![A swirly background in blues, oranges, and golds. The words HOLIDAYS 2022 are on torn gold paper, along with the Autostraddle logo.](https://www.autostraddle.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Holigays-22-Graphics-Pack.png?w=1200&resize=1200%2C600)
Holigays 2022 // Header by Viv Le
A few things are certain about Christmas, to me. One is that it will start earlier and earlier every year, with big box stores starting their marketing for the holiday as soon as they feel they can get away with it. Two, that inevitably the onslaught of holiday movies will begin, bringing with it a slew of Netflix movies and impassioned defenses of Love, Actually. Maybe I’m just a Grinch, but I find that they can become a little much, these holiday films, going a little too hard on the Christmas of it all can make the whole viewing experience feel not all that dissimilar to hearing “Last Christmas” over the loudspeakers of a CVS when you’re just trying to grab toothpaste.
So I’ve started keeping a list of movies that are Technically Christmas movies, but not actually Christmas movies. These are movies that include Christmas, sometimes even as a major part of the plot, but aren’t necessarily “about” Christmas. There’s something nice (and realistic) about that to me, in the way that many parts of the holiday season (visits to family, NOT visiting family, singledom, life partners, travel) always brings up all sorts of emotions, but aren’t necessarily the whole story. I think of these movies as a fireplace with stockings hung on them, rather than a Christmas tree in the center of the room.
Serendipity
Before I’d ever seen a Hallmark Christmas movie, there was this movie which begins with a meet-cute at a department store while Christmas shopping and ends (sorry spoilers incoming!) on the ice-skating rink at Rockefeller Center. It’s literally named after the store that got famous for hot chocolate! It’s cozy and lovely and totally unhinged, a progenitor of whatever Christmas film Netflix has just released.
Lady Bird
Okay, this one stretches the limits of the designation because it takes place roughly over the year of Lady Bird’s life (and honestly has more summer vibes), but I had to include it because of the scene at Christmas when the family exchanges small, inexpensive gifts because they can’t afford much more. Lady Bird’s mom, Marion (played heartbreakingly well by Laurie Metcalf) joyfully saying “It makes me laugh” about a needlepoint pun on a pillow brings a tear to my eye every time I see it!
Little Women
Like its sister, Lady Bird (both were directed by Greta Gerwig, they are sisters!), this movie unfolds over a long span of time but the Christmas portions are some of the most heartwarming bits, and Saoirse Ronan’s smiling “Merry Christmas, world” is enough.
Watching Lady Bird on a Friday night, as one who wants to induce a cathartic cry does, and am upset anew that Laurie Metcalf did not receive an Oscar for her delivery of “Makes me laugh” alone
— analyssa (@analoca_) February 1, 2020
While You Were Sleeping
This movie, in which Sandra Bullock pretends to be Peter Gallagher’s fiancee after saving him from a train (he’s in a coma) and then falls in love with his brother in the process, all begins on Christmas Day, when Peter Gallagher’s character (also named Peter!) is pushed onto the train tracks by muggers. Classic scenario!
When Harry Met Sally
I agree, I agree, this is the superior New Years film! However, like many films on this list that include New Years (the holidays are only a week apart!), it also includes Christmas. The juxtaposition of Sally Albright lugging her own Christmas tree home just a year after she and Harry purchased one together as friends? Quietly devastating! A perfect film to watch around Christmas time if the holiday gets you down and you want to turn that into optimism.
You’ve Got Mail
Before Vanessa Hudgens ruled Netflix, I think Meg Ryan was the queen of not just romantic comedies but HOLIDAY romantic comedies. This one also spans about a year (a little less) but the romantic climax begins right around Christmas time (I try to watch this every year right around November to get in the mood).
The Apartment
The acclaimed romantic comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, which I watched for the first time this year as part of my rom-com viewing project, takes place at the end of December, and is another arguable New Years film, but an office Christmas party and talks of the emotional significance of Christmas fruitcake place it solidly on the Christmas list.
Eyes Wide Shut
If romcoms aren’t your thing, here’s where the list takes a turn! Eyes Wide Shut follows Tom Cruise on a wild night through New York where he attends a masked sex party filled with members of the city’s ruling class. The adventure is bookended by Christmas festivities, beginning with a Christmas party of a coworker and ending with Christmas shopping in a toy store, and there are tons of Christmas lights in the streets as Tom runs around the city!
Zodiac
Because David Fincher made this film, the movie chronicling the hunt for the Zodiac Killer has a very blue, gray, green color palette, perfect for a dreary winter day. A break in the case comes from the handwriting in a Christmas card, making this a tenuous entry on the list, but one for the less celebratory among us!
Cronos
Another film that may be more of a New Years movie, except that it’s been certified as a Christmas movie by its very own director! Cronos is the debut feature of director Guillermo del Toro. When an antique dealer finds a device that gives eternal life in his antique shop, he becomes immortal with one catch: he now has a taste for human blood. Murder, fights, drugs, all abound! ‘Tis the season!
That’s right, CRONOS is a Christmas movie https://t.co/GJaP7Cs4q1
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) December 8, 2022
About a Boy
Less a comedy and more a wry romantic drama, About a Boy follows Hugh Grant, whose character lives a comfortable playboy lifestyle due to royalties from a Christmas song, as he befriends a young boy and becomes integrated into his and his mother’s lives. They spend a Christmas Day together, one of the first holidays that Hugh’s bachelor character has spent with loved ones in a long while. It’s quite dark for a romcom, with suicide attempts, fake children and a lot of sleeping around, but eventually heartwarming. What family doesn’t have their issues, you know?
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
If you still watch the Harry Potter films (hopefully because you own them on DVD from a long while ago), you probably know that many of them contain a Christmas scene, but the childhood wonder of Harry spending his first happy Christmas at Hogwarts makes this one the standout.
RENT and Spotlight have also been suggested as additions to the list by friends of mine, and I’m always on the search for more. If you have a not-Christmas Christmas movie to add, please let me know!
The 1991 The Addams Family. It starts with a Christmas carol!
the holiday climax of you’ve got mail is halloween and the fall street festival, i will not be taking questions at this time
Hmm – to your list may I recommend a few very different films that happen to take place around Christmas? Ronin (1998), The Dead (1987), and 101 Dalmations (1961). Also if you don’t mind heading over to youtube and want something a little different and extremely silly, Mischief Theatre’s ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ is a truly delightful take on Christmas panto.
I always get a craving to watch Sleepless in Seattle and Catch Me If You Can around Nov-Jan.
Just straight up no to Harry Potter, don’t even give that piece of shit woman’s flawed work any of your damn time.
correct take! thank you
Hustlers is a Christmas movie!!! And a delight. I also love the screwball comedy Holiday
A Long Kiss Goodnight! Geena Davis (who was 39 or 40 at the time) with bleached blonde, short hair, kicking butt. I would rather watch Geena Davis than Bruce Willis every Christmas
Yes, such a good one!
Came down to the comments to mention this one!! So fun, and such great funny rapport between the two leads.
Cronos!!!
The Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn film “Desk Set” has one of the most delightful extended office Christmas party scene that’s so much fun! The whole movie is fabulous.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) is a great “Christmas movie, too” film.
I was going to suggest it as well!!
Great list, I would also add Mean Girls and Batman Returns.
Yes, came here for Batman Returns
I rewatch The Apartment almost every Christmas! (But also Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas, to prove I have a soul.)
Auntie Mame is also a Christmas movie to me.
Thank you for the You’ve Got Mail recognition. One of those movies that feels warm and Christmasy to me, maybe also because of all the coffee they drink.
I’ve just been thinking about Christmas-adjacent movies! Definitely yes to Little Women, ‘tho I’m partial to the Winona Ryder version.
I watched While You Were Sleeping for the very first time last month and loved it!
Also The Green Knight is technically a Christmas movie. 😉
And thinking about the Christmas/New Year’s scenes in Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Also for whatever reason I usually rewatch LOTR and Star Wars over the holidays.
I’ll add Batman Returns to the list!
Planes, trains, and automobiles! A lovely odd couple buddy comedy that holds up well, and very cathartic re: horrors of holiday travel
Ooh! Just remembered The Lion in Winter for the ultimate dysfunctional family at Christmas 😅
And I haven’t watched them in years so don’t know how well they hold up, but Go and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang are also holiday-adjacent.
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is actually the best Christmas movie.
Trading Places with Jamie Lee Curtis, Eddie Murphy, Dan Akroyd – and a cameo by Al Franken. It’s dated, yes, but the overarching message is good and just and it really has some hilarious moments!
Hustlers is a Christmas movie!!! And a delight. I also love the screwball comedy Holiday
Bridget Jones begins and ends around christmas!
I love the shout outs for While You Were Sleeping and When Harry Met Sally.
Carol is Christmas-adjacent.