Christmas movies you MUST see
by Helene89 | created - 03 Sep 2011 | updated - 3 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Santa Clause 2 (2002)
G | 104 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Scott Calvin has been a humble Santa Claus for eight years, but it might come to an end if he doesn't find a Mrs. Claus.
Director: Michael Lembeck | Stars: Tim Allen, Spencer Breslin, Elizabeth Mitchell, Eric Lloyd
Votes: 63,878 | Gross: $139.24M
2. Deck the Halls (2006)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Family
Two neighbors have it out after one of them decorates his house for the holidays so brightly that it can be seen from space.
Director: John Whitesell | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Danny DeVito, Kristin Chenoweth, Kristin Davis
Votes: 33,144 | Gross: $35.09M
3. Elf (2003)
PG | 97 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
Raised as an oversized elf, Buddy travels from the North Pole to New York City to meet his biological father, Walter Hobbs, who doesn't know he exists and is in desperate need of some Christmas spirit.
Director: Jon Favreau | Stars: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Bob Newhart, Zooey Deschanel
Votes: 310,570 | Gross: $173.40M
4. Fred Claus (2007)
PG | 116 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Fred Claus, Santa's bitter older brother, is forced to move to the North Pole to help Santa and the elves prepare for Christmas in exchange for cash.
Director: David Dobkin | Stars: Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Elizabeth Banks, John Michael Higgins
Votes: 47,783 | Gross: $72.01M
5. Surviving Christmas (2004)
PG-13 | 91 min | Comedy, Romance
A lonely, obnoxious young millionaire pays a family to spend Christmas with him.
Director: Mike Mitchell | Stars: Ben Affleck, Christina Applegate, James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara
Votes: 27,740 | Gross: $11.66M
6. A Christmas Carol (2009)
PG | 96 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
An animated retelling of Charles Dickens' classic novel about a Victorian-era miser taken on a journey of self-redemption, courtesy of several mysterious Christmas apparitions.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Steve Valentine
Votes: 129,404 | Gross: $137.86M
7. Christmas with the Kranks (2004)
PG | 99 min | Comedy, Family
With their daughter, Blair, away in Peru, Luther and Nora Krank decide to skip Christmas all together until she decides to come home, causing an uproar when they have to celebrate it at the last minute.
Director: Joe Roth | Stars: Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd, M. Emmet Walsh
Votes: 57,556 | Gross: $73.78M
8. Four Christmases (2008)
PG-13 | 88 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A couple struggles to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas.
Director: Seth Gordon | Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Vince Vaughn, Mary Steenburgen, Robert Duvall
Votes: 80,795 | Gross: $120.15M
9. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
PG | 104 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
On the outskirts of Whoville lives a green, revenge-seeking Grinch who plans to ruin Christmas for all of the citizens of the town.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Jim Carrey, Taylor Momsen, Kelley, Jeffrey Tambor
Votes: 291,239 | Gross: $260.04M
10. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
PG | 76 min | Animation, Family, Fantasy
Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion.
Director: Henry Selick | Stars: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey
Votes: 374,755 | Gross: $75.08M
11. Love Actually (2003)
R | 135 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
Director: Richard Curtis | Stars: Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney
Votes: 531,108 | Gross: $59.70M
12. The Polar Express (2004)
G | 100 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
On Christmas Eve, a young boy embarks on a magical adventure to the North Pole on the Polar Express, while learning about friendship, bravery, and the spirit of Christmas.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Chris Coppola, Michael Jeter, Leslie Zemeckis
Votes: 241,065 | Gross: $183.37M
13. Call Me Claus (2001 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 90 min | Comedy, Family
Lucy's a producer on a home shopping channel. She hires the real Santa as Santa. He has to find his replacement as the real Santa in 4 weeks. Lucy is unknowingly the only candidate left.
Director: Peter Werner | Stars: Whoopi Goldberg, Nigel Hawthorne, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Victor Garber
Votes: 2,824
14. The Santa Clause (1994)
PG | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
When a man inadvertently makes Santa fall off his roof on Christmas Eve, he finds himself magically recruited to take his place.
Director: John Pasquin | Stars: Tim Allen, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, Eric Lloyd
Votes: 133,354 | Gross: $144.83M
15. The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006)
G | 92 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
Santa, a.k.a. Scott Calvin, is faced with double-duty: how to keep his new family happy and how to stop Jack Frost from taking over Christmas.
Director: Michael Lembeck | Stars: Tim Allen, Martin Short, Elizabeth Mitchell, Eric Lloyd
Votes: 42,639 | Gross: $84.50M
16. The Holiday (2006)
PG-13 | 136 min | Comedy, Romance
Two women troubled with guy-problems swap homes in each other's countries, where they each meet a local guy and fall in love.
Director: Nancy Meyers | Stars: Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Jack Black
Votes: 322,599 | Gross: $63.22M
17. Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
G | 26 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
The classic Disney animated characters play the roles in this animated retelling of the Charles Dickens masterpiece.
Director: Burny Mattinson | Stars: Alan Young, Wayne Allwine, Hal Smith, Will Ryan
Votes: 15,347 | Gross: $21.00M
18. Krampus (I) (2015)
PG-13 | 98 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A boy who has a bad Christmas accidentally summons a festive demon to his family home.
Director: Michael Dougherty | Stars: Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman
Votes: 84,019 | Gross: $42.59M
19. The Night Before (II) (2015)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Fantasy
On Christmas Eve, three lifelong friends spend the night in New York City looking for the Holy Grail of Christmas parties.
Director: Jonathan Levine | Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Jillian Bell, Lizzy Caplan
Votes: 82,581 | Gross: $43.04M
20. The Holiday Calendar (2018)
TV-PG | 95 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A struggling but talented photographer inherits an antique holiday advent calendar, the contents of which seem to predict the future. Will this magical calendar lead her to love this holiday season?
Director: Bradley Walsh | Stars: Kat Graham, Quincy Brown, Ethan Peck, Ron Cephas Jones
Votes: 11,474
21. The Princess Switch (2018)
TV-PG | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Competing in a Christmas baking competition in Belgravia, a Chicago baker bumps into the prince's fiancée--who looks just like her. They switch lives for two days.
Director: Mike Rohl | Stars: Vanessa Hudgens, Sam Palladio, Nick Sagar, Alexa Adeosun
Votes: 31,333
22. Arthur Christmas (2011)
PG | 97 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Santa's clumsy son Arthur sets out on a mission with Grandsanta to give out a misplaced present to a young girl in less than two hours on Christmas Day.
Directors: Sarah Smith, Barry Cook | Stars: James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Hugh Laurie
Votes: 67,050 | Gross: $46.46M
23. The Christmas Chronicles (2018)
PG | 104 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
The story of sister and brother, Kate and Teddy Pierce, whose Christmas Eve plan to catch Santa Claus on camera turns into an unexpected journey that most kids could only dream about.
Director: Clay Kaytis | Stars: Kurt Russell, Darby Camp, Judah Lewis, Oliver Hudson
Votes: 83,421
24. The Knight Before Christmas (2019)
TV-PG | 92 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A medieval English knight is magically transported to present-day America where he falls for a high school science teacher who is disillusioned by love.
Director: Monika Mitchell | Stars: Vanessa Hudgens, Josh Whitehouse, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Ella Kenion
Votes: 20,359
25. Let It Snow (2019)
PG-13 | 92 min | Comedy, Romance
In a small town on Christmas Eve, a snowstorm brings together a group of young people.
Director: Luke Snellin | Stars: Isabela Merced, Shameik Moore, Odeya Rush, Liv Hewson
Votes: 24,941
26. Holidate (2020)
TV-MA | 104 min | Comedy, Romance
Fed up with being single on holidays, two strangers agree to be each other's platonic plus-ones all year long, only to catch real feelings along the way.
Director: John Whitesell | Stars: Emma Roberts, Luke Bracey, Kristin Chenoweth, Frances Fisher
Votes: 78,781
27. The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (2020)
PG | 112 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
Kate Pierce, now a cynical teen, is unexpectedly reunited with Santa Claus when a mysterious troublemaker threatens to cancel Christmas--forever.
Director: Chris Columbus | Stars: Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn, Darby Camp, Julian Dennison
Votes: 35,674
28. Last Christmas (2019)
PG-13 | 103 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Kate is a young woman subscribed to bad decisions. Working as an elf in a year-round Christmas store is not good for the wannabe singer. However, she meets Tom there. Her life takes a new turn--that seems too good to be true.
Director: Paul Feig | Stars: Madison Ingoldsby, Emma Thompson, Boris Isakovic, Lucy Miller
Votes: 90,405 | Gross: $35.15M
29. Love Hard (2021)
TV-MA | 104 min | Comedy, Romance
An LA girl, unlucky in love, falls for an East Coast guy on a dating app and decides to surprise him for the holidays, only to discover that she's been catfished. This lighthearted romantic comedy chronicles her attempt to reel in love.
Director: Hernán Jiménez | Stars: Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O. Yang, Darren Barnet, James Saito
Votes: 61,539
30. Malou's Christmas (2020)
88 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
The Danish Christmas film 'Malous Jul' is about Malou, a rootless and maladapted teenager who, after going through a lot of foster families, ends up in a new foster family on the small ... See full summary »
Director: Claus Bjerre | Stars: Ulver Skuli Abildgaard, Susanne Billeskov, Bertram Degn, Bertram Robin Grahede
Votes: 111
31. The Santa Clauses (2022–2023)
TV-PG | 33 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Scott Calvin is about to turn 65. Realizing that he can't be Santa forever, he sets out to find a suitable replacement Santa while preparing his family for a new life adventure south of the North Pole.
Stars: Tim Allen, Elizabeth Mitchell, Austin Kane, Elizabeth Allen-Dick
Votes: 11,099
32. Spirited (2022)
PG-13 | 127 min | Comedy, Family, Musical
A musical version of Charles Dickens's story of a miserly misanthrope who is taken on a magical journey.
Director: Sean Anders | Stars: Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, Octavia Spencer, Patrick Page
Votes: 50,200
33. Violent Night (2022)
R | 112 min | Action, Comedy, Thriller
An elite team of mercenaries breaks into a family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone hostage. However, they aren't prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus is on the grounds, and he's about to show why this Nick is no saint.
Director: Tommy Wirkola | Stars: David Harbour, John Leguizamo, Beverly D'Angelo, Alex Hassell
Votes: 98,836 | Gross: $50.06M
34. Something from Tiffany's (2022)
PG | 87 min | Comedy, Family, Romance
Follows a woman as her life gets upended when an engagement ring that was for someone else leads her to the person she's meant to be with.
Director: Daryl Wein | Stars: Zoey Deutch, Kendrick Sampson, Ray Nicholson, Shay Mitchell
Votes: 10,503
35. Dashing Through the Snow (II) (2023)
PG | 92 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
A separated social worker takes his daughter on a ride along with him on Christmas Eve.
Director: Tim Story | Stars: Lil Rel Howery, Ludacris, Madison Skye Validum, Teyonah Parris
Votes: 3,601
36. Genie (III) (2023)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Fantasy
The film is a fairy-tale comedy about a workaholic man who enlists the help of a magical genie to help win his family back before Christmas.
Director: Sam Boyd | Stars: Melissa McCarthy, Paapa Essiedu, Denée Benton, Jordyn McIntosh
Votes: 8,462
37. EXmas (2023)
PG-13 | 93 min | Comedy
Graham surprises his family at Christmas--and arrives to find his ex-fiancee already celebrating the holiday with his family.
Director: Jonah Feingold | Stars: Leighton Meester, Robbie Amell, Michael Hitchcock, Kathryn Greenwood
Votes: 5,254
38. Candy Cane Lane (I) (2023)
PG | 117 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
A man is determined to win the neighborhood's annual Christmas decorating contest. He makes a pact with an elf to help him win--and the elf casts a spell that brings the 12 days of Christmas to life, which brings unexpected chaos to town.
Director: Reginald Hudlin | Stars: Eddie Murphy, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jillian Bell, Genneya Walton
Votes: 20,051
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