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Drama Christmas movies bring their own kind of holiday magic. Our catalog profiles 47 of them, from 1940 to 2024, across Hallmark Channel, Netflix, Universal Pictures and more — each with its full cast, story, ratings and where to watch it this season.
47 profiled films
The worst kids in town hijack the church Christmas pageant. It becomes the best one.
Three brothers, one abandoned baby, zero childcare experience.
Before he was Santa, he was Nikolas — a boy looking for elves.
Mama Agatha wants grandchildren — so she puts her Ikoyi house on the table for whichever son marries first.
A betrayed toymaker, his granddaughter, and the invention that can save them both.
Abby plans to propose at Christmas — then learns her girlfriend hasn't come out to her family yet.
A spoiled postman and a reclusive toymaker accidentally invent Santa Claus.
Five Christmas cards, sent to the people who changed her life.
A vet, a wish on a snow globe, and a whole town that runs on Christmas.
Charles Dickens has six weeks to write A Christmas Carol — and his characters won't behave.
The first Christmas without Mom. Dad, the house, and five grown children try anyway.
A big-city doctor, a tiny Alaska town, and a Santa who seems suspiciously real.
College friends reunite for Christmas — and Mia has something to tell them.
Madea goes to the country for Christmas. The country was not consulted.
Langston runs from Baltimore to Harlem — and into his family's faith and music.
Santa's clumsy youngest son has one night to deliver one forgotten bike.
Letters to Santa, answered by a shopaholic with a deadline from her parents.
Jim Carrey plays Scrooge — and all three ghosts — in Zemeckis's dark motion-capture Carol.
Both sets of parents are divorced. That's four Christmases in one day.
A corporate scrooge aunt, a free-spirited uncle, and Henry Winkler with a turkey.
The Whitfields come home: five siblings, their secrets, and Ma'Dere's rules.
A soldier in Afghanistan gets a stranger's Christmas card — and it changes everything.
Given weeks to live, Georgia Byrd finally spends her savings on the life she wanted.
She's meeting his family for Christmas. It goes badly. Then it goes somewhere real.
Nine London love stories, five weeks before Christmas.
The worst mall Santa in America plans his annual heist — then a kid happens.
A Wall Street Scrooge gets shown the road not taken — with minivans.
A church choirmaster by day and a beloved drag performer by night becomes the only family a mother and daughter have left.
Ebenita Scrooge runs her savings and loan with an iron fist — until the partner she buried comes back to warn her.
Denzel is an angel. Whitney is the gospel choir. The church is saved — the marriage needs work.
The beloved remake, with Richard Attenborough's twinkle turned all the way up.
Winona Ryder leads the beloved 1994 March sisters — the Little Women a generation grew up with.
Michael Caine plays it completely straight — opposite felt — and it's perfect.
An unfinished artificial man, a snowy suburb, and the inventor who died too soon.
A little girl, an injured reindeer, and a town that needs to believe.
Bill Murray is a TV executive Scrooge, and his ghosts fight dirty.
A weary mother, a Christmas angel, and a letter to the North Pole.
George C. Scott's Scrooge: the most commanding of the straight adaptations.
Dickens as a big, brassy London musical, with Albert Finney dancing on Scrooge's grave.
Alastair Sim's Scrooge remains the performance every other Scrooge is measured against.
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.
The most beloved Christmas film ever made.
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); Klaus (2019, ★ 8.2/10 on IMDb); Scrooge (1951, ★ 8.1/10 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 47 drama Christmas movies so far, and the complete A–Z catalog lists many more titles. The profiles below are the essentials — start there.
The drama titles profiled here come from Hallmark Channel, Netflix, Universal Pictures. Each film's profile links to its current streaming, rental and purchase options.
