The 5 Best Holiday Movies to Take Your Mind Off the Heavy Stuff
Have you noticed how every year the Hallmark Channel’s “Countdown to Christmas” seems to start a little sooner? Each year, the holiday season slides further back into the fall (and this isn’t even counting their “Christmas in July” month of holiday movies). And you know what?
I love it. I really do.
I often hear people citing capitalism as the driving factor. We need to sell-sell-sell, so they move on to the holiday shopping season quick fast! But there’s more to it than that.
Yes, companies are looking to sell-sell-sell BUT they wouldn’t be jumping into the holidays so soon if we weren’t willing to buy-buy-buy.
I think the reason the holiday season seems to be getting longer every year—holiday decorations going up sooner, holiday music coming on sooner, and of course all the holiday movies being played—is because we need it.
Think about it. Doesn’t everything feel darker and heavier? Personally, I know I feel like I need a therapy appointment right after I read the news on any given day.
So of course we want to spend as much time in that festive spirit as we can!
During the holidays we seem to give ourselves permission to be happier. I’m not certain why, but we do.
There is a magic to the season. There is a greater sense of peace and harmony. People are quicker to smile. Hugs last longer. We sing songs and decorate. We eat cookies.
We bask in memories and we make new ones. We wrap and give gifts. We drive around and look at lights. We’re a little kinder to each other. We unironically embrace what we loved as a child.
And, we watch our favorite holiday movies! Yay! So without further adieu, dear reader, here are five holiday movies guaranteed to take your mind off the heavy stuff! At least they always do for me 😄
Red One (2024) – Written by Chris Morgan and Story by Hiram Garcia / Directed by Jake Kasdan
Photo Credit: Amazon MGM Studios' Red One
Ok so you may be questioning my credibility to write this list since I started here. But hear me out! This is a family movie and my eight-year-old self would’ve adored this. Plus, I really like it, too!
Dwayne Johnson plays the same character he plays in every movie he’s ever in Call Drift, an elf and the head of North Pole security, who needs Chris Evans’ “A-1 naughty-lister” Jack O'Malley to help him find and rescue Santa (J.K. Simmons) once he’s kidnapped.
You’ve got monster snowmen! A device that turns toys real! Globe-trotting adventure! Elves and reindeer and Krampus – oh my!
This is a put-your-feet-up and laugh at the absurdity of it all kinda film. I have always had a soft spot for movies like this—especially when I wanna get out of my head.
It’s just fun and goofy and a little corny…but it also has a surprisingly heartfelt message about the importance of our actions and how essential it is to believe that everyone—ev. ery. one!—has the potential to change, to do the right thing, and find their way back on the Nice List.
Love Actually (2003) – Written and Directed by Richard Curtis
Photo Credit: Universal Pictures’ Love Actually
Right, yes, I agree. Not all of this has aged well. Just about every year there is a new slew of pieces and YouTube or TikTok videos pointing out the problematic tropes in this film—most notably the fat shaming.
That is a serious problem (and something I’ve written about before). But Love Actually is a product of its time and sadly, this was all pretty on brand for the early ‘00s.
While it’s problematic, it’s also so cute and my ultimate comfort movie. This is one I’ll watch outside of Christmas whenever I’ve had a rough day and it’s not Christmastime until I watch this—sometimes two or three times!
I love all the relationships! I love the cast! I love all the different types of love we see! Each story is more adorable then the next!
And, especially when life feels so hard, I think few messages are as important to keep in my heart and mind as the closing of Hugh Grant’s opening monologue: If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling love, actually… is all around. My life is better for being reminded of this at least once a year.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) – Written by John Hughes / Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik
Photo Credit: Warner Bros.’ National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
They say laughter is the best medicine and there is a reason for that. And nothing gets me laughing during the holidays like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
I don’t KNOW Margo! It’s not going in our yard, Russ, it’s going in our living room. That’s a lotta lights, Dad. Little knot here…you work on that. Merry Christmas, merry Christmas, merry Christmas, merry Christmas, kiss my ass, kiss his ass, kiss your ass, happy Hanukkah. The little lights aren’t twinkling, Clark.
There are SO MANY QUOTES.
I grew up watching this movie with my family. We’d watch it every year—many years on Christmas Eve 😊 So, it feels like family to me. It feels like togetherness. But it’s also just the epitome of screwball comedies, and it’s an hour and a half of laughter and joy flooding through your system. Yes, please!
Plus, as the holidays can also be chaotic and exhausting and fraught with problems, it’s nice to have this li’l reminder that no matter what happens, we can still have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny fuckin’ Kaye 😆
The Holiday (2006) – Written and Directed by Nancy Meyers
Photo Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing’s The Holiday
HOW CUTE IS THIS MOVIE?? It is not an exaggeration to say I was fully and completely in love with Kate Winslet’s Iris, Jude Law’s Graham, Cameron Diaz’s Amanda, and Jack Black’s Miles half an hour in the first time I saw this.
That love has only grown deeper and stronger with time! No matter how many times I see The Holiday, this film always fills my heart and makes me cry. It makes me so happy.
I also feel very seen when Graham tells Amanda, “Well, I cry all the time. More than any woman you’ve ever met. A good book. A great film. A birthday card. I weep. I’m a major weeper.”
Yes! That’s ME. Though Iris and her journey with unrequited love and being obsessed with the absolute wrong person who is also a selfish tool is intimately familiar to me, too. I call it, “My 20s” 😉
For me, The Holiday captures what is so heartwarming, soul-nourishing, and life-affirming about every Hallmark Christmas movie and every other holiday romcom. Happy endings happen. Love blooms. And everything is a little bit more magical around the holidays.
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) – Written by Charles M. Schulz / Directed by Bill Melendez
Photo Credit: Lee Mendelson Film’s and Bill Melendez Production’s A Charlie Brown Christmas
Okay so technically this isn’t a “movie;” it’s a “TV special.” But this is my list so I’m including it! In my humble opinion, come Christmastime there is nothing better, brighter, or more beautiful than A Charlie Brown Christmas.
The way this secular special balances an explicitly religious message is a masterclass. The yearning for the real meaning of the season. The tension between the commercial and religious side of the season. Linus’ scripture monologue.
Most important of all: I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It's not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.
I love, love, love, love how the tree transforms! As a teacher, the longest running lesson I had was a last-class-before-break lesson on A Charlie Brown Christmas. I did it for 20 years. Students would often comment how “unrealistic” the tree’s transformation was and I’d explain that’s the point!
Because that’s what love does. It changes everything and everyone it touches. What are our midwinter holidays if not a celebration of light returning to the darkness and the life-changing power of love?
The central Christmas tree in my house is my li’l Charlie Brown Christmas tree, there to help remind me of this—to help remind me how far sharing a little love can go.
So there you have it, dear reader! My 5 favorite holiday movies to take my mind off all the heavy stuff! If you’d like, feel free to comment on our social media posts to let me know what your favorite holiday movies are. My holiday viewing list grows each year and I’d like to check out some of your favorites, too!
