Top 10 Favorite Christmas Movies
Merry Christmas (and Happy Holidays) everybody! With it being Christmas time I thought I would share my 10 favorite Christmas movies of all time! So here we go, let’s get started!
NOTE: Before we got started Die Hard is not going to be on the list. I don’t consider it a Christmas movie whatsoever. Sure, it takes place during Christmas time but it’s just a coincidence that Alan Rickman attacked that building on Christmas eve. So I don’t consider it a Christmas movie, so it’s not on this list. But if it was, it would be in the top 3.
10. The Christmas Chronicles: A fun Christmas movie starring Kurt Russell as jolly old Santa Clause. And with this movie it’s just a fun Christmas adventure where Santa teams up with two kids to help save Christmas. It’s a cliche Christmas story but it’s a fun version of it. Kurt Russell as Santa is great casting, he’s very fun and charming in the lead role. And the two kids are solid, as far as kid actors go…they aren’t bad. And it has a lot of heart at the center of it, as the kids are struggling with their dad dying. It’s their first Christmas with him being gone, so it does have this certain amount of emotional weight to it. I know some people weren’t crazy about the jailhouse rock sequence with Santa in jail, they just thought it was too cringy and too chaotic. I had a lot of fun with it,both times that I watched it and it put a smile on my face. And you get a great cameo from Goldie Hawn setting up the sequel.
9. 8-Bit Christmas: Now this is a movie that I didn’t know anything about prior to watching it. My mom and I just turned it on, kind of on a whim and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s about a dad who takes his daughter back to his childhood home to visit his family during the holidays. And rediscovers his old video game console and tells the story of that. It’s a very heartwarming movie that pulls at your heartstrings at just the right moments. Neil Patrick Harris is the dad character in the movie, and it’s always fun to see him in these sorts of movies. Steve Zahn is Neil’s dad in the movie, so a fun cast. It also has plenty of humor in the movie that puts a smile on your face. So this is an HBO Max original and I would guarantee you watch it, it’s a really charming little Christmas movie for the whole family.
8. Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Now there are multiple different versions of The Grinch. For this one I’m counting the 2000 one starring Jim Carrey that is directed by Ron Howard. And I’ve always kind of dug this movie and thought it was a solid Christmas movie. It’s a role that kind of just gets to let Jim Carrey do his thing. So he’s a lot of fun in the role, he’s probably the best version of The Grinch in my mind. It’s also a movie that, on a production level, looks really cool. You get a lot of great looking thoughts, and it probably transports you to this different world. And the story of The Grinch, and the arc that he gets does work in this movie. It’s a very solid take on the classic Christmas source material.
7. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York: A rare sequel that copies the format and template of the original, but works. Some people might argue that this one is better than the original movie. Given its placement on this list, I don’t agree with that statement but it’s still very good. The cast here is once again having a lot of fun. Macaulay Culkin has not skipped a beat as Kevin. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are great as Harry and Marv once again. And you get some great new additions with Tim Curry and Rob Schinder. Like I said before, it does copy the format and the template of the original film beat by beat. But it works, it’s a fun template and they play that out rather well in this movie. Now should the title really be called “Home Alone” if it’s not home and not really alone? Probably not, but it’s still a very fun Christmas sequel.
6. The Polar Express: I know this one isn’t super commonly put in people’s favorite Christmas movies, but I’ve always enjoyed it. I like the animation style for the movie, it looks really good and it’s different. There aren’t very many animated movies that are done quite like this movie. When you get Robert Zemeckis behind the camera and Tom Hanks as the big star of the movie, you know it’ll work (most of the time). Because they are a top tier director and a top tier actor, and putting them together makes for a solid production overall. And it’s a Christmas story that hasn’t been done before, there aren’t very many movies like this. So it’s unique inside the Christmas movie genre. And I think overall it’s a really good Christmas animated movie.
5. The Santa Clause: Honestly, the next three movies on this list are all kind of tied for me. SO if I ever update this list, the order from number five to number 3 might change. But this is a great Christmas comedy with a fantastic lead performance from Tim Allen. Tim Allen is the glue that is holding this franchise together. He’s so much fun, he can play this jerk of a guy so well but also bring out lots of humor with him. So while he’s been a jerk, you still kind of like him. And I love the dynamic between Tim Allen and Judge Reinhold in this movie. And the idea of what if a normal guy became Santa Clause is a fun idea for a Christmas movie like this. Because it’s an idea that I’m sure most people have probably had over the years. It’s very funny and also has a good bit of heart to it. There are some darker elements with this movie that might not sit well with some people. I still think it’s a great movie that I love watching every single year.
4. Elf: One of the Christmas classics that has been loved for years and will continue to be loved. This was the movie that took Will Ferrell from this SNL star, side role in comedies to the WILL FERRELL that we know today. And him as Buddy the Elf is maybe the greatest casting in a Christmas movie of all time. He's so fun, charming, and innocent as this character that is trying to explore New York City, but he’s been living in The North Pole his entire life. The supporting cast has some great talent with James Caan, Zooey Deschnael, Ed Asner, Bob Newhart, Mary Steenburgen, and Peter Dinklage in a great cameo role. And as with most Christmas movies it has a lot of heart and emotion inside of it. You care about Buddy’s journey to figure out where he’s from. And as you move into the finale it has some great emotional payoff. So easily, this is one of the great Christmas movies of all time.
3. Home Alone: Yet again…another true Christmas classic that is pretty fantastic. And face value this looks like it could be just another bland generic Christmas movie. But it’s so much more than that, it has a lot to offer. They got Joe Pesci to be one of the villains of the movie, this movie was the same year as Goodfellas, a movie that is not at all like this movie. They even got legendary film composer John Williams to do the score of the movie. So the talent they got just elevates the movie to this next level. Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister is maybe the greatest child performance of all time, he’s certainly in the top three competition in my mind. And it’s a movie that is so funny, so charming, so entertaining that it’s easy to forget that his parents and his family are terrible people. I mean in the first 20 minutes of the movie, his uncle, his brother, and his cousins are treating him horribly. And then worst of all, they forget him at the house. So this is one of those Christmas classics that they’ve made several sequels to this movie, but none of them comes close to the magic of this movie.
2. The Nightmare Before Christmas: Now you could argue whether or not this movie should be on the list, it has Christmas in the title. And Christmas plays a big part in this movie, so it’s on the list. And it took me a while to watch this movie, but once I did I just loved it. It’s such a creative and interesting film with its story and animation style. It’s a claymation film, a style of filmmaking that Disney doesn’t normally do but here it works. It’s easily one of the most creative and most unique Disney animated films to date. And you get some of Disney’s best songs here that are so memorable and so catchy that I LOVE to listen to them. And then the movie is populated with a great set of characters with Jack, Sally, and of course Oogie Boogie, one of the great Disney villains in my mind. I might also be a bit biased because I did go to Haunted Mansion when I was in Disneyland back in October, and I still have that excitement going on.
1. Love Actually: For me, this is my favorite Christmas movie of all time. I can’t imagine any Christmas topping this movie. And it’s just charming and delightful at its core. Where you see the weeks leading up to Christmas from the perspective of multiple different people. And in the end several of the plot lines come together. It’s a very funny movie where you get some very memorable jokes every couple of minutes. And certain situations are very awkward, but that’s also where a lot of the humor comes from. The cast all around is fantastic and all of them are having a lot of fun. Hugh Grant, Liam Nesson, and Alan Rickman would be three of the big standouts but everybody is great in this movie. And it’s fun to see Chiwetel Ejifoir and Martin Freeman before their careers really took off and became a part of the MCU. So this is a movie that I’ve seen a few times now and every single time I feel the romance, the comedy, and the heart all in one. And this movie contains my mom’s all time favorite movie scene…Hugh Grant’s dance moves.
There you have it, my 10 favorite Christmas movies of all time. What are some of your favorite Christmas movies of all time? Thanks for reading!
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