I will begin with a disclaimer – I am not pretending my selections are the best Christmas movies, and I really do think this kind of thing is rather subjective anyway. This is a selection of a few movies I really like at Christmas, in no particular order. Enjoy.

I want to start with “A Christmas Carol”, but I thought there should only be one version, and it was extremely hard to decide, as I have watched several that have their different ways of tackling the story and different appeal. In the end I decided to cheat and go with two versions.

“A Christmas Carol” aka “Scrooge” (1951) stars Alistair Sim in the title role. It’s a role made for Sim, who gave a spectacular performance. His transformation from mean miser to joyful philanthropist is wonderful and very convincing. Supporting performances include Michael Hordern, George Cole, and Patrick Macnee. The entire cast gave solid performances, and the ghosts were suitably strange and spooky. Dickens’ London is shown in all it’s gloomy and downtrodden glory, The author wanted his book to show that the plight of the London poor could be, not fixed but certainly alleviated by the actions of those who are in a position to do so. Once Scrooge understands that ‘mankind is his business’, he makes up for lost time by doing good and helping the people around him. This adaptation is very faithful to the spirit of the story.

“The Muppet Christmas Carol” (1992) is, somewhat more light-hearted than other adaptations, but it’s such good fun I have to include it on my favourites list.  It stars Michael Caine as Scrooge, and despite the more comic aspect of the muppets he made a fantastic Scrooge and played it straight. The story was he decided to play it as if it was Shakespeare and let the comedy come from the muppets, which was an excellent decision. It’s a remarkably good adaptation and I just had to include it.

“The Bishop’s Wife” (1947) stars Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven. Niven is a bishop who is trying to build a new cathedral and prays for help to do this. His prayers are answered by Dudley (Grant), an angel who has been sent to help him. The bishop naturally assumes the help will be to fund the cathedral, but that’s not quite what God has in mind. I love this film – it’s my pick out of the older and perhaps more sentimental Christmas stories because the actors are delightful and the story is sincere without being too sappy. I like the idea of a good man having lost his way, and needing to be reminded of his priorities.  

“Klaus” (2019) is an animated story giving a slightly different take on the origins of Father Christmas. Honestly I sat down to watch this without much expectation – I thought it would be okay, but I was not expecting to like it so much. It’s engaging, exciting, funny and emotional. I love it because so many characters learn lessons and become better during this story, but not in a way that is forced or corny. The plot is structured so these improvements are like a domino effect – one small act leads to another until the little town, where two families have been feuding for a long time, becomes a place of peace and love. It’s also something you can comfortably show your kids. It won a slew of awards when it came out and it deserved every one.

Now for a movie that should not be shown to your kids – “Violent Night” (2022).  (Hey, if people can call “Die Hard” a Christmas movie then I’m allowed to like this one – at least it actually has Santa in it!) I think what most impressed me about this is that the film managed to merge an often graphic and gory action thriller with actual Christmas meaning. A disenchanted (and consequently very drunk) Santa lands in a situation where a very rich family has just been taken hostage. His reindeer get spooked by gunfire and take off, stranding him. What starts as self-defence ends in him rescuing the family and defeating the bad guys. Along the way he teaches the young girl a little about Christmas, and she teaches him in turn. I always love his comments about Christmas and Santa – it’s Christmas magic and he doesn’t know how it works. I also adored his ‘list’ which was a hologram-type list he could produce out of thin air and which had all the dirt on EVERYBODY. It’s funny, it’s exciting, and it’s Christmas.

“A Nightmare before Christmas” (1993) is a stop-motion animation that starts with the magical world of Halloween town where the ruler, Jack Skellington, is having a mid-life crisis of sorts. He’s bored, and putting on a big show every Hallowe’en is not really doing it for him anymore. After finding a wood where there are entrances to other holiday towns, Jack ends up accidentally in Christmas town, and he is entranced. He decides he’d like to give Christmas a whirl – of course he has no real comprehension about how Christmas works, as he and his people see it from their own spooky perspective. Chaos reigns until Santa steps in and sorts things out. It’s technically brilliant and beautiful to look at. It has some great songs. It’s also funny and insightful, with a moral about working to one’s strengths. It’s a great little movie and can be watched at Hallowe’en or Christmas (or why not both?)

I’m sure there are others, but here are a few Christmas movies that appeal to me. Let me know if you have any suggestions for Christmas movies in the comments – I always like to try something new.