20) Home Alone (1990)
Chris Columbus’ early nineties classic sees a young Macaulay Culkin confronted by inept burglars having been abandoned by his family for the festive season. Chaos and comedy gold ensues.
19) How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Ron Howard directs a heavily made-up Jim Carrey and a fresh-faced Taylor Momsen (now of Gossip Girl fame) in a big bucks adaptation of Dr Seuss’s surreal short story. Despite receiving mixed reviews upon its release, the tale of The Grinch is so ingrained into the US festive psyche that it more than merits a place in our countdown.
18) Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas) (2005)
Oscar-nominated drama focusing on life in Scottish, French and German trenches in World War I. Poignant and heartfelt, Joyeux Noël is an often-overlooked addition to cinema’s ‘Christmas classics’ canon.
17) Elf (2003)
An effervescent Will Ferrell, ably supported by Zooey Deschanel and James Caan, stars as an overgrown elf who suffers an identity crisis after discovering he was born human. Touching in places but always hilarious, Elf is well on the way to achieving classic status.
16) Love Actually (2003)
Featuring a cast list which reads like a ‘who’s who’ of British cinema, Richard Curtis’s quintessentially English rom-com has captured hearts worldwide with its intertwining, snow-sprinkled London-based love stories.
15) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Back in 1989, Chevy Chase and a teenage Juliette Lewis helped catapult the wildly successful National Lampoon’s comedy franchise into holiday classic territory with the madcap Christmas Vacation
14) A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
A made-for-TV Peanuts special so heart-warming that it’s the visual equivalent of snuggling up with a security blanket just like Linus’s. Features the eponymous hero and his gang nurturing the world’s most threadbare Christmas tree.
13) Bad Santa (2003)
Billy Bob Thornton’s foul-mouthed, alcoholic department store Santa flies in the face of standard movie portrayals of Father Christmas, but Bad Santa is full of some supremely dark comic moments which makes for a hugely engaging alternative Christmas flick.
12) A Christmas Story (1983)
Indiana schoolboy Ralphie faces a challenge to convince his parents that a Red Ryder BB gun would make the ideal Christmas present, as Porky’s director Bob Clark makes an unlikely yet successful venture into the family holiday genre.
11) Babes in Toyland (March of the Wooden Soldiers) (1934)
Laurel and Hardy star as bumbling apprentices to a master Toymaker in this festive fairy tale romp based on a 1903 operetta by Victor Herbert. Although originally filmed in black and white, the movie has been shown in two computer colorized versions.
10) The Santa Clause (1994)
This family comedy is one of the strongest seasonal movies to come out of the nineties and stars Tim Allen as Scott Calvin, an ordinary man who accidentally kills Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. After climbing aboard his sleigh and helping his reindeer fulfill their deliveries, Scott learns that he has inadvertently committed himself to assuming Santa’s identity permanently.
9) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
Taking inspiration from the famous kids’ song, this stop motion made-for-TV animation has been broadcast in the US every year since its release in 1964, making it one of the country’s most enduring, and endearing, TV Christmas specials.
Die Hard (1988)
OK, so we’ve thrown you a bit of a curveball with this one, and it’s not exactly the kind of movie that conjures up wholesome images of candycanes hanging on the tree and chestnuts roasting on an open fire. However, Die Hard qualifies for the countdown by virtue of the fact it’s set on Christmas Eve, and who’s going to argue with Bruce Willis as he’s unleashing hell on a gang of international terrorists as the big day draws in? Not us, that’s for sure.
7) Scrooged (1988)
Bill Murray follows hot on the heels of Ghostbusters with more oddball spectral happenings in this comic adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Scrooged uses the storyline of Dickens’ book to send up the ‘greed is good’ worldview portrayed in Oliver Stone’s 1987 hit Wall Street.
6) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Tim Burton’s imaginative Halloween/Christmas crossover is more about skeletons and shrunken heads than it is sleigh bells and snowdrops, but The Nightmare Before Christmas remains one of the maverick filmmaker’s most popular movies and has rapidly gained classic status among his fans.
5) Scrooge (1951)
There have been plenty of film adaptations of A Christmas Carol, but Brian Desmond Hurst’s 1951 version ranks among the best and features a powerhouse performance from Alistair Sim in the title role.
4) Holiday Inn (1942)
Irving Berlin’s festive classic epitomises a golden age of musical film, and is notable for being the picture that gave the world the hit single White Christmas. With Berlin’s music, Bing Crosby’s crooning and Fred Astaire’s nimble feet, this year-spanning song and dance love story was always going to be a hit.
3) Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Teen auteur John Hughes did a sterling job with his 1994 remake, but the Academy Award-winning 1947 original remains the best version of this timeless Christmas tale about a kindly old man who claims to be the real Santa Claus.
2) The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
An adaptation of one of the greatest ever works of English literature performed almost entirely by a ragtag collection of felt puppets? Sacrilege, surely? Wrong! The Muppet version of A Christmas Carol (with Michael Caine providing a rare human presence as Ebeneezer Scrooge) is an endlessly endearing film which is regarded with a great deal of affection by a whole generation.
1) It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
A movie which is nothing short of iconic, and one which would take something seriously special to shift it from the top spot. James Stewart stars as a suicidal man about to jump to his death, before a mysterious guardian angel takes him on a journey which shows him that his existence has been far from futile all along. The very definition of a ‘feel good’ film, It’s A Wonderful Life is a solid gold holiday classic.
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