The Christmas season is here again, so movie fans across the world are digging out their holiday favorites and enjoying Christmas movie marathons. Christmas movies are a dime a dozen, and most of them fall into treacly sentimentality or excruciatingly familiar clichés, but that’s why the best ones stand head and shoulders above the crowd.
Arguably the pinnacle of this strange cinematic subgenre is Frank Capra’s feel-good classic It’s a Wonderful Life, starring James Stewart as a family man who’s brought back from the brink of suicide by an angel. However, the iconic film has plenty of strong competition from other holiday hits.
It’s A Wonderful Life: It Lifted Audiences’ Spirits After World War II
Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life was one of a few sentimental movies with uplifting messages that arrived after World War II to help audiences cope with loss. The British fantasy romance A Matter of Life and Death is another example.
Every Christmas movie is uplifting — that’s the whole point — but few of them have managed to be uplifting enough to mend the emotional wounds of millions reeling from the devastating effects of a global conflict.
Alternative: Elf
A human raised as one of Santa’s elves heading to New York to meet his biological father was a novel premise for a Christmas comedy. Will Ferrell was the perfect choice to play that character (only a performer as uninhibited as Ferrell could make Buddy work), and Jon Favreau’s command of tone, character, narrative, and worldbuilding ensured that the execution was spot-on.
There are so many iconic moments in Elf, from the snowball fight to the candy-filled breakfast spaghetti to Buddy’s encounter with a “South Pole elf” played by Peter Dinklage, that it warrants an annual viewing in millions of households.
It’s A Wonderful Life: James Stewart Is One Of The Greatest Actors Of All Time
James Stewart is one of the greatest actors of all time. There are few performers whose status as a star of the silver screen is as legendary and iconic as his.
Stewart's performance as George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life is one of his finest, capturing the character’s universally relatable journey from despair to hope.
Alternative: The Muppet Christmas Carol
There have been plenty of screen adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol — and plenty of good ones, too — but surprisingly, one of the most engaging and entertaining movie versions of the timeless literary masterpiece stars Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchit.
Dozens of actors have played Ebenezer Scrooge over the years, but Michael Caine’s take on the character in The Muppet Christmas Carol is truly iconic. Plus, the musical numbers are a nice touch.
It’s A Wonderful Life: It Evokes The Full Spectrum Of Emotion
Most Christmas movies settle into being overtly funny, like The Night Before, or more sweet and sentimental, like Miracle on 34th Street, or an outright tearjerker, like The Family Stone.
But the best Christmas movies — and the best movies in general — are the ones that evoke a wide range of emotions. With humor, heartache, and a rounded evaluation of the value of existence, It’s a Wonderful Life is a movie that evokes the full spectrum of emotion.
Alternative: Home Alone
The premise of a child being left at home by his own family, getting targeted by a pair of sadistic criminals, and using violent methods to incapacitate them sounds more like a horror-thriller than a fun Christmas comedy, but in the hands of director Chris Columbus and screenwriter John Hughes, it’s one of the most perfect examples of the latter.
Ultimately, the success of Home Alone comes down to its precocious young star, Macaulay Culkin, who carries the whole movie more confidently than most adult leading men and makes the weird premise work by fully committing to it.
It’s A Wonderful Life: It Defined The Christmas Movie
Without It’s a Wonderful Life, then we wouldn’t have any of the other beloved Christmas classics. Capra’s 1946 masterpiece defined the Christmas movie.
With its heartwarming message, overriding sentimentality, and abundance of holiday cheer, It’s a Wonderful Life paved the way for all our favorite Christmas movies.
Alternative: Die Hard
There’s a fervent debate about whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie. It takes place at a Christmas party, but it was released in the summer. Either way, there are plenty of Christmas references (“Now I have a machine gun, ho ho ho”), and the Christmas setting gives it a warm holiday feel. Bruce Willis’ initial turn as John McClane subverted the typical action movies of the time with a flawed, relatable everyman instead of a musclebound superhuman like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The most important thing a Christmas movie needs to be is a rewatchable cinematic ride that’s fun for the whole family, and Die Hard is certainly that — graphic violence and profanity notwithstanding.
It’s A Wonderful Life: It’s In The Public Domain, So Everyone Can Enjoy It
At the time of its release, It’s a Wonderful Life was considered a failure. It received mixed reviews and it didn’t break even at the box office. However, it was later re-evaluated as a masterpiece and became a revered classic.
But it didn’t really cement its place as the ultimate Christmas movie until it aged into the public domain and it was able to be shown on TV or streamed online for free.
Alternative: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
After sending the Griswolds on ill-fated trips to Walley World and Europe, the National Lampoon’s Vacation franchise kept the family at home for the Christmas-set threequel. As the in-laws come to visit (some of them uninvited), all Clark Griswold wants is for his family to have the perfect Christmas.
However, as the tree burns down and the turkey is fried to a crisp and his boss denies him a holiday bonus, the perfect Christmas seems less and less likely. The movie is full of yuletide cheer, but also takes a hilariously cynical look at some of the frustrations of the Christmas season.