What are your favourite movies to watch over the holidays? We’ve compiled a list of the Christmas movies you must watch, and even if you are a secret Christmas movie hater, we think you’ll be sure to like one or two of these.
Favourite Movies List for Christmas Day
We put out a call on Lifestyle Fifty Facebook for your 10 Most Loved Christmas Movies. Here Lifestylers are the movies you laugh, cry or sing-along to at Christmas, followed by a list of 40 popular Christmas movies.
With the holiday season fast approaching, many of us can’t help but think about Christmas, and what we’ll do for entertainment when the turkey and ham have been eaten and the excitement of the day begins to calm.
Whether it’s on TV or streaming online, those of us who are Christmas movie tragics will all be watching our favorite movies – some that we love to watch over and over again.
Whether it’s because of nostalgia, holiday cheer or the actors involved in the film these films will assure some holiday spirit.
No matter what your religious beliefs, there is one thing we can all agree on: Christmas movies are the best! Out with the Scrooges and kill joys who say they hate Christmas films!
Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, here are 10 of the greatest Christmas movies ever made to watch during the festive season (according to Lifestyle Fifty readers) followed by a list of 40 movies that capture the Christmas spirit.
So grab a glass of wine, or a mug of hot chocolate, curl up with your pets (or significant other) and prepare to be entertained by these awesome flicks!
Your Top 10 Christmas Movies
From a survey on Lifestyle Fifty’s Facebook page, these were the favourite 10 Christmas movies to watch according to readers.
- Love Actually
- The Holiday
- It’s a wonderful life
- National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
- Meet Me in St Louis
- Die Hard
- Home Alone
- Serendipity
- Sound of Music
- Nativity
Love Actually
Nine intertwined stories examine the complexities of the one emotion that connects us all: love. Among the characters explored are David (Hugh Grant), the handsome newly elected British prime minister who falls for a young junior staffer (Martine McCutcheon), Sarah (Laura Linney), a graphic designer whose devotion to her mentally ill brother complicates her love life, and Harry (Alan Rickman), a married man tempted by his attractive new secretary.
The Holiday
Dumped and depressed, English rose Iris agrees to swap homes with similarly unlucky in love Californian Amanda for a much-needed break. Iris finds herself in a palatial Hollywood mansion while Amanda navigates the lanes of a picture-perfect English village. Soon enough, both lovelorn ladies bump into local lads perfect for a romantic pick-me-up.
It’s a Wonderful Life
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is one of those timeless classics that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime – not to mention it has a wonderful story line which always seems to make me cry (in a good way).
It’s a 1946 American Christmas fantasy drama film based on the short story and booklet The Greates Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern, loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novel A Christmas Carol.
George Bailey has so many problems he is thinking about ending it all – and it’s Christmas! As the angels discuss George, we see his life in flashback. As George is about to jump from a bridge, he ends up rescuing his guardian angel, Clarence – who then shows George what his town would have looked like if it hadn’t been for all his good deeds over the years.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
As the holidays approach, Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) wants to have a perfect family Christmas, so he pesters his wife, Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo), and children, as he tries to make sure everything is in line, including the tree and house decorations. However, things go awry quickly. His hick cousin, Eddie (Randy Quaid), and his family show up unplanned and start living in their camper on the Griswold property. Even worse, Clark’s employers renege on the holiday bonus he needs.
Meet me in St Louis
“Meet Me in St. Louis” is a classic MGM romantic musical comedy that focuses on four sisters (one of whom is the nonpareil Judy Garland) on the cusp of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. The film spotlights the sisters’ education in the ways of the world, which includes, but isn’t limited to, learning about life and love, courtesy of the prototypical boy next door. In the end, love — accompanied by song, dance and period costumes, all in glorious Technicolor — conquers all.
Die Hard
New York City policeman John McClane (Bruce Willis) is visiting his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia) and two daughters on Christmas Eve. He joins her at a holiday party in the headquarters of the Japanese-owned business she works for. But the festivities are interrupted by a group of terrorists who take over the exclusive high-rise, and everyone in it. Very soon McClane realizes that there’s no one to save the hostages — but him.
Home Alone
When bratty 8-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) acts out the night before a family trip to Paris, his mother (Catherine O’Hara) makes him sleep in the attic. After the McCallisters mistakenly leave for the airport without Kevin, he awakens to an empty house and assumes his wish to have no family has come true. But his excitement sours when he realizes that two con men (Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern) plan to rob the McCallister residence, and that he alone must protect the family home.
Serendipity
On a magical night when they are in in their 20s, Jonathan (John Cusack) meets Sara (Kate Beckinsale). He finds it love at first sight, but Sara believes in destiny. After 10 years the two — with 3,000 miles between them — must decide if fate wants them to be together again. When love feels like magic, it is called destiny; when destiny has a sense of humor, it is serendipity.
Sound of Music
A tuneful, heartwarming story, it is based on the real life story of the Von Trapp Family singers, one of the world’s best-known concert groups in the era immediately preceding World War II. Julie Andrews plays the role of Maria, the tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey who becomes a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children, and brings a new love of life and music into the home.
Nativity
A primary school teacher, who was once a failed actor in a former career, is given the task of directing the school’s Nativity play, which doesn’t have a positive track record. Attitudes change however, when it transpires that a Hollywood producer is coming to film the play.
Can someone please tell me why Die Hard is considered a Christmas movie?
Or do you enjoy it because Alan Rickman gets his come-uppance in Die Hard for giving a necklace to his secretary in Love Actually?!
40 Christmas Movies to Watch During Your Vacation!
Here are 40 movies that capture the spirit of Christmas in some way for you to choose from. Which will you choose this year?
- Home Alone
- Love Actually
- The Holiday
- A Christmas Story
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- Elf
- Miracle on 34th Street
- National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
- The Polar Express
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas
- Scrooged
- White Christmas
- The Santa Clause
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- Arthur Christmas
- Black Nativity
- The Bishop’s Wife
- Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
- Frosty the Snowman
- Dr Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas
- Frozen
- Jingle All the Way
- Jack Frost
- Mickey Mouse and Friends
- Miracle on 34th Street
- Santa Claus is Coming to Town
- Snow Day
- Up
- Winnie-the-Pooh and a Merry Pooh Year
- A Very Brady Sequel
- The Muppet Movie
- A Dennis and Gnasher movie
- Rudolph’s Shiny New Year
- Snowtime for Charlie Brown
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Lost in New York
- Nativity
- Serendipity
- Meet me in St Louis
- Sound of Music
But Why Watch a Christmas Movie?
The Christmas season is a time for family, friends, good food and, of course, Christmas movies. But why do we watch them?
What is it about these movies that makes us want to gather around the TV or computer screen year after year and watch them again and again?
For many people, myself included, Christmas movies are a tradition. We watch them to get into the holiday spirit and to feel nostalgic for past Christmases.
But I think there’s more to it than that. I think we watch Christmas movies because they remind us of the true meaning of Christmas—peace, love and joy.
They make us feel hopeful for the future and remind us of what is really important in life.
So whatever your reason may be for watching Christmas, whether you watch them over and over again or save them for a once-a-year festive special, there’s no doubt that Christmas movies are a staple of the holiday season.
But what are your favourites? Are you a Die Hard, Love Actually or Home Alone fan?
Do you prefer the soppiness of ‘The Holiday’? Or maybe you like something more offbeat, like ‘Elf’ or ‘Arthur Christmas’.
Whatever your preference, we want to hear about it!
Share your Christmas movie picks with us in the comments section below.
We can’t wait to hear what everyone’s favourite Christmas movies are!
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Love Actually and Serendipity are my 2 all-time favourite movie in this genre Jo. I never tired of watching them. Have a wonderful holiday season!
Ahh, I love both those too Jo! Happy New Year to you!