Items26The creator’s order
  1. 1Elf (2003)Elf (2003) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased 7 Nov 2003Will Ferrell plays Buddy, a human raised by elves who arrives in New York with no sense of embarrassment, and the whole film runs on his total sincerity meeting a city that has none. The syrup-on-spaghetti breakfast and the department store Santa confrontation are the scenes people quote all…0
  2. 2National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased 30 Nov 1989The definitive film about a host's Christmas going wrong. Chevy Chase's Clark Griswold wants a perfect family holiday, and every set piece, from the lights that will not switch on to the uninvited relatives in the RV, pushes him a little closer to snapping. Anyone who has hosted the in-laws will…0
  3. 3Home Alone (1990)Home Alone (1990) 7.8/10 on IMDbReleased 16 Nov 1990Eight-year-old Kevin McCallister is left behind when his family flies off for Christmas, and the last half hour is a gleeful demolition derby as two burglars walk into his booby-trapped house. The paint cans, the tarantula and the iron down the laundry chute still get gasps and laughs from children…0
  4. 4Scrooged (1988)Scrooged (1988) 6.9/10 on IMDbReleased 22 Nov 1988A Christmas Carol rewritten as a satire of 1980s network television, with Bill Murray as Frank Cross, a TV executive who fires a staff member on Christmas Eve and gets three ghosts for his trouble. Murray's sneering, deadpan delivery is the reason to watch, and the Ghost of Christmas Present, who…0
  5. 5Bad Santa (2003)Bad Santa (2003) 7.0/10 on IMDbReleased 26 Nov 2003The antidote to every cozy Christmas film. Billy Bob Thornton's Willie is a drunk, foul-mouthed safecracker who takes a shopping mall Santa job each year only to rob the place, and the comedy comes from how little he hides it from the children lining up for his lap. Thornton never asks for…0
  6. 6A Christmas Story (1983)A Christmas Story (1983) 7.9/10 on IMDbReleased 18 Nov 1983Ralphie wants a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas in the 1940s, and every adult he asks tells him he will shoot his eye out. The film is a string of small domestic disasters narrated by grown-up Ralphie with wry nostalgia: the leg lamp, the tongue stuck to a frozen flagpole, the pink bunny suit. It…0
  7. 7Trading Places (1983)Trading Places (1983) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased 7 Jun 1983Two callous millionaire brothers bet a dollar on swapping a snobbish commodities broker with a street hustler, and Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd turn the experiment into one of the sharpest comedies of the 1980s. It plays out over the festive season in Philadelphia, and Aykroyd's ruined broker…0
  8. 8Gremlins (1984)Gremlins (1984) 7.3/10 on IMDbReleased 8 Jun 1984A young man gets an adorable creature as a Christmas present, breaks the three rules that come with it, and a small snowbound town is overrun by cackling, anarchic monsters. Joe Dante plays the mayhem as slapstick, and the gremlins singing along in a movie theater or wrecking a bar are pure Looney…0
  9. 9The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) 7.8/10 on IMDbReleased 11 Dec 1992The funniest version of Dickens on film, mainly because Gonzo narrates as Charles Dickens with Rizzo the Rat heckling him from the sidelines. Michael Caine plays Scrooge completely straight, which makes the chaos around him, and Statler and Waldorf as the Marley brothers, even better. The songs…0
  10. 10How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) 6.4/10 on IMDbReleased 17 Nov 2000Ron Howard's live-action version of the Dr. Seuss story, and Jim Carrey's Grinch is a full-body rubber performance under heavy prosthetics: muttering, improvising and sulking through his own appointment calendar. The Whoville sets are deliberately overstuffed, which some find exhausting. Pick it…0