It’s that time of the year where Christmas cookies are baked, carols are sung, presents are bought, and more importantly movies are watched. A cornerstone of the Christmas traditions oftentimes are the movies we decide to watch every year, and so I wanted to go through all the christmas movies I watch or have watched and order them from the worst to best movie you could put on this holiday season. Again these are only the movies I’ve seen so if there’s one you’re upset I haven’t ranked, that’s why.
Elf
I think Elf as a movie suffers from overexposure. It’s pretty funny and charming the first time you see it, and you might want to put it in as a christmas tradition, but lately whenever I watch this movie I’ve needed a year or two where I don’t. Otherwise the jokes and weirdly structured plot begin to make it a tough sell. Not a bad movie by any means, but probably not one you need to see every day.
A Christmas Story
This movie just has too many iconic scenes for me to count. Lamp leg, tongue getting stuck to the pole. “I didn’t say fudge,” and the now iconic, “You’ll shoot your eye out kid!” I think a lot of it hasn’t aged well at all, but I’m putting this movie in the middle to accommodate that. There’s some good stuff here and some bad. Perfectly in the middle.
Home Alone
There’s admittedly a little bit of bias here as one of my family’s favorite Christmas traditions is to put this movie on every year and order take out pizza. While rewatching it this year I think I can really appreciate this movie’s approach to just making every character truly unlikeable in different ways, but in a weird sort of way it makes them all endearing at the end. Plus there’s nothing like some good slapstick.
It’s a Wonderful Life
I’ve found this movie to be a contentious topic for some strange reason, but I find that it’s a really heartwarming and beautiful movie about the magic of one single person in the world. Even if I’m the only person watching it out of my family or friend group, I’ll always put this movie on at one point in the year.
The Muppet Christmas Carol
The Christmas Carol story is certainly an iconic one, but one of the best adaptations of the source material unironically is the Jim Henson puppet affair. The effects it’s able to pull off, and keeping the story still working even in the text of the characters being their puppety self, it really is magical. Also Michael Caine will always be my ideal Scrooge.
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Really I think it’s just one of the most iconic pieces of christmas material out there in the modern age. It signifies everything about the “Christmas” spirit and has a serious heart. I actively make it my goal to watch this movie at least once every year, and it’s a short watch too. Also easily the best Christmas soundtrack in this whole list. It earns a spot at number one.