It feels almost too obvious, but A Charlie Brown Christmas is legitimately profoundly great. I know there's a lot of whatever Peanuts/Snoopy stuff, but that one TV special remains a singular and impeccable piece of art.
An uptight but secretly heartbroken primary school teacher's little white lie about Hollywood coming to see his class' nativity play grows like wildfire in his rag-tag school low on self-esteem.
Lots of laugh-out loud moments with lots of familiar faces in this British Christmas story.
After Santa Claus is arrested and jailed, a recently paroled prisoner and his young son attempt to save Christmas before it is too late. Another British Gem with Christmas Chronicle vibes.
Groundhog Day meets Christmas day. Stuck in a time loop where it’s forever Christmas for him, a Brazilian family man who hates the holiday starts to learn valuable lessons about what's important in life. Warm and real.
Slightly outside of the request...or exactly what you want... the podcast Sarah and Michael Save Christmas is a delightful Australian couple who watch christmas episodes of tv shows, year round. Then on actual Christmas they watch 12 hours of Christmas movies in a row.
Weirdly enough, Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special is also about Christmas (Michael Bolton is tasked by Santa Claus to get everyone to get down on Valentine's Day so there will be more kids for Christmas) https://bsky.app/profile/ehronlime.bsky.social/post/3ldpv27x44c2m
I don't know if either are underrated, but The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) is a bit of a biopic of Charles Dickens and my favorite (newer) take on Christmas Carol; Klaus (2019) is so pretty and family friendly.
For a weird, less traditional one, I'd recommend Rare Exports (2010).
It's a deep cut, but the season three episode of "Just Shoot Me" called "How the Finch Stole Christmas" which is a rare Grinch parody and includes Kelsey Grammer doing his best Boris Karloff impression.
The Nutcracker has inspired some dreadful movies but the 1986 and 1993 films of the ballet itself (the former the revisionist version with the Maurice Sendak designs, the latter the traditional one with Macaulay Culkin) are good, and 1979's Nutcracker Fantasy is a gorgeous Japanese stop-motion take.
We all know Charlie Brown Christmas but I actually do like the various later Peanuts shows (It's Christmas Time Again Charlie Brown, I Want a Dog for Christmas Charlie Brown, and Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales).
Would be my pick as well. Not always the biggest fan of the video tape episodes but it gives this one a real uncanny realism that I think works very well
We're No Angels based on a French play about escaped convicts (with a heart of gold) on Devil's Island at Christmastime. With Basil Rathbone as the villainous uncle. Always nice to see Bogart in a comedy.
Blackadder’s Christmas Carol. It’s utterly foundational to my sense of humor, a wonderful ‘Greatest Hits’ & a brilliant homage/subversion of the Dickens narrative.
The episode of The Real Ghostbusters where the crew captures the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.
At one point they're wheeling Ebeneezer Scrooge around in a wheelchair while showing him a ViewMaster about his life as they attempt to reverse their mistake.
Millennium, s2e19, "Midnight of the Century". Chris Carter's bastard show about a psychic criminal investigator manages to turn in a heartfelt episode about loss and reuniting. Highlight is brining in Darren McGavin (Night Stalker) to play Lance Henriksen's estranged father.
Arthur Christmas is my go-to answer! I finally saw Muppets Christmas Carol last night and am in agreement with the popular opinion, a kid-friendly adaptation with great puppet work and a solid straight performance by Caine.
My wife and I always make time to watch the cheesy-as-hell He-Man and Shr-Ra Christmas Special. It has a whole subplot about how transforming robots are evil, as a not-so-subliminal middle finger from Mattel to Hasbro.
I've also gotta give a shout-out to the whole slate of A Ghost Story for Christmas films. Sub-question: which one is the scariest?! (I need to rewatch but I remember being especially spooked by The Ash Tree) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Ghost_Story_for_Christmas
They're largely more vibe-y than actually scary (as are most of the M.R. James stories most of them based on) — but if that's your thing, they are *excellent*. The best one imo is Casting the Runes, but Whistle and I'll Come to You and The Signalman are both considered all-time classics
That'd definitely be fine by me. One of my favorite film experiences is this one Japanese horror anthology, 1964's Kwaidan, which was more about atmosphere and vibes than it was about actual scares.
So, that being the case, I'll have to keep those recommendations in mind. Thank you very, very much!
There was I want to say a Buffy Xmas episode one season that I can’t even recall any details about other than I think there was a finding-each other scene at the end in a church that made great use of O Holy Night and man i remember that really landing apparently
I don’t know how under appreciated it is but I think Tokyo Godfathers is the perfect Christmas movie.
On Christmas Eve, three homeless people (an alcoholic, a trans woman, and a teenage runaway) find a baby in the trash and set out to find her parents. A modern day manger story. Funny and moving.
Murderville's Who Killed Santa? special (Netflix) is one of my favorite things ever. I've probably watched the big reveal 20 times over the past two years, laughing like an idiot every time.
It only sort of references Christmas, but it takes place 10 days before Christmas. In the mall, it’s clear it is Christmas time, so to me, if Die Hard counts as a Christmas movie, so does Night of the Comet.
I just rewatched Spirited (2022). It's a fun enough movie, but the choreography in the musical numbers deserves far more recognition. It's absolutely brilliant.
Oh I get to be the first to say Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, which has one of my favourite jokes where Baldrick misspells “Christmas” without using a single correct letter, and you have to wait for the very end of credits to see what it was (kweznuz)
Watching Scrooge was one of our family traditions with Mom. It's interesting how it manages to be kind of a solid, stock-standard retelling of the story while also commenting on the original text and modernizing it by making it a musical. Great songs. Kind of Wonka-esque vibes.
Mickey Saves Christmas, a stop-motion special with animation from the same studio that does Robot Chicken (!!!) is also worthwhile. This year they did some follow-up Christmas carol skits with the same models.
Honestly the carol shorts this year should been the promotional face on Disney+ rather than that lame Boy and the Octopus short. They actually remind me of the cool old interstitials the old-school Disney Channel had in the early '90s.
Steve Martin's "Mixed Nuts," a comedy set in a crisis center / suicide hotline at Xmas. Dated & cringe in parts, sure, but ultimately as life-affirming as "It's A Wonderful Life."
It couldn't be further removed from the OG Cat People, but it's such an enchanting, genuinely moving movie. Who could have ever guessed that a movie like Cat People could lead to a movie like THAT?
Comments
On my list to revisit this year:
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
The Ice Harvest
The Ref
An uptight but secretly heartbroken primary school teacher's little white lie about Hollywood coming to see his class' nativity play grows like wildfire in his rag-tag school low on self-esteem.
Lots of laugh-out loud moments with lots of familiar faces in this British Christmas story.
After Santa Claus is arrested and jailed, a recently paroled prisoner and his young son attempt to save Christmas before it is too late. Another British Gem with Christmas Chronicle vibes.
#christmasmovies
Groundhog Day meets Christmas day. Stuck in a time loop where it’s forever Christmas for him, a Brazilian family man who hates the holiday starts to learn valuable lessons about what's important in life. Warm and real.
Trust me.
TV Special: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
It is and forever will be the canonical Dickens adaptation.
For a weird, less traditional one, I'd recommend Rare Exports (2010).
Before the power of Santa
Or be crushed, be crushed byyy
His jolly boots of doom!🎶
https://youtu.be/JS1eTb6smNM?si=_hDBDtO-8JcmQvJ7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4vL1GFwBuo&pp=ygUNbW91c2Vob2xlIGNhdA%3D%3D
Cricket on the Hearth is friggin WEIRD but has a special place in my heart due to memories with friends
It literally has Santa Claus in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg7AW-DS2nM
At one point they're wheeling Ebeneezer Scrooge around in a wheelchair while showing him a ViewMaster about his life as they attempt to reverse their mistake.
So, that being the case, I'll have to keep those recommendations in mind. Thank you very, very much!
On Christmas Eve, three homeless people (an alcoholic, a trans woman, and a teenage runaway) find a baby in the trash and set out to find her parents. A modern day manger story. Funny and moving.
Just a fun time of Bill Murry doing Bill Murray things.
Also, Trading Places is a holiday movie and I will die on this hill.
Red Green Show
https://youtu.be/PmlotNx0Vfo
Mr Bean
https://youtu.be/L2UCRNldC3s
Vicar of Dibley
https://youtu.be/K-jVd4b6Q04
ALF's Christmas Special
(Kleenex alert)
https://youtu.be/_Dja4Wz-e3c
Garfield's Christmas Special
https://youtu.be/TbL-uxd4ZVw
Bugs Bunny
https://youtu.be/-7uH-YVmIf8
https://youtu.be/mLccxrDgi5U?si=UovPBY9HxguIw_Op
Duck the Halls, a special in the style of the new Mickey cartoon is also really great.
It couldn't be further removed from the OG Cat People, but it's such an enchanting, genuinely moving movie. Who could have ever guessed that a movie like Cat People could lead to a movie like THAT?
That was well and truly removed from the '39 classic that everyone loved, but that needn't be a *bad* thing! Far from it.
I rather dig its visual flair and world-building and imagination and all that.