Christmas season is officially here, which means it’s finally acceptable to curl up on the sofa, snack of choice in hand, and work your way through the best Christmas movies without apology. Maybe your idea of festive comfort is a black-and-white classic, maybe it’s a messy rom-com with too many storylines, or maybe it’s something darker that swaps sugar for scares – all of those belong on the holiday watchlist.
This edit pulls together the titles that actually earn their spot in December: the ones people rewatch every year, the cult favourites that live on in memes, and the newer films that already feel like traditions in the making. Think of it as your ready-made queue for long winter nights, low lights, and just the right amount of emotion to carry you through to New Year.
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Elf (2003)
A modern Christmas classic by almost any measure, ‘Elf’ has become the defining festive film of the 21st century. Will Ferrell plays Buddy, a human raised at the North Pole who discovers he’s not actually an elf and heads to New York to find his biological father (James Caan) – colliding with a city, and a family, that has long since lost its sense of wonder. The premise is simple, but the execution is what’s kept it in heavy rotation: Ferrell leans fully into Buddy’s guileless enthusiasm, the script delivers a steady run of quotable lines and physical comedy, and the film never apologises for its full-throttle embrace of Christmas cheer. Underneath the candy-cane chaos, though, it’s also about belonging, belief and what it takes to reconnect with a more hopeful version of yourself, which is why it still feels fresh on rewatch after rewatch.
The Family Stone (2005)
Another Christmas film that deserves a place on your watchlist – and one that now carries an extra poignancy as a way to remember Diane Keaton – is ‘The Family Stone.’ The drama-comedy centres on Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney), who brings his tightly wound girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) home to meet his loud, opinionated and deeply bonded family for the holidays, with Keaton anchoring the ensemble as the formidable matriarch. What starts as classic ‘outsider meets in-laws’ friction slowly unfolds into something more layered, as old tensions surface, loyalties are tested and each family member is forced to confront what they want their lives to look like. The result is a film that leans into the messiness of extended family Christmases – awkward conversations, misplaced intentions, unexpected tenderness – and earns its place as a modern festive staple by being as emotionally honest as it is warm.
The Holdovers (2023)
This is one for when you want all the wintry vibes without the usual sugar rush. ‘The Holdovers’ follows Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), a grumpy New England prep-school professor stuck on campus over Christmas, supervising the unlucky few boys who can’t go home. Among them is Angus (Dominic Sessa), a bright but troubled student dealing with a complicated family, and Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the school’s cafeteria manager, grieving the loss of her son in Vietnam. Across a handful of snow-dusted days, these three end up circling one another in empty corridors, dining halls and classrooms, gradually trading barbs for confessions as they confront loneliness, regret and the possibility of starting again. Shot with a warm, ’70s throwback feel, it has all the visuals of a classic white Christmas but isn’t afraid to sit with sadness and awkwardness too – leaving you with a gentle ache that feels as human as the story itself.
Black Christmas (1974)
Sure, this one isn’t your cosy hot-chocolate-by-the-fire kind of Christmas movie – but if your ideal festive season involves a little more screaming than carolling, ‘Black Christmas’ is essential viewing. Set in a sorority house over the holidays, it follows a group of young women who realise the creepy phone calls they’ve been getting aren’t just pranks, as a mysterious killer begins stalking them from terrifyingly close quarters (yes, this is the film that made ‘the call is coming from inside the house’ an urban-legend staple). One of the earliest slasher films, it’s since picked up cult status and multiple remakes, but the original still delivers the best mix of twinkling lights and pure dread. Think of it as a two-for-one seasonal classic: eerie enough for Halloween, icy and snow-dusted enough for Christmas, and perfect if you like your holiday cheer served with a side of genuine chills.
Love Actually (2003)
While it might be the most obvious Christmas pick on the list, ‘Love Actually’ still earns its place if you’re in the mood for maximum festive feelings in one sitting. Set in London in the run-up to Christmas, it follows a whole web of characters whose lives overlap in small, satisfying ways – from new crushes in school halls and office parties gone wrong to marriages under strain and families trying to hold it together. You get awkward cue-card confessions, airport chases, backstage kids’ concerts and heartbreak all sharing the same screen, which is part of why it’s so watchable even when you know every beat. If you like your Christmas films busy, emotional and a bit over-the-top, this one delivers: the huge cast, the snow, the lights and the big speeches all build into a story about how messy love can be, and how often we still reach for it anyway.
Happiest Season (2020)
There’s no shortage of Christmas rom-coms, but ‘Happiest Season’ stands out for the way it swaps easy fantasy for something sharper and more emotionally honest. Kristen Stewart plays Abby, who heads to Pittsburgh over the holidays planning to propose to her girlfriend Harper (Mackenzie Davis), only to discover en route that Harper hasn’t come out to her conservative parents and intends to pass Abby off as her ‘straight roommate.’ What follows is a festive pressure cooker of family expectations, old habits and unspoken truths, as Abby is left negotiating Harper’s world from the sidelines while trying not to lose herself in the process. The film leans into the chaos and comedy of the situation but keeps its focus on the cost of secrecy and the longing for acceptance, with Aubrey Plaza’s cool, quietly bruised Riley almost stealing the film in the process. It’s warm, witty and inclusive, and less about the perfect Christmas than about how messy it can be to build a life – and a happily-ever-after – on your own terms.
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
A cornerstone of Christmas cinema and still one of the most emotionally resonant holiday films ever made, ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ follows George Bailey (James Stewart), a small-town man worn down by responsibility and staring into the void on Christmas Eve. On the brink of giving up, he’s visited by his guardian angel, who takes him through an alternate reality in which he was never born – forcing George, and the audience, to confront just how different his community, his family and his friends would be without him. What starts as a bleak what-if spirals into a powerful argument for the value of an ordinary life, weaving together themes of sacrifice, connection and the ways small acts of care can shape an entire town. Decades on, it remains a fixture of festive viewing precisely because it refuses easy sentimentality, choosing instead to show how hope can surface even in the darkest moments.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Another essential entry on any Christmas watchlist, ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ gives us the definitive turn from the season’s most famous festive cynic. Ron Howard’s live-action reimagining of the Dr. Seuss classic casts Jim Carrey as the Grinch, buried under some of the most impressive makeup work of the era to become a fully convincing, furry green misanthrope determined to rob Whoville of its gifts, decorations and cheer. What could have been pure pantomime leans into maximalist production design and a surprisingly sharp emotional core: beneath the slapstick and spectacle, the film is really about loneliness, exclusion and what happens when a community chooses to welcome someone back in. By the time the story reaches its inevitable change of heart, it feels less like a simple moral lesson and more like a reminder that even the most hard-edged persona might be hiding something far more vulnerable underneath.
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
Renée Zellweger firmly established her rom-com icon status with ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary,’ a film that has become go-to festive viewing for anyone who likes their Christmas movies with extra chaos and Chardonnay. As Bridget, she stumbles through work, family gatherings and a wildly public love life with a diary in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, trying (and failing) to stick to her self-improvement goals while getting caught between Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) and Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). The result is a Christmas-set comedy that’s as quick-witted as it is comforting: packed with quotable lines, painfully relatable moments and a love triangle that leads to one of cinema’s most endearingly scrappy fight scenes. Beneath the ugly jumpers and awkward parties, it’s really a story about imperfect love, starting over and learning to like yourself exactly as you are – which is why it keeps finding its way back onto festive watchlists year after year.
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ might technically be a television special rather than a feature film, but it more than earns its spot on any serious festive watchlist. Running at just around 30 minutes, it follows Charlie Brown as he wrestles with the commercialisation of Christmas and is roped into directing his friends’ Christmas play, hoping it will help him figure out what the holiday is really about. What could have been a simple kids’ cartoon has become a genuine seasonal classic thanks to its understated humour, hand-drawn charm, and that now-iconic jazz soundtrack, all wrapped around a gentle reminder about simplicity, community and meaning. Short, sweet and surprisingly reflective, it’s the kind of Christmas viewing you can fit into a busy day and still feel like you’ve hit the emotional reset button.
The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe (2005)
Mixing wintry fantasy with classic good-versus-evil storytelling, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ is not the first title that comes to mind when you think ‘Christmas movie,’ but it more than earns its place on a festive list. Set against sweeping, snow-covered landscapes and featuring a memorable visit from Father Christmas himself, the film adapts C.S. Lewis’s beloved novel into a big-screen adventure where the Pevensie siblings step through the wardrobe into Narnia and join forces with the lion Aslan to challenge the icy rule of Tilda Swinton’s White Witch. It works both as an accessible entry point for newcomers and a rewatchable comfort film for long-time fans – and it’s an ideal warm-up before Greta Gerwig’s rebooted take on the series arrives in 2026. With its mix of wonder and battle sequences, it captures a version of Christmas that’s less about cosy domesticity and more about magic, courage and stepping up when it counts.
Born in Korea and raised in Hong Kong, Min Ji has combined her degree in anthropology and creative writing with her passion for going on unsolicited tangents as an editor at Friday Club. In between watching an endless amount of movies, she enjoys trying new cocktails and pastas while occasionally snapping a few pictures.
