The best vintage Christmas movies to enjoy over the festive season
When it comes to Christmas movies, contemporary flicks like Elf and Love Actually may immediately spring to mind. But, if you really want to embody holiday cheer, nothing beats a vintage, classic Christmas movie.
Something about the charm of Old Hollywood stars combined with a nostalgic soundtrack immediately creates a cosy and enchanting festive environment—perfect for settling into the colder nights with a piping hot cup of tea. Be serenaded by Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St. Mary’s or get sucked into the past with James Stewart and Donna Reed in It‘s a Wonderful Life. No matter which movie you decide to turn on, the following options are proof that the true magic of Christmas transcends time.
If you’re in the mood for more films to round out your December watch list, then look no further—here are our pick of best romantic films, as well as the finest drama series, to settle down to over the festive period.
Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town
This enchanting 1970 stop-motion film tells the backstory of Santa Claus. An orphaned baby is taken in by the Kringles, an elf family in the business of toy making. They name the infant Kris and raise him up to be one of their own. When Kris grows up, he’s determined to deliver toys to the children of Sombertown, even though the village’s grumpy mayor prohibits toys.
It’s a Wonderful Life
Better in colour or no? That’s the only legitimate debate when it comes to Frank Capra’s classic, now a must-watch for the holiday season. It’s just too difficult to argue against five Oscars, an indelible message, James Stewart, and that amazing pool scene.
Scrooge
Also titled simply A Christmas Carol, this 1951 drama from Brian Desmond Hurst stars one of the best Ebenezer Scrooges in Alastair Sim to ever embody the role. Of course, it's based on the Charles Dickens's novella you know and love, and it joins a massive collection of Carol remakes, reimaginings, and retellings, but somehow, this version stands as a beacon of holiday compassion.
The Sound of Music
Another one that isn't necessarily a Christmas movie, but is definitely the makings of a holiday tradition, The Sound of Music is tiptop Julie Andrews fare with a German accent. As the governess of a family with eight children, Andrews's Maria sings, chimes, and rhymes her way through the trials and tribulations of the Von Trapp family in the 1930s.
A Christmas Carol
Deciding which adaptation of Charles Dickens’s tale is your favorite is an entirely personal journey. For us, one is Edwin Marin’s family-friendly version of Scrooge and his ghost squad. Made during the Golden Age of Hollywood, it’s light on yuletide fear, heavy on Christmas cheer, and we’re okay with that.
Miracle on 34th Street
Winner of three Oscars, George Seaton’s Big Apple miracle, about Santa having to prove in a court of law he is actually Santa, was released on May 2, 1947—and has been played on a yearly loop ever since. Fun fact: Natalie Wood, who played nonbeliever Susan, was still a believer during filming.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Technically a TV special that could never have known its 50 plus-year endurance, Rudolph plus Frosty and their companion holiday classics count as a feature-length affair in our book. Plus, what’s a holiday viewing roundup without a stop-motion tale narrated by Burl Ives?
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Not sure there’s a better fireside counterpart than chestnuts – except for Peanuts. And West Coast jazz. Both of which make Charles Schulz’s A Charlie Brown Christmas a holiday classic that’s as wonderful and modest as a certain top-heavy hero’s Christmas tree.
Meet Me in St. Louis
Judy Garland stars as daughter Esther Smith in this Technicolor musical about a family preparing for a permanent move to New York. The story covers the entire year before their relocating, so Christmas is only a small part, but the sorrowful rendition of Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is enough to land it a place on our list. Plus, the film is featured in another holiday fave: The Family Stone.
Bundle of Joy
Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds take the lead in this delightful (albeit way outdated) musical about a department store clerk, the baby she finds at an orphanage, and the pickle her little one gets her into. Of course, there’s plenty of romance, show tunes, and dance numbers on the menu, but the real dish is beholding the chemistry between Reynolds and her real-life husband at the time, Mr. Fisher.
Christmas Lilies of the Field
There is no Sidney Poitier, but this small-screen follow-up to the 1963 hallmark film Lilies of the Field still holds its own. Starring Billy Dee Williams as Homer, the film is a gift that keeps on giving decades later. When Homer returns to the chapel he helped build years earlier, he sees that the nuns have opened their doors to homeless children. Moved, he rolls up his sleeves and gets to work on a school and orphanage. Hearts will be filled.
Desk Set
Your annual office Christmas party has nothing on the romp on display in this Walter Lang classic. Stream-able in Technicolor that makes the jewel-toned palette suited to the season pop off the screen, the film stars Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn as a pair of polar opposites at odds with the future of their network. Most of the film takes place at their Manhattan office place (the very famous 30 Rock, to be exact), and the iconic Rockefeller tree even makes a cameo.
The Lemon Drop Kid
You know that classic carol “Silver Bells”? It was actually introduced in this crime comedy, and sung by Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell. That’s reason alone to queue up the classic, but should you want to know more before committing, well, Hope plays Sidney Milburn, a racetrack scammer who has until Christmas to pay back the mob. Slapstick, sing-alongs, sour candy: What more could you want?
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
Screwball comedies of the ‘40s are a cause for celebration—and this diamond in the snow is proof. A twist on the holiday’s nativity story, the fun begins with a night of revelry at a sendoff party for American troops, and ends with a woman waking up to find herself married, pregnant, and with no memory of who the soldier boy is. (It sounds more scandalous than it actually is.)
The Apartment
A comedy of complicated love connections, Billy Wilder’s rom-com is about a man who allows his bosses to use his digs for trysts with their mistresses as an attempt to climb the corporate ladder. And though Christmas is more of a choice of setting than a driving plotline, the brilliant dialogue between its stars—Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon—is the very same magic that so often is celebrated this time of year.
Meet John Doe
You can’t do Christmas without Frank Capra, but there is more to his seasonal classic vault than his holiday stalwart starring Jimmy Stewart, It’s a Wonderful Life. Five years before George Bailey was dangling off a bridge, a man known only as John Doe was threatening to jump off City Hall on Christmas Eve. It’s a ploy designed to save the job of a journalist, played by Barbara Stanwyck, but it ends up igniting a populist movement and culminating in one of the prettiest, snowiest denouements on film. WATCH
Christmas in Connecticut
There is no holly without jolly. And there is no Christmas without biscuits. Bake up a batch and settle in for this comedy about a writer whose cover as a Susie Homemaker with Dominique Crenn-worthy oven skills is about to get blown over a holiday in the Northeast. Settle in with a cup of tea.
The Shop Around the Corner
A pair of gift shop salespeople who despise each other anonymously fall in love via their pen-pal correspondence. Sound familiar? It should. James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan’s onscreen tale is the inspiration for Nora Ephron's classic You’ve Got Mail. WATCH
The Bishop’s Wife
Two of the five Oscar nominees in 1948 were holiday films: this one, and a certain miracle that happened in midtown Manhattan. Here, Henry Koster directs a tale about an angel with quite the to-do list: help a bishop, build a church, save a marriage. Sounds a lot like a job for Denzel.
It Happened on Fifth Avenue
The Fifth Avenue you know, but the “it” you may not. It refers to the Christmas when Trudy, the daughter of the second-richest man in the world, arrives home early to find drifters and NYC’s homeless residing in her family’s townhouse. Love and merrymaking, right this way.
Holiday Affair
Don Hartman’s rom-com forgoes the saccharine sentimentality Hallmark brings for Christmas (not that there's anything wrong with that), though seasonal sentiment is not all lost among a widow, two men, and partridge in a pear tree.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
If you've found yourself with a frigid heart this festive season, then a cranky green monster who discards his hate for Christmas is just what Dr. Seuss ordered. Fun fact: Seuss’s Grinch was black and white with pink eyes. Chuck Jones made him green for the screen. WATCH
Bell, Book and Candle
Old Hollywood starlet Kim Novak takes the lead in this enchanting romantic comedy that uses December’s big day as its backdrop. As a shop girl with supernatural abilities, she casts a love spell on her neighbor (Jimmy Stewart) because she despises his fiancée. Of course, she never expected to fall in love with him herself. WATCH
The Wiz
Another film that airs annually around the holidays, The Wiz is an offshoot of The Wizard of Oz and stars an all-Black cast. And though its technical designation is “fantasy film,” the charm and allure of Sidney Lumet’s 1978 classic has solidified it as a celebrated holiday event for families across the country. A cast including the legendary Diana Ross, Lena Horne, and Mabel King will do that.
The Man Who Came to Dinner
Starring Monty Woolley and Bette Davis, The Man Who Came to Dinner is a screwball comedy that hopped from stage to the big screen. As Sheridan Whiteside, an acerbic Scrooge who intrudes on an Ohio family for Christmas, Woolley is utter humbug perfection. Plus, the film has penguins, plotting, and piety aplenty. Just what the holiday ordered.
Holiday Inn
There's nothing quite like a love triangle for the holidays! In this 1954 classic, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire serenade their various love interests and the film's soundtrack is one that's not to be missed. The holiday tune "White Christmas" was composed specifically for the film and ended up later inspiring a film of its own (also starring Crosby).
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