Holiday Movie List
I love Christmas. Not the commercial ‘buy-everything-on-the-shelves’ Christmas, but the magic of Christmastime. As a Christian, this is the time we celebrate the birth of God becoming a man. We celebrate God’s unfathomable love. A love so strong it is ephemeral, timeless… magical. How could it not be? An infinite God became a triune God in order to save His children from themselves. If that is not magical, nothing is.
I remember as a child, my parents reading us The Night Before Christmas as well as the story about the real St. Nick. Somehow in our imaginative brains, the stories blended and we believed Santa Clause was real. I never had that life changing experience some children have when they learn the truth, because a part of me always knew the real story. Santa Clause embodies the fun and spirit of Christmastime. For me, he always will.
So, here are a few holiday movies I love to watch every year as I bake and do chores (Otherwise, I couldn’t watch all of these), from Thanksgiving until New Year’s. As well as some newer ones. I will be reviewing new releases from this 2023 season every Wednesday in the weeks between now and New Year’s. Enjoy!
My yearly watch list (some classic/some cheesy):
The Little Princess (Shirley Temple, 1939)
The Shop Around the Corner (James Stewart, 1940)
Holiday Inn (Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, 1942)
The Man Who Came To Dinner (Bette Davis, 1942)
Christmas in Connecticut (Barbara Stanwyck, 1945)
It’s a Wonderful Life (James Stewart, 1946)
Miracle on 34th Street (Edmund Gwen, Maureen O’Hara, & Natalie Wood, 1947)
The Bishop’s Wife (Cary Grant, 1948)
The Voice of the Turtle (Ronald Reagan, 1948)
Holiday Affair (Robert Mitchum & Janet Leigh, 1949)
White Christmas (Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, 1954)
Susan Slept Here (Debbie Reynolds, 1954)
We’re No Angels (Humphry Bogart, 1955)
Desk Set (Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracey, & Gig Young, 1957)
Scrooge (the musical, Albert Finney, 1971)
Scrooged (Bill Murray, 1988)
Die Hard (Bruce Willis, 1988)
Sleepless in Seattle (Meg Ryan & Tom Hanks, 1993)
While You Were Sleeping (Sandra Bullock & Bill Pullman, 1995)
You’ve Got Mail (a remake of The Shop Around The Corner with Meg Ryan & Tom Hanks, 1998)
The Family Man (Nicolas Cage & Tea Leoni, 2000)
Serendipity (John Cusack & Kate Beckinsale, 2001)
The Last Holiday (Queen Latifah, 2006)
The Christmas Card (Edward Asner, 2006)
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner & Michael Douglas, 2009)
The Christmas Lodge (Michael Shanks, 2011)
Trading Christmas (Tom Cavanagh & Faith Ford, 2011)
Snow Bride (Katrina Law & Patricia Richardson, 2013)
Spirit of Christmas (Jen Lilley & Thomas Beaudoin, 2015)
The Bridge (Katie Findlay, Wyatt Nash, Faith Ford, & Ted McGinley, 2015)
Murder She Baked: A Plum Pudding Mystery (Alison Sweeney, 2015)
A Shoe Addict’s Christmas (Candace Cameron Bure, 2018)
More Holiday movies:
Jack Frost (Michael Keaton, 1998)
The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year (Henry Winkler & Brooke Burns, 2008)
November Christmas (Sam Elliot, 2010)
A Princess For Christmas (Katie McGrath, 2011)
Hitched for the Holidays (Joey Lawrence, 2012)
A Bride For Christmas (Andrew Walker & Arielle Kebbel, 2012)
Dance With Me (Andrew McCarthy, 2012)
Christmas With Holly (Eloise Mumford & Sean Faris, 2012)
A Very Merry Mix-Up (Alicia Witt, 2013)
One Starry Christmas (Sarah Carter, 2014)
A Christmas Detour (Candace Cameron Bure & Paul Greene, 2015)
Dashing Through the Snow (Andrew Walker, 2015)
Just In Time For Christmas (Eloise Mumford & Christopher Lloyd, 2015)
Crown for Christmas (Danica McKellar, 2015)
Angel of Christmas (Jonathan Scarfe, 2015)
Once Upon A Holiday (Paul Campbell, 2015)
Journey Back to Christmas (Candace Cameron Bure, 2016)
A December Bride (Daniel Lessing, 2016)
Christmas at Holly Lodge (Allison Sweeney, 2017)
Coming Home for Christmas (Danika McKellar, 2017)
Christmas in Evergreen (Ashley Williams & Teddy Sears, 2017)
Christmas Homecoming (Michael Shanks, 2017)
A Christmas Getaway (Bridget Regan & Teryl Rothery, 2017)
Christmas Connection (Brooke Burns & Tom Everett Scott, 2017)
The Mistletoe Inn (Alicia Witt, 2017)
The Christmas Train (Kimberly Williams-Paisley & Dermot Mulroney, 2017)
A Godwink Christmas (Kimberley Sustad & Paul Campbell, 2018)
Christmas at Grand Valley (Danika McKellar, 2018)
Christmas at the Plaza (Elizabeth Henstridge, 2019)
A Timeless Christmas (Erin Cahill & Ryan Paevy, 2020)
USS Christmas (Jen Lilley, 2020)
A Christmas Star (Daniel Lessing, 2021)
And so many more…almost unending… such as Santa Clause with Tim Allen, and Home Alone, and… and…
Perhaps I will list different ones each year until I run out! LOL! Merry Christmas!
