It’s not too late to enjoy the joys of the holiday season with a fun family Christmas movie. This is one of our favorite things to do during the holidays. Snuggle up with some yummy white chocolate peppermint popcorn (yes, this was sooo yummy!), or maybe a cup of hot chocolate stirred with candy canes. We love adding to our Christmas movie collection with a new title each year and pulling them out for the holiday seasons. Here are some of our favorite classics (in no particular order):
1. The Bishop’s Wife - A sweet Christmas story emphasizing the importance of treasuring the gift of family (Watch instantly through Amazon rental here).
2. Christmas in Connecticut - I love this one for a good laugh! A young woman writing about her made up farm and family life has to entertain for Christmas without any true. experience. (Watch via Amazon Instant Video here).
3. Going My Way (watch via Amazon Instant Video here) – Bing Crosby plays a bishop seeking to minister to poor boys.
4. Belles of St. Mary’s (sequel to Going My Way)
5. White Christmas (watch instantly here) – another great Bing Crosby film full of fun, singing, dancing, and a sweet story line.
6. The Nativity Story (watch instantly here) - Enjoy the story of the birth of Jesus in a beautiful realistic way/
7. Holiday Inn (watch instantly here)
8. A Christmas Carol - this Patrick Stewart version is by far the best rendition and most accurate to the original story of Charles Dicken’s Ebenezer Scrooge. Use caution when watching with little ones because of the spirits.
9. It’s A Wonderful Life (this one is surprisingly not available to rent instantly, but I have seen it available to watch on YouTube.) – What would Christmas be without this sweet family film?
10. Miracle on 34th Street (1947 edition) (Watch instantly here)
What’s your favorite Christmas movie?
Your list looks almost identical to mine! If you like all these then you should find and watch “Remember the Night”. Fred MacMurray & Barbara Stanwyck star in this 1940 Christmas movie. It’s one of my favorites and based on your list, I’m sure you’d love it.
Thanks for the list of Christmas movies! We read several of the books from your Christmas book list this year and enjoyed them so much!! Thanks for sharing great family resources!
We have enjoyed watching the following movies as a family the past two years:
“The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey” is a story of love, redemption and above all, hope. When a broken hearted boy loses the treasured wooden nativity set that links him to his dead father, his worried mother persuades a reclusive, ill-tempered woodcarver to create a replacement, and to allow her son to watch him carve it.
“The Very First Noel ”
From Exclaim Entertainment The Very First Noel, a beautifully animated special that presents the Christmas story in a fresh, captivating manner. Andy Griffith is the voice of narrator Melchior, one of the Three Wise Men.
Little House on the Prairie Christmas specials are my favorite!
Please be careful watching Christmas in Connecticut. We took the recommendation and watched it with our kids and wish we had not. It has lots of smoking and drinking and portrays lying and flirting when the woman is thought to be married. Just wanted to give the heads up that you might want to screen before watching with children.
Lindsay, I think you would love the Christmas Shoes series as well
Soo heartwarming!
Look up an old tv special called “Good King Wenceslas” from 1994.
You like some Bing Crosby, don’t you? Because Holiday Inn (which I love) has him in it, as well. And I love Patrick Steward in A Christmas Carol, and I agree that version is the BEST!
I’ve missed a couple of those movies, so I need to check them out. Thanks for the recommendation!
I love the movie Little Lord Fauntleroy with Ricky Schroeder
I love Christmas in Connecticut! And Meet Me in St. Louis! The kids (and adults) like The Toy That Saved Christmas, too.
great list but I must disagree with you about “Christmas Carol!” I so much prefer the 1951 Alistair Sim version
)
I’m impressed. So few people have ever heard of of ‘Christmas in Connecticut’. It’s been one of my favorites since my mom watched it when I was a kid. We now own it and my husband always imitates the ‘uncle’.
I watch many of the ones you listed, plus my new additions are both ‘The Holiday’ and ‘Family Man’. Christmas movies are most beloved by me during this time.
It’s my favorite too and I’ve hardly ever come across it! My grandma watches it with me every year.
We’ve also just discovered the PNB’s Nutcracker on Netflix and my girls are enraptured.
Thanks! I’ve been in such a Christmas movie mood this year, and I didn’t know about lots of these. It looks like netflix streaming doesn’t have most of these, so maybe Amazon prime has more options? Thanks for the good list. I’m all ready to snuggle up on the couch with my kids and some popcorn!
You MUST watch NESTOR THE LONG-EARED DONKEY. It’s an old cartoon, but soooo touching and correlates the love of a mother and that of Christ – about sacrifice. Just my all-time favorite and a tear-jerker every time.
My husband and I always watch Home Alone. It’s not exactly a classic, but it cracks us up every year! The kids enjoy the claymation movies too. I’m a Christmas Carol nut! We own six or seven versions, including the Patrick Stewart version. I’m a sucker for the older versions though.
I am a sucker for any Bing Crosby movie!
Are these all good suggestions for kids too–like 2-11 year olds? Thanks!
Little Women is the one I watch every year!
Love Little Women ! I watch this a lot throughout the whole year !
Ooh.. I may be the odd one out.. But we love Home Alone.. Also, yes, Miracle on 34th Street is a favorite!
My all-time favorite movie (and Christmas movie, too), is “Meet Me in St. Louis”! I would highly suggest that y’all go out- run- to the nearest Red Box or movie store and check it out ASAP. It is an old Judy Garland movie, set in about 1912, that is about a very close-knit family who is faced w/ the possibility of having to move from their beloved St. Louis to New York. It is such a heartwarming and family- oriented musical, and exalts family as a precious reward in life. I grew up in a close family of 5 daughters, and needless to say, towards the end, we would all be a basket full of tears- mostly because of the love and tenderness this family had for each other.
I highly recommend for families, including the young ones, to watch together. Has anyone watched this? It seems to me that it is not even on the radar of many of my friends. Worth it to buy and watch every year!
Hi Lindsay,
I tried to contact you regarding a book giveaway on your contact us site, however I just received an e-mail back saying that the address the mail goes to is no longer current.
What is my next option?
Thanks
Lizzy
I am so excited to see you list all of these movies! I grew up watching all of these movies, and they are what I think of when I think of a true family film. Thanks for passing them along. Merry christmas!
These are great movies! We love Charlie Brown Christmas, too
Priest’s Wife, I see you all over the catholic/christian blogosphere! hehe. (I first “met” you on Simcha’s website”. So odd that I have never met but “recognize” you.
I think the Muppet’s Christmas Carol is a hoot. Fun music and singing.
Yes! That’s a fun family one too!
Yes! That is another good family one that we have enjoyed in the past. Forgot to include some of those kid favorites.