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This Christmas, there is no end to the avalanche of new movies, TV episodes, and holiday specials that is hurtling your way in order to bury you in holiday cheer. Which is nice! It’s great to have options! And a little avalanche never hurt anybody really! But while you could spend hours scrolling through all the new movies you could be streaming on your night in with Netflix, wouldn’t it be better to just rely on a tried and true Christmas classic?
That’s a trick question because of course it would! Luckily, Netflix has a stash of those, too. A few stocking stuffers of pure, concentrated Christmas cheer. Or Christmas romance, in one case. Or Christmas grime, in another case, actually. These classics run the gamut from ballet to the Prime Minster of England to the Grinch himself. All for your streaming enjoyment.
'White Christmas' (1954)
Directed by Oscar-winning Michael Curtiz (Casablanca), this bona fide Hollywood classic stars Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as a pair of World War II vets/stage entertainers who partner up (on stage and romantically) with a pair of sisters/singers, all to save the idyllic Vermont inn owned by their commanding officer. It’s quite the involved premise for a movie that boils down to some very talented entertainers singing and dancing for our enjoyment. In particular, we get Crosby’s legendary rendition of the title song.
'The Nutcracker' (1993)
Have you ever watched Home Alone over the holidays and thought “Man, I wish I could see Macaulay Culkin star in The Nutcracker“? Of course you have. And wouldn’t you know, that production has been waiting for you for 25 years! Culkin stars as the titular Nutcracker while Kevin Kline plays the narrator for this beloved Christmas tale of music and dance.
'Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas' (1999)
The Disney animated gang has appeared in countless Christmas-themed shorts and specials over the years. This modern-day update on the Disney Christmas special combines three shorts: an O. Henry adaptation with Mickey and Minnie doing The Gift of the Magi, narrated by Kelsey Grammer; a Donald Duck swerve on Groundhog Day; and for all you millennials out there, the closest we’ll ever come to A Goofy Movie Christmas.
'Love Actually" (2003)
The modern-day classic that takes its notions of love coming at us in all forms, shapes, sizes, and comedic set pieces and wraps it up in shiny Christmas wrapping paper and places a bow on the top (the bow is played by Bill Nighy). Writer/director Richard Curtis is the best in the business at this kind of thing, and no matter how many arguments happen about whether the romantic comedy is aggressively off-putting or just what the doctor ordered, it is decidedly part of the new Christmas canon.
'Bad Santa' (2003)
Billy Bob Thornton plays a mean, slovenly, often drunk version of a mall santa in this movie that is decidedly not a heartwarming family affair. From director Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World) and writers Glen Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love) comes this warped Christmas tale that is the equivalent of a haphazardly wrapped bottle of booze, where you can see white underside of the wrapping paper and there’s Scotch tape everywhere.
'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'
As proof of the idea that time heals all wounds and makes you like Christmas movies better, the Jim Carrey version of the classic Dr. Seuss Christmas tale was reviled when it was released in 2000. But between kids watching and getting attached to it at a young age to the presence of Christine Baranski to the Faith Hill song over the closing credits (…just me?), this one sneaks closer and closer to the Christmas Classic label with each Freeform airing.
'L.A. Confidential' (1997)
Not to start a whole Die Hard thing, but did you know that L.A. Confidential — the Curtis Hanson-directed noir triumph that brought Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce to American audiences and which might’ve won the Oscar if it didn’t have the bad luck to premiere the same year as Titanic — takes place over the Christmas holidays? And that the whole plot kicks off with an event called “Bloody Christmas”? Well, it does! It’s a classic. It takes place on Christmas. Christmas classic!
