Best Christmas movies to watch for every possible festive mood
'Tis the season for spirited and winless debates about what the best Christmas movie is.
No one needs us to remind you about the obvious holiday movies playing on repeat on cable, whether it's It's a Wonderful Life, Home Alone or Love, Actually, or even those holiday adjacent classics like Eyes Wide Shut and The Godfather. But perhaps you are looking to go beyond the obvious this year (sorry, Christmas Story, White Christmas etc, etc).
Associated Press Film Writers Jake Coyle and Lindsey Bahr have you covered with the best Christmas films for every mood.
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A movie that feels like a Christmas movie but isn't, really
Grand Budapest Hotel: Truthfully, there's nothing outside of a little snow to make Wes Anderson's 2014 delight a Christmas movie. But I don't think there's another movie that better resembles the experience of opening a present than Grand Budapest Hotel.
Unwrap Anderson's intricate designs and the movie's Russian doll-like narratives, and smile. – Coyle
Best movie for feeling fancy
Metropolitan (1990): Who among us hasn't dreamt of doing debutante season in New York? Maybe don't answer that, but Whit Stillman's Metropolitan, about a few privileged youths on the Upper East Side, is the ideal film to turn on when you're craving something that feels like an elegant evening on the town but doesn't require breaking out the white tie and ball gowns. – Bahr
Best performance next to felt
A Muppets Christmas Carol (1992): It's one thing to do Dickens with, you know, other humans. But Michael Caine gives an Oscar-worthy performance as Ebenezer Scrooge while sharing the screen with the likes of Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. To be fair, though, Gonzo the Great and Rizzo the Rat are also really good in this. – Coyle
Best Christmas cry
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964): Jacques Demy's technicolour musical isn't exclusively set at Christmas, but its final tearjerker scene at that snowy gas station is enough for me. The whole candy-coloured experience, from Catherine Deneuve's whimsical bows to Michel Legrand's sweeping, melancholy score just feels right around the holidays. – Bahr
The best L.A. Christmas movie
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: Yuletide traditions don't normally include a motormouth Robert Downey Jr., but Shane Black's 2005 neo-noir black comedy is worth revisiting perennially whether or not it technically qualifies as a Christmas movie. In Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, about a thief-turned-actor in Los Angeles, Christmas is more of a decorative ornament set ironically against all the deliciously unwholesome seediness. – Coyle
Best house swapping fantasy
The Holiday (2006): OK, so the cozy English cottage isn't real, but what is? The premise? The romances? Cameron Diaz's sprint through snowy fields and country roads in stilettos? Mr. Napkin Head? (Actually, maybe Mr. Napkin Head). The thing is it doesn't really matter, does it? Nancy Meyers' romantic fantasy is never trying to be anything other than a delightful movie, a little too earnest, a little too glossy and an unabashed ode to the classic movies Meyers loves right down to Eli Wallach teaching a new generation about the "meet cute." – Bahr
A great Christmas thriller not named Die Hard
Three Days of the Condor: I'll take any excuse to rewatch Sydney Pollack's 1975 spy thriller with Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway. But, like in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the Christmas backdrop isn't accidental. If the holidays are the ultimate time of togetherness, Three Days of the Condor questions what that means in a post-Watergate world. – Coyle
Best recent kids Christmas movie
Klaus: There's such a steady stream of mediocre or worse holiday movies that it can be easy to miss when a gem arrives. Sergio Pablos' 2019 animated Netflix film was basically an origin story for Santa Claus by way of a desperate postman stationed in a remote northern village. Further proof, along with Miracle on 34th Street, that the best Christmas movies hinge on the postal service. – Coyle
For the under-five set
Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas (2021): Clocking in at only 30 minutes, this is the perfect film for the littlest ones in the house. It's sweet, funny and adventurous and not even a little bit scary (unless you fear flying sleighs and botched recipes). – Bahr
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