It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

December 19, 2025

A little over a year ago, I was having a conversation with our son’s fiancée and she asked me when my blog post about Christmas movies was coming.  The holiday season was upon us and she said it was the perfect time.  I resisted the idea initially for two reasons.  The first is that I didn’t think the topic would interest me, probably because my first thought went to sappy Christmas movies.  The second reason was that I already had planned out what I was doing for the rest of the year and I need time to prepare (read: watch a bunch of movies) for each blog post, and I simply didn’t have time.  I am nothing if not a planner.  But I promised to add it to my list of topics for the future and well, here we are.

As I began planning for this post, I did some research and was pleasantly surprised how many movies that I really like fit into this genre.  My initial list of potential films to cover was embarrassingly long.  Spoiler: most of them made it into this post.  But before we dive in, we must discuss a very important topic that always comes up at this time of year.  Actually, it seems like the discourse around this issue starts earlier and earlier each year, much like how you start hearing Christmas music in the stores while there is still Halloween candy on the shelf.  And that topic is, “Is [insert movie name] a Christmas movie?” 

I don’t know when this question was first asked, but I know the most popular argument is around Die Hard.  Sure, it’s an action-thriller released during the summer, but it takes place during a Christmas party, so it’s a Christmas movie, right?  Some will say no, the film’s plot has nothing to do with Christmas.  So, it’s a basic question – does Christmas have to be integral to the plot, or if a film takes place around the holidays, does that meet the criteria?  My feeling is this – if you want it to count, it counts.  If you want to watch it around the holidays, then it’s a Christmas movie to you and that’s good enough for me. 

OK, enough preamble.  We’re going to dive in with some of those “questionable” Christmas movies, but I don’t want to argue if they count.  Life is too short and there’s enough tension in the world.  Let’s just enjoy the movies. 

They Count if You Want Them to Count

OK, technically this is a movie about Thanksgiving, but that’s the real kickoff to the holiday season, so that’s where we are going to start this list.  Planes, Trains and Automobiles is an incredibly popular John Hughes 1987 film about two weary travelers (played to perfection by Steve Martin and John Candy) just trying to get home for Thanksgiving.  They have terrific chemistry – Candy as the annoying guy who just wants a connection with someone and Martin as the uptight businessman who can’t be bothered with anyone else in the world.  As I fired this one up on Thanksgiving morning, I had an embarrassing revelation.  I don’t think I’d ever seen it before, at least not the whole movie.  I remembered parts of it, but it’s probably from seeing clips over the last 40 years.  I know – I need to turn in my cinephile membership card.  Speaking of Candy, there is a new documentary about his life and career on Prime Video called I Like Me (named after his touching line in Planes) which is pretty good.  It’s a little schmaltzy at times for my taste, but features some good movie clips and interviews.  It’s not nearly as good as the excellent two-part documentary about Steve Martin on Apple TV+, confusingly named STEVE! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces, which came out last year.

Since we’re in the 80s, let’s mention two more films that were a big part of my adolescence as a member of the MTV generation.  First up is Trading Places, starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd as two men living very different lifestyles who are manipulated into changing their place in society.  Murphy goes from living on the streets as a poor man to a wealthy executive and Aykroyd loses his job, his house and his fiancée when he is wrongfully accused of theft and drug possession.  I saw this movie (along with Murphy’s other 80s blockbusters 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop) so many times growing up that when I recently rewatched it for the first time in several years, I found myself still remembering so many of the lines.  And the film takes place during the holiday season, so it’s got that Christmas vibe for me.

Every good list needs a scary movie, but a Christmas horror movie?  Absolutely!  There have been countless examples over the years of scary movies being set during the holidays.  1974’s Black Christmas is one of the better ones, but most of them are schlocky and not worth recommending.  1984’s Silent Night, Deadly Night was a campy slasher flick that was pretty mediocre, as was the reboot of the film that was released earlier this month.  One of my favorites growing up was 1984’s Gremlins.  Scary?  Sure, to 12 year-old me who was creeped out once those gremlins ate after midnight.  Now?  Not really scary, but still very fun, and it spawned an equally good sequel.  Speaking of which, there was a recent announcement about a new Gremlins movie in the works.  Can’t we just leave the classics alone and come up with new stories?  Sigh…

Of course, you can’t have a Christmas movie season without Kevin McAllister getting separated from his family, causing mischief, connecting with a nearby elderly person, and dodging two goofball criminals.  Am I describing Home Alone or Home Alone 2: Lost in New York?  Yes.  Seriously, these two films basically have the same plot and it’s hard to compare them since they are both equally funny and silly, but I think I prefer the first one strictly for its originality.  McCauley Culkin is terrific in the role that defined him for the rest of his life (for the good and the bad) and the cast is chock full of big named stars.  Catherine O’Hara is hysterical with her iconic “Kevin!” line reading when she realizes her son is missing, and equally heartwarming as the mom desperate to find her son.  And who would have guessed that two future Oscar winners in this film would be playing Kevin’s little brother and an idiotic criminal?  Yup, that’s McCauley’s real-life brother Kieran playing Fuller in his movie debut, long before he would win an Emmy for Succession and an Oscar for A Real Pain.  And of course, Joe Pesci plays one half of the bumbling criminals, alongside Daniel Stern, in the same year he won the Oscar for his maniacal (and brilliant) performance in Goodfellas.  Talk about some acting versatility.  You can’t go wrong with these two crowd pleasers at this time of year. 

And let’s wrap up these “borderline Christmas” movies with the film that gets brought up every year around the holidays.  I don’t care if you watch Die Hard on Memorial Day, the 4^th of July, Halloween, Christmas, or Groundhog Day.  This classic rocks at any time of the year and that’s why it’s one of the best action films of all-time.  Die Hard officially launched Bruce Willis into superstardom after his excellent turn opposite Cybill Shepherd on Moonlighting, the iconic television show, and a few forgettable film roles.  The success of Die Hard showed that Willis was forever more a movie star.  Not to mention that it invented a film genre in Hollywood.  Speed?  Die Hard on a bus.  Air Force One?  Die Hard on a plane.  Cliffhanger?  Die Hard on a mountain.  The Rock?  Die Hard on Alcatraz.  You get the idea.  The fact that it takes place on Christmas Eve, and has some delightful Christmas songs (including Run DMC’s Christmas in Hollis) means it’s a Christmas movie to me.

Different Takes on A Classic Story

There have been countless adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in film and television since the novel was first published more than 150 years ago.  I decided not to check out some of the more serious adaptations and instead focus on two silly ones, as we all need laughs at this time of year.

First up is The Muppet Christmas Carol, the adaptation with Michael Caine as Ebeneezer Scrooge, Kermit as Bob Cratchit, and all of your favorite Muppets in various roles made famous by the Dickens classic.  I had never seen this one (as far as I can remember) and have to say that Caine was a perfect choice to play the cranky Scrooge, willing to ham it up with his Muppet co-stars.  It takes a special kind of actor to play along with this kind of film and Caine is that kind of actor.  And who doesn’t like the Muppets?  Speaking of which, there has been a funny online bit the last several years of thinking about how you could remake a movie with one actor returning, but everyone else is recast as a Muppet.  One of the popular choices was Knives Out with only Daniel Craig returning as Benoit Blanc.  Naturally, a petition to convince Rian Johnson to make the next Knives Out film in this format took fire across the internet.  Let’s make it happen!  There was one other positive from my viewing of this film and that’s my desire to revisit the original Muppet Movie, featuring Kermit singing The Rainbow Connection.  Adding that to my watchlist as soon as I’m done with this post.

Another quality adaptation of A Christmas Carol was Scrooged, starring Bill Murray as a television executive who is mean to everyone until he gets his comeuppance before the holidays.  He learns the lessons that Scrooge does in all of these adaptations and the film’s success hinges on Murray’s excellent performance.  Scrooged came out a few years after Ghostbusters, which had cemented his status as a comedic movie star after strong performances in Caddyshack, Stripes, and Tootsie.  The supporting cast in Scrooged is a little lackluster in places (Bobcat Goldthwait?  Yikes), but Karen Allen is terrific as the love interest for Murray’s character, even if I didn’t quite believe their chemistry.  Still, one of the better comedy adaptations of the Dickens classic.  We have one more classic that is loosely based on that story, but will get to that one later.

Animated Options

As I was considering films to write about, for a brief moment I wondered if I should branch out into the holiday animated specials.  But I quickly decided those are television programs and outside the scope of what I wanted to cover.  That being said, at this time of year, you need to be watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and most importantly, (because it might be the most iconic piece of holiday entertainment ever created), The Year Without a Santa Claus.  Heat Meiser and Snow Meiser.  ‘Nuff said.

In the film department, there was an animated movie that is long-considered a Christmas (or Halloween) classic that I had never seen until I decided to watch it for this blog post.  The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a brisk 75-minute stop-motion animated story from the mind of Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands), who served as the creative force behind the story.  The film is centered around Jack Skellington, the leader of Halloween Town, where everyone plans their entire year around their favorite holiday.  Jack has grown tired of the same routine each year and he discovers Christmas Town, which is led by Santa Claus and focused on a very different holiday.  He decides to take the best parts of Christmas Town and bring them to Halloween Town, but the locals don’t want any changes.  The story in this film is a little conventional, but what stands out in The Nightmare Before Christmas is the incredible animation, quite impressive for a 1993 film.  Worth checking out if you are looking for variety during this holiday season.

The Goofball Comedies

Depending on your comedic taste, and more likely, when you were born, some of these comedies may work better for you than others.  There were a few films that I had never seen, but was encouraged to by our future daughter-in-law and since it’s Christmas movie season, how could I say no?  Christmas with the Kranks, an adaptation of a John Grisham novel, has a ridiculous plot, but was pleasant enough, particularly due to the comedic antics of Tim Allen.  He convinces his wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) that they should take a cruise to the Caribbean instead of doing the same routine on Christmas, which involves an insane level of decorations, parties, and interacting with neighbors who care way too much about their holiday plans.  Was this a secret cult movie?  Maybe. 

Allen is also terrific in The Santa Clause, playing a distracted single dad who doesn’t spend enough time with his son.  On Christmas Eve, he accidentally knocks Santa off the roof and unwittingly becomes the next Santa Claus.  What transpires is a hysterical set of circumstances where he slowly transforms into Santa, while learning about the important things in life, especially his son.  Allen makes the most of this role and I think it works for me so much because it leans into the fantasy element of the story, so any slapstick sequences fit right into the tone of the movie.  I’m definitely glad I checked this one off the list.

On the romantic comedy side, Nancy Meyers wrote and directed The Holiday, a film with a great premise, but doesn’t quite live up to the standard of other romantic comedy classics.  Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz decide to switch houses for two weeks around Christmas after they both suffer terrible breakups.  Diaz travels to London and Winslet travels to Los Angeles and after they both overcome the typical “fish out of water” experiences, they find new love.  Diaz falls for a single father played by Jude Law and Winslet becomes smitten with a wisecracking composer played by Jack Black.  Here’s the problem – the chemistry of each couple is not quite believable.  To be honest, I think Winslet and Law would make a better couple, as would Diaz and Black.  But then you have the whole American / English accent problem, which makes the plot not as believable.  The Holiday is still a decent option, despite my minor quibble.

For those of you who are not easily offended, Billy Bob Thornton plays Bad Santa in a film that features countless tasteless, inappropriate, and disgusting jokes.  In fact several of them don’t hold up very well since this film’s 2003 debut, given the subject matter, but I still had a good time rewatching this one.  Thornton plays a crook who partners up with a little person to get hired as Santa and an elf at department stores every Christmas season.  They case the joint, then rob it right before the holidays, stealing enough money to fund their lives for another year.  Thornton is basically playing a stupider, drunker version of his character from the television series Landman, in that he just doesn’t give a shit about offending anyone with his views on the world.  If you decide to watch this one, remember my warning from above.

Probably the most popular film of this variety is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, which I saw for the first time only a few years ago.  The original movie was one of my favorites growing up and I saw the mediocre second installment when it came out in the 1980s, but I never got around to seeing the Christmas edition.  Having heard so many great things about it over the years, I had very high expectations, and I think that’s why I was kind of underwhelmed.  I watched it again this week and realized the problem.  I found it pretty amusing, but thought there was a little too much slapstick humor in the film, which kind of took me out of it.  Also, seeing one of our great comedic actresses (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) in a throwaway role as a cartoonish villain was distracting.  I definitely liked Christmas Vacation more upon rewatch, but I much prefer the first movie.  I think this could be a generational issue and had I seen it when it was first released, I would probably be more fond of it.

Lastly, this may be the king of goofball Christmas comedies and having watched it for the first time in many years this past week, this might become an annual tradition in our house.  Will Farrell stars as Buddy, the Elf, who was a human raised as an elf in Santa’s workshop.  Now a grown man in his 30s, he finds out the truth about his lineage and sets out on a journey from the North Pole to New York City to find his father, played by James Caan.  The premise of this movie is outstanding and is a perfect vehicle for Farrell to portray an adult with the sensibilities of a child, who constantly tells everyone how much he loves Christmas, in between eating meals consisting mostly of candy.  I can take Farrell in small doses, as sometimes I find his bits pretty exhausting, but I really enjoyed his performance in this hysterical comedy.  During most of the movie, whenever he was cracking me up, I kept wondering how Caan, Mary Steenburgen (as his wife) and Zooey Deschanel (as Buddy’s co-worker) kept a straight face during their scenes with Farrell.  I have to imagine the outtakes and deleted scenes from Elf must be a riot.  An absolute home run.

Contemporary Options

During the holiday season, a lot of us tend to feel nostalgic about when we were kids, or if you have adult children, you think back to when they were younger.  Naturally, when you think of holiday movies, you’ll gravitate to older ones that you watched when you were younger.  I think that’s part of the reason that it’s hard to grab onto a contemporary holiday film and consider it a “great Christmas movie.”  Because it’s so new, you don’t have enough time to embrace it as being part of your “go-to classics”.  Also, a lot of the holiday films made these days are what I frequently refer to as “slop.”  You know what I’m talking about – low-budget hacky movies with a predictable plot and very little character development that are churned out and slapped onto Netflix or the Hallmark channel. 

In terms of holiday releases this year, I had mild hopes for Oh. What. Fun., a family comedy about a stressed out mom who is tired of being unappreciated by her family and decides to take off on Christmas Day for some well-deserved “me time”.  This one went straight to Prime Video (not usually a good sign for quality), but it stars Michelle Pfeiffer in the lead role, and includes Denis Leary, Felicity Jones, and Dominic Sessa as members of her family.  The movie was co-written and directed by Michael Showalter, who has a decent pedigree in Hollywood.  Alas, the story was kind of weak, the jokes were not very funny and even a good performance by Pfeiffer couldn’t save this one.

I was pleasantly surprised by another new movie set during Christmas that you most likely have never heard of, and will definitely not recognize any of the actors.  The Baltimorons is a small independent film about a recovering alcoholic who was once an improv comedian until he made a serious mistake one night.  He is traveling with his fiancée to a Christmas Eve dinner when he has a dental emergency, leading him to find the only dentist open before the holiday.  They take an instant liking to each other, mostly because they admire each other’s quirks, and bond over the problems in their lives.  Michael Strassner is terrific as Cliff, a man in his early 30s but at times with the maturity level of a teenager.  Liz Larsen is excellent as Didi, the middle-aged dentist who is still getting over her divorce.  You wouldn’t think these two would hit it off, primarily because of their age difference, but when chemistry works, it can’t be denied.  A terrific independent film with a perfect combination of humor and heartwarming drama. 

Going back a little bit earlier, there are a few other contemporary movies set during the holiday season that I think are sure to be on most lists of films to watch at this time of year.  We have to start with 2023’s The Holdovers, starring Paul Giamatti as a cranky prep school teacher forced to stay on campus during the holiday break and keep an eye on the kids who can’t go home.  As the days drag on, he develops a connection with one of the students (Dominic Sessa in a breakout performance) and the school’s cafeteria worker (Da ‘Vine Joy Randolph, in the role that won her an Oscar.)  Terrific work from all involved, especially by director Alexander Payne, who rarely misses with his movies.

Another high-class filmmaker who you can count on to deliver a strong story to the screen is Todd Haynes, who brought us the excellent drama Carol in 2015.  Cate Blanchett plays a woman struggling through a divorce from her overbearing husband, who takes a liking to a young woman played by Rooney Mara, working in a department store during the holidays.  The relationship between the two women deepens as they spend more time together and eventually results in a scandal that upends their lives.  Haynes films this story in a beautiful way that perfectly illustrates the complicated relationship between these two characters during a time (the 1950s) when they were shunned for their feelings.  Top-notch performances from Blanchett and Mara are the real highlights of Carol.

Lastly, it wouldn’t feel like the holidays without a screening of Greta Gerwig’s masterful adaptation of Little Women, released in 2019.  I wrote about this movie as part of my Oscar coverage that year, noting that I thought Gerwig was robbed of a Best Director nomination. It’s worth noting that she has directed three films, all of which have been nominated for Best Picture.  Yeah, she’s pretty talented.  She struck gold with her casting in this movie, featuring three of our best young actors (Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, and Timothée Chalamet) in key roles, as well as recruiting veteran actors (Meryl Streep, Laura Dern, Bob Odenkirk, and Chris Cooper) to round out the cast.  There’s an easy way to realize that a director has hit a home run with an adaptation of a classic novel that we’ve seen many times before – it’s highly unlikely anyone would dare to try to make a new version.  Yup, Gerwig’s film is the definitive adaptation.

The All-Time Classics

When you are considering what to watch around the holidays, you can always go back to the classics from movie history.  You could choose Meet Me in St. Louis, the musical that featured the debut of Julie Garland singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.  It’s a delightful story about a family over the course of a year, leading up to the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, directed by Vincente Mannelli, one of the best directors in Hollywood history.  Or you could pick the outstanding Miracle on 34^th Street (the 1934 original) with Oscar-winner Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle, who claims to be the real Santa Claus when he is hired by Macy’s.  Look for Natalie Wood in one of her earliest roles as the child who believes Kringle might be the real Santa. 

Then there is The Apartment, Billy Wilder’s masterpiece that won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1960.  Jack Lemmon is terrific as a mild-mannered office worker who lets his co-workers use his apartment for their dates, and takes an instant liking to the woman who serves as the elevator operator, played by Shirley McClaine.  This is an outstanding film that is a reminder that Wilder is one of the greatest writers and directors in movie history.

And of course, we have to mention It’s a Wonderful Life, the 1946 classic directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart in a loose adaptation of A Christmas Carol.  Last year, I had to fess up in this blog that I had never seen this movie before I went to a beautiful theater in Hartford to see a screening.  As I sat down to watch this classic film, I had one of those “Man, I’m such an idiot” revelations.  I should have invited my sister to join me and when I told her the story a few days later on Christmas Eve, she agreed with me, especially the part about me being an idiot.  The good news is that we are seeing this one together at the same theater on Monday.  See, you can sometimes fix your mistakes, right?

Back to My Youth

As I was growing up, my memories of watching movies at home centered around whatever was showing on HBO and whatever classic films my mother insisted that we watch.  Her love of movies from the 40s, 50s, and 60s are why I have an understanding of some of the classic musicals, and all-time great films.  Now, my father wasn’t really a movie or television fan.  Most of the time, he would peek around his newspaper and ask about a plot point that he was half-paying attention to, or confuse an actor that he thought was from a different movie.  Usually, I’d correct him with an eyeroll that he hopefully didn’t see, but probably did.  He was a huge fan of Seinfeld, the show that could regularly crack him up, and one movie, in particular, that he adored – the 1983 classic A Christmas Story.

Growing up, I watched this movie countless times, and over the years as an adult I saw bits and pieces of it, especially during those holiday seasons when TNT would run the film for 24 hours straight.  A few weeks ago I was fortunate to see it in a theater with my son and his fiancée, with some trepidation going into the film.  Sure, it made me laugh as a kid, but would it still resonate and be funny for someone my age?  Sometimes movies don’t age so well as you get older and what you liked as a kid becomes corny when you view them through the eyes of someone much older.  Within a few minutes, I found myself grinning ear to ear, which lasted the entire runtime of this wonderful story that features several laugh-out-loud moments.  Our theater was crowded and everyone was having a great time on a Saturday morning watching one of the best Christmas movies ever made.

I can’t remember why my father liked this one so much and I was thinking about that several times as I sat in the theater.  Perhaps it was memories of being a kid during the period when the film was set and he connected with Ralphie and his friends.  Perhaps he could relate to the dad always dealing with a nagging furnace, or trying to get the damn Christmas lights to work.  And before you ask, no we did not get a lamp mailed to us in a large crate labeled “Frag-i-le.”  Whatever his reasons, I know that he connected with a movie around the holidays that brought him joy.  And at the end of the day, that’s all you can ask for when looking for a Christmas movie.

That’s all for this week.  I hope you enjoyed my look at some of my favorite Christmas movies.  If you want to find where to watch them, you can do so at www.justwatch.com.  I’ll be back in a few weeks with the first post in my series about the year in film.  I’ll be sharing thoughts about my favorite films of 2025 and some new releases coming later this month.  Thanks for reading, and for all of the support and feedback throughout the year.  If you’d like to be notified of future posts, you can subscribe below.  Most importantly, have a great holiday season!