Beyond The Usual: Christmas Movies for Families to Enjoy

I love the Christmas classic movies and watch as many as I can every year.  But there are many great Christmas films that don’t get mentioned as often and I like to remind families that these are worth making time for as well.

1.  The Nativity Story  This sincere and respectful story is a good way to remember that Christmas is about more than presents and parties.  “Whale Rider’s” Keisha Castle-Hughes has a shy but dignified and resolute air and she glows believably as the very young woman who is selected as the mother of Jesus. And Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”) effectively conveys tenderness, doubt, courage, and transcendence as Joseph.

2. A Christmas Memory Truman Capote’s bittersweet memory of his childhood Christmas making fruitcakes with his elderly cousin, the only relative who cared about him, is beautifully filmed with the magnificent Geraldine Page as the fruitcake-baking cousin and Capote himself reading the narration.

3. Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas The California Raisins guys put together this Christmas special, with the highlight the funniest-ever performance of “Carol of the Bells.”

4. Come to the Stable Loretta Young and Celeste Holm are French nuns trying to raise money to build a hospital.  Their faith and goodness transform those they meet.

5. Little Women “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents” is the first line of this classic novel based on the loving if sometimes tumultuous family of author Louisa May Alcott.  All of the lovely versions open with an important Christmas lesson about the joy of giving.

6. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Based on the classic book, this stars Judy Greer as a mother trying to cope with six rambunctious kids who insist on playing the lead roles in the church pageant. There’s an earlier version with Loretta Swit. 

7. This Christmas I love this movie about a family with five adult children who return home to celebrate Christmas with their mother and youngest brother.  The all-star cast includes Regina King, Idris Elba, Loretta Devine, and Chris Brown.  Be sure to watch through the credits to see a great dance number.

8. Desk Set Before Google, companies had human beings to track down information. Katherine Hepburn plays the head of the all-female research department for a television network and Spencer Tracy is the engineer who is installing the company’s first computer, which takes up a whole wall and uses punch cards and vacuum tubes. Sparks fly — and not just in the equipment.

9. Die Hard Bruce Willis plays a cop visiting his estranged wife at her office Christmas party when the building is taken over by bad guys led by Alan Rickman in this action-movie classic, and yes, it is a Christmas movie.

10. The Polar Express Tom Hanks stars in this animated story based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg about a magical train ride to the North Pole.

11. Home Alone This comedy smash hit stars Macauley Culkin as a little boy who is accidentally left home when his family goes away for the holidays and has to take care of himself and guard the house from a couple of inept thieves.  The slapstick is over the top but the message of Christmas is surprisingly touching.

12. Annie The story of the plucky orphan from the comic pages became one of the biggest Broadway musicals of all time and one of its highlights is Christmas with Daddy Warbucks. There are at least three versions, all good!

13. The Holiday Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz swap houses and find love with Jack Black and Jude Law in one of Nancy Meyers’ most endearing romances. 

14. The Man Who Invented Christmas Dan Stevens stars as Charles Dickens, who is under enormous family and financial pressure to produce a new book that will sell. It is a delight to  see how the story of “The Christmas Carol” comes together.  

15. Klaus (Netflix) In this absolutely gorgeous animated film, the father of a spoiled young man punishes him by sending him to a remote snow-covered village and putting him to work. The young man ends up inventing some of the most beloved Christmas traditions.