Top 10 movies to binge-watch in the Christmas holiday season

Key in ‘Christmas movies’ in the search bars of OTT platforms and a host of movies will pop up on the page, all slated to evoke the family spirit and ring in Christmas cheer with their focus on family, food, fun and music. Here is our list to help you choose which ones to watch during this Christmas season.

All kinds of polls, including a recent one conducted by UK’s Showcase Cinemas, have named Home Alone, the 1990 classic starring a young Macaulay Culkin as among the world’s most favourite Xmas movies. The movie is replete with the jingle bell spirit and is an eccentric, slapstick, Dennis the Menace-esque greeting card of a movie. It’s so good that you can watch it at any time of the year.

Elf it out with Will Ferrell. Go watch this comedy film full of the Xmas spirit. Will Ferrell has always been great at comedy, but it was Elf, the movie that turned him into a candy-gobbling, box-office conquering phenomenon. It was also the movie that the UK voted in at number 2 in its recent Showcase Cinemas poll. The storyline follows Will Ferrell, an oversized elf who leaves the North Pole in search of his father.

This 1954 movie starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney is as entertaining to watch now as when it first debuted decades ago. The film is a bonafide Christmas classic that shows a group of entertainers coming together to spread Christmas joy and help a failing lodge in Vermont. It has the right mix of music, romance, and comedy making it a suitable holiday watch.

Director Richard Curtis has interwoven 10 love stories in this 2003 film that has routinely featured as a classic Christmas staple ever since its release. The story for every couple begins five weeks before Christmas and henceforth, the weekly countdown to Xmas begins with the couples working out their problems with a buildup of love and holiday cheer. A formula movie that can’t go wrong especially with its ace star cast that includes Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Keira Knightley, Emma Thompson and Liam Neeson, even Rowan Atkinson.

The film was criticised at first for its violence, but was soon slotted into two genres as different from each other as chalk from cheese. It now counts among the top action films and as a favourite Christmas movie. The plot is intriguing: NYPD detective John McClane, played by Bruce Willis, reaches LA on Xmas eve to try and patch up with his estranged wife at a party hosted by her employer. While the detective is in the washroom freshening up, the venue is seized by a German terrorist and everyone is taken hostage.

Some 76 years after its release, It’s a Wonderful Life still lists among Christmas favourites. It’s about the protagonist contemplating suicide on Christmas eve and his guardian angel stepping in to save him and show what life would be without him. It didn’t shake up the box office back then, but has now been named as the American Film Institute most inspirational film of all time. Going by that, this 1946 film is a must-watch.

This 1988 film is a modern-day takeoff on Charles Dickens’ novella, A Christmas Carol. This Hollywood Reporter review clinches votes in favour of watching it this season, if you have not already done so. It reads: Despite the juicy, on-the-edge craziness, Murray is able to layer his outrageous histrionics with an inner sensibility, making his ultimate transformation not only believable but Christmas-cheer uplifting.

There is no Christmas movie list complete without watching the original Charles Dickens’ 1984-classic, A Christmas Carol that has the legendary George C Scott playing the mean old Ebenezer Scrooge who dismisses Christmas as a “poor excuse” for seeking a holiday. The grumpy senior is visited by three ghosts and by the end of it is transformed into a cheerful fellow walking down the street wishing Merry Christmas to all who cross his path.

This 2019 rom-com based on George Michael songs is an absolute must for the musical-minded among viewers. The movie stars Emilia Clarke, a store worker who begins a relationship with a mysterious man played by Henry Golding. Emma Thompson, who co-wrote the script with two others also has a role in it. The story centres around a family of European immigrants where the lead star wants to make it as a singer.

Watch either the old 1994 movie or pick up the 2019 remake of the old classic tale of sisterhood by Louisa May Alcott. As esquire.com says, “as far as Christmas movies go, they both feature picturesque vignettes of white Christmases in New England filled with feasts, fires, frolicking, and family.” That’s what the Christmas spirit is all about.