Top Christmas films in the ranking: The 20 best

Santa Claus is coming to town, but you still have a few days to watch all sorts of Christmas movies.

Of course, there are classics like Macaulay Culkin, who takes on dim-witted crooks in the popular film Home Alone, or Bill Murray’s self-centered TV manager, who plays a role in Scrooged, an interpretation of Charles Dickens’ novel learns several things about the meaning of Christmas. “A Christmas Story.” Or maybe you want more modern options, like the Dwayne Johnson/Chris Evans actioner “Red One” or Netflix’s saucy new double feature “Hot Frosty” and “The Merry Gentlemen.”

In honor of the holiday season, let’s rank the 20 best Christmas movies of all time.

20. “Home Alone” (1990)

Culkin is always precocious, and it’s okay to watch an 8-year-old inventively thwart a couple of unsuspecting adult burglars. But what is often forgotten among all the children’s stories is what the film has to say about the importance of family.

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19. “The Ice Harvest” (2005)

This twisty, cool and funny film noir takes place on Christmas Eve in Wichita, Kansas. John Cusack plays a mafia lawyer who steals $2 million from his boss (Randy Quaid) and has trouble leaving town due to bad weather.

18. “The Happiest Season” (2020)

In the inclusive and pleasantly clever romantic comedy, Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis play a lesbian couple whose relationship is tested at a family reunion by deep secrets, conservative parents and rival siblings.

17. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993)

Is this a Halloween movie? Secure. And is it also a Christmas film? You can bet on it! Tim Burton puts his twist on a holiday mashup in which Jack Skellington, the big man in Halloween Town, decides to take over the various aspects of Christmas Town – and arranges the kidnapping of Santa Claus – until he realizes that wasn’t the best idea.

16. “Lethal Weapon” (1987)

On its own, it’s one of the best buddy cop action pictures, bringing together Danny Glover’s aging Roger Murtaugh and Mel Gibson’s dissolute Martin Riggs. The seasonal touches make it even sweeter, including a shootout at a Christmas tree lot and Riggs struggling with suicidal thoughts and eventually finding a family to share a holiday meal with.

15. “Joyeux Noël” (2005)

Earning an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, this war drama explores humanity’s triumph over brutality by telling the true story of the Christmas Truce of 1914, when carols replaced carnage on the World War I battlefield.

14. “White Christmas” (1954)

Two Bing Crosby musicals have used the song “White Christmas”: Let’s leave out 1942’s “Holiday Inn” (with a cringe-worthy blackface sequence) and instead include Crosby teaming up with Danny Kaye as singing GIs During the Second World War, they try to save her. With the help of a sister (Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen), she became the old commander’s country inn.

13. “Gremlins” (1984)

The Christmas fairy tale also serves as a good introduction to the horror story for teenagers, about a small town that is infested by scary gremlins because teenagers cannot follow simple instructions. Also: Baby Yoda can only try to be on the cuteness level of little Santa hat-wearing Mogwai Gizmo.

12. “The Shop Around the Corner” (1940)

The basis for Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan’s romantic comedy “You’ve Got Mail” is this Hungarian holiday film starring Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as bickering colleagues in a Budapest leather goods store who unknowingly fall in love through anonymous letters.

11. “A Christmas Story” (1983)

Full disclosure: I despised this movie as a kid who wasn’t interested in air guns or leg lamps. As an adult, however, the comedy seems more like an ode to the hardships that come with being a parent during the holidays and how everyone is just trying to make ends meet during the holidays, even tired Santa Claus at the mall.

10. “A Christmas Story” (1951)

Among the various “traditional” versions of the Charles Dickens classic – from The Muppet Christmas Carol to George C. Scott’s excellent TV movie – this one goes straight back to the dark tones of the original text and shows Scrooge (Alastair Sim) alive through an insightful horror film to come out the other side a better man.

9. “The Apartment” (1960)

In the romantic dramedy, Jack Lemmon plays a nebulous office drone who is known for giving his space to his bosses so they can host their lovers. He focuses on himself again when he falls in love with an elevator girl (Shirley MacLaine) who the big boss (Fred MacMurray) secretly takes into the love cave on Christmas Eve.

8. “The Holdovers” (2023)

Alexander Payne’s look back at the 1970s is a biting but warm-hearted reminder of the holiday spirit. Paul Giamatti plays a grumpy teacher stuck at school over winter break who befriends and bonds with a rebellious student (newcomer Dominic Sessa) and a grieving chef (Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who won an Oscar for the role). builds for them.

7. “Die Hard” (1988)

Hell yeah, this is a Christmas movie, just in case there was any doubt. And sorry, Santa Claus, no one is better at squeezing through the confines of a building to do his job – in the case of this classic action film, preventing terrorists and rescuing his estranged wife – than Bruce Willis’ iconic John McClane.

6. “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (1989)

Anyone who’s ever pushed themselves too hard over the holidays can relate to Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and his hilarious struggles over decorating his house, dealing with crazy relatives – we all have our own cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid). – and imagining the merry Christmas days, although he himself often acted as his own greatest enemy.

5. “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947)

If you can resist the gratuitous hokeyness, here’s a fascinating Law & Order episode in which Kris Kringle himself (Edmund Gwenn) does a slightly too good job replacing a drunken Macy’s Parade Santa and is put on trial for insanity Instability when he insists he’s the one.

4. “Love Actually” (2003)

Often imitated, never duplicated. Intertwining love stories involving Brits and others evoke all sorts of holiday feelings – some cheerful, others melancholy – and are completely manipulative. But watching a little boy race through Heathrow to find his crush or watching Andrew Lincoln’s silent ode to Keira Knightley is too busy being bombarded by emotions to care.

3. “Eleven” (2003)

Will Ferrell has one of his best performances as a naive, overgrown elf who discovers he’s actually human – with the late James Caan as his grumpy biological father – and the exuberance that ensues when he’s introduced to “civilization.” is full of heart and humor and childlike wonder.

2. “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946)

The Citizen Kane of Christmas movies, although in this case everyone has seen Jimmy Stewart’s heavenly journey as George Bailey. Similar to the Scrooge model, which focuses on the importance of second chances and shows a man how bad life would have been if he hadn’t been born, this thing will get you right into the Christmas spirit by kicking and screaming.

1. “Scrooged” (1988)

“Scrooged” was born out of the greed of the 80s and yet is timeless in its relevance. It’s an absolutely perfect mix of slapstick and dark humor, love and loss, life and death that has no business being as amazing as it is. The cast is outstanding, from Bill Murray’s modern Scrooge-esque Frank Cross to Carol Kane’s adorably sadistic fairy. And if you’re not feeling well by the time Put a Little Love in Your Heart begins, you may find yourself haunted by three ghosts.

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Top Christmas films in the ranking: The 20 best

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