It is a tradition nurtured by films, magazines, and, more recently, by social media: using the end-of-year break to binge Christmas movies. But before getting to the list, there is an essential — and less obvious than it seems — question worth asking: after all, what makes a movie a Christmas movie?

A Christmas movie is one in which Christmas does not function merely as a backdrop, but as the narrative and symbolic structure of the story. The plot exists because it is Christmas: the date organizes time, defines the conflicts, imposes an emotional deadline, and shapes the resolution. Without Christmas, the logic of the narrative — and often its very meaning — falls apart.

Christmas also operates as a thematic catalyst. It concentrates ideas of reconciliation, forgiveness, loneliness, belonging, and return, whether to celebrate them, to test them, or even to subvert them. That is why a film can be a Christmas movie even when it is critical or cynical: the decisive criterion is that Christmas be indispensable to the emotional and narrative experience, not merely a decorative detail.

Seen this way, making lists stops being just a cliché and becomes a ritual. Mine does not change dramatically from one year to the next — because some films simply do not change — but there is always room for new titles that help complete the atmosphere and refresh the perspective.

Must-watch classics

(the 10 films that sustain Christmas year after year)

It’s a Wonderful Life — Amazon Prime Video

The absolute classic about belonging, impact, and invisible choices. A film that understands Christmas as a moral reckoning of life: who we are to others, even when we believe we have failed. Revisiting it is always an exercise in humility and hope. In 2026, it turns 80 and continues to return to theaters every holiday season — in New York, notably, as part of the city’s official Christmas tradition. Perfect and timeless.

Miracle on 34th Street (1984) — Netflix

A delicate — and surprisingly modern — defense of imagination in a cynical world. Christmas here is faith, but also collective trust: in Santa Claus and, above all, in human kindness. The remake, now more than 40 years old, is as sweet as the original, starring a young Natalie Wood, and far easier to find. Arresting Santa for false identity remains one of the genre’s most enduring and playful metaphors.

A Christmas Carol — Looke

The matrix of almost everything we understand as a Christmas narrative. Dickens turns Christmas into an opportunity for moral redemption, using ghosts not as horror, but as conscience. It is the story that established the tradition and remains essential to understanding the genre.

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol — Netflix

An animated, musical retelling that updates Dickens without softening his severity. The film preserves the emotional weight of guilt and repair, translating it into a contemporary, accessible, and visually inventive language.

Love Actually — Amazon Prime Video

Richard Curtis was once considered a little “mad” for assembling a star-studded cast to create an imperfect yet irresistible mosaic of different forms of love — some generous, others deeply misguided. Christmas serves as an emotional backdrop that amplifies encounters, missed connections, and silences. A modern classic of collective affection, standing shoulder to shoulder with older greats. And yes: Christmas Is All Around remains mandatory.

The Holiday — Netflix

A film about pause, exchange, and reinvention. Christmas appears less as a celebration and more as a necessary interval to reorganize one’s emotional life. Comforting, sun-drenched, and honest about the need to step outside one’s own script. My comfort movie at any time of year — though, of course, it fits December best.

Home Alone — Disney+

A piece of near-cartoon physical comedy that conceals a central theme: childhood anxiety about belonging. Christmas catalyzes both abandonment and return, turning mischief into a rite of passage. Immortal for a reason — 35 unbeatable years on any list.

Elf — Amazon Prime Video

Innocence as a subversive force. The film contrasts adult cynicism with absolute belief in kindness and Christmas magic. It works as comedy, but also as a reminder that enthusiasm is still a value.

Die Hard — Disney+

An action movie that exists precisely because it is Christmas: a corporate party, a fractured family, an empty city. The contrast between violence and the holiday spirit creates perfect irony. Christmas-coded not by tone, but by structure. An eternal debate among cinephiles — and one that die-hard fans would never allow to be excluded from a Christmas list.

Last Christmas — Netflix

A romantic comedy that begins lightly and ends far more emotionally ambitious than it first appears. Christmas becomes a space for healing, empathy, and second chances — not only to love, but to live with greater attentiveness to others. Like Love Actually, it was conceived specifically to move audiences at Christmas: born from George Michael’s song and an idea by Emma Thompson and Greg Wise. Simple, honest, and genuinely effective at warming the heart — quite literally. I love it.

In the end, this list is not about novelty. It is about permanence. These ten films have endured because they understand Christmas as something greater than decoration or a date on the calendar: they treat the end of the year as a moment of reckoning, reconciliation, return, and, at times, irony — always aware that December changes the emotional temperature of everything.

Perhaps that is why we return to them so faithfully. Not to be surprised, but to be welcomed. Must-watch classics are not simply the most famous films; they are the ones that, as soon as they begin, make the body recognize that Christmas has arrived.

(In the next part, I turn to the 15 more recent titles — films that do not replace these pillars, but help complete the ritual and refresh the perspective.)