It’s never too early to start getting ready for the holiday season. If you’re not already feeling the spirit, it’s time to trim a tree, eat some candy canes, and start your holiday shopping. But if that sounds like too much work, setting a festive mood is as easy as sitting down and watching a Christmas movie.
Whether it’s on Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney+, or another platform, here’s where to stream classics like It’s a Wonderful Life, modern classics like Elf, animated gems like The Polar Express, and more.
A Christmas Story
You could wait for the annual 24-hour TBS marathon of this classic on Christmas Day, or you could just stream it whenever you want. A Christmas Story is one of our culture’s most inescapable movies, centering on a young boy who wants nothing more than to be gifted a BB gun. Do you own one of those leg lamps? If you don’t, you probably know someone who does. [Trailer]
Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
It doesn’t get more quintessentially Christmas than Home Alone, the movie about Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin), a kid who gets accidentally left behind when the rest of his family goes on vacation for the holidays. It’s all fun and games until a pair of bumbling burglars, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, end up involved in a dangerous feud with Kevin. When you’re done watching Home Alone, why not check out its sequel? There’s an argument to be made that Lost in New York, which finds Kevin getting separated from his family at the airport and ending up on a plane to New York City, is even better than the original. [Home Alone trailer] [Home Alone 2: Lost in New York trailer]
Elf
In this modern classic, Will Ferrell stars as Buddy, a human raised by elves in the North Pole, who travels all the way to New York one Christmas to find his biological father. [Trailer]
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Jim Carrey plays Dr. Seuss’ Christmas-hating character, who emerges from his hovel one fateful year to ruin the holiday for the residents of Whoville. Carrey is at his Carrey-est here, hamming it up under all the green fur. [Trailer]
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is great because it’s about being depressed about commercialism during the most wonderful time of the year. There are so many reasons why this cartoon has been such a reliable favorite for so many years, from the soundtrack to the dancing to Linus’ sweet speech about the true meaning of Christmas. It never gets old. [Trailer]
The Holiday
Nancy Meyers’ 2006 rom-com got a well-deserved cultural resurgence a few years ago, with praise rolling in for Cameron Diaz’s wardrobe and the memeification of Jude Law’s Mr. Napkin Head. The film follows two women (played by Diaz and Kate Winslet) who house-swap for the holidays in order to escape their unfulfilling romantic lives. [Trailer]
The Polar Express
Since computer animation has advanced so much in the years since this was released, the visual style of The Polar Express is pretty outdated now, but at the time of its release, it was a huge deal that Tom Hanks, who plays the train conductor, did the motion capture for his character. The movie itself is still sweet, following a young boy’s journey on a train to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. [Trailer]
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Easily the most memorable of the Vacation films, this is a film about a bunch of things going wrong for the Griswold family — but at Christmas! Chevy Chase plays the beleaguered patriarch who’s determined to have a good holiday despite the presence of his wife’s crazy cousin, his thankless job, and malfunctioning string lights. [Trailer]
Die Hard
Every year, we’re burdened with many, many discussions about how Die Hard is actually a Christmas movie, but even that doesn’t take away from how great this action film is. Bruce Willis plays John McClane, a cop trying to save his wife and other hostages at a holiday party that gets taken over by German terrorists. [Trailer]
Love Actually
Richard Curtis’ rom-com, about a bunch of interconnected love stories during the Christmas season, is great because of how over the top it is. Every famous British person who’s ever lived (just kidding, barely) has a role in the madness, but the Bill Nighy story is secretly the most moving one. [Trailer]
White Christmas
In this wholesome 1954 musical, two sisters with a song-and-dance act become involved with a pair of singers, both professionally and romantically, and the four set out to save an inn from going out of business at Christmastime. [Trailer]
The Muppet Christmas Carol
This is not only the best Christmas Carol adaptation ever made; it’s also one of the best Christmas movies ever made, period. You already know the story of Ebenezer Scrooge (played here by Michael Caine), but it’s instantly made better by the presence of Kermit, Miss Piggy, and Gonzo, who acts as narrator. [Trailer]
It’s a Wonderful Life
This classic follows George Bailey (James Stewart), a man considering ending his life on Christmas Eve. He’s visited by a guardian angel who shows him what life in his town would have been like had he not been there. [Trailer]
The Santa Clause
After accidentally causing the death of Santa Claus (can you believe that’s how this movie starts?), a divorced dad (Tim Allen) is tasked with taking on the Santa mantle. This movie spawned two sequel films and a series, all of which are also available to watch on Disney+. [Trailer]
