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The best Christmas movies of all time, updated for 2025
Time Out Film Blog ^ | Updated in October, 2025 | Time Out Staff

Posted on 12/13/2025 4:02:22 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin

It’s easy to be a Scrooge about Christmas movies, especially these days. Streaming platforms have shamelessly muscled into the Hallmark market, churning out quick, cheap holiday romcoms with C-list casts every year, hoping to land on something so irresistibly cheesy it briefly becomes a seasonal phenomenon. Put that cynicism aside, however, and most of us can admit that we all have at least one movie we return to every December – the one that allows us to embrace nostalgia unapologetically and lets us know that the most wonderful time of the year has arrived.

It doesn’t have to be schmaltzy and saccharine, either. Maybe it’s a golden era classic like It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street. Maybe it’s something more modern and goofy, like Elf or Home Alone. Maybe it’s raunchy and rude, like Bad Santa or Christmas Vacation, or just plain dark, like Black Christmas. That full range of yuletide cheer can be found on this list of the best holiday movies ever made. No matter what kind of Christmas movie you prefer, you’ll find one that warms your core like a cup of hot cocoa.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Books/Literature; Conspiracy; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: christmas; christmasmovies; hollywood; jesus; magic; movies; santa
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Some of these picks are HILARIOUS. Duke it out amongst yourselves...
1 posted on 12/13/2025 4:02:22 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

EVERY Hallmark Christmas movie.

BTW - have you played “Holiday Movie BINGO”?


2 posted on 12/13/2025 4:05:32 PM PST by Ken Regis (I concur )
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

3 posted on 12/13/2025 4:07:30 PM PST by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Die Hard....there are no others.


4 posted on 12/13/2025 4:07:54 PM PST by xp38
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To: FRiends

My picks:

The Santa Clause

Lethal Weapon

White Christmas

Christmas Vacation (National Lampoon)

Meet Me in Saint Louis

Die Hard - Duh!

Rudolph (Claymation version!)

Holiday Inn

A Charlie Brown Christmas

A Christmas Carol (With Jean Luc Picard!)

The Muppet Christmas Carol

The Shop Around the Corner

Scrooged

A Christmas Story

...and that’s all the Holiday Fun I can stand! ;)


5 posted on 12/13/2025 4:09:21 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set.)
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To: rlmorel

Yay! Hans Gruber makes Christmas special! :)


6 posted on 12/13/2025 4:10:15 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

A Christmas Carol starring Alistair Sim.


7 posted on 12/13/2025 4:10:27 PM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Am Yisrael Chai ~)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Anyone who states that Die Hard is not a Christmas movie is probably an atheist.


8 posted on 12/13/2025 4:13:17 PM PST by Ronaldus Magnus III (Do, or do not, there is no try )
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

My wife wanted me to watch a Christmas movie tonight: “Tinsel Town”.

It is possibly the most woke, Leftist Christmas movie I have ever seen.

I will never get this 93 minutes of my life back.

But I absolutely will forgive her.

She usually picks out movies that are pretty good. She doesn’t care much for anything I watch, but she did watch the pilot episode of “Resident Alien” with me. Not her cup of tea.

This one, with Kiefer Sutherland, is not my cup of tea.


9 posted on 12/13/2025 4:14:22 PM PST by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

A Christmas Carol 1984 version with George C Scott

It’s a Wonderful Life


10 posted on 12/13/2025 4:15:47 PM PST by DFG
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To: Ronaldus Magnus III; xp38

I don’t much care for the argument one way or the other, but I love watching people argue passionately about it!

I have put my chips on “Die Hard” as a Christmas movie, because it seems to infuriate Christmas movie purists!!!!


11 posted on 12/13/2025 4:16:40 PM PST by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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c’mon people, gotta include “IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE” on any list. Donna Reed alone..she’s just ravishing in that movie...


12 posted on 12/13/2025 4:17:14 PM PST by basalt (Y ou new to this??)
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Hard to believe Hollywood used to produce quality, family Christmas movies. Now it’s all Bad Santa, Krampus, Violent Night...


13 posted on 12/13/2025 4:18:06 PM PST by proust (All posts made under this handle are, for the intents and purposes of the author, considered satire.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Christmas in Connecticut 1945


14 posted on 12/13/2025 4:18:28 PM PST by DFG
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To: SkyDancer

excellent version.


15 posted on 12/13/2025 4:19:02 PM PST by basalt (Y ou new to this??)
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To: Ronaldus Magnus III

Die Hard occurs AT Christmas, but it’s not ABOUT Christmas. I suppose some would say it doesn’t matter.


16 posted on 12/13/2025 4:19:14 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder
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also...gotta love “HOLIDAY INN”...the uncut version!....”who was it set, the darkie free..ABRAHAM!!!.ABRAHAM”!!!..heh heh.


17 posted on 12/13/2025 4:20:38 PM PST by basalt (Y ou new to this??)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
I am glad to see they included "Gremlins" but where is "Donovan’s Reef", "3 Godfathers" and "The Lemon Drop Kid"?
18 posted on 12/13/2025 4:20:56 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (It's like somebody just put the Constitution up on a wall …. and shot the First Amendment -Mike Rowe)
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To: rlmorel

19 posted on 12/13/2025 4:21:46 PM PST by xp38
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

The first I thought of was The Muppet Christmas Carol. Michael Caine has always been one of my favorite actors.


20 posted on 12/13/2025 4:22:19 PM PST by Retain Mike ( Sat Cong)
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