The Top 10 Best Christmas Movies

These Christmas Movies will Get You in the Holiday Mood!

The body of Thanksgiving is barely cold in the ground, and that means it’s time to start obsessing over Christmas movies. ‘Tis the season where we start the countdown of shopping days left until the big day, but just because its capitalisms favorite holiday doesn’t mean we can’t all take a break to remember the reason for the season. Just in case you need a moment to sit back and remember why you’re going through so much stress just to gather around a tree and trade presents with your loved ones, Stars & Popcorn has put together a list of the 10 Best Christmas movies for you to enjoy. This was a pretty damn hard list to put together since there are so many Christmas movies out there (and yet so very few Hanukkah movies…) but I’m always up for a good challenge. So, when things start to get to you, these flicks will help give you an escape from the stress of the season and remember the reason behind it all.

10. Scrooged

Hats off to Charles Dickens for writing the most beloved Christmas tale of all time, and hats off to Hollywood for continuing to come up with new and interesting twists on the tale. For this list of Christmas movies, it felt right going with a film that put just enough of a twist on the A Christmas Carolto make it relevant again (at least relevant for the 1980s). Bill Murray plays a curmudgeonly TV executive who wouldn’t know the true meaning of Christmas if it walked up and beat him with a lump of coal. Luckily, he’s got a few spirits from the past, present, and future to help teach him how to be less of, well, a Scrooge. Between Bill Murray and Richard Donner, this is definitely one of the funniest Christmas movies of all time.

9. Home Alone

Ok, So Kate McCallister managed to make Stars & Popcorn’s list of the Worst Movie Moms, and little Kevin is pretty much a Jigsaw in training, but that doesn’t make Home Alone any less deserving of getting a shout out on this list of Christmas movies. It’s not exactly a “family film” since the family in it is pretty messed up, but it’s a movie that will remind you to be thankful for your own dysfunctional family. Despite all the problematic aspects of Home Alone, it’s still a wonderful film about learning to be thankful and truly appreciate everything you have in life. Plus, it’s got it’s fun and quirky moments… If you don’t stop and think about the terrible long-term injuries that the Wet Bandits experience at the hands of that tiny psychopath.  

8. Elf

Will Ferrell stars a Christmas movie that developed a huge cult following after its release in 2003. In it, he plays a 6’3 elf named Buddy who suddenly discovers there’s a reason he’s not like Santa’s other helpers. So, he sets off to the world of man to try to find his place in the world. Unfortunately, there’s not much of a calling for a 40-year-old man with some severe social development issues (and probably adult-onset diabetes). Luckily, he stumbles in at the perfect time of year and gets a job working as an elf for a mall Santa. Turns out the real world isn’t a great place for an elf suffering from identity issues, but that doesn’t stop Buddy from being a frighteningly positive bundle of sunshine. If he can survive the holiday season, then you definitely can.

7. Miracle on 34th Street (1994)

It was a toss-up between the 1947 classic and the 1994 remake, but in the end, I had to go with Richard Attenborough Santa Claus. The film centers around a little girl and a lawyer tasked with proving in a court of law that a man claiming to be Santa is the real deal after he gets arrested. Sure, the court case doesn’t make a lot of sense, and if you want to be really cynical, it’s basically a story about a little girl helping a con man commit fraud. Since it’s the season for believing though, I’ll put my doubts on hold and say that Miracle on 34th Street is a movie about putting capitalism aside and realizing the best presents can’t be wrapped up in a bow. It might not be a great movie, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the best Christmas movies out there.

6. The Nightmare Before Christmas

In the past, I’ve pointed out that The Nightmare Before Christmas is basically a movie about cultural appropriation at it’s finest, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. Since it’s inception it’s become a cult movie that fans of Halloween and Christmas can both come together and enjoy (two of my personal favorite holidays). If you’re looking for something a little less traditional, then The Nightmare Before Christmas might be just the thing for you. It features an animated skeleton seizing control of a holiday that doesn’t belong to him through nefarious means, including kidnapping and trademark infringement. Of course, by the end of the movie, he learns the true meaning of the season thanks to a few catchy songs and a battle to the death with the Boogie Man.