100+ Best Christmas Movies To Watch This Holiday Season

If visions of sugar plums are already dancing in your head, you’re in luck! We’ve rounded up the very best Christmas movies to add to your must-watch list. From movies for kids to romantic Hallmark movies and funny comedies to the very best Christmas movies on Netflix, we've got new and classic Christmas movies that will satisfy your every holiday wish. We even included a few movies about Christmas dogs. (Don't mind Snot—he's just yakking on a bone!)

Related: The Best Christmas Movie Quotes

Best Classic Christmas Movies

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

The hard-won uplift and triumph of director Frank Capra’s fantasy drama hasn’t lost a bit of its power over the decades. James Stewart gives his most iconic performance as George Bailey, a banker who discovers the value of his life thanks to a visit from his guardian angel. According to the American Film Institute, It’s a Wonderful Life is the most inspiring movie of all time.

Related: The Best Quotes from It's a Wonderful Life

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Winner of three Academy Awards (it was also nominated for Best Picture), George Seaton’s dramedy stars Edmund Gwenn as a department-store Santa who claims to be the real thing. The fresh, well-acted 1994 remake starring Richard Attenborough is a Christmas classic in its own right.

Related: How to Watch Miracle on 34th Street on TV and Online

A Christmas Carol/Scrooge (1951)

Out of the countless film adaptations of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella, this 1951 British production directed by Brian Desmond Hurst is the best, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that Alastair Sim is hands-down the greatest Ebenezer Scrooge you’ll ever see. So many good actors have portrayed Scrooge as a mere curmudgeon–and that’s it. Sim’s Scrooge is pathetic, heartless and cruel, seemingly beyond redemption. He’s also an instantly recognizable, fully-realized human being, and that’s why we gradually gain deep sympathy for him.

Related: The Best Christmas Movies on Amazon Prime

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan star as co-workers who can’t stand each other—only to realize they’re falling in love through anonymous letters. Sound familiar? The Shop Around the Corner was remade decades later as You’ve Got Mail starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

Related: The Best Christmas Episodes of Your Favorite TV Shows

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Produced by Arthur Freed (whom many credit as the brains behind The Wizard of Oz), this turn-of-the-20th-century slice-of-life musical showcases Judy Garland debuting “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” The number will give you chills to this day.

Related: The Best 'A Christmas Carol' Movies

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

One of the most respected film stars in history, Barbara Stanwyck radiated toughness, authenticity and intelligence. By the mid-1940s, she was the highest-paid woman in the United States. She charms in this rom-com about a magazine writer who falls in love with a fan. (Christmas in Connecticut was remade in 1992 as a TV movie directed—believe it or not—by Arnold Schwarzenegger.)

Related: 'A Christmas Story' Cast: Where Are They Now?

A Christmas Story (1983)

Based on the writings of Canada’s Jean Shepherd, the family comedy—centered on a boy who pines for a Red Ryder air rifle—has aired in 24-hour blocks on TNT and/or TBS since Christmas 1997. (Director Bob Clark also helmed a different kind of holiday classic, the 1974 cult slasher flick Black Christmas.)

Related: How to Watch 'A Christmas Story Christmas'

White Christmas (1954)

Legendary director Michael Curtiz helmed several of the most noteworthy films of Hollywood's Golden Age, including The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Casablanca (1942), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Mildred Pierce (1945) and this essential Christmas musical, the highest-grossing film of 1954. Filmed in vivid Technicolor, White Christmas was the first movie ever released in VistaVision, a widescreen process using twice the surface area of standard 35mm film.

Related: Watch Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire Sing 'White Christmas'

The Bishop’s Wife (1947)

Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven star in this Samuel Goldwyn–produced rom-com about a bishop mentored by a charming angel. The Bishop’s Wife was remade successfully in 1996 as The Preacher’s Wife with Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston and Courtney B. Vance.

Related: The Best Christmas Movies on Hulu

Holiday Inn (1942)

Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire star in this holiday musical that is best known for its music by Irving Berlin, who wrote 12 songs for the film, including “White Christmas,” which took home an Oscar in 1943 for Best Original Song.

Related: The Best Classic Christmas Movies to Watch This Year

Best Funny Christmas Movies

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

All Clark Griswold wants is “a fun, old-fashioned family Christmas.” He’ll take his family into the woods to cut down a Christmas tree; decorate the outside of the house with lights; and enjoy the pleasant company of relatives. He’ll also use the nice, fat bonus he expects from his boss to cover the cost of a new swimming pool. That would all be lovely, wouldn’t it? There’s just one problem: this is a Vacation movie, which means that even getting to the woods will be a death-defying ordeal. Chevy Chase and the Griswold clan make the most of a holiday where everything goes disastrously, hilariously wrong in this slapstick-heavy perennial favorite written by John Hughes.