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So, pretty much the entire household is ill at the minute and today we’ve filled the childcare gap by cracking open the Christmas films. This has reminded me just how absolutely awful most Christmas films are, so to try and maintain my sanity a little I was wondering which Christmas films people think are actually worth watching with the family (eldest is eight so die hard is out)? Bonus points if it’s something we can get in the usual streaming services.
So far my list is:
Klaus
Elf
Muppets Christmas Carrol
Home Alone
Arthur Christmas
Nightmare before Christmas (though this might be a bit of a stretch)
We quite like The Christmas Chronicles and the sequel is decent too. Not up there with Elf but worth a watch.
Die Hard.
Edit: Dammit Drac!
Polar Express has always been our kids go to for Christmas boredom.
oh, and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation….it’s a 12 apparently. May have to be quick on the mute button in places.
Nightmare before Christmas
Scrooged is on 4 at the moment it's pretty funny though some attitudes are dated.
Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas is a fun short film.
Gremlins is a great Christmas film too.
Violent Night is coming to Sky soon I think not seen it but reviews are OK.
A Christmas Carol, 1951 version.
It's simply the greatest Christmas movie ever made.
You need to change your mindset, no Christmas movies are 'actually worth watching', but there's a curious joy to taking in one of the endless succession of clichéd season schmaltz fests featuring lovelorn heiresses / Cinderella-style heroines / good-hearted plain girls falling utterly predictably for some handsome prince / Mr Darcy / plain but good-hearted bloke. They're all terrible. They're all predictable. They're all the same. But that's the point. Anything genuinely good is automatically disqualified. Anything starring Hugh Grant is automatically disqualified. Anything featuring guns and violence is cheating 🙂
Or you could go for 'It's a Wonderful Life' to fully enjoy the despair of a broken man at Christmas, albeit with a happy ending.
Rise of the Guardians? A bit tenuous but hey it has Santa in it 🤷♂️
Don't really remember it but think it was enjoyable...
Nativity
That’s what my kids told me back in the day
A Christmas Story, from the mid eighties. No sex, language or violence. I guarantee everyone will laugh their Christmas socks off.
Bad Santa uncut version
The Grinch.
My kids loved Nativity but can’t say I ever watched it.
Santa Claus The Movie
Elf
Miracle on 34th Street
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Jingle All The Way
The Snowman
Freeview Channel 52 has been showing Hallmark Christmas movies since the beginning of October....
The Grinch
Came here to say this, we've got it on right now (the modern Benedict Cummerbund version with the Pharrell soundtrack, easy watching).
We've already got the first two Home Alone movies in regular rotation as well 🙄
8 Bit Xmas is a very nice family one
Someone I know with kids tried love actually last year, they'd forgotten about the porn shoot lighting trials!
Violent night is no kids movie, although some scenes are inspired by other kids Christmas films.
I had to watch/have watched loads. There are some mildly entertaining ones, but mostly they represent a faux Christmas none of us ever have. So just stick the Christmas dinner from the Bear on and let the kids realise what Christmas really means!!
Another vote here for the uncut version of The National Lampoons Christmas Vacation!
Whilst we're on the topic, what's with these truly awful Christmas that appear on a daily basis on the likes of Channel 5?? Who watches this nonsense (other than grandmas and grandpas)??
Nativity! and Nativity 2 Danger In The Manger were a good watch
Hogfather I quite like.
The Santa Clause movies (Tim Allen). 1 and 2 are OK for what they are, 3 less so.
The other stuff we watch is pretty much already mentioned above.
Fatman
Has to be Gremlins, surely.
Violent Night is a new contender for "best Christmas movie" next to Die Hard but I wouldn't say either are particularly suitable for an eight-year old.
+1 It’s a Wonderful Life. Kids have a sweepstake every year how soon I’m going to blub. Didn’t manage to get beyond the opening credits one year.
You need to change your mindset, no Christmas movies are ‘actually worth watching’,
Home Alone is one of the greatest movies of all time. Slapstick comedy is a fine genre and Home Alone smashes it out of the park.
no Christmas movies are ‘actually worth watching’, They’re all terrible. They’re all predictable. They’re all the same.
Nightmare Before Christmas isn’t. It’s the only actual Christmas movie I’ll bother watching, with anything by Ardmann following after.
I can recommend A Very Yorkshire Christmas, a staple of the Hallmark plot machine and famous for (a) being filmed in Knaresborough in the summer, and (b) for me strolling through fake snow in the background wearing shorts and t-shirt on the hottest day of the year.
Edit: also, how does Polar Express not have more votes?
The Snowman
The Raymond Briggs one.
You need to change your mindset, no Christmas movies are ‘actually worth watching’,
Disagree!
Muppets Christmas carol is great
Nightmare before is great
I think it may be possible to conclude at this point that there aren't exactly a lot of quality titles out there. Especially having been subjected to some of the suggestions on the list above (Nativity I'm looking at you).
There are a few I've not seen though so will try and point the kids towards them if we can't escape outside again this side of 2024.
If anyone comes back to this later I should have also had Robin Robin on my original list, even though it might be a stretch to call it a film at ~30 minutes.
It's not out yet but Silent Night shows some promise but is not a kids film.
Muppets
Nightmare
Love Actually
Die Hard
Set Love Actually going at the right time and get Hans falling off the Nakatomi Tower at midnight as revenge for treating Emma Thompson badl!
BoardinBob
Full Member
8 Bit Xmas is a very nice family one
This is a very good shout^^^^ enjoyed it a lot
Also, your children may be too young - but Krampus was one of the better Xmas films I've watched over the last couple of years
A Christmas Story, from the mid eighties. No sex, language or violence. I guarantee everyone will laugh their Christmas socks off.
There's a sequel to that. Watched it last year. Quite chucklesome, very wholesome
Gremlins is a great Christmas film too.
Be careful with Gremlins. My two are 13 and 14 now and haven't been introduced to Gremlins because of this scene
Our annual Xmas watch was Black Sheep, all my nieces and nephews loved it. Think Dog Soldiers, but more gory and with sheep.
Prep and Landing series.
@tonyd my kids have watched Gremlins for years and only recently did I clock that scene! Managed to talk my way out of it; it was her dad dressed up not the real one, the real one will still have turned up etc etc but always wonder if they are pretending to believe now… there should be a writers code never to alude to that in anything no matter the rating!
in other news. Lots of classics here but the best modern-ish one I’ve seen is ‘The Night Before’ probs not for young families but PMSL!
Her logic is clearly flawed. By that reasoning I could disprove god.
Muppets Christmas carol
I suppose it depends on your family but here are our Christmas staples:
Elf
Die Hard 1 & 2
Home Alone 1 & 2
Scrooged
Office Christmas party
Daddy’s home 2
National Lampoons Christmas vacation
Gremlins
The Grinch (Jim Carey version)
Polar Express
Holiday Inn
White Christmas
Muppets Christmas Carol
Its a wonderful Life
I also give Planes Trains & Automobiles a honourable mention even though it’s though a thanksgiving film, and normally kicks off our “seasonal films” binge..
Gremlins was rated 15 when it came out, possibly explaining the Santa Claus story in the script.
Amazon prime has the grinch and how the grinch stole Christmas
Big fans of Angels Sing in our house. Willie Nelson, Harry Connick, Lyle Lovett among others. Sure it’s schmaltzy, but hey it’s Christmas
Rare Exports.
We watched Gremlins the other day, I had fond memories of it and thought my 10 year old would enjoy it.
It's rubbish! It hasn't aged well. The part in the bar is too long and just stupid, not funny stupid, but puppeteers going "let's dick about with some more costumes" stupid. The end bit in the department store is pants. The whole film was pretty disappointing, which is a big shame as I really wanted a good Christmas film as an alternative to all the Richard Curtis crap.
Depending on the age of the kids ...
Scrooged
Trading places
For anyone whose family is all older than 15, Violent Night.
Xmas story, people questioning if Santa (David Harbour) is real or not etc combined with Die hard and gratuitous gory violence.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt12003946/
The Futurama episodes with Santa Bot.
For anyone whose family is all older than 15, Violent Night.
I caught some of this over the weekend, maybe 20 minutes. I'd have to be drunk to think it was worth watching any more than that.
The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper, sadly only 11 minutes long, but well worth it.
on Netflix with some other Dreamworks titles, that I haven't seen.
Watch DreamWorks Holiday Classics | Netflix
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