Need help finding a good movie to watch this Christmas? Check out this list of the 30 best movies to stream over the holiday on Netflix, Max, Hulu, and more.
Hark those heralds and get the reindeer ready — it’s almost Christmastime! With season’s greetings comes an abundance of food, unwanted relatives, tinsel everywhere, shopping bills that won’t get paid until 2024, and more holiday movies than you can shake a candy cane at.
Since the sheer volume of Christmas movies can be overwhelming, it helps to have a handy guide to make sure each Christmas movie you are watching is worth your time. From classics like It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story to newer films like Spirited and Bad Santa, these 30 movies represent the best Christmas offerings in 2023 that Netflix, Max, Hulu, YouTube, and other streamers have to offer.
Need more holiday viewing suggestions? Then please check out the best Christmas movies on Netflix, the best Christmas movies on Hulu, the best Christmas movies on Max, the best Christmas movies on Disney+, the best Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel, 7 great Christmas movies you can watch for free, and 7 best funny Christmas movies you should watch this season.NetflixLove Actually (2003)
Most romantic comedies tend to focus on one or two couples. Love Actually ups the ante with eight different couples throughout the film, and you might need a scorecard to keep up with them all.
One of the strengths of Love Actually is its ensemble cast, which includes Academy Award winners and many well-known actors. The ensemble features Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy, Martine McCutcheon, and Rowan Atkinson. Also popping up are Shannon Elizabeth, Claudia Schiffer, Denise Richards, and a pre-Mad Men January Jones. It all amounts to a movie that you shouldn’t like as much as you do, and you might feel guilty for falling prey to its shameless, melodramatic charms. After 20 years, the movie is still as charming as ever.
Love Actually is streaming on Netflix.Best. Christmas. Ever! (2023)
Best. Christmas. Ever! is the latest addition to this list, but its super cheesiness will make it a contender for a spot here every Christmas from now on. The story follows Charlotte Sanders (Heather Graham), a frustrated housewife who is jealous of her friend, Jackie Jennings (Brandy Norwood) because she’s found the success and happiness that have eluded her.
One Christmas, Heather’s son, Grant (Wyatt Hunt), gets his mother and father, Rob Sanders (Jason Biggs), to visit Jackie and her husband, Valentino (Matt Cedeño). When the Sanders family is snowed in and forced to stay longer, Heather tries to prove that Jackie’s life isn’t as good as she pretends it is.
Watch Best. Christmas. Ever! on Netflix.Holidate (2020)
Most people love the holidays. With themed parties and countless presents, the holiday season is a time to be with friends and family. Yet, Sloane (American Horror Story’s Emma Roberts) and Jackson (Luke Bracey) despise the holidays. The duo hates awkward social outings and attending family gatherings without a significant other.
After a chance encounter, they to be each other’s “holidate” for every special occasion – New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, etc. But as we’ve all learned by watching countless romantic comedies, pretending to be a couple always works until someone gets feelings. Then, it gets complicated.
Stream Holidate on Netflix.HBO and MaxNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
No other modern holiday movie gets the agony and ecstasy of Christmas quite as well as National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. The film is funny yet still grounded in the painful reality of sharing your home with other relatives, having terrible neighbors, and being disappointed by the weird gifts you get on Dec. 25. (Hint: don’t gift anyone a membership to the Jelly of the Month Club.)
Both Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo return as the Griswold matriarchs, with future Oscar nominee Juliette Lewis and The Big Bang Theory star Johnny Galecki as Audrey and Rusty, respectively. Randy Quaid makes a hilarious appearance as Cousin Eddie, and yes, that’s a pre-Seinfeld Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Clark’s yuppie neighbor. Jeremiah S. Chechik directed the movie and runs at a thrifty 97 minutes, which is the perfect length for this type of movie.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is currently streaming on Max. It can also be streamed on Hulu.A Christmas Story (1983)
It’s now an annual requirement to watch this movie. There’s no denying the rose-colored nostalgia that A Christmas Story offers, and it’s the rare wholesome family picture that doesn’t make adults or cynics gag. The comedy is still fresh, and everyone can relate to the childhood traumas poor Ralphie goes through in the movie, like being bullied, not getting the present that he wants, and … yes, being forced to wear an embarrassing outfit the family insists he put on.
The film was directed by Bob Clark, who has one of the oddest résumés in film history. In the 1970s, he directed the terror classic Black Christmas (which showcases a different set of holiday horrors) before moving on to the ’80s teen sex comedy Porky’s. A Christmas Story is 94 minutes long and stars Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, and Jean Shepherd as adult Ralphie. It’s still as charming as ever, and will make you long for the days of ginger-haired bullies, Ovaltine, and Little Orphan Annie.
A Christmas Story is streaming on Max.The Polar Express (2004)
The Polar Express exists in the rare gray area of being both visually stunning and off-putting at the same time, because the human characters aren’t as convincing as the CG backgrounds. Those were the limitations of performance capture animation at the time when animators just didn’t have all of the tricks and advancements that they do now.
Regardless, director Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg’s children’s book The Polar Express has become a perennial favorite during the holiday season. Asteroid City‘s Tom Hanks lends his voice to several characters in the film, most notably the conductor of the Polar Express, a magical train heading directly for the North Pole that allows some lucky children to meet Santa Claus (Hanks) and have their Christmas wishes come true.
The Polar Express is streaming on Max.A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)
Ralphie is back! Nearly 40 years after the original, A Christmas Story has finally gotten a proper sequel with A Christmas Story Christmas. (No, we’re not counting the dreadful A Christmas Story 2, a movie that’s best avoided). A now grown-up Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) returns to his old house on Cleveland Street to try to give his kids the kind of magical Christmas he experienced as a kid.
But between reconnecting with childhood friends and reconciling the passing of his Old Man, things don’t go as smoothly as Ralphie hoped. Yes, it’s not as good as the original, but A Christmas Story Christmas has its own kind of nostalgic charm.
A Christmas Story Christmas is streaming on Max.Four Christmases (2008)
For those craving a modern Christmas rom-com, look no further than Four Christmases. When you’re in a relationship, you have to spend Christmas with two different families. It’s stressful, right? Well, in Four Christmases, that idea is taken to its greatest extent as Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) get caught red-handed in their annual ruse of avoiding their families during the holidays.
Suddenly, each of their single parents knows Brad and Kate have been trying to get out of Christmas, and everybody wants a piece of them on Christmas Day. It’s all a bit chaotic, but the charm of the two leads help make this one a pleasant Christmas movie to watch while wrapping presents.
Four Christmases is streaming on Max.Arthur Christmas (2011)
Here’s an animated Christmas movie that isn’t so well-known to the public. Everybody knows that each Christmas, Santa and an army of dutiful elves manage to produce and distribute gifts to children worldwide. But how do they do it? Well, Arthur Christmas tells you through the lens of Santa’s misfit son, Arthur (James McAvoy).
When one of the 600 million children to receive a gift from Santa gets mistakenly overlooked, Arthur takes it upon himself to execute an unauthorized mission to get the last present to the other side of the world before Christmas morning.
