Best Holiday Movies and TV Specials
by Hairy_Lime | created - 27 Dec 2014 | updated - 28 Dec 2014 | PublicJust really have to take place during the period from, say, Thanksgiving and New Years' Day, and make the holidays a significant thematic element, in my view.
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1. The Apartment (1960)
Approved | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A Manhattan insurance clerk tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston
Votes: 196,985 | Gross: $18.60M
Because nothing says "Merry Christmas" like picking up some drunk wife of an imprisoned jockey and taking her home on Christmas Eve only to discover the woman you really love has attempted suicide after being spurned by her married lover in the living room of your apartment. Happy Holidays, everyone!
2. The Lion in Winter (1968)
PG | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
1183 A.D.: King Henry II's three sons all want to inherit the throne, but he won't commit to a choice. When he allows his imprisoned wife Eleanor of Aquitaine out for a Christmas visit, they all variously plot to force him into a decision.
Director: Anthony Harvey | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle
Votes: 34,230 | Gross: $22.28M
Well, what would Christmas be without a dysfunctional family getting together to plot and plan their mutually assured destruction? Would not be my family, that much I know.
3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 26 min | Animation, Comedy, Family
A grumpy hermit hatches a plan to steal Christmas from the Whos of Whoville.
Directors: Chuck Jones, Ben Washam | Stars: Boris Karloff, June Foray, Dal McKennon
Votes: 59,045
OK, forget cynicism: the genius of Dr. Seuss meets the genius of Chuck Jones, and gets narrated by Boris Karloff. And a neat little message too. Best of the TV mainstays
4. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir
A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson
Votes: 236,575
The best film on this list, actually, but less of the holiday theme. But a truly memorable New Years Eve sequence.
5. In Bruges (2008)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
After a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be.
Director: Martin McDonagh | Stars: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ciarán Hinds, Elizabeth Berrington
Votes: 461,742 | Gross: $7.76M
Actually, Christmassy not just in the set decoration. Also, a story of sacrifice and redemption. And often inappropriately funny.
6. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965 TV Movie)
TV-G | 25 min | Animation, Comedy, Drama
Depressed at the commercialism he sees around him, Charlie Brown tries to find a deeper meaning to Christmas.
Director: Bill Melendez | Stars: Ann Altieri, Chris Doran, Sally Dryer, Bill Melendez
Votes: 44,107
Yeah, Linus is a killjoy, in a way, but this is charming, one of the true highlights of the golden age of Christmas TV specials.
7. Christmas Vacation (1989)
PG-13 | 97 min | Comedy
The Griswold family's plans for a big family Christmas predictably turn into a big disaster.
Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik | Stars: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki
Votes: 220,182 | Gross: $71.32M
Back to cynicism. Relentlessly funny, does not take itself too seriously with its more sappy moments. And a great holiday rant... "Where's the Tylenol?"
8. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964 TV Movie)
TV-G | 47 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A young reindeer Rudolph lives at the North Pole. His father is one of Santa's reindeer and it is expected that Rudolph will eventually be one too. However, he has a feature which is a setback and causes him to be ostracized: his red nose.
Director: Larry Roemer | Stars: Billie Mae Richards, Burl Ives, Larry D. Mann, Paul Soles
Votes: 37,489
Again, another highlight from the TV Special Golden Age. Nothing modern has ever really come close to the enduring magic of this, or the Grinch or Charlie Brown.
9. A Christmas Carol (1951)
TV-PG | 86 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
Ebenezer Scrooge, a curmudgeonly, miserly businessman, has no time for sentimentality and largely views Christmas as a waste of time. However, this Christmas Eve, he will be visited by three spirits who will show him the error of his ways.
Director: Brian Desmond Hurst | Stars: Alastair Sim, Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns
Votes: 25,731
A lot of versions of this, but I like Sim as Scrooge best.
10. Stalag 17 (1953)
Not Rated | 120 min | Comedy, Drama, War
After two Americans are killed while escaping from a German P.O.W. camp in World War II, the barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.
Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss
Votes: 58,829
Winds up with a Christmas celebration. Low on the Holidayness, though. Great movie.
11. Scrooge (1970)
G | 113 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
A musical retelling of Charles Dickens' classic novel about an old bitter miser taken on a journey of self-redemption, courtesy of several mysterious Christmas apparitions.
Director: Ronald Neame | Stars: Albert Finney, Alec Guinness, Edith Evans, Kenneth More
Votes: 12,587 | Gross: $3.70M
I admit a weakness to watching Tom the Street Vendor dancing on Scrooge's coffin and singing "Thank you very much...."
12. Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
Approved | 101 min | Comedy, Romance
A food writer who has lied about being the perfect housewife must try to cover her deception when her boss and a returning war hero invite themselves to her home for a traditional family Christmas.
Director: Peter Godfrey | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, Reginald Gardiner
Votes: 12,032
A screwball Christmas. I love screwball.
13. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Passed | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer
Votes: 27,694 | Gross: $7.57M
Nowadays people don't "get" how sad "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" actually is. Because it is in essence saying, "enjoy this one kid because from now on they are going to SUCK."
14. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Not Rated | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut
Votes: 38,521 | Gross: $0.20M
The best James Stewart Christmas movie. Yes, them's fightin' words.
15. Gremlins (1984)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.
Director: Joe Dante | Stars: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, John Louie
Votes: 247,961 | Gross: $148.17M
'The worst thing that ever happened to me was on Christmas. Oh, God. It was so horrible. It was Christmas Eve. I was 9 years old...And that's how I found out there was no Santa Claus.' Brilliant.
16. Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962 TV Movie)
Approved | 53 min | Animation, Comedy, Drama
This musical adaptation of the classic tale by Charles Dickens stars Magoo as the cold-hearted old miser, Ebenezer Scrooge.
Director: Abe Levitow | Stars: Jim Backus, Morey Amsterdam, Jack Cassidy, Royal Dano
Votes: 3,262
First version of it I ever saw.
17. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Not Rated | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
After a divorced New York mother hires a nice old man to play Santa Claus at Macy's, she is startled by his claim to be the genuine article. When his sanity is questioned, a lawyer defends him in court by arguing that he's not mistaken.
Director: George Seaton | Stars: Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Gene Lockhart
Votes: 54,934 | Gross: $2.65M
Much better than the remake. Some fantasies work better in black and white. It seems so... fake in color. Yes, I know it IS fake, but it should not seem that way.
18. Love Actually (2003)
R | 135 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
Director: Richard Curtis | Stars: Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney
Votes: 531,712 | Gross: $59.70M
Turn in your Man Card, Mr. Lime! Actually, this makes it primarily for the incomparable Emma Thompson's heart-breaking stoic turn. God, she is great.
19. The Ref (1994)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A cat burglar is forced to take a bickering, dysfunctional family hostage on Christmas Eve.
Director: Ted Demme | Stars: Denis Leary, Judy Davis, Kevin Spacey, Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.
Votes: 26,554 | Gross: $11.44M
20. We're No Angels (1955)
Not Rated | 106 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
Three Devil's Island escapees hide out in the house of a kindly merchant and repay his kindness by helping him and his family out of several crises.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray, Joan Bennett
Votes: 10,778
21. A Christmas Story (1983)
PG | 93 min | Comedy, Family
In the 1940s, a young boy named Ralphie Parker attempts to convince his parents, teacher, and Santa Claus that a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot BB gun really is the perfect Christmas gift.
Director: Bob Clark | Stars: Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Scott Schwartz
Votes: 168,646 | Gross: $20.61M
Well, I have come to grips with it over the years. Nicely nostalgic and more cute than funny.
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