50 Funny Christmas Movies That'll Have You Laughing All Season Long
Watch with your family — except for the ones that are just for adults!
A guy in a red, furry suit with a floppy hat? Elves with curly shoes and pom-poms everywhere? A flying sleigh pulled by a reindeer with a glowing nose? Let's face it — a lot of the iconography of Christmas is just inherently funny or silly, or designed to make you chuckle until you shake like a bowl full of jelly. On the flip side, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make the holidays merry — crafting the perfect holiday lightscape, getting the No. 1 toy, corralling all those family members — and there's no better way to release the stress than with a good laugh. So no matter how you're feeling this holiday season, it's always a good time for a Christmas comedy.
But which one to choose? These are the best funny Christmas movies to watch in 2023. Some of them are old classics that also help you indulge those nostalgic feelings that always crop up around the holidays. Others are new (some of which have yet to be released) that are perfect to throw on when you want to switch things up a little. There are some that can be enjoyed with the whole family, and others are better to save for when are off to bed. But all have one thing in common: They'll have you letting loose with the ho-ho-hos.
Looking for more great Christmas movies? Check out these Good Housekeeping guides:
The Best Christmas Rom-Coms | The Best Christmas Horror Movies | The Best Animated Christmas Movies
Coming Soon: Best. Christmas. Ever!
Charlotte (Heather Graham) and Jackie (Brandy Norwood) were old friends who grew apart — though, to Charlotte, Jackie's life always seemed perfect when she described it in her annual holiday letter. When circumstances bring their two families together for the holidays, Charlotte goes on a mission to prove that Jackie's life isn't all that cracked up to be (even if it means tearing her own life apart). This is a good one for anyone who has ever had holiday envy. It comes to Netflix on November 16.
Coming Soon: Dashing Through the Snow
In this family-friendly Christmas comedy, which is coming to Disney+, a social worker (played by Chris "Ludacris" Bridges) brings his 9-year-old daughter to his job as a social worker on Christmas Eve. There, they meet a man in a red suit — named, of course, Nick — who they think needs help, and who eventually takes them on an adventure around the city. With Nick played by Lil Rel Howery, you know there's going to be laughs. It comes to Disney+ on November 17.
Elf (2003)
Will Ferrell is the perfect fish-out-of-water in this comedy — only he's an elf trying to spread joy on the mean streets of New York City. It's so funny, it's easy to forget that, unlike many of the other Ferrell comedies, this one is actually PG!
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
Bridget Jones's Diary is not strictly a Christmas movie — though you would never guess from Mark Darcy's famed Rudolph sweater (which he actually wears to a New Year's party). Taking place over the course of the year, it is bookended by holiday seasons and has plenty of snow, merriment and aforementioned ugly sweaters to feel at home in a Christmas movie marathon. Throughout that year, Bridget takes stock of her life and haplessly finds herself in situations that feel like Pride and Prejudice if it were written for laughs.
The Apartment (1960)
Billy Wilder's Best Picture-winning film is screwball, romance, drama and holiday merriment all rolled into one. It centers on the lowly Bud Baxter (Jack Lemmon), who learns he can climb the corporate ladder if he lends his New York City bachelor pad out to the executives so they can carry on their extramarital affairs. Keeping it all straight — including who is using the apartment when — sets all sorts of antics into motion, and complicates things for Bud's own love life, which comes to a head at an office Christmas party.
Boxing Day (2021)
This sweet film has garnered comparisons to another British import — Love, Actually — and not just because it also has a placard scene. It's because the story, about a Brit living in America who brings his girlfriend to London to meet his can-be-a-bit-much Caribbean family, is equal parts big-hearted romance and meet-the-fam comedy.
Bad Santa (2003)
The year 2003 was a banner one for Christmas comedies: It brought us one of the sweetest ones with Elf — and also one of the dirtiest ones with Bad Santa. In it, Billy Bob Thornton plays a foul-mouthed mall Santa who's secretly planning a Christmas heist, but winds up bonding with a local kid and developing some holiday spirit in spite of himself. (And, if you enjoy it, there is a sequel.)
The Night Before (2015)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen and Anthony Mackie star as three childhood friends who take part in their annual Christmas Eve celebration, and then get swept up in mayhem as they try to find a rumored underground party. And while the R-rated hijinx they get into are increasingly insane, it's also nice to see a movie about adults who actually enjoy celebrating the holidays together, as opposed to most movies that show adults doing it out of some kind of obligation.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
The National Lampoon movies have a knack for taking romanticized moments of family life — summertime vacations, holiday gatherings — and revealing them for the messy, hilarious ordeals they often can be. Watching them is a balm, and will make your family the jolliest bunch of a-holes this side of the nuthouse.
A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas (2011)
Even if you don't have the benefit of 3D, which this movie was presented in during its original 2011 run, there are still plenty of jokes that kill in two dimensions — and an unforgettable cameo from Neil Patrick Harris that's a guaranteed laugh.
A Christmas Story (1983)
A Christmas Story always ranks up there with the best Christmas movies of all time because of the utterly un-romantic view it takes of the holidays. Once you wipe it of its rose-colored nostalgia, the rest is pure-comedy gold, especially if there's still a little part of you that feels like Ralphie from time to time.
Almost Christmas (2016)
It's paraphrasing Tolstoy to say that all happy families are the same, and all unhappy families are good fodder for Christmas movies. In this one, Danny Glover plays a recent widower who invites his grown children home for the holidays, where drama ensues.
Trading Places (1983)
Though it's not about gathering around the tree, this Prince-and-the-Pauper-style comedy does take place at Christmastime, and says something about the generosity of the human spirit (or lack thereof). Plus, it has Dan Aykroyd in one of the dirtiest Santa suits ever put to film.
A Bad Moms Christmas (2017)
The three moms from Bad Moms, played by Kathryn Hahn, Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell, have to deal with a huge obstacle to their own Christmas cheer — their own mothers. Add on the pressure to make holidays magical, and you've got a comedy that really gets any stressed-out parent.
Scrooged (1988)
So many actors have taken on the role of an Ebenezer Scrooge-type figure, from Alastair Sims to Mickey Mouse, but, in Bill Murray's hands, the shopworn stereotype of a Christmas crank becomes a figure of hilarity. It just goes to show that if you mix Murray and ghosts, the result is always funny.
Home Alone (1990)
Is Home Alone really a comedy? Yes. Is it an action movie? Sure — and a family drama as well. Basically, you can throw this on even if the family can't agree on what type of Christmas movie to watch.
Spirited (2022)
It's Elf's Will Ferrell and Once Upon a Deadpool's Ryan Reynolds joining forces for a holiday movie super-team! This musical re-telling of A Christmas Carol will feature songs by the duo behind The Greatest Showman and La La Land.
The Best Man Holiday (2013)
The many-years-later sequel to The Best Man, this ensemble movie is equal parts broad comedy and weepy melodrama, so only throw it on if you really want to feel the full spectrum of emotions. It follows a group of college friends who reunite for the holidays, stirring up lots of old-friend group dynamics.
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Grumpy Old Men (1993)
This is a good one for people who feel less-than-jolly when the holidays roll around. It's about two rival next-door neighbors who both develop a crush on the woman who moves across the street.
Happiest Season (2020)
Here's another comedy about the complications of spending holidays with family. Abby (Kristen Stewart) plans on proposing to her girlfriend Harper (Mackenzie Davis) when she spends the holidays with Harper's family. Only when she gets there, she finds out Harper isn't out to her family — and that's not the only secret these relatives are keeping from each other.
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