In this list, you'll find a mix of old and modern classics and some newer releases

Elf

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. I defy you to find someone on this planet who hasn't at the very least seen a frame of this movie, which despite being released in 2003 feels like it's been around since the beginning of time.

Home Alome

It doesn't get more quintessentially Christmas than Home Alone, the movie about Kevin McCallister [acaulay Culkin], a kid who gets accidentally left behind when the rest of his family goes on vacation for the holidays. I personally think of this movie most fondly for its bumbling villains, two burglars, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, known as the Wet Bandits, who end up involved in a dangerous feud with Kevin

Home Alone 2:Lost in New York

When you're done watching Home Alone, better you check out its sequel. There's a convincing 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.

Love Actually

Much like the annual Die-Hard discourse, someone always tries to work up an annual Love actually discourse too, and I have to be honest with you, I'm not interested in hearing about it. I love this insane rom-com, about a bunch of interconnected love stories during the Yuletide season, because of how insane it is. Every famous British person ever invented has a role in it, but the Bill Nighy story is secretly the most moving one.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Jim Carrey plays Dr. Seuss' classic 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.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Easily the most memorable of the Vacation film series, this is mostly a movie about a bunch of things going wrong for a family at Christmas. Chevy plays the troubled 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.

Just Friends

In all of its extremely mid-2000s comedy-ness, this movie is kind of hit or miss, but i am of the opinion that it is actually very good, made even better when you watch it during the Christmas season. A pre-Deadpool Ryan Reynolds stars as a formerly overweight high schooler who returns home for the holidays ten years later, reuniting with the high school crush [Amy Smart] who rejected him at their graduation party. Are there a lot of jokes that definitely would not fly today? Of course. Does Anna Faris also give a pitch-perfect performance as Reynolds' character's eccentric pop star girlfriend? She sure does. Sometimes that's all you need.

Die Hard

Every year, we're collectively burdened with many, many articles about how Die Hard is actually a Christmas movie, but even that doesn't take away from how great this film still 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.

The Family Stone

Like so many holiday movies, the Family Stone is super weird, but in a way that just makes it more lovable. It stars Sarah Jessica Parker as an uptight New York City business lady who goes to spend Christmas with her boyfriend's [Dermot Mulroney] family. His family, which includes Diane Keaton as his mom,Racheal McAdams as his sister, and Luke Wilson as his brother, are pretty judgmental, so much that SJP asks her sister [played by Claire Danes to come act as her backup. We won’t reveal what happens from there, but the whole movie is a ticking time bomb of weird family dynamics, all set against the backdrop of the holidays.

While You were Sleeping

People will try to tell you this romantic comedy is insane, and those people will be correct, but make no mistake, it’s one of those insane movies that just works. Bullock plays Lucy, a public transit worker who saves Peter [Peter Gallagher] a man she's been crushing on from afar, from getting hit by a train on Christmas Day. After he falls into a coma, Lucy becomes accidentally involved in an elaborate lie when Peter's family assumes she's his fiancée. She goes along with the ruse, further complicating things when she finds herself someting closer to his brother [Bill Pullman].