annual anti-humbug holiday treat for my wife and I. We also have Halloween movies, 4th of July movies and St. Patrick's Day movies.  Here's the list for Christmas. It started out as a top ten list but then it grew to 20 then 25 and now 31. I can't help it, they keep making new ones. So, in no particular order.

1. It's A Wonderful Life (Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed sleeper hit with Lionel Barrymore and the delightful Henry Travers)
   
2. White Christmas:(Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen. Perfect!)
3. Scrooge (Albert Finney)
4. Scrooged (Bill Murray)
5. The Christmas Lodge (With Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG1 and Erin Karpluk) 
6. November Christmas (Hallmark I think - it's a shameless tear jerker but sweet)
   
7. Christmas Vacation (Chevy Chase classic)
8. Home Alone 1 and 2 (Kevin manages to have not one but 2 engaging Christmas Adventures)
9. Silent Night (Linda Hamilton as a German mom in WWII who entertains soldiers from both sides at Christmas)
10. Christmas With The Kranks (Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Ackroyd, Cheech Marin) A Steven King story if you can believe it - very funny though.
    
11. The Santa Clause (Tim Allen - all three)
    
12. Joyeux Noel (The WWI Christmas miracle)
    
13. A Christmas Story (Ralphie angles for an official Red Ryder BB gun with a compass in the stock)
    
14. The Polar Express (Based on Chris Van Allsburg's ethereal picture book)
    
15. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Jim Carey)
16. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Boris Karloff)
17. A Charlie Brown Christmas (It's a TV cartoon but then so is the Grinch with Karloff)
    
18. Miracle on 34th Street (Natalie Woods is precious)
    
19. A Christmas Carol (Jim Carey - animated lunacy from Disney)
20. The Christmas Card  (Great romantic Hallmark flick)
    
21. Fallen Angel  (Gary Sinise - not what you'd expect)
    
22. Die Hard (Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Alexander Gudenov) It's not Christmas until Hans Gruber falls off the Nakatomi Towers.
    
23. Mixed Nuts (Steve Martin, Madeleine Kahn, Robert Klein, Rob Reiner) Almost forgotten Steve Martin flick that's fun to watch
24. Holiday Inn (Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire compete for the girl)
25. The Holiday (Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Jack Black) 
26. The Christmas Ornament (Jewel Staits, Kellie Martin, Cameron Matheson)
27. The Christmas Train (Dermot Mulroney, Danny Glover, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Joan Cusack)
28. Mrs. Miracle James Van der Beek, Erin Karpluk, Doris Roberts) and the lovely sequel Call Me Mrs. Miracle (Doris Roberts, Jewel Staite, Eric Johnson, Loren Holly)
29. Love Actually (Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Martin Freeman, Keira Knightly and a host of others) Warning with this one. If you can find a version that tones down the language and brief nudity great, otherwise send the kids to bed.
    
30. 12 Dates of Christmas (Amy Smart, Mark-Paul Gosselaar)
31. Christmas in the Smokies (Sarah Lancaster, Barry Corbin, Alan Powell)
    

There you go. There are some that are peripheral Christmas movies like Trading Places and Lethal Weapon that I left off the list, even though I included the first Die Hard which was by no means a strictly Christmas movie. I also hesitated to include Mel Gibson's deeply strange Fat Man which though the missus likes it (she has a thing about Mel) It might be a kind of disturbing approach to the Santa Claus myth. Any, you've been warned.

 

I would include links but these things move around so much and sometimes a selfish TV channel or streaming channel grabs one of them and hogs it up for themselves. So Google these and watch them where you can. Youtube has a bunch of them so you might go there first. Tubi and Crackle have some of them every year. In the subscription services, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Paramount+, Friendly TV and such will have various assortments. Sometimes you can find the rare ones on the Pirate Bay, just make sure you are careful and respect the copyrights involved before you download. ;-)

Merry comin' up on Christmas!

© 2020, 21, 22, 23 by Tom King