5 Best Christmas Movies of All Time

I’ve mentioned this before (here and here), but I completely adore Christmas and everything the season brings.

As I sit here listening to A Very She and Him Christmas, eating a cranberry & brie panini, sipping a toffee nut latte and smelling the fresh gingerbread I just baked, I thought I’d take some time to share with you the five best Christmas movies of all time.

I watch these every year and start about six weeks before Christmas, watching one each week with friends and family.

I could list 15-20 more films, but these are my annual go-to titles (in reverse order).

5. Christmas with the Kranks (2004)

source: imdb.com

Cheesy doesn’t even begin to describe this all-American film, and that’s the way I like it.

In this Christmas caper, we follow Luther and Nora Krank (Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis), a couple suffering from empty nest syndrome who decide to forego Christmas for a Caribbean cruise.

In the process they manage to alienate their neighbours, friends and the charities they usually support.

So when their daughter Blair calls on Christmas Eve to tell her parents she’ll be coming home for Christmas after all, they have to pull together their usual, over-the-top celebration in hours, with some predictably hilarious results.

I love the sheer silliness of this one; it makes me laugh out loud and, as in all of the best Christmas movies, the main characters learn something about the importance of family, love and generosity.

4. Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

source: ramascreen.com

As a kid I loved watching these films, and the novelty still hasn’t worn off.

Funny, cheeky and heartwarming, Home Alone is a Christmas must-watch.

Surprisingly, the sequel is as good as the original film (with a brilliant moment like “get down on your knees and tell me you love me”, how could it not contend?), and I can easily watch them both in one sitting. In fact, I frequently do.

3. The Holiday (2006)

source: moviewallpaper.net

There are too many things to love about this film!

The cast is pretty spectacular: Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz play two heartbroken women who decide to swap houses for Christmas, and Jack Black and Jude Law play the men they meet on their holidays.

Set in both sunny, ostentatious Los Angeles and quaint, snowy England, The Holiday is sweet and funny and feels like so much more than a typical and predictable Christmas movie.

Diaz’s wardrobe is one to envy, and Jude Law is just too handsome for words, especially in those glasses! Swoon.

2. Love Actually (2003)

source: moviewallpaper.net

If the cast of The Holiday is impressive, Love Actually’s stellar line-up is ridiculous.

Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightley and Bill Nighy are just a few of the big names in this epic romantic comedy.

Following a web of relationships between over a dozen individuals in the lead-up to Christmas, we see romance, adultery, dating, unrequited love, complicated love, childhood love, office romance…and as the narrator at the beginning of the film states, “If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling, you’ll find that love actually is all around.”

Love Actually doesn’t try to resolve all of the relationships it introduces; nor is the ending happy for everyone. But along the way, there are plenty of laughs and tears.

I save this film for Christmas Day, when the turkey is in the oven and snuggling up on the couch is all I want to do.

1. Elf (2003)

source: londonderrynh.net

Elf is not just one of the best Christmas movies around, but it’s also one of my all-time favourite films.

It follows the adventures of Buddy (Will Ferrell) a man brought up in the North Pole as an elf who, upon discovering that he is actually a human, ventures to New York to find his Dad.

Seeing the world with entirely new eyes, Buddy wreaks havoc in the Big Apple but ultimately teaches his family about love, sticking up for one another, and spreading Christmas cheer to power Santa’s sleigh.

Of course, the fact that Zooey Deschanel plays buddy’s love interest Jovey has not escaped my attention. She is, as always, cute and quirky, and she even shows off her beautiful voice when she sings ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside’ in one scene.

A fantastic, funny, family-friendly Christmas movie…with some of the best one-liners around. Christmas isn’t Christmas without Elf.

Do you agree with my selection of the best Christmas movies? Which films would you add?