While most Christmas films aren’t Oscar worthy, they almost always deliver a healthy dose of comfort and nostalgia. Here’s 24 wholesome (and not so wholesome) Christmas films we think you should see before Santa decides if you are on his naughty or nice list.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Klara Novak and Alfred Kralik are two employees employees at a gift shop who can barely stand each other. In time, they fall in love as each other’s anonymous pen pal.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Starring: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, and Frank Morgan
Running time: 99 min
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Holiday Inn (1942)
At an inn which is only open on holidays, Jim Hardy and Ted Hanover compete for the affections of the beautiful Linda Mason.
Director: Mark Sandrich
Starring: Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, and Marjorie Reynolds
Running time: 110 min
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Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)
In the year leading up to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, the four Smith daughters learn lessons of life and love, even as they prepare for a reluctant move to New York.
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Starring: Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, and Mary Astor
Running time: 113 min
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It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Heaven sends an angel to help the desperately frustrated businessman George Bailey one cold night. The angel shows him what life would have been like if he was never born.
Director: Frank Capra
Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, and Lionel Barrymore
Running time: 130 min
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Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
When a psychologist has a nice old man, who claims to be Santa Claus, institutionalized, the young lawyer, Fred Gailey, decides to defend him by arguing in court that he is the real thing.
Director: George Seaton
Starring: Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O’Hara, and John Payne
Running time: 96 min
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A Christmas Carol (1951)
A bitter old miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, is given a chance for redemption when three ghosts haunt him on Christmas Eve.
Director: Brian Desmond-Hurst
Starring: Alastair Sim, Jack Warner, and Kathleen Harrison
Running time: 86 min
White Christmas (1954)
A successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act, and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney
Running time: 120 min
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Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
A misfit reindeer and his friends look for a place that will accept them all.
Director: Larry Roemer
Starring: Billie Mae Richards, Burl Ives, and Larry D. Mann
Running time: 47 min
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A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
Repelled by the commercialism he sees around him, Charlie Brown tries to find the true meaning of Christmas.
Director: Bill Melendez
Starring: Ann Altieri, Chris Doran, and Sally Dryer
Running time: 25 min
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How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
A grumpy hermit hatches a plan to steal Christmas from the Whos of Whoville.
Director: Chuck Jones and Ben Washam
Starring: Boris Karloff, Thurl Ravenscroft, and June Foray
Running time: 26 min
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Black Christmas (1974)
During the Christmas break, a stranger sends a group of sorority girls obscene phone calls, and then begins stalking them.
Director: Bob Clark
Starring: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, and Margot Kidder
Running time: 98 min
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A Christmas Story (1983)
In the 1940s, a young boy named Ralphie attempts to convince his parents, his teacher, and Santa that a Red Ryder BB gun really is the perfect Christmas gift.
Director: Bob Clark
Starring: Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon, and Darren McGavin
Running time: 94 min
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Gremlins (1984)
When Billy Peltzer inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet, he unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town on Christmas.
Director: Joe Dante
Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, and Hoyt Axton
Running time: 106 min
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Lethal Weapon (1987)
Newly paired cops, Riggs and Murtaugh, are polar opposites, but they must put aside their differences in order to catch a gang of drug smugglers.
Director: Richard Donner
Starring: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, and Gary Busey
Running time: 109 min
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Die Hard (1988)
John McClane, officer of the NYPD, tries to save his wife, Holly Gennaro, and several others that German terrorist Hans Gruber took hostage during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.
Director: John McTiernan
Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, and Bonnie Bedelia
Running time: 132 min
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Scrooged (1988)
A selfish, cynical television executive, Frank Cross, is given a chance for redemption when three ghosts haunt him on Christmas Eve.
Director: Richard Donner
Starring: Bill Murray, Karen Allen, and John Forsythe
Running time: 101 min
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National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
The Griswold family’s plans for a big family Christmas predictably turn into a big disaster as all other vacations tend to do.
Director: Jeremiah Chechik
Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, and Juliette Lewis
Running time: 97 min
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Home Alone (1990)
An eight-year-old Kevin McCallister protects his house from a pair of burglars when his family accidentally leaves him home alone during Christmas vacation.
Director: Chris Columbus
Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern
Running time: 103 min
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The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
A bitter old miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, is given a chance for redemption when three ghosts haunt him on Christmas Eve.
Director: Brian Henson
Starring: Peter Lorre, John McGuire, and Margaret Tallichet
Running time: 85 min
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The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but attempt to bring Christmas to his home causes many problems.
Director: Henry Selick
Starring: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, and Catherine O’Hara
Running time: 76 min
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Elf (2003)
After inadvertently wreaking havoc on the elf community due to his ungainly size, a man raised as an elf at the North Pole returns to the U.S. in search of his true identity.
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Will Ferrell, James Caan, and Bob Newhart
Running time: 97 min
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Love Actually (2003)
Love Actually follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
Director: Richard Curtis
Starring: Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, and Liam Neeson
Running time: 135 min
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Joyeux Noel (2005)
In December 1914, an unofficial Christmas truce on the Western Front allows soldiers from opposing sides of the First World War to gain insight into each other’s way of life.
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: Diane Kruger, Benno Fürmann, and Guillaume Canet
Running time: 116 min
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Arthur Christmas (2011)
Santa’s clumsy son Arthur sets out on a mission with St. Nick’s father to give out a present they misplaced to a young girl in less than 2 hours.
Director: Sarah Smith and Barry Cook
Starring: James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, and Bill Nighy
Running time: 97 min
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That does it for our list of 24 Christmas films to watch in December before Santa Clause arrives! Are there any that we missed that you love? Let us know in the comments below, and if there is a film you’d like us to review, send us an email at [email protected] with your name, location, and film choice.
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