The Best Christmas Films
The Christmas season naturally puts us in the mood for cozying up around the TV, snow falling gently outside, fireplace crackling. To help guide you, here are some of the best Christmas movies ever – Merry Christmas Everyone.
The Polar Express (2004)
Starring: Tom Hanks, Nona Gaye, Leslie Zemeckis
Zemeckis’ first feature-length effort in performance capture. A young boy who has grown sceptical of Santa Claus is shocked to see a train stop outside his window on Christmas Eve, destined for the North Pole. When he accepts an invitation from the conductor to climb on board, he embarks on a white-knuckle ride to Santa’s headquarters, where he makes fast friends and learns an invaluable lesson about the true spirit of Christmas.
Love Actually (2003)
Starring: Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Keira Knightley, Martin Freeman
Nine intertwined stories examine the complexities of the one emotion that connects us all: love. Among the characters explored are David (Grant), the handsome newly elected British prime minister who falls for a young junior staffer (McCutcheon), Sarah (Laura Linney), a graphic designer whose devotion to her mentally ill brother complicates her love life, and Harry (Rickman), a married man tempted by his attractive new secretary.
Elf (2003)
Starring: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Mary Steenbergen, Ed Asner, Bob Newhart
Top of everyone’s affections and deserves to be there for its extraordinary quotability alone. Buddy the Elf is, along with Ron Burgundy, Will Ferrell’s finest comedy creation and is bound to be one of those iconic Christmas characters in future years.
Buddy was accidentally transported to the North Pole as a toddler and raised to adulthood among Santa’s elves. Unable to shake the feeling that he doesn’t fit in, the adult Buddy travels to New York, in full elf uniform, in search of his real father. As it happens, this is Walter (Caan), a cynical businessman. After a DNA test proves this, Walter reluctantly attempts to start a relationship with the childlike Buddy with increasingly chaotic results.
Miracle On 34th Street (1947 / 1994)
Starring: Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn, Natalie Wood / Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott, Richard Attenborough
The story is so good, Hollywood made it twice, in 1947 and the 1994 remake, but in fact either is a worthy addition to the list. In this Christmas classic, an old man going by the name of Kris Kringle fills in for an intoxicated Santa in Macy’s annual Thanksgiving Day parade. Kringle proves to be such a hit that he is soon appearing regularly at the chain’s main store in midtown Manhattan. When Kringle surprises customers and employees alike by claiming that HE REALLY IS Santa Claus, it leads to a court case to determine his mental health and, more importantly, his authenticity.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Starring: (voice) Chris Sarandon, Danny Elfman
The film follows the misadventures of Jack Skellington, Halloweentown’s beloved pumpkin king, who has become bored with the same annual routine of frightening people in the “real world.” When Jack accidentally stumbles on Christmastown, all bright colours and warm spirits, he gets a new lease on life — he plots to bring Christmas under his control by kidnapping Santa Claus and taking over the role. But Jack soon discovers even the best-laid plans of mice and skeleton men can go seriously awry.
Home Alone 2 (1992)
Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Catherine O’Hara, John Heard, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern
Following on from one of the most iconic Christmas movies, Home Alone 2 is a sequel that doesn’t’t shame the original. It inevitably tries to up the stakes of the previous film by stranding our hero away from home rather than in his house. While that does make a lie of the title, it gives him a bigger canvas to play on and, in a major New York department store, a lot more tricks and weapons to turn against would-be thieves Pesci and Stern. At this point, however, we do think that Kevin’s parents should be arrested for negligence. To lose a child once may be a misfortune; to lose him twice looks like carelessness.
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Starring: Michael Caine, Frank Oz
Michael Caine singing to a bunch of puppets: it shouldn’t’t work, but somehow it does. The Muppets slot perfectly into Charles Dickens winter’s tale, but bring their own anarchic comedy stylings with them (Light the lamp, not the rat!). Gonzo, who clearly has no place in the 19th century, does a creditable job as narrator, using language lifted directly from the book for the most part, and Caine somehow keeps a straight face to give us one of the most faithful movie Scrooges, and one who always convinces as he undergoes his transformation from miser to a good person.
Home Alone (1990)
Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci , Daniel Stern, Catherine O’Hara, John Heard
Basically a live-action cartoon with a John Hughes script, but it’s a lot of fun and, in its own way, emphasises the importance of love and family just as much as It’s A Wonderful Life. As in Capra’s tale, being deprived of family and safety makes little Macauley Culkin realise how much he needs them, and fending off burglars all alone gives him a unique appreciation of the Christmas spirit.
The score was composed by John Williams and the film’s signature tune Somewhere in My Memory was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Die Hard (1988)
Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman
Arguably the greatest action movie ever made, and probably the greatest Christmas movie ever made, too. Bruce Willis’ John McClane may seem like an unlikely Santa Claus – but what better Christmas present is there than the gift of terrorists getting taken down as they try to take Nakatomi Plaza hostage during a Christmas party in order to carry out an elaborate theft?
10 reasons why it’s a Christmas movie: 1: It takes place on Christmas Eve. 2: McClane’s wife is called Holly. 3: It’s set at the office Christmas party. 4: It’s full of Christmas music. 5: It has a Christmassy family story. 6: “Now I have a machine gun. Ho-Ho-Ho” 7: The villain is the Grinch. 8: Christmas wrapping tape is a crucial prop. 9: A Christmas present leads to the villain’s demise. 10: It snows at the end!
Trading Places (1983)
Starring: Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Denholm Elliot
It’s a Christmas-set story where a couple of evil old bankers get their comeuppance, but the Frank Capra comparisons end there. After all, George Bailey never did he have the fast-talking street-slang of Eddie Murphy in his prime. Still, this is a morality tale, and while it doesn’t all take place over Christmas, that marks the low point in the fortunes of disgraced stockbroker Louis Winthorpe III (Aykroyd) after his bosses, the Duke Brothers (Ameche and Bellamy) ruin his life on a whim. And that alone makes a nice change from some films’ ultra-happy Christmases.
The Snowman (1982)
Starring: Peter Auty, David Bowie, Raymond Briggs
It’s less than 30 minutes long, wordless apart from a song sung by a boy soprano, and features a frankly weird David Bowie introduction (in some versions), with him wearing a scarf covered in snowmen. And yet, despite or because of all these things, this is as necessary for Christmas as mince pies and binging on Quality Street. The pencil-drawn animation is gorgeous, the music unforgettable and the story much less schmaltzy-happy than you might expect for the season. In fact, it’s likely to move small children, and indeed grown men, to tears. Still, it has to be watched or you’re not allowed your Christmas dinner; that’s just the rules.
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
Starring: (voice) Peter Robbins, Bill Melendez, Chris Doran, Christopher Shea, Katherine Steinberg
Like The Snowman, this one was made for TV but that hasn’t stopped it winning a place in everyone’s hearts over nearly 50 years. Charlie Brown finds himself depressed as the Christmas season approaches and can’t figure out why he isn’t onboard with the decking the halls and the being jolly. After consulting Lucy (in her psychiatrist mode) he gets involved in directing the school nativity play, a Christmas tradition, but still gloomy and with the other children running wild, finds things rather difficult. In the end, however, everyone rallies round, helping Charlie to decorate his tiny, real tree and remembering what Christmas is really all about with a singalong to Hark The Herald Angels. Heartwarming stuff.
White Christmas (1954)
Starring: Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen
Who wouldn’t like a White Christmas? Tuneful melodies, spectacular dancing, gorgeous colour and an Edith Head concoction of classy looking dresses and suits.
The song White Christmas had been used before, in 1942s Holiday Inn, starring with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.
This time we have Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye play soldiers-turned-entertainers, who travel to their former commanding officer’s inn to put on a show, help him out and romance a couple of sisters with their own musical act. Cue skating, singing, romantic entanglements and one of the best Christmas songs ever. Yes it’s a little OTT, but the Irving Berlin songs are great, and the energy high enough, that you won’t really care.
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers, Thomas Mitchell
Frank Capra’s perennial classic remains essential Christmas viewing. The story of George Bailey who has so many problems he is thinking about ending it all — and it’s Christmas! A man trying to do the right thing and finding his options gradually reduced to nothing, is genuinely tough watching at times during the first hour or so, and it’s made even tougher when we see the nightmare of life without his well-intentioned efforts, thanks to angelic intervention. So that happy ending, when it comes, feels earned rather than fluffy, and Christmassy rather than schmaltzy.
Meet Me In St Louis (1944)
Starring: Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Leon Ames, Tom Drake
This is not so much a Christmas film as a Christmas scene: faced with moving away from their beloved St Louis, Missouri, Tootie Smith (yes, they really called people “Tootie” back in 1904) is distraught. Her older sister Esther (Judy Garland) tries to comfort her, and sings Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, but Tootie refuses to be mollified and runs outside to smash the snowmen she’d built earlier in the day. Still, there’s a Christmas miracle when their father sees this outburst, realises that his family is not entirely onboard with his plan to move to New York and decides to stay in St Louis after all. Hurrah!
Best Christmas Soundtracks
From timeless favourites to new holiday classics, the best Christmas soundtracks will get you in the holiday spirit all season long.
The Polar Express (2004)
Alan Silvestri’s soundtrack chuggs along like all good train-based music, the composer carries that momentum throughout the score, lobbing out big band hokum (Hot Chocolate — the lyrics? Hot, hot, ooh, we got it hot!) like it’s a Duke Ellington B-side.
And Silvestri hits the still notes too, calling in Glen Ballard (co-writer of Man In The Mirror) to pen the charming ballad When Christmas Comes To Town and the rousing Oscar-nominated number Believe. It all comes together, via the sweet Spirit Of The Season, on Seeing Is Believing, a moving medley of everything that’s come before — plus Jingle Bells for good measure.
Elf (2003)
Buddy travels to New York City to meet his biological father and acclimatises to life in the real world. When it was released, Elf’s classy collection of jazz, soul, and unexpected covers proved to be a magical combination – the film’s soundtrack was certified gold and became one of the best-selling holiday soundtracks of all time. A swinging rendition of Sleigh Ride by Ella Fitzgerald, one of the highlights from the album.
Love Actually (2003)
Love it or hate it, this ensemble rom-com has become a modern holiday classic. Love Actually’s soundtrack boasts a Who’s Who of the early 00s, including Dido, Sugababes, Kelly Clarkson, and Norah Jones. Word has it that screenwriter and director Richard Curtis listened to Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas non-stop while writing the film — so much so, that he used the song in a climactic scene.
Home Alone (1990)
When Kevin McCallister’s family accidentally leaves him behind during a Christmas trip to Paris, he has to get crafty to defend his home against some not-so-bright burglars. Beloved by a generation of 90s kids, Home Alone boasted a lively score from John Williams, a host of Christmas standards, and countless memorable scenes. One such moment, set to Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, features the inventive eight-year-old creating the illusion of a house party.
The Snowman (1982)
This magical, wordless animated TV special, based on Raymond Briggs’ beloved children’s book, first aired in 1982, capturing the hearts of children across the UK. Howard Blake’s moving score was punctuated by the film’s sole lyrical composition, Walking In The Air, which has become a beloved holiday staple. The song was initially recorded by Peter Auty, a choirboy at St Paul’s Cathedral, and released as a single following the film’s television premiere. In 1985, it was re-recorded by Aled Jones, who became a national sensation when his version went to No.5 in the pop charts.
White Christmas (1954)
This mid-century musical, featuring the songs of Irving Berlin. Crosby and Kaye – along with performers played by Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen – plan an extravagant holiday performance to save their former general’s failing Vermont lodge. Though White Christmas made its debut in the 1942 film Holiday Inn, the song has become most closely associated with one of the most beloved Christmas soundtracks of all time.
Future Oscar winner George Chakiris also appears as one of the black-clad dancers surrounding Rosemary Clooney in Love, You Didn’t Do Right by Me.
Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)
Though this 1944 Judy Garland film isn’t a holiday movie per se, it produced one of the most popular Christmas songs in modern history. The dramatic musical documents the life of a St Louis family over the course of the year, leading up to the 1904 World’s Fair. In a Christmas Eve scene, Garland’s character sings Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas to her young sister, in hopes of cheering her up. Though the lyrics have changed slightly throughout the decades, the bittersweet song remains an enduring favourite.
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on
Our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yule-tide gay
From now on
Our troubles will be miles away
Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now
Through the years
We all will be together
If the fates allow
So hang a shining star upon the highest bough
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.
Source: empireonline.com, picturehouse.com, youdiscovermusic.com, en.wikipedia.org
