I love A Pocket Full of Miracles. The transformation of Bette Davis from a "cockroach into a swan", per Peter Falk's character in the movie, is AMAZING!

This Christmas.....2006

Love Actually is #1!

Pretty much the only Christmas movies I watch are in black and white. Why? Because with the exception of 'The Preacher's Wife" (which sucks), apparently people who are darker than a paper bag don't celebrate Christmas. I accept that during the black and white period, Hollywood wasn't terribly forward thinking about having people of different ethnic groups as stars, but at this point it's insulting and ignorant. It's the same reason why I hardly go to movies or watch mainstream TV. Why should I participate in watching entertainment that ignores that people like myself (people of color who are educated and middle class or bohemian) exist, or have families, or have their own traditions?

I'm sorry about the rant (I don't expect everybody else to feel the same way; why should they?), But I feel increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of pretending that leaving a large majority of Americans out of popular culture is ok, and that I'm happy seeing faces like my own left out of the foreground in an era where we have a biracial man as President.

White Christmas!

Family Man with Nick Cage

I just wanted to say that you guys are really pushing this Young Adult film and it kinda sucks. I'm sure the film is good - but why do I need ads and posts in my face about it? It detracts from your website and your other more interesting less 'moving' ads.

Bad form.

I'm guessing this comment won't get published right?

I watch the Family Stone every year around Christmas. I love their house in it.

One Magic Christmas. I cry every time. So good.

I am with dalesq - Love Actually is by far the nicest movie ever (well, out of those I saw in North America). There is a number of movies from Europe that dear to my heart, too.

I like The Holiday but to me it's not really a Christmas movie ... I can't put my finger on it though ... it's not a Christmas movie the way Love Actually is (the missing coma drives me nuts though).

I do like The Family Stone Christmas .... I didn't like it at first (SJP is not really much of an actress, she is always so .... constipated (fo lack of a better word, LOL) but somehow it grew on me and I hope to see it again this Christmas season.

Love, Actually is fast becoming a Christmas classic and deservedly so.

However, you left off "Meet Me in St. Louis", in which Judy Garland first sang 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'. Still makes me shiver.

Every year on Christmas day we spend the afternoon watching Cabaret with Liza Minnelli - Not exactly a "holiday" film, but a brilliant movie and favorite tradition!

I know this isn't a Christmas movie, but... Wonder Boys! Yummy movie...it's cold and there's snow, does that count!!! LOL!

Lets not forget about Gremlins and Die Hard.

Muppet's Christmas Carol and my all time favorite Heidi with Shirley Temple. Love them both.

AUNTIE MAME W ROSALINE RUSSELL DURING HER "BLUE PERIOD" DEPRESSION ...DEPRESSION NEVER LOOKED SO DELICIOUSLY DECADENT! 8-)

I find that if I am watching die hard the wrapping goes a lot faster. I also love home for the holidays (which I know is thanksgiving and not christmas, but still)

a Christmas Story (1983) it's not Christmas unless the Bumpus dogs are part of it.

About a Boy, which for some reason I always associate with Christmas; While You Were Sleeping; Bad Santa - along with most on your list. I love Christmas movies!

Nothing Like the Holidays....2008

The ending is pretty lame and sappy, but I like "Scrooged" with Bill Murray.

And how did you manage to make this list and not include a version of "A Christmas Carol"??

Every year I watch Love Actually, Miracle on 34th Street (my fav), It's a Wonderful Life, The Shop Around the Corner, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Come to the Stable, White Christmas, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone 1 and 2, Elf, A Christmas Story, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The Grinch, Mickey's Christmas Carol, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and my ultimate guilty pleasure: Beauty and the Beast's Enchanted Christmas. It's TERRIBLE but my sister and I LOVE it.

Joyeaux Noel is amazing...watched it for the first time this year and it's definitely going to become a "regular"!

I love the house in Period of Adjustment.

Honestly, I'm a sucker for "The Polar Express" every holiday season. Have not seen it in 3D, though.

I am completely in the minority here, loathe, loathe, loathe "Love, Actually," and find it deeply fraudulent in every way except for Emma Thompson's performance. She's in a different movie from all those other plastic people. OK, maybe Colin Firth is a little okay too. The rest just makes me shudder.

I love "A Christmas Story," and "Christmas in Connecticut," as well as the TV Rudolph, Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol, various other versions of A Christmas Carol, on and on and on.

One Magic Christmas, Home Alone (1 & 2), Polar Express.

Also: Comfort and Joy; The Dr. Who Christmas Specials; About a Boy; When Harry Met Sally; Bell, Book and Candle; While You Were Sleeping; Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella; Mon Oncle Antoine; La Guerre des Tuques. I know I'm forgetting something...

I am a sucker for the classic MGM Style Christmas movies (Thank You TCM). I've collected my favorites, in no particular order...

Auntie Mame
Remember The Night (like this more than Christmas in Connecticut, but that's good too)
Holiday Inn (again, better than White Christmas, but that's still good too)
Miracle on 34th St.
Meet me in St. Louis
The Shop Around The Corner (and it's musical remake In The Good Ol' Summertime)

I also love the animation classics (Rudoph, Charlie Brown, etc) and Disney's new Classics, the Prep And Landing specials.

National Lampoons is a given. Christmas Evil is also a great background Christmas movie at a party, because it goes unnoticed for a while until you begin to realize Santa is murdering everyone. A real win/win.

I love Little Women! Something I watch every year myself, along with a few others on the list. Such a special movie!

And I know that this isn't Christmas at all, but a must for me is The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I think because all the movies came out during this time of the year and those were kind of my last really wonderful Christmas'.

Nothing says Christmas like some black comedy such as "Santa's Slay" and "Hogfather".

Favorite Scene from "Hogfather"

Mother of Little Girl: You can’t give her that! It’s not safe!

Death as the Hogfather: It's a sword. They're not meant to be safe.

Mother of Little Girl: She's a child!

Death as the Hogfather: It's educational.

Mother of Little Girl: What if she cuts herself?

Death as the Hogfather: That will be an important lesson.

Thanks @beccalise - going to watch Joyeaux Noel tonight! Looks great!

Lots of great Christmas movies. I'd add Beautiful Girls to this list - not exactly a Christmas movie but another one I enjoy watching this time of year!

The local movie theater near my parents' house plays "It's a Wonderful Life" as a canned food drive every year, and my mom and I always go. I've seen the movie a zillion times now, but I always notice something else cool fashion/home design that the Baileys do. It's great inspiration and a great Christmas film!

Oops, forgot The Nightmare Before Christmas. An Xmas must-see!

@micheleyverse, even though I'm an "upper-middle-aged" white woman, I definitely agree with your point. Too many movies were funded by rich white folk who most likely had their deep-seated bigotries. And too many movies, even now, featuring people of color are lame comedies I find embarrassing to watch.

Just last week, for the first time I can remember, a Christmas sale ad featured a mixed race couple under the mistletoe. About time, I say! But in my childhood, that would have been scandalous and even illegal in some states. Not all THAT long ago... Humans have a lot to answer for.

I find it strangely ironic that the post immediately after yours just said "White Christmas!"...

Happy Holidays, anyway!

I like to watch a movie followed by all it's remakes or tie-ins. Like The Shop Around the Corner followed by You've Got Mail. All the versions of A Christmas Carol (though can't stomach the Kelsey Grammer version) or It's A Wonderful Life. I choose a different set each year, and space the viewing out through the season, but there's a strange continuity to watching them that way that makes sense. I watch because it reminds me of Christmases past, so probably not always a healthy thing to do, but also because it really does prompt me to ask whether I'm living my ideal life. And my recent favorite, that I just can't get enough of but that seems to be controversial, is The Family Stone - so well done - if families actually spoke their minds during the holidays houses would look more like that one!

none of these are on netflix instant queue! so sad :'(

I love The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey. And Bernard and the Genie, despite its simple special effects. You have to look for these.

There are also a couple of old animated movies I look for at this time of year, but lately they don't get shown, and I think they are only on VHS. One is "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" and the other is "The Mousehole Christmas". I also love watching "The Snowman".

@margie.hunter, too true, I just love The Mousehole Christmas!

I watched Miracle on 34th Street last night for the first time; I really loved it and put me back in the Christmas spirit. I also watched a Christmas movie not mentioned here - Midnight Clear. It's darker, and certainly not set in beautifully decorated homes but has a gently uplifting ending.

Metropolitan (Whit Stillman; 1990). Not about Christmas, per se, but takes place over Christmas break. One of my favorite films.

For some reason The Wizard or Oz and The Sound of Music have become holiday favourites? Strange, but they"re played during the holidays, ever since I was a child. Family Stone is my new favourite. I'm going to check out Joyeux Noel as well.

I love The Family Stone! :)

One Magic Christmas with Mary Steenburgen and Harry Dean Stanton - 1985
A Matter of Principle with Alan Arkin - 1984
Harry Dean Stanton as an angel? Who knew? And A Matter of Principle? Laughed so hard I almost cried.

Oh, it's kinda twisted, but "Gremlins" always makes my list. Something about Mom dispatching a gremlin in the blender, and the Christmas tree attacking her... just gets to my funny bone. You CAN get too much sugar during Christmas... this is a nice antidone!

LOL! Antidote!

Hah, just got done watching Love Actually and then saw this post. Yep, The Holiday was last weekend.

@micheleyverse great point. Unbelievable disgrace and waste of talent.

I remember liking "The Preacher's Wife" at the time, FWIW.

I'm the Jewish girl who every year this time watches "Bishop's Wife," "Christmas in Ct," "Holiday Inn," "White Christmas," and "Miracle on 34th" (the last one, however, usually around Thanksgiving). Go figure.

For you B&W fans, check out "The Man Who Came to Dinner." Too, too great!

Love, Actually is my definite Christmas movie. I only watch it in December and on Christmas Eve i watch it at least 6 times. "Christmas is all around us, come one and let it sn-ow!".

Snow Cake - with Alan Rickman.

The Syfy channel had a great Christmas special this year for a show called Haven (based on The Colorado Kid - a short story by Stephen King). It was surprisingly good. Christmas magically starts appearing in July, then residents start disappearing (and noone who's still left even members them), only one detective isn't affected - solves the mystery - and in the process gets her Christmas spirit back (in JULY!).

@vintagebirthday, @SherryBinNH
I actually love Christmas, and The Man Who Came to Dinner is my all-time favorite Christmas film, followed by Christmas in Connecticut! I just don't see why I should have to put myself through lame movies that don't show how diverse the world really is.
My white fiancé and I are both happy that we are finally seeing mixed-ethnic couples on TV and in print ads. Now if only movies could catch up a bit more, and stop showing being 'ethnic' as somehow humorous and strange, or 'whiteness' as bland and generic. For that matter, as a black woman who grew up in a Jewish neighborhood and who came from a Catholic family, I find it pretty difficult to relate to the image often shown in movies, books and tv of all black people in the US talking about Jesus all the time, or being automatically racist against anyone who isn't black, or not being interested in a larger cultural world. I'm looking forward to the day when there are black people on TV who are casually knowledgeable without being Urkel, white Southerners who aren't racist morons, Jews who don't live in NYC and only become Jewish for the 'holiday episode', Asians who are into sports and have no interest in science or math, Latinos who don't need a translator and whose families have been here for over 100 years and Muslims who are neither brown nor scary, nor wearing special clothes that mark them as different. You know- like in the real world. Personally I think such depictions would be better for everyone, and for the image of America abroad, too.

Glad to see I'm not alone in this, and that I'm not the only one who's noticed. and no annoyance at those who haven't noticed or don't care, either- everyone has their own thing that bothers them.

Gotta agree with Charlotte, Love Actually is a bit of a mess as a film. Some of the story lines are genuinely moving (almost adultery, living with a family member with mental illness) to the contrived and commercial (the PM's love for the tea lady, geeky boy falls for pretty talented girl in class).

I feel it's very contrived and shamelessly commercial.

Good point regarding race representation in Christmas movies... African American movie stars and producers need to get the finger out and use their influence!!

I'm with dalesq. "The nightmare before Christmas" is definitly on my list but also this crazy japaneese cartoon "Tokyo Godfathers" I found: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388473/
It's loosely based on the the Christmas gospel set on the streets of Tokyo staring 3 homeless people who find a baby. It's really funny and sweet.
Last year "Rare exports" came out. It's Finnish and bizarre but a must see. In the movie Santa is a demon and these brave hunters set out to hunt him. More info here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1401143/

My Christmas is never complete without watching "A Christmas Story," "The Muppet Christmas Carol," and "Elf." I adore "Little Women" (the version with Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon), but I can watch it any time of year and don't always associate it with Christmas, although it is a very Christmas-y movie.

The Apartment!

Die Hard!

We watch The Grinch, National Lampoon's, and Elf. My grandmother watched National Lampoon's about 5 times last Christmas. It was on loop. I don't think she realized it...

So glad Holiday Inn made the list! This movie gets overlooked all the time in favor of White Christmas.

I watch all of the classics, as well as Elf and Love Actually but I really enjoy the Family Stone. It hits very close to home and the house is so much like my parent's home-warm, cluttered, classic. My parent's actually have the same wallpaper as one of the rooms in the movie.

Wait, one is missing, 'Little Shop Around the Corner'. That should be up there too.
But you did get two of my favs, 'When Harry Met Sally' and 'Love Actually'.

Agree with a few others that Love Actually is a cliched, poorly-acted mess. I've never understood why people like it - though I suppose that most romcoms are cliched, poorly-acted messes, and people seem to go for them.

I do love the 1994 Little Women.