Source: Elf // GIPHY
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Tis the season to break out and dust off your box of Christmas DVDs! There’s a holiday movie for everyone, from classics to modern adaptations to action thrillers to romantic comedies. Here are 25 amazing holiday films (in no particular order), one for each day leading up to Christmas!
This classic holiday movie is not only hilarious but also completely brilliant. We love watching the snarky little Kevin McCallister as he plays Man of the House when his family accidentally leaves him behind while they go on their Christmas vacation. He’s smarter than all of us, and the best fun comes from watching him outsmart the two goons robbing people’s homes while they’re away. This movie has something for everyone, making it basically the perfect holiday film.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Again we join Kevin McCallister in another Christmas mishap, only this time he didn’t leave home alone. He got on the wrong plane, which landed him in the heart of New York City! It’s the same antics you loved from the first one, now in a fresh and exciting new setting!
Tim Allen stars as Scott Calvin is an average guy working for a corporate toy company trying in vain to connect with his son, Charlie, after divorcing his wife. UNTIL, after causing Santa to fall off his roof, Scott and Charlie must take his place and finish the night’s deliveries. This movie is fun and explains the origins (so to speak) of Santa Claus!
The Santa Clause 2: The Escape Clause
Scott Calvin has discovered a small hitch in his wonderful new life as Santa Claus — if he doesn’t find a Mrs. Claus before Christmas, he’ll be kicked out of the North Pole for good!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Jim Carrey stars in the 2000 live-action adaptation of the beloved 1966 Dr. Seuss cartoon short. The adaptation is wildly colorful, laugh out loud, funny, and bizarre while staying true to the original’s values and message. This is a must-watch every holiday season.
A personal favorite of mine, this British, star-studded film follows the lives of several modern-day couples as they battle the trials and tribulations of love during Christmastime. This movie is hilarious, thought-provoking, touching, and memorable — an instant classic. But this one is best saved for after the kids go to bed. There’s lots of adult language and a few nude scenes.
A perfect holiday rom-com, Four Christmases follows a couple desperate to get away from their estranged families for the holidays, but after their flight to a tropical getaway is canceled, they are forced to attend all the Christmases they wanted to avoid.
This beautifully animated film is about a magical train that takes kids to the North Pole on Christmas Eve and about one particularly skeptical passenger who needs a little bit of help discovering the Christmas spirit.
Will Farrell stars in this Christmas tale about a baby in an orphanage who stows away in Santa’s sack on Christmas Eve, to then be discovered and raised in the North Pole as an elf. When Buddy the Elf grows up, Santa decides to tell him of his true identity and inform him that his father is on the Naughty List! Chaos and hilarity ensue when Buddy decides to go to New York City to find him.
There are many versions of the Charles Dickens’ classic, but the most recent animated adaptation stars Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge, a not so jolly older man who is taken on a magical adventure with the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future to learn the true meaning of Christmas.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
The Griswald’s are at it again, back to their great misadventures and ridiculous antics — this time for the holidays!
One of the greatest Christmas movies of all time, this film follows 9-year-old Ralphie and his family in the 1940s as they navigate a hectic holiday season in a small midwestern town. This movie is wholesome fun for the whole family, and it’s made to be enjoyed for many years to come.
Not only is the movie one of the best Christmas movies ever made, but it’s also actually just one of the best movies ever made. Critically acclaimed and award-winning, this film has sort of a dark premise (a man is about to commit suicide on Christmas Eve when a guardian angel swoops in and shows how the world would be different without him in it), but it’s ultimately timeless and heartwarming.
Personally, I prefer the 1994 version because Mara Wilson was a really adorable kid, but both versions are great. They both feature a department store consumer war and Santa Claus on trial to prove his legitimacy.
The Christmas movie for the person who hates Christmas movies! This action-thriller is about the NYPD officer John McClane as he saves the city from terrorists lead by the notorious Hans Gruber as they hold McClane’s wife and another hostage at a Christmas party.
Our hero John McClane returns for another Christmas Eve showdown, this time at an airport!
If you prefer the romantic comedy genre to action films, try this one. The Holiday is a heartwarming modern tale about two women who switch homes (and countries) for the holidays to get away from their disastrous love lives. A little change of pace seems to be all they need to get back on track.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Tim Burton’s famous claymation comes to life in this tale about Jack the Pumpkin King of Halloween, who gets bored with his life in which he does the same thing every day — prepares for Halloween. He stumbles upon Christmastown and decides that he wants to be the new Santa Claus and recruits his creepy, ghoulish friends to put on the holiday. You can imagine how this works out.
Not technically a “Christmas” movie, but it does take place on Christmas Eve — a tiny, adorable creature called a Gremlin looks like fun until you feed them after midnight and put it in water. Then it turns into a devilish monster! Just what everyone wants in their stockings!
An uptight business women joins her boyfriend at his parent’s house for Christmas and discovers she’s totally out of place in their free-spirited, bohemian way of life. It’s going to take a lot of Christmas cheer to keep this family together!
Two fathers desperately battle it out in a Christmas shopping brawl to get the year’s hottest toy for their sons. This Christmas movie has Arnold Schwarzenegger in it, and if that isn’t motivation enough to watch it, I don’t know what is.
When Santa misses one child on his present delivery spree, it’s up to his youngest son, Arther, to save the holiday before daybreak! This film is cute, animated, and British, which means you should watch it.
All you need to know about this movie is that it’s basically a Christmas Glee club.
Bill Murray’s Christmas Carol adaptation
The Christmas Classic Cartoons (Rudolph, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, A Year Without a Santa Claus, How the Grinch Stole Christmas)
The classic cartoon shorts your parents watched, claymation, and the faces of the season! Cuddle up with some cocoa and a warm fire, and watch these seasonal favorites!
Have you seen all of these holiday movies? Did your favorite make our list? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments!
