The holidays can be incredibly stressful, but there are few things better than gathering around to take in a great film on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day. Whether you’ve got a belly full of delightful treats or an adult beverage in hand, sitting back with the people you love most to share in the experience of watching a great film is a swell way to de-stress. Which is why we here at Collider have compiled a list of the best films to watch on Christmas. Whether you’re looking for something family-friendly or a more non-traditional pick, we’ve got you covered.

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

edward-scissorhands-feature-social
Image via 20th Century Fox

Why does it snow every Christmas in a fictional suburban California town? Wrinkled Winona Ryder tells her granddaughter that it's because Edward Scissorhands (Johnny Depp), a tender artificial boy who was left incomplete when his Geppetto passed away before completing his hands, carves ice sculptures on top of the mountain. Wrinkled Winona says he was banished after he got into a Christmas scuffle with some of the residents who don’t take kindly to people who look and act different than they do.

Tim Burton sneaks in false accusations and sets bullies upon his homemade hero, but he perfectly balances the darkness with bright, fake suburban cheeriness that comes straight out of a Jacques Tati film. Burton's suburban gothic is one of the original "look closer..." films about the lack of uniqueness in homogeneous communities, and it's made even more timeless by its Christmas setting. — Brian Formo

Edward Scissorhands Film Poster
Edward Scissorhands

A scientist (Vincent Price) builds an animated human being -- the gentle Edward (Johnny Depp). The scientist dies before he can finish assembling Edward, though, leaving the young man with a freakish appearance accentuated by the scissor blades he has instead of hands. Loving suburban saleswoman Peg (Dianne Wiest) discovers Edward and takes him home, where he falls for Peg's teen daughter (Winona Ryder). However, despite his kindness and artistic talent, Edward's hands make him an outcast.

Release Date
December 14, 1990
Director
Tim Burton
Cast
Johnny Depp , Winona Ryder , Dianne Wiest , Anthony Michael Hall , Kathy Baker , Robert Oliveri
Runtime
105 minutes

Watch on Max

Home Alone (1990)

Macaulay Culkin as Kevin screaming in Home Alone
Image via 20th Century Studios

If you need an escape from the family during the holiday season, you should spend some time with the 1990 Christmas comedy classic Home Alone. Directed by Chris Columbus and with music by John Williams, you might get some residual Harry Potter vibes from this tale about an overlooked member of the vast McCallister brood who’s left at home when the family heads off to France for Christmas. While Home Alone may have some seasonal similarities to the Boy Wizard franchise, John Hughes’ sweet but often darkly comedic script sets this dysfunctional family tale apart.

The McCallisters are an affluent, and if we’re being honest, snobby family; the trouble-making Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) isn’t exactly a Christmas angel, but you start to feel bad for him once the Wet Bandits (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) attempt to break in to his home and exact vengeance upon the boy for putting them through his Rube Goldbergian House of Horrors. And while Kevin gets plenty of screentime to get up to all sorts of hijinks without parental supervision, the specter of Old Man Marley — the rumored neighborhood “Shovel Slayer” — looms over his holiday fun. In the end, Hughes ties all of these disparate plot points together in a conclusion that redeems Kevin’s mother (Catherine O’Hara) for her gross oversight, teaches Kevin the true spirit of Christmas, and punishes the bad guys for their serial burglaries. Perhaps most importantly, but often overlooked, is Kevin’s facilitation of the reunion between Old Man Marley and his estranged family. The fact that Home Alone is able to bring all of these stories to a satisfying conclusion as well as it does, while providing plenty of physical comedy and memorable one-liners along the way, makes it a worthy watch any time of year, but especially so around the holidays. – Dave Trumbore

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Home Alone

An eight-year-old troublemaker, mistakenly left home alone, must defend his home against a pair of burglars on Christmas eve. 

Release Date
November 16, 1990
Director
Chris Columbus
Cast
Macaulay Culkin , Joe Pesci , Daniel Stern , John Heard , Roberts Blossom , Catherine O'Hara
Runtime
103 minutes

Watch on Disney+

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

Robert Downey Jr. in 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'
Image via Warner Bros.

If you're looking for an offbeat way to spend your Christmas you can't go wrong with Shane Black. The writer-director behind Iron Man 3 has a penchant for setting his works during the most wonderful time of the year and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is not only his most holiday spirited film, it's also his best. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang stars Robert Downey Jr. as a low-rent thief drawn into the world of Hollywood glamour by happenstance who also gets himself and Val Kilmer's no-nonsense private detective, "Gay Perry" tanked in a murder cover up in the process.

While Black already had Lethal Weapon and a couple other big screenwriting credits to his name, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was his first time at the helm and directorial debuts just don't come any better. Borne out of Black's love for the pulpy noir novels of yesteryear, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a vibrant update on the genre that relays its twisty-turny narrative through whip-smart dialogue delivered to perfection by Kilmer and Downey Jr. The duo has an electric odd-couple chemistry that alternately makes you laugh out loud or hits you right in the feels. Adorned with the trappings of the Christmas season, right down to Michelle Monaghan's silly little third act Santa suit, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a prime choice for the Christmas lineup when you need a break from the old standbys. – Haleigh Foutch

Rent on Amazon Prime

Gremlins (1984)

Gizmo in a box in Gremlins
Image via Warner Bros.

There are three rules to properly care for a mogwai: keep it out of the sunlight, don’t get it wet, and don’t let it feed after midnight. When the first rule is broken, bunches of cute furballs are produced (and... commerce! That's the American way). Once one mogwai becomes many, a struggling father starts to think of the profit that could be made by producing and selling them. The furballs reproduce like mad. But they also break the second rule because they got the midnight munchies. Then they turn into scaly monsters.

Okay, you've memorized that goofball set-up, but watch it again to remind yourself that Gremlins also throws in some character rants about foreign manufacturing and local real estate moguls ruining the small town. Gremlins is a really fun flick that uses mass production as a way to explore both an older generation’s nostalgia and a new generation’s paranoia. And here you just thought it was a goofy Christmas movie. – Brian Formo

Gremlins movie poster
Gremlins

A young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.

Release Date
June 8, 1984
Director
Joe Dante
Cast
Hoyt Axton , John Louie , Keye Luke , Don Steele , Susan Burgess , Scott Brady
Runtime
106 minutes

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Love Actually (2003)

Okay so Love Actually is super schmaltzy and, at times, a little creepy (I’m looking at you, Rick Grimes confessing your love to your best friend’s wife), but filmmaker Richard Curtis’ ensemble story of love at Christmastime remains positively delightful. Some of the stories work better with others, but there are some great comedy bits throughout plus fine performances from Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, etc., and it all builds to a wonderful crescendo of warmth and happiness that leaves you feeling nice all over. For a feel-good movie about love and Christmas, turn to this old faithful. – Adam Chitwood

Love Actually poster
Love Actually

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

Release Date
September 7, 2003
Director
Richard Curtis
Cast
Bill Nighy , Gregor Fisher , Rory MacGregor , Colin Firth , Sienna Guillory , Liam Neeson
Runtime
135 minutes

Watch on Netflix

Die Hard (1988)

Bruce Willis as John McClane in Die Hard.
Image via 20th Century Studios

For me, it’s not Christmas without Die Hard, but what makes it a “Christmas movie” rather than an action movie that happens to be set during Christmas? Family. For all of the explosions, cursing, and bloodshed, the goal of the main character is family reconciliation. The holidays bring people together, and while Die Hard weaves that into something darkly comic, it’s still beneath John McClane’s motivations. The sequels lost sight of the character and focused more on his action prowess, but in the original, he was an ordinary guy who wanted to patch things up with his wife and restore the family unit. In the end, he gets his Christmas wish, although it means going through hell and back. – Matt Goldberg

Die Hard Film Poster
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.

Release Date
July 20, 1988
Director
John McTiernan
Cast
Bruce Willis , Bonnie Bedelia , Reginald VelJohnson , Paul Gleason , William Atherton , Hart Bochner
Runtime
132 minutes

Rent on Amazon Prime

Related
The Best Christmas Movies on Netflix Right Now
From Old Hollywood classics to 'A Christmas Prince,' Netflix has a little bit of everything for your Christmas movie needs.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

Clark (Chevy Chase) and Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) Griswold, standing outside their house in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Image via Warner Bros.

Christmas is a time to come together with family, to celebrate the warmth of togetherness with the giving and receiving of gifts. At least that’s the idea. In actuality, Christmas can be an incredibly stressful affair, from eccentric relatives to last-minute shopping to cooking dinner for umpteen people without ruining a single thing. This is the Christmas that the comedy classic Christmas Vacation embodies—the truth of the holiday, where execution doesn’t always meet the idealized version of Christmas, but the most important thing remains: Christmas lights everywhere being with the people you love. – Adam Chitwood

National Lampoons Christmas Vacation Film Poster
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.

Release Date
December 1, 1989
Director
Jeremiah S. Chechik
Cast
Chevy Chase , Beverly D'Angelo , Juliette Lewis , Johnny Galecki , John Randolph , Diane Ladd
Runtime
97 minutes

Watch on Hulu

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

James Stewart's Alfred and Margaret Sullavan's Klara in The Shop Around The Corner
Image Via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

You’ll never hate You’ve Got Mail more than after seeing the magnificent, damn-near euphoric comedy that it’s adapted from, which serves as one of the crown jewels of the great Ernst Lubitsch’s career. Two contentious co-workers, played with warmth and tremendous comic charm by James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, turn out to be secret lovers, but only in their anonymous correspondences with one another, and Lubitsch lets this morsel of a plot percolate in essentially a single setting, the quaint business of the title. The filmmaker, working with one of his favorite DPs, William H. Daniels, lets the romantic tension and desire seethe in every shot, and somehow breaks the film out of its more theatrical implications. The film ends up being like some wonderful, hand-crafted Christmas snow globe, made with tremendous invention and personal detail, as well as intimately reflective, reflexive flashes for Lubitsch himself that make the sexual and political subtext tremble with every miniature turn of the barebones narrative. – Chris Cabin

shop around the corner poster
The Shop Around the Corner

Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.

Release Date
January 12, 1940
Director
Ernst Lubitsch
Cast
Frank Morgan , James Stewart , Margaret Sullavan , Sara Haden
Runtime
99 minutes

Watch on Max

Black Christmas (1974)

Olivia Hussey standing over a lit Christmas tree in Black Christmas
Image via Warner Bros. 

Released four years before Halloween, Black Christmas is the OG holiday slasher flick (unless you count Psycho in those categories) and a must-watch Christmas horror to boot. The film follows Jess (Olivia Hussey), a bright young college student, and the sisters of her sorority house when they decide to remain on campus during Christmas break. Before long, calls start pouring in from "the moaner"—a raspy-voiced, lascivious-tongued lunatic who wastes no time picking off the ladies one by one.

Despite some dated stylistic elements, Black Christmas holds up remarkably well and is downright modern compared to the moralistic slasher films that would dominate the '80s. The women of Black Christmas are allowed to be complicated, adult characters to the point that the "final girl" — a trope that demands that only the purest survive — is not only sexually active, but confronting her decision to have an abortion. And while the film has well-crafted scare set-pieces and unsettling moments, Black Christmas is a crowd pleaser to satisfy the horror hardened and neophytes alike, or anybody looking to add an extra chill to their Christmas without getting too dark. – Haleigh Foutch

Black Christmas 1974 Film Poster
Black Christmas (1974)


During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger.

Release Date
December 20, 1974
Director
Bob Clark
Cast
Olivia Hussey , Keir Dullea , Margot Kidder , John Saxon
Runtime
98 minutes

Watch on Prime Video

The Ref (1994)

The family dinner in The Ref
Image via Touchstone Pictures

We lost director Ted Demme too soon, and this is arguably his best film, which takes a simple comic premise — a bickering couple is kidnapped right before their big holiday dinner — and mines it not just for laughs, but also for surprising drama. While Denis Leary is going full-on-Leary, the performances that really shine are Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis, a couple who need someone as unforgiving as they are to cut through their bullshit. But once they stop trying to one-up the other, the honesty comes through, and The Ref becomes a movie that’s as moving as it is funny. – Matt Goldberg

Rent on Amazon Prime

Elf (2003)

Zooey Deschanel, Will Ferrell, and Bob Newhart in Elf
Image Via New Line Cinema

Elf is a jolt of pure Christmas spirit: straight up, no chaser — well, maybe a maple syrup chaser. The film stars Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf, a Will Ferrell-sized (read: giant) human raised to believe he's one of Santa's elves. When Buddy discovers the truth of his Human origin, he heads to New York City to meet his biological father (James Caan), a cutthroat businessman and resident of the (gasp) naughty list.

Ferrell's relentless, ebullient glee in the face of real world bullshit carries the film. Seeing the humdrum day-to-day of modern metropolitan living through the lens of a 6'3" grown man naive and optimistic enough to believe he's an elf makes for some top-shelf, fish-out-of-water comedy. It's also the film that introduced the world at large to Zooey Deschanel's lovely singing voice. If you're looking for some down the line Christmas cheer, you can't go wrong with Elf.Haleigh Foutch

elf-movie-poster
Elf

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.

Release Date
October 9, 2003
Director
Jon Favreau
Cast
Will Ferrell , James Caan , Bob Newhart , Edward Asner , Mary Steenburgen , Zooey Deschanel
Runtime
97

Watch on Max

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas
Image via Walt Disney Pictures

As a horror lover, it’s probably no surprise that Halloween is my favorite time of year, so the way Jack Skellington celebrates Christmas is my kind of Christmas. Not only does The Nightmare Before Christmas capture the spirit of Christmas, but Halloween too via The Pumpkin King’s well-meaning but seriously flawed plan to bring holiday cheer to Halloween Town. It’s suspenseful, heartwarming and, if you’re sick of hearing traditional Christmas songs on loop, absolutely packed with catchy tunes that are so well-written and detailed that they let you relive key scenes even after the movie is over. I remember insisting that my grandparents take me to see Nightmare Before Christmas in theaters multiple times when it first came out back in 1993, and even though I’ve seen it dozens and dozens of times since, the movie still charms me to no end and sparks some serious Christmas (and Halloween) spirit. – Perri Nemiroff

Nightmare Before Christmas poster
The Nightmare Before Christmas

Jack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion.

Release Date
October 9, 1993
Director
Henry Selick
Cast
Danny Elfman , Chris Sarandon , Catherine O'Hara , William Hickey , Glenn Shadix , Paul Reubens
Runtime
76

Watch on Disney+

Bad Santa

Billy Bob Thornton smoking a cigarette in Bad Santa
Image via Broad Green Pictures

Bad Santa is the perfect late night Christmas watch for after the kids are tucked in and your stuffiest relatives hit the road. Billy Bob Thornton knocks out an iconic performance rooted in the tradition of Scrooge and The Grinch as Willie, the world's worst mall Santa. A foul-mouthed, booze-soaked misanthrope with a proclivity for getting naughty with the plus-sized customers in the dressing room, Willie's seasonal day job is the perfect cover for a thief who robs the store safe after the busiest shopping season of the year.

Director Terry Zwigoff dispenses of the saccharine sentimentality of the standard holiday fare, and yet underneath all the butt sex and excessive swearing, Bad Santa is ultimately a warmhearted story about redemption and the satisfaction of generosity over greed. It's one of the funniest, hardest-R Christmas movies ever made, and watching Brett Kelly's socially hopeless "The Kid" help teach Willie the meaning of Christmas never loses its charm. – Haleigh Foutch

bad-santa-poster
Bad Santa

In this dark comedy, the crotchety Willie T. Stokes (Billy Bob Thornton) and his partner (Tony Cox) reunite once a year for a holiday con. Posing as a mall Santa and his elf, they rip off shopping outlets on Christmas Eve. This year, however, Willie is falling apart. He's depressed and alcoholic, and his erratic behavior draws the suspicion of mall security (Bernie Mac). But when befriending a small boy brings out his kinder side, Willie begins to wonder if there is still some hope for him.

Release Date
November 26, 2003
Director
Terry Zwigoff
Cast
Billy Bob Thornton , Tony Cox , Brett Kelly , Lauren Graham , Lauren Tom , Bernie Mac
Runtime
91

Watch on Paramount+