This post was originally published in December 2019. It has been updated with a current list of the best Christmas movies to watch!
I’d like to consider myself a holiday film connoisseur. I’ve watched practically all of them, and now I’m sharing the best Christmas movies of all time!
“These mashed potatoes are so creamy. mary mashed them.”
Alright, that might not be the most predictable holiday movie quote of all time, but it’s one of my favorites. If you know which movie it’s from – then you are my favorite (fine, I’ll give – it’s from While You Were Sleeping). I’ve watched a lot of Christmas movies. In fact, for most of my life, I probably would’ve stated that I’ve watched all of them. However, since I grew up on ABC Family, I’ve only seen a couple of Hallmark/Lifetime films. Therefore, I guess I haven’t seen all of the Christmas movies… but I’ve certainly seen a fair amount. Most of them I love, even if they’re so cheesy it’s painful.
So, I decided to write up a list of what I’d consider the best Christmas movies. Yes, some of them are incredibly dorky, but they all hold an element of holiday cheer that’s just too good to pass up. You’ll notice that some of them are starred. Those are my very favorites – ones that I recommend to everyone!
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All the Christmas Movies to Watch in Your Lifetime
1. The Santa Clause* (movie series)
2. Elf*
3. Christmas With The Kranks
4. 12 Dates of Christmas*
5. Holiday Inn
6. White Christmas
7. Christmas Inheritance
8. The Holiday Calendar*
9. Holiday in the Wild
10. A Holiday Engagement
11. Christmas With a View
12. Let it Snow
13. Christmas Wedding Planner
14. The Knight Before Christmas*
15. Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town
16. Jack Frost (1979)
17. Snow* (movie series)
18. A Christmas Prince* (movie series)
19. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
20. Frosty The Snowman
21. The Princess Switch (movie series)
22. The Christmas Chronicles (movie series)
23. The Grinch (2018)
24. Klaus*
25. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
26. Home Alone (movie series)
27. A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish
28. Happiest Season*
29. Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square
30. A Castle for Christmas
31. Jingle All The Way
32. The Christmas Calendar
33. The Spirit of Christmas
34. Christmas Cupid
35. Santa Baby
36. Holiday in Handcuffs
37. Snowglobe
38. Desperately Seeking Santa
39. The Little Drummer Boy
40. Deck the Halls*
41. Noelle
42. Christmas in the City
43. I’ll Be Home for Christmas
44. Christmas on Holly Lane
45. Operation Christmas Drop
46. Single All the Way*
47. A Charlie Brown Christmas
48. Fred Claus
49. The Polar Express
50. The Year Without Santa Claus
51. A Miser Brothers’ Christmas
52. The Holiday*
53. Midnight at the Magnolia
54. A Christmas Story
55. Four Christmases
56. Last Holiday
57. While You Were Sleeping*
58. Operation Christmas Drop
59. Love Hard
60. Dash & Lily *(miniseries)
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What are your favorite Christmas movies of all time?
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Ffi Mind Over Meds says
I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas again! We’ll be sitting down to enjoy these movies before we know it. I think ive seen most of these except for the Christmas Wedding Planner that’s definitely on the list for this Christmas!
Morgan Klein says
Omg so many movies I need to check out! My favorite is on your list – ELF!! I just sent your list to my mom too because she has been binge watching Christmas movies and needed some new ones! Thanks for sharing!
Raji says
Home Alone is my favourite movie to watch around Christmas. So many of these movies are on my list too, and there are quite a few I haven’t heard of before, so I’ll definitely have to check them out! Thanks for sharing this great list!
Neely Moldovan says
My favorites are Home Alone, The Holiday, and The Family Man. So many great ones though!
lee says
Ah thank you for this list! Alex and I were just on Netflix last night trying to make up a list of Holiday movies to watch, we only have 5 so far on our list haha. Definitely will be adding a ton of these Christmas movies to our list for this month!
I'm All Booked Up says
We haven’t watched The Princess Switch yet, but we plan to this year.
Carrington | Chaos and Coffee says
This is a great Christmas movie list! My all time favorite movie is White Christmas! Xx.
Kileen says
These are some really great movies! Elf is a movie we watch every year as a family and it still remains one of my favorite movies! I will admit there are a lot of movies here that I have not seen or even heard of! I am so excited to started watching these one by one!
Kileen says
These are some really great movies! Elf is a movie we watch every year as a family and it still remains one of my favorite movies! I will admit there are a lot of movies here that I have not seen or even heard of. I am so excited to started watching these one by one!
Rach says
This list is incredible! I love watching Christmas movies. We always watch Home Alone and the old classic ones!
http://www.rdsobsessions.com
Adaleta Avdic says
Love Actually is my favorite Christmas movie of all, because it has a lot of happy and sad/relatable moments. You’ve compiled a great list here!
Molly says
Oh my gosh, I love Christmas movies! I probably need to update my list this year. Also, I watched Dash & Lily last week and I thought it was absolutely ADORABLE.
Jennifer Prince says
Oh gosh! There are SO many I haven’t seen. I saw Holiday Inn for the first time a couple of years ago, and I am SO glad that it made your list. It’s such a cute movie! It makes me want to break it out again this year. Of course, my favorite is Elf – it’s so cute and fun to watch. Love your list!
Anna English says
I’m definitely sharing this with my sister. Movie marathon’s are one of our favorite things to do together!
Deborah says
I’m ashamed to say I’ve only seen about half of the movies you’ve listed! I really need to get on it though! I LOVE Christmas movies!
Cici says
Looks like I need to add more movies to my Christmas movie list! Thank you for sharing this list! Christmas movies are definitely my favorite!
Mariah Rickard says
I love that you included Holiday Inn! Most people don’t even know about that movie and it’s one of my favorites!
Malia K. Reed says
I love this list! I convinced my boyfriend to watch the Princess Switch (and Princess Switch: Switched Again lol) and we’ve been looking for more Christmas movies to watch! Thank you so much for sharing! 🙂
Lizzie says
This came at the perfect time! I’ve been trying to find some holiday movies that I haven’t seen. Will have to check some of these out!
Lizzie
http://www.lizzieinlace.com
Amber Hollis says
What a fun list, I can’t wait to share it with my BFF that is Christmas movie-obsessed!
Tanvi Rastogi says
Home Alone is my favorite. I will check out the others you have mentioned here.
❥ tanvii.com
rebecca says
yessssssssssss i love Holiday Inn, White Christmas and the Holiday too! SO GOOD. We have already watched the holiday and always watch White Christmas on Christmas Eve!
xx rebecca // thecrystalpress.com
Sarah Lindner says
I didn’t even know some of these existed! What a fun list! xoxo, Sarah
Nicole Kauffman says
Great list! I have yet to see some of these. Just watched The Princess Switch again and love it! Have you seen the second one? I am always afraid the sequels are too cheesy!
Stephanie Whitman says
I watched the sequel the week it came out and was thoroughly unimpressed. It was cute – but much more confusing (since there are three of her) and just way too cringe-y. There’s a fine line between “cheese” and “cringe” and this was definitely on the side of cringe haha!
ellie says
wow that is an extensive list! I’m ashamed to say I haven’t seen many of them – so I’ll definitely be working my way through it over the holidays!
D says
Wow, this is some list you have there 😉. I thought I would have seen most of these but actually I haven’t. So I guess I’m on a mission to see the ones I haven’t. Thanks for this as I was looking for some movies to watch this year with all the covid restrictions and being stuck at home.
Kelly says
I love The Holiday! It’s one of my favorites and I watch it at least once every year.
Marlene says
Yay, I’m so happy for this list! I love all things Christmas movies and it’s so easy to have a go-to list to reference.
Sarah Althouse says
My favorites are the Santa Clauses and 12 dates of Christmas!
Sedija says
I was just wondering what kind of Christmas movie to watch, so happy that I found your article. Thank you! :))
Kelly Bolen says
I love your movie suggestions! And there are several I have not heard of! So I have those written down for later this month!!!
Alyssa Hixenbaugh says
I love that you quoted While You Were Sleeping! That has been one of my favorite Christmasy movies for years. This is a great list of movies, and some of them I still need to watch!
Sacha says
I love Christmas movies! Some of my favorites are home alone and the holiday !
Genesis says
These are great! Elf is a must-watch for me, along with How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Polar Express, and Love, Actually 🙂
Linda says
Top of our list every year is Elf. It’s the first one we watch together as a family. Then it just snowballs from there (pun intended!). 😉 I usually stay up late to watch the super cheesy ones by myself and love them all. There are a few on this list I still have to check out!
Lindsay Madsen says
What a great list of Christmas movies. There are several that we have not seen on here. We just watched Santa Clause for the first time with our kids. They thought it was hilarious. Time to get busy and watch some new movies!
Amber says
I love Christmas time so much! I actually am not a huge tv/movie person and haven’t seen too many of these. However, one of my all time favorites is The Polar Express because of its message. I also like The Nativity.
Josie says
A Christmas Story is my favorite Christmas movie. It just doesn’t feel like the holidays until I watch that movie.
Lucy says
An amazing list of Christmas films, most of them I have seen! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Charlotte | Beat Those Thoughts says
Wow, I didn’t realise how many Christmas films I had missed! Thank you so much for writing this post as there’s a lot on here that I haven’t seen!
Thank you so much for the suggestions!
My all time favourites have to be Elf, Home Alone 1&2, and the Holiday!x
Katie says
I love a good cheesy Christmas movie! Elf is probably my favorite, followed by The Santa Clause. But I also loved one called ‘Naughty or Nice’ with Hillary Burton on the Hallmark channel. Thanks for this list!
Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says
This is such a great list! And I haven’t seen all of them! Most, but not all. I’ll need to check them out.
Malia Reed says
Such a great list! I just watched the Princess Switch 3 and it was SO cringe but somehow still so good! Sometimes you just need a good cheese fest!
Vourneen says
I’ve seen most of these. I love Christmas movies! I think my favourite would have to be The Holiday, but I tend to rewatch most of the Christmas movies each year. This is a great list!
Amanda says
I have been on a major cheesy holiday movie kick lately! I recently watched The Princess Switch– I had no idea it was part of a trilogy so I’ll have to watch them all. Definitely going to go through this list and see what else I’ve missed 😉
Deborah says
What a fabulous list! I LOVE Christmas movies so this is so handy to have while marathoning holiday films!
Charlotte Birchall says
There are so many amazing Christmas films on this list. I think I have only half of them. I am definitely be having a movie marathon this weekend. Thank you for sharing.
Charity says
I love Christmas movies so much! Im currently watching Christmas with the Kranks as we speak lol
Simona says
I am going to have to use this list and catch up on any I have yet to watch – and trust me, there are plenty I have never watched! Thank you for updating this list Stephanie x