Open Thread: What Are Your Favorite Holiday Movies?

A coffee table with snacks, a bottle of wine, and a candle; two people's hands are visible, one holding a TV remote

Happy short workweek (to most of our readers, at least)! We thought we'd start off Thanksgiving week with a chat about some movies you're, well, thankful for. Let's talk about holiday movies — and feel free to go beyond winter celebrations into any holiday themes!

Looking for non-holiday movies to watch during your time off this week, maybe even during Thanksgiving family get-togethers (to avoid political talk, perhaps?)? We've discussed office movies (including 9 to 5 and Working Girl), underrated movies, and fashion movies in the past…

When I think of my holiday faves, what immediately pops into my head is Love Actually, which somehow came out 20 YEARS AGO. I've lost count of how many times I've seen that thing. (For a while, my husband and I watched it every year at Christmastime, but we fell out of the habit a few years ago.) Yes, a lot of the movie is definitely, er, problematic (even “for that time”), as Lindy West explained in 2013 when she ripped it to shreds in Jezebel.

My feelings about Love Actually are perfectly represented by one of my favorite Onion articles, “Woman Takes Short Half-Hour Break From Being Feminist To Enjoy TV Show.” Because it has Emma Thompson! Alan Rickman! Colin Firth! Laura Linney! Bill Nighy! THAT Mariah Carey Christmas song, which I unabashedly love! (Film trivia: Olivia Rose Olson, the young actress who sung it in the movie, performed so well that Richard Curtis told her to tone it down so that she'd sound more believable as a 10-year-old.) Love Actually will probably always be one of my comfort movies.

As for Kat's picks, her votes for holiday family movies are Elf and Home Alone, and though she says she typically can't stand Hallmark movies, she gives Vanessa Hudgens' Netflix holiday movies a rating of “OK” — Movies to Wrap Presents To, as it were. (I've watched a couple of the Princess Switch movies myself when I wanted some brain candy, and I'd say they're holiday-serviceable.) As The Cut declared a couple of years ago, “Nothing Says Happy Holidays Like Another Vanessa Hudgens Movie on Netflix.”

So, do tell, readers: What are your favorite holiday movies? Does your family always watch It's a Wonderful Life (speaking of The Onion, here's their NSFW “review”), Miracle on 34th Street, or another classic? Would you die on the hill that Die Hard is a Christmas movie? Are Hallmark Christmas movies your guilty pleasure? If you don't celebrate Christmas, or Christmas movies just aren't your thing, what are your favorite movies about other holidays?

Image via Stencil

45 Comments

  1. I know Love Actually did not hold up well. And you know what? I don’t care. I agree with the Onion article, lol.

    During the week of Thanksgiving, I love watching old Friends Thanksgiving episodes.

    I will always make time for Home Alone, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Christmas Vacation. My controversial opinion is that I haaaate Elf.

    My new favorite modern Christmas movie is Single All the Way. Cheesy, yes, but also quite sweet, and I am a sucker for a small ski town setting.

    1. I am with you on “Elf” – I just don’t get it. A favorite for Thanksgiving week is “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”!

  2. Home for Christmas (the Norwegian Netflix show)
    Love Actually
    Home Alone
    the Bridget Jones movies (not Christmas movies per se, but have Christmassy bits)

  3. Christmas vacation, Home Alone, and Elf are my favorites. I also love the cheesy hallmark/made for Netflix movies. I don’t care, I put them on and wrap presents by myself and it’s just amazing (I love wrapping presents). There are some on Peacock that I’ve already marked to watch for this year.

    My controversial take is that I really, really dislike “it’s a wonderful life”. I find it so, so sad and I really don’t enjoy making myself sad.

    1. I like Its a Wonderful Life, but as a kid I hated the Little Drummer Boy because it made me too sad (the drummer boy is an orphan, I believe)

    1. I love that movie!!! It’s my mom’s favorite and I actually found it on [bootleg] DVD for her haha

  4. Die Hard. The stress of traveling during the Holidays only to be stuck at a party that doesn’t meet expectation.

    1. Die Hard 2, Lethal Weapon and Home Alone are my favorites. Elf gives me the creeps.

  5. I love:
    -The Muppet Christmas Carol (I like the one with Alastair Sim too, but the Muppets are my favorite)
    -The Man Who Invented Christmas
    -The 1947 Miracle on 34th Street (the 1994 remake is good too, but nothing beats the original)
    -All of the Rankin Bass clamation shows, especially Nester, The Little Drummer Boy, and Rudolph.
    -A Charlie Brown Christmas
    I also really like:
    -The Christmas Star
    -Prancer
    -the original 1966 How the Grinch Stole Christmas cartoon.

    I hate Home Alone, Elf, the live action Grinch, and hallmark movies with a passion. I also never really liked Love Actually either, even though some of my favorite actors are in it…

    1. We have a rule in our house that we only watch the cartoon Grinch. I’ve never seen the Jim Carey one and I never will!

      1. I’ve seen the Jim Carey Grinch once and that was more than enough for me. It was so awful.

    2. We bought a DVD set of all the Rankin Bass several years ago and never have to worry about finding them streaming.

      My husband and kids also like to watch Mr Magoo’s A Christmas Carol – I find it super irritating so I use that time to clean up the Christmas dinner dishes haha. Then we all watch Ralphie when I’m done.

    3. OMG I had totally forgotten about Prancer. I loved that when I was kid.

    4. I enjoy the live action Grinch! – love the little girl & the art direction is fabulous!! Even though I agree Jim Carrey is a bit of an acquired taste – he’s well suited to this show!

  6. I totally LOVED LOVE ACTUALLY! I always wanted to find a guy from London who would be suitable, but most had poor dental hygene or did not focus on their own bodily hygene, so I could not fathom spending the night at their homes, and of course could never MARRY me and live in my bed. After all, my ex was a drunk, but he at least did not shy away from a shower. FOOEY!

  7. White Christmas is the only thing I watch every year. I enjoy Home Alone but don’t go out of my way to watch it. We used to have a family tradition of watching Its A Wonderful Life after church and extended family Christmas Eve party but that died out as other traditions have changed.

    Growing up, we watched all of the classics. I know my parents watch them now while they wrap gifts. But, I have no need to see these again until I have kids to show them to.

  8. How much money do you keep in cash / savings vs. some type of investments? I know the textbook advice is 6 months expenses cash but that seems a little high. Right now I have 8 months worth of expenses in cash and I’m trying to convince myself to invest some of it.
    This “cash” is in a HYSA.
    If there was a true emergency I could liquidate investments, and also my parents could help me realistically, so its not a dire situation.

    1. I’m someone who lived through 2008 as the breadwinner for my family. I thought my investments were diversified but when everything crashes, everything crashes. I would really have been glad to have 6 months of living expenses in cash, but I didn’t. A lot of it was in stock & that all tanked at the same time my job security got precarious, and if we’d had to move, we would have had to sell our house at a loss.

      That’s why they say cash. Don’t be me.

  9. The only way I can watch them is on my parent’s VCR on a tape that was dubbed from live TV, but I love the Sesame Street Christmas movie from 1979 and Muppets Family Christmas from the mid-80s. The inclusion of 80s commercials (OshKoshB-Gosh! and some random cereals) makes it only that much better.

  10. Christmas movies back when there was exactly one TV channel to choose from was The Sound of Music and Disney’s Christmas cavalcade.
    Now, probably Die Hard 1 + 2 and Love Actually.

  11. If you do think Die Hard is a Christmas movie (it absolutely is) and want to watch other action-y movies this holiday season, here’s a list we’ve compiled over the years:
    – The Long Kiss Goodnight
    – Lethal Weapon
    – Go
    – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
    – Batman Returns
    – Reindeer Games
    – Gremlins

    1. For a while my daughter and her dad’s side of the family had a tradition where they watched Pulp Fiction every Christmas. Heh.

  12. I haaaaate Love Actually. I will watch whatever’s on that’s holiday related but I will never watch that one again.

    I like A Christmas Story (aka Ralphie) and the classics like Charlie Brown and It’s a Wonderful Life.

  13. I’ve seen Charlie Brown and A Christmas Story and the cartoon Grinch too many times to even really need to have them on for myself.

    I’ll still put on the stop motion Rudolph or the Abominable Snowman or Nightmare Before Christmas.

    Yes to Die Hard (sometimes followed up by Hard Boiled).

    I’ll watch a new rom com if one comes out with celebrities I like, but not one I’ve seen before.

  14. Love Actually
    Christmas Vacation
    Home Alone
    The Holiday
    Charlie Brown Christmas

    1. I do like the Holiday, it’s my go to comfort movie when I’m sick in bed. I love Kate Winslet so much in that.

  15. My family watches White Christmas every year and A Charlie Brown Christmas every Christmas Eve. Last year we had to be at both the 7:30 and 11:30 Christmas Eve services, so between services we drove around and looked at lights and then came home to have mulled cider and watch Charlie Brown before heading back for the candlelight service. It was a pretty magical evening.

    1. I was just going to say Christmas in Connecticut! Saw it for the first time a couple of years ago and I would totally watch it every Christmas.

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