Home › Movies A–Z › Classic Christmas Movies
Classic Christmas movies bring their own kind of holiday magic. Our catalog profiles 22 of them, from 1940 to 1984, across CBS, Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and more — each with its full cast, story, ratings and where to watch it this season.
22 profiled films
George C. Scott's Scrooge: the most commanding of the straight adaptations.
Scrooge McDuck was literally born for this role.
All Ralphie wants is a Red Ryder BB gun. You'll shoot your eye out, kid.
Santa takes a year off — and the Miser brothers steal the show.
Fred Astaire, a mailman, and the whole origin story of Santa Claus.
A silk hat, a magician who wants it back, and a race to the North Pole.
Chuck Jones, Boris Karloff, and three sizes too small.
Charlie Brown just wants to know what Christmas is all about.
The longest-running Christmas special in television history.
Two song-and-dance men, two sisters, one Vermont inn, and a general who needs saving.
Alastair Sim's Scrooge remains the performance every other Scrooge is measured against.
Bob Hope as a racetrack tout who owes the mob by Christmas Eve.
Alastair Sim is Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 adaptation critics call the finest ever filmed.
A department-store Santa insists he is the real thing — and a courtroom has to decide.
An angel arrives to help a bishop — and falls for the bishop's life.
A drifter moves into a millionaire's empty mansion for the winter — then invites guests.
The most beloved Christmas film ever made.
America's perfect homemaker is a fraud — and Christmas dinner is at her fake farm.
The film that gave Christmas 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.'
The film that gave the world 'White Christmas.'
Two shop clerks who can't stand each other are secretly pen pals in love.
A shoplifter, a prosecutor, and a Christmas road trip home to Indiana.
Start with the highest-rated: It's a Wonderful Life (1946, ★ 8.6/10 on IMDb); How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966, ★ 8.3/10 on IMDb); A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965, ★ 8.3/10 on IMDb). Every rating shown on this site is checked against its source — see each film's profile for the full picture.
Our catalog profiles 22 classic Christmas movies so far, and the complete A–Z catalog lists many more titles. The profiles below are the essentials — start there.
The classic titles profiled here come from CBS, Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Each film's profile links to its current streaming, rental and purchase options.
