Many Christmas movies announce themselves with green-hatted elves, Santa, the red-nosed reindeer, snowmen named Frosty, and other recognizable figures. But the Christmas spirit is about more than ornament-ready characters. And a movie need not take place during yuletide, or end with a choir of schoolchildren singing “Silent Night,” to evoke what the season is all about.
The exact meaning of the season, of course, is different for everyone—hence the nine movies below might not be anyone’s first choice when Grandma says “Let’s watch a Christmas movie.” Some of them were made for TV; others star Tom Cruise. But each, in their own way, channels something vital about the winter festivities—and gives the family something to talk about.
Little Women (1994, directed by Gillian Armstrong)
To misquote the first line of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel, Christmas isn’t Christmas without any March sisters. Of the many adaptations of Little Women, Gillian Armstrong’s version is the one I return to when the weather gets chilly. It’s not just because the opening credits unfurl over images of snow, or because the twinkly score sounds made for the holidays. This Little Women, with its charming cast (including Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, and Claire Danes) and refreshingly modern script, is winsome without ever being treacly. Armstrong, the first woman to tackle Alcott’s book for the big screen, imbues every frame with tenderness, nostalgia, and the glow of unconditional love. I have a sister of my own, but Armstrong makes Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy feel like family, too. — Shirley Li
How to watch: Stream on Netflix
Big Fish (directed by Tim Burton, 2003)
I’m not a fighter, but I once got into a heated argument with a friend because she rudely declared that Big Fish was “for children.” Sure, there’s a giant, a witch, a love-at-first-sight scene in which time stops. It’s a little magical. But is that a crime? The plot concerns a man who has come home to see his semi-estranged, dying father and who tries, with exasperation, to discern what bits of reality lie in his dad’s fantastical life stories. Big Fish is about how we construct, pass down, and inherit the past—and how we might stretch to accept our family members for who they are, not who we want them to be. I was right, in other words. But I will concede that these are especially poignant ideas during a season when we gather with relatives of all ages. — Faith Hill
How to watch: Rent on Prime Video and Apple TV
It’s Complicated (directed by Nancy Meyers, 2009)
For me, Christmas feels best with a Nancy Meyers kitchen—the Carrara marble, the gleaming copper pans, the sexual confusion. Some Meyers loyalists might opt for The Holiday, with its fake chocolate-box cottage and rom-com clichés. But the superior choice is It’s Complicated, a winning story about Jane, a happy divorcée (Meryl Streep) whose shifty ex (Alec Baldwin) decides he misses what he once had. Secrets, hijinks, and stoned interludes with Steve Martin’s endearing-architect love rival ensue. More important, though, every other scene features food—Jane presides over family dinners, late-night pain au chocolat baking sessions, and the frosting of a chocolate cake with cheerful abandon. The love that cooking conveys, and the pleasure that eating brings, is really the core of the story, which is a Christmas message to get on board with. — Sophie Gilbert
How to watch: Stream on HBO Max
The Ice Storm (directed by Ang Lee, 1997)
This meticulous period film, set in 1973, is technically a Thanksgiving movie, as the pivotal action takes place on the Friday after the feast. But I’ve long associated it with the festivities closer to deepest winter, partly because of the titular ice, partly for its unsparing portrayal of dysfunctional-suburban-family dynamics. Nearly 30 years after its premiere, The Ice Storm remains a resonant indictment of bourgeois complacency. A crook is in the White House; atrocities are being committed overseas; and the well-heeled residents of New Canaan, Connecticut, gather for a gluttonous weekend in their comfortable glass houses. Everyone—libidinous kids and adults alike—is alienated and groping for distraction, until tragedy strikes. Lee’s film may not be warm and fuzzy, but it exudes brutal honesty: the kind to make a person sit back, look around at their friends and family, and take stock. — Jen Balderama
How to watch: Rent on Prime Video and YouTube
My Future Boyfriend (directed by Michael Lange, 2011)
The holidays are a time to put on the sweatpants of the mind as well as of the body, and when my best friends and I converge over the holidays, we love to watch terrible made-for-TV movies. Our favorite is My Future Boyfriend, which takes place in 3127 C.E. In it, explorers find a relic of the 21st century: a paperback romance novel called Forbidden Love. The people of the 32nd century don’t know what “love” means, so one intrepid adventurer goes back to 2011 to get answers from the book’s author. I don’t think I’d have much fun watching this by myself; for me, the joy of a so-bad-it’s-good movie is purely communal. But the movie is also seasonally appropriate on a deeper level: The time traveler, who becomes the titular future boyfriend, escapes a cold future to discover love’s warmth—a Christmassy trajectory if ever there was one. — Julie Beck
How to watch: Stream on Freeform
Lady Bird (directed by Greta Gerwig, 2017)
Christmas gets only a few passing references in Lady Bird. But it’s an ideal movie to watch this time of year, when many of us leave our carefully chosen adult lives and return to our families. Saoirse Ronan’s high-school senior begins the movie hating her home state of California, her home city of Sacramento, even her given name. When she goes off to college, however, she realizes her affection for everything she’s left behind. As someone who moved away at 18 and never really came back, I understand, deep in my bones, how Lady Bird could be so sick of Sacramento that she’d throw herself from a moving vehicle to express her desire to get out. But when I go home for the holidays and walk the elegant streets of my childhood neighborhood, I feel just like she does in her final monologue: wishing I’d acknowledged all of this beauty earlier. — Eleanor Barkhorn
How to watch: Rent on Prime Video
Fantastic Mr. Fox (directed by Wes Anderson, 2009)
Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox is real cozy stuff. The film’s warmth comes not just from its color palette, but also from the dazzling array of textures created by the stop-motion animation: the fuzziness of the animals’ fur, the crumbliness of dirt tunnels, the softness of a dinner roll. In addition to curling-up-by-the-fireplace vibes, though, Mr. Fox channels plenty of classic Christmas themes. Mr. Fox’s dissatisfaction with his domestic life calls to mind George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life, and his Scroogelike pursuit of material spoils (here, chickens, geese, turkeys, and apple cider) ends up endangering his entire community. Characters clash in close quarters and, eventually, remember that the relationships they have with one another are what truly make life worth living. And it’s family friendly while actually being fun: Having characters say the word cuss instead of swearing is one of my favorite jokes ever. — Elise Hannum
How to watch: Stream on Disney+
Eyes Wide Shut (directed by Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
Is Eyes Wide Shut a conspiratorial warning about the dark forces controlling our societies in the shadows? A broad, metaphorical exploration of celebrity marriage? Stanley Kubrick’s elliptical final movie is still puzzled over decades after its release, but one thing is for sure: It’s a Christmas movie, both in setting and in theme. Yes, the plot follows a rich Manhattan doctor wrestling with fears of his wife’s infidelity and his own sexual insecurities over two unsettling nights. But the film has the haunted quality of any New York Christmas, a time when the city empties out and turns unforgivably cold, and its protagonist’s wriggly inner turmoil might feel perversely relatable to anyone who’s been stuck at family functions or dull work parties. Granted, most people’s Christmas doesn’t culminate in a masked orgy at a remote mansion, but Eyes Wide Shut is still an oddly applicable movie for one’s unsettled holiday mood. — David Sims
How to watch: Stream on Tubi
Ordinary People (directed by Robert Redford, 1980)
Last month, Pope Leo revealed his four favorite films. On the list were three widely beloved movies about the triumph of the human spirit—and also Ordinary People, a bleak domestic drama that offers no happy ending. It might seem like a weird pick for His Holiness, and for Christmas, but hear me out. The film begins as the leaves turn and the Jarrets, a WASPy Chicagoland family, contend with the accidental death of their eldest son. As Christmas comes and goes, the Jarrets seethe, ache, talk, don’t talk, and then—finally, painfully—find a way forward. It is not an easy movie to watch, but it’s hugely rewarding. Sure as winter comes every year, our families will disappoint us. But we get to decide what to do with that pain, and we get to forgive them and ourselves, if we want to. What could be holier than that? — Ellen Cushing
How to watch: Stream on Prime Video
