The best Christmas movies of all time, updated for 2024

Christmas is a time for magic, and what could be more magical than Hogwarts? While some of the acting in the first of the Harry Potter adaptations leaves something to be desired, the genuine wonder of Harry and Ron at Christmas is enough to give you a frisson of festive excitement. Now, who's up for a game of Wizard’s Chess?

Robert Zemeckis sprinkled his family-friendly magic on this performance-capture animation starring Tom Hanks in multiple roles, including narrator, train conductor and Santa Claus. This one ticks a lot of boxes for Christmas fanatics, including reindeer, elves and a whole heap of snow. Zemeckis would later revisit the uncanny valley of the holidays with the Jim Carrey-starring Disney’s a Christmas Carol, but for our money this first crack at mo-cap holiday cheer is the perfect holiday heartwarmer.

Time Out Tip: The Polar Express is recognised as the first all-motion-capture movie ever made.

Everything about this Christmas movie in which Jude Law romances Cameron Diaz in a cutesy country cottage shouldn’t work. And yet there’s something deeply charming about this festive romantic comedy. Perhaps it’s because we’ve been bullied into submission by numerous viewings; or perhaps it’s the secondary LA-set plot, which features Kate Winslet on peak form as a scorned British reporter who flirts with Jack Black and befriends a forgotten but famous screenwriter from the Golden Age of Hollywood (played by the late Eli Wallach). Either way, like a tub of Quality Street, it’s irresistible.

Loved for her columns about her wholesome husband and family in Connecticut, Elizabeth (Barbara Stanwyck) is actually a single New Yorker. When asked to host a Christmas dinner by her boss, she must head to Connecticut and keep up the pretence. Romantic complications follow.

Tim Allen kills Santa Claus, then is cursed to become him. It’s a kids movie, we swear! Yes, the plot mechanics are a bit dark, if you think too hard about it. Ultimately, though, this ’90s classic is like the proto-Elf: a sweet, silly comedy about a dad reconnecting with his son via Christmas magic, with enough winks at the adults in the room to hold their attention.  

Time Out Tip: The joke about a phone sex line caused a mild controversy when the number was discovered to connect to an actual phone sex line – and several kids who watched the film racked up huge bills after calling.

The film that single handedly turned Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas is You’ into a cultural juggernaut, Richard Curtis’s sprawling London ensemble piece is so sticky sweet that it’s easy to forget that each bit of holiday cheer is counterbalanced with characters destined for the naughty list. From Alan Rickman’s philandering editor to Hugh Grant’s assistant-seducing Prime Minister and Andrew Lincoln’s borderline stalker, most vignettes balance the sugar with some truly bitter spice. No matter. Like Bill Nighy’s ageing rocker says: Christmas is all around it. And it takes a bit of naughtiness to make the nice shine through anyway. 

It’s never easy going to someone else’s home for the holidays, especially when their family is abnormally close and unbearably kooky. In this fluffily entertaining dramedy, Sarah Jessica Parker is the girlfriend meeting her partner’s parents and siblings for the first time. Initially uptight and anxious, she grows more sympathetic the more you learn about the situation she’s been thrust into. Despite the Hallmark-y plotting, the movie contains some sharp observations about family dynamics and charming performances from Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Diane Keaton.

All hail Shane Black, the king of the fast-quipping buddy comedy-thriller, and a man who seems incapable of writing a screenplay without somehow involving Christmas. We’ll meet him again later in our list, but this is where it all started: with two bickering cops on a mission to take down drug dealers. At Christmas.

Paul Giamatti as a curmudgeonly history teacher at a New England boarding school circa 1970 forced to watch over a student (newbie Dominic Sessa) left behind on Christmas break? Oh yeah, that’s the good stuff. By the standards of director Alexander Payne, it’s an unusually heartwarming dramedy, even a bit sentimental. But it’s hard not to fall for the prickly bond formed between Giamatti, Sessa and Oscar-winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph, particularly as the group escapes campus and heads to Boston.  

Bob Clark’s other Christmas story might not get played on an endless loop on cable every December, but it did basically invent the modern slasher four whole years before that other holiday-themed thriller got all the credit for it. A group of college girls stay behind at the sorority house over winter break and find themselves stalked by an unseen killer – it doesn’t sound like much, but that’s only because decades of copycats turned its plot points into clichés. Trust us: it’s still genuinely unnerving.

Time Out tip: Black Christmas is the ideal festive viewing for the die-hard horror fan.

Scandinavia does Christmas a little differently, what with all the demons running about devouring the naughty. This overlooked horror-comedy finds a lovably Amblinesque group of kids and misfits unearthing a massive ancient monster… and an army of feral, marauding Fathers Christmas. It’s a worthy successor to Gremlins, minus the slime and with much, much more full-frontal elderly nudity. Yet for all the horrific imagery and snarling Santas, it’s a wildly inventive, even heartwarming affair from the Finnish wilderness. 

The closest any horror-comedy has gotten to the yuletide mania of Gremlins, Mike Dougherty’s Krampus pits a squabbling family led by Toni Collette and Adam Scott against the Scandinavian anti-Santa: A deranged goat-like demon who devours kids (and adults) on the naughty list. And while it doesn’t reach the derange heights of Joe Dante’s classic, it does include a particularly toothy killer clown sure to keep the kiddies awake well into Christmas morning. 

This oddball origin story of Santa is the first animated feature from Netflix, and it's a doozy. Featuring Oscar winner JK Simmons as a grizzled proto-Fat Man who loves toymaking but isn't interested in children, Jason Schwartzman as an incompetent postal carrier and Rashida Jones as a cynical teacher, the film’s eye-popping art direction scored the streamer a Best Animated Feature nomination. And if the set-up sounds cynical, worry not: Icy hearts melt, fast.

Christmas may have been white, but this time Irving Berlin’s musical was in Technicolor. Inspired by Holiday Inn, this follow-up could not be more Christmassy if it tried (and try it probably did). Snow, shows and romance all added up to a massive festive box office hit that would run and run on TV. When Clark Griswold famously promised the ‘hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny (expletive deleted) Kaye,’ he was talking about this gloriously old-fashioned musical 

Seething with long-held resentments, an extended French family gathers for the holiday and, as the booze starts to flow, out come the knives. Don’t expect figgy pudding and sentiment: Director Arnaud Desplechin is more interested in open wounds. Paradoxically, this is a great film to watch with your clan, who are undoubtedly in a better place.

This Oscar-nominated Disney short film casts Mickey as Bob Cratchit and Scrooge McDuck as his selfish boss, while Goofy, Jiminy Cricket and other familiar characters morph into the various ghosts. A nifty blending of Disney favourites with the Dickens classic.

Laurel and Hardy go family-friendly in this fairytale mash-up featuring characters from the stories of Mother Goose, Little Bo Peep and others. The duo play the Toymaker’s Apprentices in this slapstick heartwarmer, which was a Christmas TV favourite throughout the ’60s and ’70s. Just be wary of the horrifying 1986 version starring young Keanu Reeves and Drew Barrymore. 

Bad Santa is raunchier, but Christmas Vacation is possibly the most madcap Christmas comedy ever. The title is a bit of a misnomer, though: in this instalment of the Vacation franchise, the Griswold clan opts to stay at home in suburban Chicago for the holidays. But that doesn’t mean Chevy Chase, as overly ambitious patriarch Clark Griswold, can’t find a way to snatch disaster from the jaws of tranquillity. Several ways, in fact. 

‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas,’ sang Judy Garland in this cockle-warming musical set against the backdrop of the 1904 World Fair. The breakout song wasn’t originally so cheery, but Garland and her co-stars objected to the cynical tone in lyrics such as: ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas / It may be your last / Next year we may all be living in the past.’ Cheery.

At a glance, this Nick Hornby adaptation sounds as saccharine as Love Actually, and even shares a plot point: Hugh Grant is a louche playboy living off the money his late songwriter father made off a novelty Christmas single who eventually he learns the value of love and family through his friendship with a young boy (Nicholas Hoult). Slough it off at your peril, though – it’s sharp, spiky, funny and full of genuine heart.

Before Silent Night, Deadly Night, there was another horror movie about a psychopath donning a Santa costume and going on a killing spree. This is that movie. John Waters is such a megafan, he even recorded a feature-length commentary for the movie’s Blu-ray re-release in 2014.

Sandra Bullock is at her most loveable in this smart, thoughtful romcom about a lonely Chicago subway worker who rescues the man of her dreams from an oncoming train only to fall in love with his bad-tempered brother. Witty, sweet and festive – if a little stalker-y – it’s the kind of movie Hollywood has always excelled at.

‘How could the same shit happen to the same guy twice?’ Sure, it’s bigger, pricier and more bloated than the one that came before it – but that’s what Christmas is all about! Once again, Bruce takes down a terror gang to the tune of twinkly seasonal carols, this time in an airport.

Rankin and Bass’s stop-motion perennial drips with nostalgia, so much so that it’s easy to forget the cynical streak coursing through its short runtime: This is a North Pole where even Santa gets in on bullying Rudolph for his bright-red nose and a legion of elves displays a toxic amount of, um, dental-phobia toward a flamboyant would-be dentist. Throw in peppermint addict Yukon Cornelius, a whole island of misfit toys and a gnashing abominable snowman and it’s a wonder this hasn’t been revisited by Tim Burton. 

This musical is the ultimate ’40s cheerer as Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby sing and dance their way into the ladies’ hearts. The set up is pure Broadway: they’re a musical troupe who only perform on holidays, from Easter to Christmas. The film scored an Oscar for the now iconic song ‘White Christmas’.

This early version of Charles Dickens’s much-told story remains one of the finest, with Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge and Gene Lockhart as Bob Cratchit. There’s something oddly comforting about watching snow fall in black and white.

It’s Christmas every day for Arthur, son of Sant. Sarah Smith’s humorous animation sees the clumsy kid leaving the North Pole on a mission, complete with reindeer and comedy elves. James McAvoy and Jim Broadbent provide voices.

Starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd at their ’80s height, this hit farce is something like It’s a Wonderful Life for the era of Wall Street greed. The former is a street hustler, the latter a commodities broker, and both end up pawns in some rich bastards’ callous bet. Set during Christmastime, Aykroyd is the George Bailey figure, pulled back from the proverbial ledge for a revenge scheme involving a, uh, gorilla.

Nora Ephron’s remake of The Shop Around the Corner is a fairytale about warring booksellers is both a dreamy ode to New York’s Upper West Side as it is to the power of love. The melancholic Christmas scenes set to Harry Nilsson's ‘Remember’ will make you want to go out ice skating or gift a bunch of children’s books, while the chemistry between Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks transforms a cheesy into a classic. 

Hideous Christmas jumpers weren’t always considered cool like they are today. So we can’t blame our protagonist Bridget Jones’s (Renée Zellweger) less than pleasant reaction when she sees her potential love interest, Mark Darcy (a wonderfully stuffy Colin Firth), wearing a sweater with a giant reindeer face on it. It does, however, kick off this sharp romantic comedy-drama about navigating twenty-first-century dating and the pitfalls of having an affair with a caddish, dashing Hugh Grant.

Michael Caine as Scrooge, Gonzo the Great as Charles Dickens, Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchit – just three of many reasons to love this witty, warm-hearted take on the immortal story. Despite the presence of Muppets, it is (believe it or not) one of the more faithful versions of the book.

Time Out Tip: A Muppet Christmas Carol is the first Muppet movie made without Jim Henson, who died in 1990.

It’s already become a Christmas classic for especially forward-thinking families. Working for the first time with material developed by another screenwriter, director Todd Haynes transforms an underappreciated 1952 Patricia Highsmith novel about secret lesbian love into a universal romance. Once you’ve seen Rooney Mara in a Santa hat, there’s no turning back.

This festive masterpiece by German-expat genius Ernst Lubitsch about the struggles of a coterie of neurotic, underpaid, underloved department store clerks is an immaculate conflation of his sprightly shooting style, expertly layered wisecracking and bracing realism, all topped off with a romantic subplot that offers a nakedly joyous celebration of young, serendipitous love. 

Martin McDonagh’s breakthrough as a writer and director, about two mismatched hitmen (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) are forced to spend the holidays hiding out in a Belgian tourist town after a hit gone wrong, is sad and hilarious in equal measure. If you like your Christmas movies foul-mouthed and melancholy, this dark crime comedy is for you.

It might be better known these days for SNL’s classic ‘Lazy Sunday’ skit (‘Pass the chronic – what? – cles of Narnia’), but this snowy Christmas treat based on C.S. Lewis’s novel is, indeed, a dreamworld of magic. There’s both a Father Christmas and a White Witch, the latter played by Tilda Swinton.

The ultimate in cuddly Christmas afternoon movies, this original stars Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle, who must prove he is in fact Santa Claus – not least to a young girl (Natalie Wood) who has lost the true meaning of Christmas.

Singing, dancing, over-emoting on Christmas, whatever: When those eight women happen to be Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Béart, Virginie Ledoyen, Firmine Richard, Fanny Ardant and Ludivine Sagnier, they’re welcome to do whatever they damn well please.

American children had Charlie Brown and his sad little Christmas tree. British kids, meanwhile, had this wordless cartoon about a boy who spends a magical night with a flying snowman and learns that true happiness is fleeting. Merry, er, Christmas? This UK holiday staple is indeed quite melancholy, but it’s also utterly enchanting, with a message about cherishing those moments of joy because nothing (and no one) lasts forever – a beautiful sentiment in itself.

Time Out Tip: ‘Walking in the Air’, the main theme from The Snowman, was reissued in 1985 on Stiff Records, the British punk label most famous for releasing records from Elvis Costello, the Damned, the Pogues and Motorhead.

Bill Murray excels at portraying smug, sarcastic cranks, so if nothing else, casting him as the Scrooge figure in this modern-day satire of A Christmas Carol was a stroke of genius. Predating his turn as grouchy weatherman Phil Connors in Groundhog Day, here Murray is a callous TV exec named Frank Cross whom the universe decides to teach a lesson in merriment and goodwill toward men. And he’s not the only inspired casting choice – see also Carol Kane as the unexpectedly violent Ghost of Christmas Present and New York Dolls’ David Johansen as the cab-driving Ghost of Christmas Past.

Tim Burton’s second stab at the Caped Crusader is actually a slight improvement on his original 1989 blockbuster, mainly due to Michelle Pfeiffer’s uncommonly fierce performance as Catwoman (the finest work she’s ever done). If you forget, Gotham is dusted with a layer of snow and in the process of crowing its Ice Princess. It doesn’t go well for the beauty queen, or anyone, really, in this especially downbeat Christmas.

By now as iconic as the story of Kris Kringle himself, this Peanuts-based perennial sends viewers into happy spasms of neck-tipped dancing year after year. Its most lasting achievement is Vince Guaraldi’s breezy jazz score – whimsical and lovely like a falling snowflake.

A treat from Hollywood's most unlikely Midas: an original fairy tale, screenplay by Caroline Thompson from a story and characters created by Tim Burton, adapted by Michael McDowell and told in stop-motion animation with a lively score by Danny Elfman. Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, is bored with his annual Halloween triumph. A chance visit to nearby Christmastown gives him an idea: he and his spooky friends will stand in for Santa this Christmas! Despite the title, director Henry Selick’s marvel has come to be more associated with Halloween than Noel, yet it illustrates the allure of the season better than most others. After all, if a skeleton known for his scaring prowess can be overcome by the spirit of giving, who could possibly resist? Sure, his attempts to appropriate the holiday end in disaster, but his heart – or chestplate? – is in the right place. In truth, it’s a beautifully realised confection grown-ups of all ages can enjoy from October through New Year’s.

As screenwriter of the likes of The Last Action Hero’ The Long Kiss Goodnight and the Lethal Weapon series, Shane Black specialised in leavening buddy-investigator dynamics with nods and winks at genre formula. His directorial debut is an ultra-knowing contemporary take on the naive gumshoe procedural, with Robert Downey Jr on deliciously rumpled form as a two-bit thief marooned in LA during the holidays and mixed up in murder. Less clued-up ’tec than richocheting pinball, he’s ably assisted by Michelle Monaghan’s old flame and Val Kilmer’s ‘Gay’ Perry, a more accomplished private dick. The self-aware narration and formal trickery are ultimately window-dressing, but a very enjoyable way to have your genre cake and eat it, too. There are as many complications as belly laughs, while Monaghan puts in a break-out turn in a sexy Santa costume.

One of the first Johnny Depp performances to suggest he was more than just a set of cheekbones, the actor’s gothed-out title character is a study in pain and pathos. With his electric-shock hairdo and kinky black gear, Edward is a model of trendy respectability – except for one thing. This man-made creature has got shears instead of hands, because his creator (Vincent Price) died mid-project. He sits lonely and lethal in his gloomy mansion, until the Avon Lady (Dianne Wiest) comes to call. She invites him home, and he proceeds to dazzle her family and neighbours with his flair for topiary and surreal hair-styling. With its skewed vision of suburbia, Tim Burton's film bears comparison with his earlier Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. It's a visual treat, complete with pastel bungalows, surreal shrubbery and grotesque outfits. But Burton’s suburban fantasy wouldn’t be nearly as touching without Depp’s sad-eyed hero at its center – or its context of Christmas, a time of acceptance, charity and Winona Ryder, as his love interest, dancing around ice sculptures.

Admittedly, this yuletide raunch-fest subsists on a single joke, and it’s basically ‘guy in a Santa suit swears a lot’. But Billy Bob Thornton, in the title role, manages to stretch that premise much further than it should go. Thornton is Willie T Stokes, a cynical, alcoholic mall Santa with a penchant for sex with hefty women and a wholly unconcealed dislike of kids. Indeed, he only does the job as a cover for the felonies he perpetrates with Marcus (Tony Cox), his criminal-mastermind elf. It is, for the most part, quite hilarious in its foul-mouthed malice and disenchantment with all things wholesome and familial; few films have been as funny about greed, lust, incontinence, midgets or kicks to the balls. But director Terry Zwigoff also generates some genuine Christmas warmth through Willie’s relationship with a parentless eight-year-old unfortunately named Thurman Merman (Brett Kelly), whose innocence verges on idiocy and who happens to live in a mansion that’d make a great home for Willie.

All young Kevin McCallister (Macauley Culkin) wants for Christmas is for everyone in his giant house in suburban Chicago to disappear. When he wakes up the next day to discover his wish granted, he soon regrets it – but not before spending a few glorious days sans parental supervision. Written by John Hughes, the ultimate message is about the importance of family – and of doing a headcount before rushing to the airport to catch a flight to Paris – but it comes on the back of whole lot of little-kid wish fulfilment, from eating heaping bowls of ice cream and watching violent movies to beating the crud out of some bungling burglars. It’s just about the silliest thing Hughes ever put his name on, but it’s still a blast to watch as an adult – although it’ll make you realise the best part in the entire thing is John Candy’s (largely improvised) monologue about being abandoned by his parents in a funeral home as a kid.

Time Out Tip: Home Alone is the second-highest grossing Christmas movie of all-time, behind 2018’s animated reboot of The Grinch (which did not make our list).

In Hollywood, the forces of truth, justice, family and America have always battled with the viewing public’s unquenchable lust for mayhem. Few movies have walked that tightrope as skilfully or subversively as 1984’s ‘Gremlins’, in which director Joe Dante tries to have his Christmas cake and puke all over it too. The setting is Kingston Falls, a Capraesque-Spielbergian suburban haven (with just a hint of poverty, alcoholism and unemployment) into which comes Gizmo the mogwai, a button-cute, furry ET clone with a dark secret: under certain circumstances, he begins breeding toothy, green id-monsters. The film’s craftiest trick is that we never know which side Dante is on: these demonic invaders may threaten everything the well-meaning, self-satisfied townsfolk hold dear, but is that such a bad thing? And don’t they look like they’re having one hell of a party? The result is a jangling, lunatic sugar rush of a movie, in love with everything it satirises and bursting at the seams with psychotic energy. Meanwhile, a traumatised Phoebe Cates tells the saddest Christmas story ever.

Time Out Tip: If Kingston Falls looks familiar, that’s because it’s the same set used to represent Hill Valley in Back to the Future – the Courthouse Square backlot at Universal Studios.

Will Ferrell’s overgrown-child persona hilariously complements this comedy about a guileless giant elf searching for his dad in New York City. Y’see, Buddy is actually a human, brought back to the North Pole as a baby when he strayed into the old jolly boy's sack during the Christmas run. He's been raised in the traditional elfin ways of industrious good humour, but now it's time for him to venture to distant New York and discover his real father is a grumpy publisher (James Caan), who naturally thinks his 'son' is a dangerous loony. Must be the tights and the pointy hat. But the film’s focus isn’t just on the funny bone. Director Jon Favreau strikes an adept balance of irony and sincerity, sprinkling felicities in the margins: cult crooner Leon Redbone voicing a stop-motion snowman; indie fave Zooey Deschanel as the department store helper giving Ferrell understandable tingles; and a particularly successful running gag enshrining the significance of Etch-a-Sketch in elf culture. In a genre that’s become generically saccharine, this is one modern Christmas movie that’s genuinely sweet.

It’s up there with ‘Is a hot dog a sandwich?’ and ‘Is cereal a soup?’ as one of those goofy online debates that’s so played out your eyes cross whenever it heats up again, so let’s just put it to bed right now: yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie. C’mon: it takes place on Christmas Eve. Run-DMC’s immortal ‘Christmas in Hollis’ is on the soundtrack. Some have even argued that it’s secretly a remake of It’s a Wonderful Life. Look, you can and should watch John McTiernan’s action classic year-round: it’s a hi-tech thriller with a human heart, and McTiernan excels in staging the murderous mayhem and violence as if he were born with a camera in one hand and a rocket launcher in the other. But for our money, ringing in the season with the sound of machine-gun fire, C4 explosions and Alan Rickman’s accent sure beats the heck out of sleigh bells.

Tinged with magical passages, buckets of good will and an alternate plotline with the disturbing kick of a Black Mirror episode, this tribute to the efforts of a small-town do-gooder cements the idea of Christmas as a time for giving. James Stewart is impeccable as George Bailey, the Bedford Falls boy-next-door whose dreams are continually deferred by the demands of family and national upset. Denied the opportunities for individualist enterprise that are the stock in trade of American cinematic heroism, George is pulled towards communal effort and self-effacement. Yet the film’s bravura fantasy sequence, imagining the hellishly licentious Bedford Falls that would exist without George, makes the grandest possible case for the importance and uniqueness of individual agency. Funny, compelling and moving.

Time Out Tip: It’s a Wonderful Life is the first definitive Christmas movie to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards – though no Christmas movie has yet to actually win the Oscar.