So let me be clear. I haven’t seen every single Christmas movie ever and my idea of what makes a good Christmas movie might be different from yours – for example, to me Christmas equals happiness so I naturally tend to favour comedies rather than heartstring-tuggers. Basically, what I’m saying is that this list is influenced by my own personal biases and prejudices so naturally you’re probably not going to agree with it. And that’s fine.
#10. The Holiday
Surrey-based Kate Winslet and L.A.-based Cameron Diaz swap homes for a Christmas because of crappy love lives and you almost certainly know where this entire film is going just from that. This is practically a textbook definition of a “safe” movie: predictable, filled to the brim with clichés, and yet it manages to be very charming as well. It’s also probably the most subtle performance ever given by Jack Black, contains a couple of frankly astoundingly good child actresses, and made absolutely everyone long to live in a cottage that isn’t even real. Which is actually kind of impressive.
#9. Elf
A man who was raised as one of Santa’s elves goes to New York to find his father. Again, this a pretty “safe” movie. Watching it, you’re never in any doubt as to exactly how it will end, but it’s mostly a fun journey to get there. Will Ferrell is fun but, at least for me, his whole wide-eyed innocent thing walks a very very thin line between “innocence” and “legitimate stupidity”. Like, I often find myself wondering how he even made it all the way to New York. Honestly, the main reason I enjoy watching this film is for James Caan who’s basically playing Scrooge, just with a different name. I always tend to favour the “straight guy” in comedy over those that act outlandishly and Caan’s deadpan reactions to Ferrell’s craziness are absolutely priceless.
#8. The Polar Express
A boy on the verge of not believing in Santa gets a free (but ridiculously dangerous) train ride to the North Pole. I’ll be honest, the only reason this isn’t higher is because the animation is creepy. Plus it is kind of weird having Tom Hanks’ voice coming out of four separate characters, even though I get the symbolism behind it. That said, this story is beautiful. When it came out, my brother was roughly the same age as the boy in the movie and (even though he now denies it) he was crying when the lights came back up in the cinema. Also, it seems like a minor thing to point out, but I love the fact that the voices actually match the designs of the characters – probably a natural side-effect of the motion capture but still, I love that we’re not hearing some 18-year-old voice coming out of an 11-year-old body. That would just push the creepy factor much too high…
#7. Miracle On 34th Street
A man must legally prove that he is Santa and also win over a precocious little girl and her mother. I’m probably one of the few people who likes both the original black-and-white film and the several-decades-later remake. The charm of the story remains intact in each, both Natalie Wood and Mara Wilson were hands-down the single best choice for said precocious little girl of their respective generations, and Edmund Gwenn and Richard Attenborough were, again, perfect choices for a Santa. Again, the story itself is very predictable and a tad on the saccharine side, but it’s still thoroughly charming.
#6. Love Actually
Several different people based in London have several different experiences with several different kinds of love all in the course of a month – and Hugh Grant is the Prime Minister. This is one Christmas movie my family has to watch every single year. Even just watching the opening and closing montages are enough to restore your basic faith in humanity (and I can no longer listen to The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” without getting misty-eyed thinking of hundreds of people greeting each other at Heathrow so…kudos to you, movie). Really, the only thing that’s wrong with it is Kris Marshall’s character’s (I can’t even remember his name) storyline. It’s by far the weakest (since it’s got nothing to do with love, he just wants to get laid) and dropping it would lose you absolutely nothing. Still, there’s always Hugh Grant standing up to a POTUS who seems far more like the current one than the one he’s actually based on (remember, this came out right around the Bush/Blair “special relationship” debacle) and then triumphantly dancing through 10 Downing Street to make up for it.
#5. It’s A Wonderful Life
A man wishes he’d never been born and an incompetent angel shows him why that’s a stupid thing to wish for. I think it’s basically a requirement for this to make people’s Top 10 Xmas Films lists. And it’s fairly easy to see why. It’s a great story, it’s one of James Stewart’s best performances, it somehow manages to resist going too overboard with the sentimentality… The only complaint I have is that, while I get that it’s necessary for the message of “everyone’s important and your life matters”, the extent to which the alternate James Stewart-less universe seems to suck is a tad on the relentless side. But that’s literally just me nitpicking.
#4. Nativity!
A teacher at a primary school tells his much-more-successful rival that Hollywood folk are coming to watch his nativity…and then has to work out how to make that happen. I’m just gonna say it, I much prefer Martin Freeman as a comic actor than as a serious one. He seems perfectly designed to be the “straight man” and nothing demonstrates that better than this film. It also features some of the best naturalistic acting from pre-teens you will ever see. For the most part, anyway – I’ll admit I do not understand their apparent obsession with Bob (the smallest kid). I can take or leave the sequels (I’m reserving judgement on the latest one until I’ve actually seen it) but since I first saw this movie a few years ago, I’ve made a point to watch it at least once every December.
#3. Arthur Christmas
In which the Santa clan are a completely dysfunctional family with only the youngest of them actually understanding what’s so important about Christmas. Honestly, I fell in love with this film just by virtue of the fact that it’s just so smart. It’s a very realistic family dynamic – the grandfather is constantly harping on about the “good old days”; the mother takes care of pretty much everything without being asked; the father is reluctant to admit it’s time for him to move things on to the next generation; the oldest son is aching for his chance to prove himself and the younger son looks up to all of them while they systematically shove him into the background. I admit I also like that it sort of has an underlying message of “things weren’t necessarily better without technology but over-reliance on technology is just as bad”; I like that the film states there’s a middle-ground there.
#2. The Flint Street Nativity
An incompetent primary school where the children all carry serious baggage from their home-lives puts on a nativity play. I can almost certainly guarantee you’ve never even heard of this one but I promise you it’s well worth checking out. The children are all played by adults (who also go on to play the parents at the end) and honestly, it’s truly impressive just how accurate it is, down to horrifically out-of-tune carol singing. It’s hysterically funny but also quite sobering in some of the details the kids inadvertently reveal about their families and home environments. It allows itself to be serious enough for things to make an impact but then you’re laughing again three minutes later. I guarantee you, if you’re at all familiar with British television, there’ll be faces you’ll recognise so it’s fun watching it from that angle as well as everything else.
#1. The Muppet Christmas Carol
I’m going to do a full review of this to stop me gushing about it far too much here but honestly? Words cannot describe how much I adore this film. This, to me, is the perfect Christmas film – it’s funny, it’s heartwarming, it’s moving, it’s basically an emotional rollercoaster but one that leaves you pumped full of faith in humanity. My parents got this on VHS for my brother shortly before I was born and even after the VHS wore out, we bought the DVD later that same year. I think I’ve watched it at least once a year since I was born and every time it never fails to make me cry – especially after I learned the real life context behind the making of the film. It’s just a wonderful film and I think everyone ought to see it at least once.
So there you have it. Agree? Disagree? Want to tell me how I’m an idiot for leaving out any combination of Die Hard, Home Alone and/or The Nightmare Before Christmas? Well, that’s tough on the last one because it’s a Halloween movie and I’ll always stand by that statement, but you’re more than welcome to leave recommendations for any other Christmas movies. We could all use some Yuletide joy in our lives at the moment…
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