This year the holidays seem to be sneaking up on me quicker than ever before.  I blame the foot of snow we currently have and the freezing temperatures we’ve had all week.  Usually, I like to take one holiday at a time.  I am not a fan of Christmas decorations being out before Thanksgiving.  But “Holiday Inn” was recently playing on television and it got this Grinch in the holiday mood. I decided to compile a list of my favorite Christmas movies to refer to instead of just watching whichever film happens to be playing that evening. 

You’ll notice a few titles missing from my list that everyone else would include.  I also didn’t rank the movies but instead divided them into categories because I like a lot of variety in my viewing pleasure.  If I watch a classic one night, I like to pick from another category the next night.

I hope you enjoy my list of best Christmas movies:

   

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Christmas Classics

   

The ultimate classic Christmas movie is It’s a Wonderful Life.  George Bailey runs his family’s savings and loan business and gets into a bit of financial trouble.  George begins to wish he had never been born.

An angel is sent to him and shows George flashbacks of his past as well as how certain situations would have negatively turned out if George had never been born.  George finally realizes the huge impact he’s had on so many people in his community.

   

Holiday Inn celebrates all the holidays in a year but is still known as a Christmas classic.  A man starts an inn that is only open on the holidays and includes dinner shows for its guests.  When his old “friend” visits the inn he wants to steal away the leading lady of the show. It’s the age-old story of two guys fighting over a girl.

   

Bing Crosby strikes again in White Christmas in which two army pals form a famous entertaining twosome.  They end up following a sister act to Vermont for a vacation where they find their old general struggling to keep his inn in the black.  The guys agree to bring their entire show to the inn to try and save it.

   

As you can tell, I love musicals and Meet Me in St. Louis is one of the best.  This film features all four seasons but the winter season, and Christmas in particular play a prominent role.  It tells the story of a family living in St. Louis but the father’s job promotion is about to move them all to New York.  The children are very sad about this especially as the teen girls are embarking on romantic relationships.

   

A film that has been re-made multiple times, Miracle on 34th Street, reminds us about the magic of Santa. My favorite version is the one with Natalie Wood.  A man who calls himself Kris Kringle is hired by Macy’s to play Santa Claus during the holiday season but Kris starts claiming that he is the real Santa Claus.  His mental health is questioned but the people in charge but Kris is slowly able to change their minds and hearts.

   

A family with four sisters depends on one another to get through the Civil War while their father is away. Having become somewhat of an outcast in their community, the family perseveres through hard times.

Each sister in Little Women is very much her own person but they often spend time putting on plays together. Their wealthy neighbor’s nephew brings some excitement to the girls’ lives but when he falls for one of the sisters the relationships are altered forever.  A truly all-star cast including a young Christian Bale!

   

Romantic Christmas Movies

   

A more recent Christmas movie, Love Actually, developed a cult following immediately.  It is an interesting film taking place throughout the Christmas season with a number of different storylines that end up interweaving as the movie progresses.  Love relationships in all different forms move the story along.

   

Sandra Bullock stars in this funny Christmas love story.  While You Were Sleeping is about a woman who saves a handsome stranger from death and ends up pretending to be his fiance while he is in a coma.  His family adores her, his brother maybe a little too much.

   

Not my favorite on the list but The Holiday still deserves its place in this movie guide.  Two strangers agree to switch homes (in different countries!) for the Christmas season.  They lead totally different lifestyles and are trying to find an escape they both desperately need.

   

A man is bringing his fiance home for Christmas to meet his family for the first time.  In The Family Stone, the fiance keeps putting her foot in her mouth and is not making the greatest first impression.  She calls her sister to come and lend her some support.

   

Christmas Comedies

   

Will Ferrell at his best.  Elf tells the story of Buddy, a human raised by elves.  He goes to find his birth father and tries to bond with him. But being raised by elves has left him with some strange tendencies.

   

One of my favorite movies of all time, Grumpy Old Men is so funny and a great movie to quote.  Two old frenemies are both interested in the new neighbor across the street.  They play many pranks on one another but who will ultimately win the girl?

   

The Santa Clause is a clause in a contract that says if you put on the Santa suit you are now Santa.  Tim Allen makes the mistake of putting on Santa’s suit after Santa falls off his roof one Christmas Eve. 

Then throughout the year, he begins to physically and emotionally transform into Santa despite his best efforts not to.  Unfortunately, his sudden changes have caused a lot of concern with his ex-wife.

   

In Home Alone a large extended family is going on a Christmas vacation together.  As they rush through the airport one of the kids gets left behind.  Now he has the house to himself but soon learns that robbers are planning on breaking into his house and he sets up a plan to stop them.

   

A sequel to the movie above in Home Alone 2 the same child gets left again but now takes a nice suite at The Plaza. He orders room service and is living the good life.  But the bad guys are about to strike again.  Will Kevin save the day?

   

Children’s Christmas Movies

   

One movie many of you may have forgotten about but is a great movie to watch as a family is Jack Frost. The film is about a boy missing his deceased father.  His father comes back as their snowman but what will happen when the snow melts?

   

How the Grinch Stole Christmas has a great message.  The Grinch is going to ruin Christmas for the whole town by taking all their presents.  What he doesn’t realize is that Christmas is about a lot more than just receiving gifts.

   

Why didn’t I include . . .

1. The Polar Express?
2. A Christmas Story?
3. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation?

Reasons;

A – Because I haven’t seen it yet but it might make the list in the future.

B – I have seen it WAY TOO MANY TIMES.

C – It is not my type of humor but if my husband wants to watch it I will because he laughs so much it’s contagious.

   

Need more movie recommendations? Take a look at my Cabin Fever Movie Guide!