The 25 best holiday movies

Let’s just get this out of the way right off the bat. “Die Hard” is a Christmas film by our standards. This isn’t a list of what is and isn’t a Christmas movie. The movie takes place during an office Christmas party. There’s Christmas music on the radio. It’s a Christmas film. Also, “Die Hard” is a great movie.

You can’t go wrong pairing Steve Martin and John Candy. This is a Thanksgiving movie, but it’s really a travel movie. Be it Thanksgiving or Christmas, many of us can relate to the hassles of trying to travel during the holidays. That means, even if Thanksgiving has passed, you can still enjoy, and relate to, “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.”

Leave it to the Addams family to give the Thanksgiving festivities a macabre twist. Wednesday is cast as Pocahontas in her camp’s Thanksgiving pageant. She’s not having any of it, though. Instead, she leads an insurrection during the play and burns the camp down. Not the first Thanksgiving that we remember from the history books, but it's still an entertaining one.

A lot of times people show “Gremlins” around Halloween because it’s a horror film. However, the movie itself is decidedly set during the Christmas holiday. After all, Gizmo is a gift for Billy from his father. Then, of course, things go a bit awry. “Gremlins” works as a horror film, to be sure, but it works just as well as a comedy.

Shane Black likes to set his movies during Christmas, even though Christmas isn’t always front and center. This began with his first hit movie, the action classic “Lethal Weapon.” What says Christmas more than Gary Busey fighting Mel Gibson on a lawn?

We’ve been on a dark kick, so let’s lighten it up a bit. There’s arguably no holiday movie cheerier than “Elf.” You can thank Will Ferrell, who was still on the rise as a movie star, for that. His Buddy the Elf is a bundle of infectious energy and enthusiasm. This one is maybe more for the family than, say, “Lethal Weapon.”

Oddly enough, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was a flop when it originally came out. So how did it become a Christmas classic? Well, due to a lapsed copyright, it could be shown on TV without having to pay for airing rights (though there was still technically a copyright on it because it was based on a previous work). Television helped make Jimmy Stewart’s quaint little film a staple year in and year out.

We’ve got movies like “Die Hard” on this list, and yet “Home Alone” may be the most violent of the bunch. Kevin McAllister really takes it to the Wet Bandits. Did we need to see Daniel Stern step on a nail in a family movie? Well, it was a huge hit and spawned multiple sequels, so evidently people didn’t mind.

Of course Bill Murray wouldn’t star in a straightforward adaption of the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol.” No, his film is decidedly darker and more twisted. However, given that Murray is a genius, obviously it works. If you have a bit of a cynical streak, this is the “Christmas Carol” for you.

If you lack cynicism, though, then you’d be better off with the Muppets. We get to see all our Muppet favorites in classic roles from literary history. Then, in the center, there’s the iconic Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge. Caine and Gonzo in one movie? Sign us up!

Tim Burton helped usher in the era of the superhero film with the first “Batman,” starring Michael Keaton. This gave him a bit of a blank check, and he got weird with it in the sequel. The movie is barely about Batman. It’s mostly about Michelle Pfeiffer’s sensuous Catwoman and Danny DeVito’s deranged Penguin. Oh, and it takes places during the holiday season, just to make things even weirder.

You got Halloween in my Christmas! You got Christmas in my Halloween! This Tim Burton-produced movie is where the two biggest American holidays meet. The folks from Halloweentown, namely Jack Skellington, end up trying to usurp Christmas. It’s also a stop-motion movie, which means it looks amazing.

Of all the “Vacation” films, “Christmas Vacation” is probably the best of the bunch. We get the best of Chevy Chase as Clark Griswoldl; the best of Randy Quaid as Uncle Eddie. It’s a goofy comedy film, but it’s a staple of the season for a reason. It’s also nice to remember why Chase became a comedy star in the first place.

Sometimes for the holidays, you want some simple sentimentality. That’s what “Miracle on 34th Street” provides. It can get a little sappy, but don’t let that deter you. When you see that famous courtroom scene, the one with all the letters you’ve surely seen in clips, or perhaps in parodies, it’s hard not to feel at least a bit of a stirring in your heart. So don’t be a Grinch.

“Go” is a chaotic movie that tells a story from several different perspectives. It’s a very “1999” film. However, it’s also a really good one. The cast is really impressive, and it’s directed by Doug Liman. He ended up directing “The Bourne Identity,” and you can see the frenetic pacing and camerawork here in this action comedy.

How about a little film noir for the holidays? Robert Montgomery, who also directed it, plays the iconic private eye Philip Marlowe. It’s an interesting film, especially for the 1940s, as it’s a murder mystery set during the Christmas season and also on Christmas as well.

This one is an underrated gem. It’s a dark comedy starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton, and it’s about a heist that goes wrong. “The Ice Harvest” has a lot of cynicism about the holidays, but sometimes you are in that mood — like, say, after you’re sick and tired of having to spend time with your family and you wish maybe Christmas wasn’t such a big deal.

From a dark, cynical drama to a light romantic comedy, “Christmas in Connecticut” is a fun little trifle. It stars Barbara Stanwyck, who was a huge star. She could do dramas well, but this film proved she also could do a great job with a romantic comedy. The premise is a bit silly, but it’s a rom-com, so who cares?

It’s another dose of Billy Bob Thornton! “Bad Santa” is a dark comedy, mostly due to Thornton’s character. He’s the titular bad Santa, a rude, crude criminal who gets a job playing Santa to case a joint. It’s raunchy and a bit gross at times, but people loved it and eventually it got a sequel.

Hey, these are holiday movies, so how about a little love for Hanukkah? “The Hebrew Hammer” is a comedic take on the exploitation movie with a decidedly heavy dose of Jewish culture. Adam Goldberg stars as the Hebrew Hammer, a Jewish private eye who finds himself in the middle of a plot from the son of Santa to get rid of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa so everybody has to celebrate Christmas.

OK, so the action of “Sleepless in Seattle” culminates on Valentine’s Day, which is outside the parameters of the holiday season. However, the jumping-off point for this film is when the son of widower Sam Baldwin calls a radio station on Christmas Eve. The movie then goes through Christmas and New Year’s Eve en route to that Valentine’s Day conclusion. Also, this film stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, so of course we wanted a reason to include it.

“The Apartment” isn’t just an iconic romantic comedy, but it’s one that won Best Picture at the Oscars. This is a truly rare feat. There are two big parties in this movie: a Christmas party and a New Year’s Eve party. In fact, the movie reaches its conclusion just after the new year begins. Fittingly, it’s also a new beginning for the couple at the center of the film.

Isn’t it always the way it goes? You take a sea voyage to celebrate the new year, and then the ship capsizes. That’s what happens in the disaster film “The Poseidon Adventure.” Disaster films aren't made as much anymore, but for some reason it was a weirdly popular genre for a bit, and “The Poseidon Adventure” has had some legs to it.

Yes, “Ghostbusters II” is a real step down from “Ghostbusters.” There’s no denying that. However, comparing it to the classic original undersells the fact that the sequel still has some good stuff in it. After all, this is a movie featuring both Bill Murray and Rick Moranis. The action really kicks into another gear on New Year’s Eve when the evil slime starts to wreak its havoc. That gets it on this list, no problem.

The original “Thin Man” also takes place around the holiday season, but we’re going with its first sequel, which is set around the new year. For starters, the two years of development of film technology between the first movie and this one honestly helps a bit. Second, this one also has Jimmy Stewart in it. “The Thin Man” is a fine film as well, but we’ll take “After the Thin Man” for our holiday movie list.