Home › Movies A–Z › Family Christmas Movies
Family Christmas movies bring their own kind of holiday magic. Our catalog profiles 58 of them, from 1944 to 2023, across Hallmark Channel, Netflix, Walt Disney Pictures and more — each with its full cast, story, ratings and where to watch it this season.
58 profiled films
Chris Carver wants the best-decorated house on the street — and an elf named Pepper is happy to help, for a price.
A social worker who stopped believing in Christmas takes his daughter to work on Christmas Eve — and finds Santa in the chimney.
Three brothers, one abandoned baby, zero childcare experience.
1988. One kid. One Nintendo Entertainment System. Total war.
Before he was Santa, he was Nikolas — a boy looking for elves.
Mrs. Claus runs the village; a bitter ex-elf wants to ruin it forever.
A betrayed toymaker, his granddaughter, and the invention that can save them both.
A spoiled postman and a reclusive toymaker accidentally invent Santa Claus.
A Christmas Eve snowstorm strands a small town's teenagers — and every crush, feud, and secret collides by morning.
Two kids stow away on Santa's sleigh. Santa is Kurt Russell. Buckle up.
Benedict Cumberbatch voices the Grinch in Illumination's bright, musical retelling of the Seuss classic.
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.
A family loses the Christmas spirit, and something with horns comes instead.
A big-city doctor, a tiny Alaska town, and a Santa who seems suspiciously real.
A firefighter who avoids commitment. A cat who has other plans.
A tabloid reporter goes undercover with a senator's family — and files the wrong story.
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.
Jim Carrey plays Scrooge — and all three ghosts — in Zemeckis's dark motion-capture Carol.
A widowed father, twin boys, and a housekeeper who seems heaven-sent.
A corporate scrooge aunt, a free-spirited uncle, and Henry Winkler with a turkey.
A little girl asks Santa for one thing: a man who will pay her mother a compliment.
A quiet street, a new neighbor, and enough lights to be seen from space.
All aboard — the definitive Santa's-workshop train ride.
Raised by elves, Buddy comes to New York to find his dad — who is on the naughty list.
Santa has to find a Mrs. Claus by Christmas Eve — or stop being Santa.
Santa is retiring after 200 years — and the glowing hat picked a shopping-network producer who hates Christmas.
Jim Carrey inside Rick Baker's Oscar-winning Grinch suit. Enough said.
Two dads. One Turbo Man doll. Total retail war.
Denzel is an angel. Whitney is the gospel choir. The church is saved — the marriage needs work.
Tim Allen kills Santa (accidentally) and legally becomes him.
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.
The Pumpkin King discovers Christmas — and nearly ruins it, beautifully.
Michael Caine plays it completely straight — opposite felt — and it's perfect.
Kevin takes New York: the Plaza, a toy store, and two escaped burglars.
Eight years old, home alone, and the house is a fortress.
A little girl, an injured reindeer, and a town that needs to believe.
Clark Griswold just wants a good old-fashioned family Christmas. The house has other ideas.
Santa needs a successor. Ernest is available. Heaven help us all.
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.
Scrooge McDuck was literally born for this role.
All Ralphie wants is a Red Ryder BB gun. You'll shoot your eye out, kid.
A boy must sell his beloved old donkey — and finds the one buyer who matters.
Santa takes a year off — and the Miser brothers steal the show.
Dickens as a big, brassy London musical, with Albert Finney dancing on Scrooge's grave.
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.
Disney's first live-action musical: Toyland, a villain, and a wedding to save.
Alastair Sim's Scrooge remains the performance every other Scrooge is measured against.
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.'
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 58 family Christmas movies so far, and the complete A–Z catalog lists many more titles. The profiles below are the essentials — start there.
The family titles profiled here come from Hallmark Channel, Netflix, Walt Disney Pictures. Each film's profile links to its current streaming, rental and purchase options.
