12 Best Christmas Movies
For holiday cheer (and sniffles), here are 6 immortal old movies and 6 modern classics to stream
AARP, December 13, 2019
Something old and something new is not for weddings only — it's a good way to pick holiday movies. These six tried-and-true Christmas favorites and six lesser-known gems will bring love and light and happy tears to your video festivities.
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PHOTO BY: The Samuel Goldwyn Company/RKO/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images
Vintage Classics
The Bishop's Wife (1948)
When an Episcopal bishop (David Niven) prays for help, an angel (Cary Grant) is sent to ease the troubles in his marriage to Loretta Young and refocus him on what's important. (Amazon Prime, iTunes)
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PHOTO BY: LMPC via Getty Images
It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)
Squatters, among them Victor Moore, take up residence in a Fifth Avenue mansion while its owner (Charles Ruggles) winters down South. Rich and poor meet and celebrate as equals, to everyone's benefit. (Vudu, YouTube, Amazon Prime, and iTunes)
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PHOTO BY: Bettmann/Getty Images
It's a Wonderful Life (1947)
Starring Jimmy Stewart as the infinitely generous banker whose savings and loan goes bust on Christmas Eve, this Frank Capra classic (with some clever uncredited dialogue by Dorothy Parker, Dalton Trumbo and Clifford Odets) never gets old. (YouTube, Amazon Prime, Vudu, iTunes, Google Play)
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PHOTO BY: John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
In 1903, the Smith family (Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien) looks forward to the World's Fair, but may not attend because their father gets a job in New York. The Vincente Minnelli evergreen boasts the season's best song, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."(Google Play, iTunes, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Vudu)
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PHOTO BY: Columbia Pictures/Getty Images
Penny Serenade (1941)
On the eve of divorce (and the Christmas holidays), Cary Grant and Irene Dunne reconsider their troubled marriage when they receive a phone call that restores their faith — and love. (Tubi, Amazon Prime, Vudu)
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PHOTO BY: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Remember the Night (1940)
District attorney Fred MacMurray arranges a holiday furlough for shoplifter Barbara Stanwyck, who, though suspicious of his motives, is redeemed by the love of his mother and aunt. (Airs on TCM, Sunday December 15)
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PHOTO BY: Universal Pictures
Modern Classics
About a Boy (2002)
Hugh Grant is a selfish Londoner living off the royalties of his father's Christmas jingle when he meets a depressed woman and her son (Toni Collette, Nicholas Hoult) and learns how to give of himself to others — and become an adult. Also starring Rachel Weisz. (Netflix)
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PHOTO BY: 20th Century-Fox/Getty Images
Die Hard (1988)
In what is surely the best — and perhaps the only — holiday action movie, Bruce Willis is the NYPD cop who's visiting estranged wife Bonnie Bedelia for the holidays in L.A., when he discovers terrorists have infiltrated her company's Christmas party. Alan Rickman is Hans Gruber, German terrorist and all-around Grinch. (Amazon Prime, iTunes, YouTube, Fandango Now)
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PHOTO BY: ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
Elf (2003)
A sweet comic fantasy starring Will Ferrell as Buddy, the human adopted as a baby by elves who work the North Pole beat. When Buddy learns he's not an elf, he goes to Manhattan to work as one in a department store, where he meets human elf Zooey Deschanel and finds his father (James Caan). (Amazon Prime, iTunes, YouTube, Vudu)
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PHOTO BY: Columbia Pictures
The Holiday (2006)
L.A. film editor Cameron Diaz and London newspaper editor Kate Winslet, each jilted before the holidays, trade houses over Christmas break. And in this Nancy Meyers comedy, each meets a promising romantic prospect (Jude Law, Jack Black). Diaz befriends an octogenarian screenwriter (Eli Wallach) who recommends great old movies with strong female protagonists to give her gumption. It's touching when he gets a lifetime achievement award — and in 2010, he actually became the oldest winner of the Academy's lifetime achievement award at 94. (Amazon Prime, iTunes, YouTube, Vudu, Fandango)
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PHOTO BY: Paramount Pictures/Netflix
Last Holiday (2006)
When that life force known as Queen Latifah, a department store employee, learns she has a terminal illness, she spends her life savings on a European vacation during the holidays. She melts the hearts of everyone she encounters — but was she misdiagnosed? (Amazon Prime, Vudu, Youtube, Google Play, iTunes)
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PHOTO BY: Columbia Pictures
Little Women (1994)
Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst and Susan Sarandon costar in Gillian Armstrong's lovely adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott classic about the March family, who together — and singly — epitomize the spirit of Christmas. Compare it with the new version starring Meryl Streep, Laura Dern and Saoirse Ronan, which opens Christmas Day in theaters. (Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube, iTunes)