Entertainment

20 of the Best Christmas Movies to Watch With Your Family

T he days leading up to the 25th of December have most of us listening to Christmas carols. In a 2018 survey conducted in the US, 60% of the respondents agreed that they watched at least one Christmas movie during the season. Add to the spirit of Christmas and watch some of the best Christmas movies listed below!

If you or your family struggle with selecting a good movie to watch during the holiday season, worry not. You no longer have to scroll through Netflix for hours or scour the internet for good movies. And put down your phone, you don’t need to text your friend to know what movie they’re watching, so you can watch it too.

Try something new this time! Even if it isn't the Christmas season, but you feel a little festive, it’s a good enough reason to watch a Christmas movie. Sometimes life puts you in a slump and all you can do is sit back and watch a feel good movie with a tub of ice cream in your lap, and everything will eventually fall back into place.

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas

Year: 1993
Cast: Danny Elfman, Tim Burton, Ken Page, Catherine O’Hara, Chris Sarandon
IMDb Metascore: 82
Animated: Yes

Home Alone

Year: 1990
Cast: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, Roberts Blossom
IMDb Metascore: 63
Animated: No

The Polar Express

Year: 2004
Cast: Tom Hanks, Chris Coppola, Michael Jeter, Leslie Zemeckis, Eddie Deezen
IMDb Metascore: 61
Animated: Yes

The Grinch

Year: 2018
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Cameron Seely, Rashida Jones, Pharrell Williams, Tristan O'Hare
IMDb Metascore: 51
Animated: Yes

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

Year: 2018
Cast: Mackenzie Foy, Keira Knightley, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Tom Sweet
IMDb Metascore: 39
Animated: No

Noelle

Year: 2019
Cast: Anna Kendrick, Shirley MacLaine, Bill Hader, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Julie Hagerty
IMDb Metascore: 48
Animated: No

The Christmas Chronicles

Year: 2018
Cast: Kurt Russell, Darby Camp, Judah Lewis, Oliver Hudson, Kimberly Williams-Paisley
IMDb Metascore: 52
Animated: No

Santa Claus: The Movie

Year: 1985
Cast: Dudley Moore, John Lithgow, David Huddleston, Burgess Meredith, Judy Cornwell
IMDb Metascore: 63
Animated: No

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey

Year: 2020
Cast: Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, Hugh Bonneville, Anika Noni Rose, Madalen Mills
IMDb Metascore: 69
Animated: No

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Year: 1964
Cast: Billie Mae Richards, Burl Ives, Larry D. Mann, Paul Soles, Stan Francis
IMDb Metascore: 80
Animated: Yes

Jack Frost

Year: 1998
Cast: Michael Keaton, Kelly Preston, Joseph Cross, Mark Addy, Andrew Lawrence
IMDb Metascore: 40
Animated: No

Christmas With the Kranks

Year: 2004
Cast: Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd, M. Emmet Walsh, Elizabeth Franz
IMDb Metascore: 24
Animated: No

Elf

Year: 2003
Cast: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Bob Newhart, Zooey Deschanel, Ed Asner
IMDb Metascore: 64
Animated: No

Miracle on 34th Street

Year: 1994
Cast: Richard Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott, J. T. Walsh, James Remar
IMDb Metascore: 66
Animated: No

A Christmas Story

Year: 1983
Cast: Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Scott Schwartz, Jean Shepherd
IMDb Metascore: 77
Animated: No

Jingle All the Way

Year: 1996
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sinbad, Phil Hartman, Rita Wilson, Robert Conrad
IMDb Metascore: 34
Animated: No

Arthur Christmas

Year: 2011
Cast: James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Hugh Laurie, Imelda Staunton
IMDb Metascore: 69
Animated: Yes

The Muppet Christmas Carol

Year: 1992
Cast: Michael Caine, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Jerry Nelson, Frank Oz
IMDb Metascore: 64
Animated: No

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Year: 1989
Cast: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki, John Randolph
IMDb Metascore: 49
Animated: No

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Year: 1965
Cast: Ann Altieri, Chris Doran, Sally Dryer, Bill Melendez, Karen Mendelson
IMDb Metascore: 84
Animated: Yes

The arrival of the holiday season is almost a surefire guarantee that you will get to spend some quality time with your family. Sometimes this means big feasts, and other times it means watching lots of movies every night on Netflix with your family.

Therefore, we have curated this list of old and new Christmas movies, both animated and otherwise, with a wide variety of many talented actors and multiple box office hits, Oscar nominations, and even some underrated (but definitely good) movies!

This list of 20 of the best Christmas movies to watch with your family is only the tip of the iceberg. If you are a true Christmas movie fan, or hoping to become one, this is just the perfect place to start. So go ahead and binge the best Christmas movies and celebrate festivity!