15 Women Who Deserve More Attention in Christmas Classics

Played by: Donna Reed
Year: 1946

George Bailey is the one who gets to have the long, dark night of the soul, seeing what the world would be like if he’d never been born. But you know who’s doing all the hard work while George is on a guided tour of Dark Bedford Falls? Mary, that’s who! It’s George’s faithful and (by the time we get to the present storyline at least) long-suffering wife who scrambles to get the word out that George is in financial trouble, and by the end of the movie, all those souls whose lives George has impacted for the better come through with donations. And there’s Mary, off to the side, barely acknowledging Uncle Billy’s attempts to credit her as what she is: the true hero of the moment.

Where to stream It's a Wonderful Life

Played by: Beverly  D’Angelo
Year: 1989

I promise this list won’t all be long-suffering wives, but Ellen Griswold sure did put up with a lot married to Clark. In Christmas Vacation, Clark sets out to have the perfect old-fashioned family Christmas, which adds up to Ellen’s home being thrown into chaos at the arrival of her in-laws, not to mention her own judgmental parents and barely-civilized cousins. Ellen gets sap in her hair, trash strewn about her kitchen, and she starts stress-smoking. But it’s not just putting up with disaster that puts Ellen on this list. It’s that she’s the only one who figures out that it’s the garage light switch that turns on Clark’s blinding Christmas lights.

Where to stream National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Played by: Catherine O’Hara
Year: 1990

Little Kevin McCallister gets all the attention for thwarting the Wet Bandits and keeping his family’s extravagant and gorgeous home un-burgled for the holidays. But it’s Kate who traverses an ocean, bargains with an elderly couple, and takes an overnight van trip with a polka band in order to get back to her youngest son. Sure, she only beats the rest of her lollygagging family back by a few minutes, but in this case, the effort definitely counts. The reunion between mother and son is one of the best and most earned moments of the film.

Where to stream Home Alone

Played by: Barbara Stanwyck
Year: 1945

Stanwyck shines as food writer Elizabeth Lane, whose fictional columns about her perfect homemaker existence are called out when she’s tasked with hosting a returning war hero at her traditional family Christmas. It’s a classic Christmas comedy farce that allows Stanwyck to shine in her own special way. It remains one of her best-known films.

Where to stream Christmas in Connecticut

Played by: Rachel McAdams
Year: 2005

There were a lot of Stone women to choose from for this list. It was tough leaving off Diane Keaton as Sybil, whose domineering-bohemian routine had both funny and heartbreaking moments. And of course Sarah Jessica Parker’s Meredith, whose frustrated attempts to ingratiate herself to the Stone family lead to her flipping out, getting drunk, and ultimately spilling her big, gloppy egg dish all over the kitchen floor. But we all like Amy the best, right? She’s the one who’s most outright mean to Meredith, but she also has the biggest sentimental moment in the film, when she sees the framed photo of her and her mom. When we see the Stones a year later and it’s Amy tending to the family Christmas tree, it’s a tear-jerker of a full-circle moment.

Where to watch The Family Stone

Played by: Emma Thompson
Year: 2003

Again, this is another role with a lot of competition. Keira Knightley was never going to make it just for reading a bunch of cue cards, after all. But the stories of Sarah (Laura Linney) and Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) are affecting and funny, respectively, and they were solid runners-up. But this spot belongs to Emma Thompson, whose controlled breakdown listening to “Both Sides Now” after realizing her husband bought jewelry for another woman is easily the best scene in the movie.

Where to stream Love Actually

Played by: Shirley Booth (voice)
Year: 1974

Mrs. Claus has had many incarnations over the years, in films and Christmas specials alike. But in The Year Without a Santa Claus, she has her real moment to shine. With Santa too sick to get out of bed, it’s up to her to rescue some wayward elves and reindeer, negotiate a detente between the Heat Miser and the Snow Miser, and help restore Christmas spirit in time for her grumpy old husband to get out of bed and take all the credit, per usual. Still, it’s tough not to want Mrs. Claus to get her shot at being Santa Claus.

Where to stream The Year Without a Santa Claus

Played by: Melinda Dillon
Year: 1983

Tormented as she is by that leg lamp, Ralphie’s mom in A Christmas Story is a crafty and iconic character. After all, that lamp meets an awfully unfortunate fate, doesn’t it. Ralphie’s mom spends a lot of time fretting about him shooting his eye out of he gets that b.b. gun he’s been asking for, and Ralphie imagines her as a mean old tormentor after she washes his mouth out with soap. But she’s actually a very loving mom, even if she bundles her youngest son up well past the point that he can move.

Where to stream A Christmas Story

Played by: Carole Kane
Year: 1988

Though she’s sweet of voice, Scrooged‘s Ghost of Christmas Present is also quite aggressive in her attempts to get Frank Cross to follow her instructions. But her violence against him is matched only by her excess of Christmas spirit.

Where to stream Scrooged

Played by: Judy Davis
Year: 1994

Caroline spends most of The Ref in an incredibly bad mood, and that’s when she’s not tied up by Denis Leary’s cat burglar character. Her real Christmas foes end up being her husband (Kevin Spacey) and her in-laws (including Christine Baranski and Glynis Johns). It’s maybe not filled with as much Christmas cheer as most holiday-themed movies, but it’s Judy Davis getting a chance to tee off on everybody who’s pissing her off, and for that alone, we should be thankful.

Where to stream The Ref

Played by: Mo’Nique
Year: 2016

The tragedy of 2016’s Almost Christmas is that it opened the week that Donald Trump won the election, and suddenly no one was feeling the spirit of the season quite so strongly. Which is too bad, because Mo’Nique’s performance as Aunt May is a comedy powerhouse, bringing spirit and hilarity to every single scene she’s in. And then, just for fun, she and Danny Glover share the most lovely and heartfelt scene in the film.

Played by: Maureen O’Hara
Year: 1947

We know Doris is a boss anyway as she’s the event director for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. That’s how she ends up hiring Kris Kringle to play Santa in the parade. But she’s also stern about making sure her daughter doesn’t believe in fairy tales. Like … Santa. So we come to an impasse. The classic holiday tale about believing in Santa gets a worthy lead character in Doris, who isn’t really the bad guy. She’s just the one who needs the most convincing.

Where to stream Miracle on 34th Street

Played by: Sandra Bullock
Year: 1995

Yes, While You Were Sleeping IS a Christmas movie. It’s not just that Lucy rescues Peter from an oncoming elevated train on Christmas Day. It’s that Lucy is only working on Christmas Day because she’s single and sad. It’s the rare movie about the crippling loneliness that can accompany the holiday and how it can drive you to do things like lie to a family about being the fiancee of their comatose son.

Where to stream While You Were Sleeping

Played by: Michelle Pfeiffer
Year: 1992

“How ’bout a kiss, Santy Claus?” Why should straight men have all the fun of arguing over whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not? We’re off to a far yummier argument: Tim Burton’s Batman Returns is a Christmas movie. And as such, it features one of the all time greatest Christmas anti-heroines in Catwoman. Once a mousy office worker Selina Kyle, then shoved to her death by her creep of a boss for hearing too much, she’s resurrected as Catwoman, and unlike Santa, she’d prefer if you left a dish of warm milk out for her.

Where to stream Batman Returns

Played by: Olivia Hussey
Year: 1974

And if we’re talking non-traditional Christmas movies, we should also address the Christmas horror subgenre by giving it up to Olivia Hussey’s final girl (or does she survive after all?). With a killer threatening a sorority house as everybody prepares to head home for Christmas break, Jess has to survive the terror, paranoia, and murder attempts in order to stay alive long enough to make it to New Year’s.

Where to stream Black Christmas