No holiday owns its stories quite like Christmas. Every December the same films come out of the attic like ornaments: the redemption of a miser, a child left home alone, a fallen angel earning his wings, an action hero in a Los Angeles high-rise. Christmas storytelling runs an enormous range, from the sincerely heartwarming to the gleefully subversive, but it always circles the same warm centre: family, generosity, second chances, and the wish that the world could be kinder, at least for one night.
The tradition begins with Dickens and runs through the black-and-white sentiment of It's a Wonderful Life, the anarchic comedy of Home Alone and Elf, the horror-tinged mischief of Gremlins and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the eternal will-they-won't-they of Love Actually. Below is the whole stocking: the essential Christmas films, the comedies, the darker and stranger holiday tales, the seasonal games, and the books that started the tradition. Deck the halls.
Essential Christmas films
Christmas comedy and chaos
It's a Wonderful Life is the greatest Christmas film ever made
Frank Capra's story of a broken man shown what the world would be without him should be saccharine, and instead it is genuinely dark, aching with despair before it earns its tears. George Bailey's Christmas Eve breakdown is one of cinema's rawest moments, which is exactly why the final scene lands so hard. The definitive statement that one ordinary life matters.
Dark, strange and subversive holidays
Animated and family Christmas
Christmas in games
A Christmas Carol is the story that invented the modern holiday
Charles Dickens practically reinvented Christmas as we know it in 1843, and his tale of Scrooge's redemption has been filmed more than any other story in history. Every version, from Alastair Sim to the Muppets to Bill Murray's Scrooged, works because the bones are perfect: a cold heart thawed by the ghosts of what was, what is, and what could be. The ur-text of the whole genre.
On the page: Christmas classics
The timeline
- 1843Dickens publishes A Christmas Carol and reshapes the holiday A Christmas Carol
- 1946It's a Wonderful Life defines the sentimental classic It's a Wonderful Life
- 1984Gremlins brings mischief to the season Gremlins
- 1988Die Hard sparks the eternal Christmas-movie debate Die Hard
- 1990Home Alone becomes the definitive family Christmas hit Home Alone
- 1993The Nightmare Before Christmas fuses two holidays The Nightmare Before Christmas
- 2003Elf and Love Actually define the modern Christmas movie Elf
Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie
It takes place at a Christmas Eve office party, it turns on family reconciliation, its soundtrack is full of carols, and it ends with snow falling on a redeemed marriage. The annual argument is part of the fun, but the case is closed: Die Hard uses the holiday setting for genuine thematic weight, not just decoration. The best action movie ever made is also, defiantly, a Christmas film.
The Nightmare Before Christmas belongs to two holidays
Henry Selick and Tim Burton made a stop-motion marvel that Halloween and Christmas both claim as their own, and that dual citizenship is the whole point. Jack Skellington's yearning to understand Christmas, and his beautiful, disastrous attempt to remake it, gives the film a melancholy that most holiday movies never reach. Proof the season has room for the strange and the sad.
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Explore the Home Invasion: The Complete Guide to Terror Behind the Locked Door guide →Frequently asked
What is the best Christmas movie of all time?
It's a Wonderful Life (1946) is the most widely cited greatest Christmas film, beloved for its darkness-to-light emotional arc and George Bailey's redemption. Other perennial contenders for the top spot include A Christmas Carol in its many versions, Home Alone, Elf, and, depending on who you ask, Die Hard. The right answer depends on whether you want sentiment, comedy, or action under the tree.
Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
It is one of pop culture's most enduring debates, but the case for yes is strong: Die Hard is set at a Christmas Eve party, its plot hinges on family reconciliation, it is scored with carols, and it ends with snow and a repaired marriage. The holiday setting carries real thematic weight rather than being incidental, so most fans now firmly count it as a Christmas film, however unconventional.
Where should I start with Christmas movies?
For the classics, begin with It's a Wonderful Life and a version of A Christmas Carol, ideally The Muppet Christmas Carol or the Alastair Sim original. For comedy, Home Alone and Elf are essential, and Love Actually is the modern ensemble favorite. If you want something stranger, try Gremlins, Krampus, or The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Die Hard for the action crowd.