There are more and more new Christmas movies coming out each year, but let’s be real, most will fade into obscurity. It takes a special kind of movie to become a holiday classic—you know, the ones you watch every year, without fail, that are part of what Christmas means to you.
Jenna Guillaume chooses some of the most iconic Christmas movies of all time, that you can catch right now on Disney+.
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Watch on Disney+There are countless adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, with varying degrees of success—but there is no doubt the absolute best is The Muppet Christmas Carol. Yes, seriously. It holds up as both a faithful adaptation (Bob Cratchit may not have been a frog, but he certainly has Kermit energy) and an entertaining movie on its own. In fact, it might just be the greatest Christmas movie of all time.
It’s got everything, after all: The songs are excellent earworms, the jokes are genuinely funny, there’s plenty of warm and moving moments, and it’s even a bit scary (but not too scary). The Muppet cast are fun and funny as hell, with Gonzo as Dickens and Rizzo as his trusty sidekick being a particular highlight. Plus Michael Caine is the definitive Ebenezer Scrooge.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Watch on Disney+The Nightmare Before Christmas is that rare double-holiday movie—you can start watching it in October for Halloween and carry right through until Christmas. Thankfully, it stands up to many rewatches for kids and adults alike. There’s plenty of (often gross-out) humour, but there’s also a layered depth and tinge of sadness to it that you only truly connect with as a grown-up. Jack Skellington is an all-too-relatable hero, dissatisfied with life and yearning for more, then throwing himself with bumbling, desperate and ultimately disastrous enthusiasm into a new hobby—learning about and celebrating Christmas.
The story is engaging, but it’s the dark, quirky character designs and beautiful stop-motion animation that really makes this movie a classic. Bringing the characters to life are the voice talents of Chris Sarandon and the always-wonderful Catherine O’Hara. And, of course, the impeccable music by Danny Elfman takes the whole thing to another level.
The Santa Clause (1994)
Watch on Disney+Many holiday movies tackle the complexities of parent/child relationships and even the pain of being a child of separated parents. The Santa Clause is perhaps the most memorable of the lot, with Tim Allen playing Scott Calvin, a divorced dad who accidentally kills Santa. Not exactly light fare for a holiday watch, but it’s less horrific and much funnier than it sounds on paper. When Scott is forced to take up the now-empty Santa mantle for himself, he and his son are whisked away on an adventure to the North Pole that challenges and ultimately strengthens their relationship.
Aspects of Tim Allen’s schtick, which was hugely popular in the 90s, haven’t aged so well, but overall the movie has enough charm to still make it a go-to every year. The world it paints captures the whimsy and weirdness of the culture of Christmas without veering too heavily into saccharine territory. And Bernard the Elf, played by David Krumholtz, is a scene-stealer.
Home Alone (1990)
Watch on Disney+Catherine O’Hara makes her second entrance on this list, this time as a mother who accidentally leaves one of her children home while the rest of the family goes on a holiday for Christmas. As you do.
This is really Macaulay Culkin’s movie, though—every ounce of his child star charisma comes out to play as Kevin, the aforementioned home alone kid, who turns out to be an evil genius with the ability to foil two adult criminals via a series of homemade booby traps. The slapstick comedy alleviates what is actually quite a sinister plot when you think about it. But if you grew up watching Home Alone—and if you grew up in the 90s, you absolutely did—then there’s no doubt still a vital part of your Christmas season. The sequels…maybe not so much.
Die Hard (1988)
Watch on Disney+Every year, there’s debate over whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not, and every year the people who try to argue it isn’t are wrong. Not only does it take place over Christmas, it has all those complicated separated-family dynamics that are a staple of the genre. Just because it happens to focus on Bruce Willis as a cop trying to singlehandedly defeat a terrorist takeover of an LA skyscraper doesn’t mean it’s any less festive.
It’s genuinely one of the greatest action movies of all time, but even if you’re not a huge action movie fan, it’s a lot of fun. Bruce Willis is at his brooding, sarcastic best as John McClane, and the late, great Alan Rickman is enthralling in one of his most iconic roles as the villainous Hans Gruber. Forget “ho, ho, ho”, it’s all about “yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!”
