Christmas is a great time to get together with friends or family and watch a good film. As with almost every holiday, there are plenty of movies out there that are entirely focused around Christmas and the festive season; there are hundreds to choose from, ranging from child-friendly animations to adult humour and even Christmas horror. So to help you navigate the wide variety of titles out there, here is a basic guide to the different types of Christmas movie and advice on which are the best of the bunch.
Essential Christmas Classics
There are those Christmas movies that are broken out every year, showing on TV no matter what else might be available. These films are absolutely essential Christmas viewing for the family, and you simply have to watch them if they’re on. Those are the rules. First up is 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life; a perennial classic that offers a different take on the traditional Scrooge tale. Instead of the ghosts of Christmas, it is an angel who visits businessman George Bailey to help him appreciate his life. A year later came the first iteration of Miracle on 34th Street, although the 1994 remake is a similar success, with Richard Attenborough stealing the show as a lovable Kris Kringle. Finally, no Christmas is complete without the classic animated short The Snowman: less than thirty minutes long, the beautiful pencil drawn animation of this film more than makes up for its lack of dialogue as it tells the story of one boy’s Christmas adventure.
This classic style of animation has been lost in modern films.
Festive Family Favourites
Christmas is all about spending time with your family, and that usually means some younger, more innocent viewers. If you’re looking for some good clean family viewing there are a great many films out there, including classics such as the Home Alone series, starting with the original in 1990. These films preach a fundamental Christmas message about the importance of love. Another popular series of films started with The Santa Clause in 1994, in which Tim Allen stars as an accidental Father Christmas. Adaptations of children’s books have not always been hugely successful, but 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas exhibits Jim Carrey at his best when it comes to improvisation and comedic timing. A more recent addition to the Christmas canon is Elf, which presents Will Ferrell as an adorable helper from the North Pole and stole the hearts of audiences when it came out in 2003.
CG Winter Wonders
The above films are all child-friendly but we’ve yet to mention some of the best animated Christmas movies, and there are a couple that really top the list. Firstly, part of the genius of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) is that it’s a great film to watch any time between Halloween and Christmas, as it fits both occasions perfectly. Tim Burton’s story is beautifully realised in stop motion, and the musical numbers are infectiously catchy. As technology has advanced so has the sophistication of film animation; 2004’s The Polar Express was one of the first major motion pictures to utilise motion capture for numerous characters. Tom Hanks plays six distinct characters throughout the film, bringing a boy’s adventure to the North Pole to life.
Although often billed as Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, the film was actually directed by Henry Selick.
Advent Action
Christmas movies aren’t limited to child-friendly family fun, however, with several of the world’s most famous action films actually taking place at Christmas and therefore widely considered “festive”. Lethal Weapon (1987) and Die Hard (1988) are both hard-core action flicks, but the action takes place in amidst a backdrop of Christmas lights, tinsel, and pine trees. Lethal Weapon begins to an introductory rendition of Jingle Bell Rock! Perhaps you might disagree that these can truly constitute Christmas films, but the general public certainly seem to think so. Both placed on Empire magazine’s list of the top 30 Christmas flicks, and Die Hard was top of the list at number one!
Top 3 Alternative Christmas Films
With all of these fantastic festive titles to choose from, it might help to give a special mention to three of the most unusual and yet stand-out entries into the Christmas canon. First off is a holiday horror: Steven Spielberg’s Gremlins (1984) kick started the festive monster movie, with the titular creatures causing plenty of mayhem and mischief over the Christmas period in the small town of Kingston Falls. Puppets of a friendlier nature appeared in 1992’s The Muppet Christmas Carol, in which all of Jim Henson’s most famous creations joined forces with Michael Caine’s Scrooge in order to retell the traditional Dickens tale. Finally, to finish off this list, the Christmas film with the most universal appeal of all time has to be 2003’s Love Actually; a host of rom com stars get together to tell a series of interweaving narratives of family, friendship and love over Christmas. As much as it may sound like a chick flick, Love Actually is a perfect mix of romance and comedy that will appeal to both genders. Oh, and it also features a great cameo from Rowan Atkinson.
Love Actually’s formula for combining some of the most famous romantic comedy actors and actresses has been imitated in films such as Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve.
To finish off, you might actually find that you feel like heading out for a film this Christmas instead of staying in: if that’s the case, one of the most seasonal films in cinemas right now is the animated Arthur Christmas, which imagines that the role of Father Christmas is passed down generation to generation, like a family business. In this quirky Christmas tale, the younger son of Father Christmas is the only one who can save the holiday – check out the trailer below.
- Kat Humphries
Sources and further information:
Top 10 Christmas Movies – collider.com
The 30 Best Christmas Movies Ever – empireonline.com