Quick, can you name twenty Christmas movies? Try to do it before reading on. I’ll wait.

Did you do it? If you did, I bet it went something like this. You started off with the old classics, like It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street. Then maybe you got some of the modern favorites, like A Christmas Story and Elf. You said the Grinch cartoon and the Charlie Brown Christmas movie, not knowing that those are actually ~30-minute TV specials, and so don’t count as movies. If you’re really savvy, you might have named a few of those did-you-know-it’s-a-Christmas-movie movies, like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. At this point you stopped and said “How many is that, twelve? Fifteen? How many did he say to do?” and either gave up or started googling for “list of xmas movies”.

This post will detail a journey that my girlfriend, Maisah, and I have undertaken for the past four years: watching one Christmas movie every day from the first of December through Christmas. That’s a lot of movies (eighty-six, since we didn’t make it all the way the second year, and that year also had some duplicates from the first), so this will be a long post. First I’ll give some background, then I’ll list all the movies, then I’ll give some commentary on each movie.

I wish it would go without saying, but this list will contain a lot of opinions. If you don’t like hearing bad things said about your favorite beloved Christmas movie, or if you are a “snowflake” who gets triggered by leftist political views, you might want to stop reading now. Speaking of which, I’ll note that almost all of these movies are American, and a general American cultural context is assumed throughout. I’ll also note that Maisah is black, and I’m white, and we’re both “millenials”.

2015

This is when it all began. We were living in Buenos Aires, and neither of us had jobs, so it seemed like a fun way to kill some time. Incidentally, did you know that people in the southern hemisphere celebrate Christmas in the summer? The same decorations get put up, but it’s hot.

The Best Man Holiday

We needed to start our movie marathon with a banger, so naturally we chose Best Man Holiday. To prepare for that we watched The Best Man the day before (that is, November 30th). The Best Man is an all-around excellent dramatic romantic comedy (a dram-rom-com). There are strong characters with clear motivations, and the plot never drags or rushes. Terrence Howard says “He’s your man…hundred grand!” It was directed by Spike Lee’s cousin. The Best Man Holiday is not as good, but then again it’s a holiday-themed sequel, so what did you expect? Still, a solid Christmas movie. God, family, football.
Perfect Holiday

Like The Best Man Holiday, Perfect Holiday stars Morris Chestnut and Terrence Howard. At least that’s what Wikipedia says; I can’t remember anything about it.
Reindeer Games

According to Wikipedia this movie is 104 minutes long, but God help me it felt like it lasted about three hours. It’s an action-heist movie rife with double and triple crosses, and yet all I can really remember is that it’s packed with boring dialogue. There’s so much exposition, and their scheme is plotted and described in excrutiating detail. I think there’s an exciting action movie buried in there somewhere, in the way that a solid block of marble has a beautiful statue inside it.
Friday After Next

Friday always shows up on lists of best stoner movies and lists of best hood movies. It’s overrated in both categories. Friday After Next is not as dull as Friday, but at the same time it doesn’t have Friday’s strong aesthetic. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Next Friday, but I can’t remember anything about it. There’s a scene in Friday After Next in which it’s implied that Terry Crews rapes Katt Williams in a bathroom.
The Family Stoned

Recently I’ve heard people talk about The Family Stoned like it’s a modern-day Christmas classic, the kind of movie you watch every year as a tradition. But what does anyone get out of watching it? I mean, what are you supposed to feel? The tone of the movie shifts erratically and abruptly. It’s heartwarming one minute, and then without warning high drama erupts, and then before you’ve had time register that, it’s comedy. It’s a whirlwind of emotions, and yet somehow it isn’t very interesting.
Eyes Wide Shut

If there’s a Christmas movie that’s more erotic than Eyes Wide Shut, I haven’t seen it. But I’d like to! Christmas doesn’t really figure into the plot (or maybe it does; I have no idea what the movie is about), but the Christmas imagery is brilliant. Christmas lights are the main lighting source in several scenes, and you never have to wait long for a tree to show up. It’s two and a half hours long, but unlike Reindeer Games, it never drags. Definitely worth watching.
Just Friends

Ryan Reynolds in a fat suit. That’s all I can remember.
The Holiday

A rom-com that is both really long and really boring. I’m serious, this thing is 136 minutes long. And Jack Black is in it? Great.
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence

This is by far the weirdest movie on the entire list. It is also the least Christmas-y. David Bowie stars as a British soldier held in a Japanese POW camp in the South Pacific. The movie takes place at Christmas, but there are no decorations, and there are only a few references to it. There is suppressed sexual tension between Bowie and the Japanese commander in charge of the camp, and all the outfits are wildly anachronistic. I had never heard of this movie, and I’m a huge David Bowie fan – I’ve even watched The Man Who Fell to Earth. Why isn’t MCML talked about more?
Fred Claus

Vince Vaughn stars as Fred Claus, the black-sheep brother of Santa claus. Reasonably funny, if you’re into Vince Vaughn’s style of comedy. We watched this on our last day in Argentina, and almost missed our flight trying to finish it.
Jingle All The Way

Schwarzenegger / Sinbad satirize Christmas consumerism. Not bad; needs bite.
Home Alone 2

Home Alone 2 is a classic cynical cash-grab sequel. It’s the exact same story as the original, but in a different setting. Prominently featured is a recording device called the “Talkboy”, which seems to have been inserted into the movie just for the product placement. Did they make the movie just to sell these shitty toys? Just in time for Christmas! Donald Trump has a cameo. He and this movie were made for each other.
Four Christmases

Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon are in a committed relationship, but they don’t want to get married because they both come from divorced homes. They end up meeting each other’s wacky families (four of them) for the first time on Christmas, and hilarity ensues. Not a deep movie, but enjoyable.
Scrooged

Overrated Bill Murray comedic adaptation of A Christmas Carol. The first twenty minutes or so are funny, the rest is mostly boring.
A Diva’s Christmas Carol

VH1 TV movies starring Vanessa L Williams. I can never put my finger on it, but something about TV movies just makes them such a grind to watch. We bailed twenty minutes in.
This Christmas

“This Christmas” may be the greatest modern Christmas song, but This Christmas is a forgettable movie.
Muppets Christmas Carol

I haven’t done any research into it, but I’m guessing at some point in the production of the movie, the following conversation transpired: “Who should play Scrooge’s dead business partner, Jacob Marley? Do we have any weird old guys? Actually, we have two, those balcony hecklers. Well, how about we make them both Marley? Marley and Marley.” Genius.
Christmas Vacation

Like Scrooged, I don’t understand the adoration this movie receives. There are some funny moments – anything with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, SQUIRREL, etc – but rather dull overall.
Love Actually

Highly goofy and an occasionally troubling (Rick Grimes as a creepy stalker?), I like Love Actually’s varied storylines. I had seen it before, but it the was first time for Maisah, and she hated it. Although I like it, I would never defend it.
Christmas With The Kranks

Another Tim Allen Christmas movie. The Kranks decide they don’t want to celebrate Christmas this year, and their family and friends freak out. You’d think the friends and family would be the clear villains, but the Kranks themselves are jerks and morons, so there’s really nobody to root for.
The Preachers Wife

Remake of the The Bishop’s Wife, which neither of us had seen at that point. Courtney B Vance is the preacher, and Whitney Houston is his wife. Denzel Washington plays an angel who comes to help the preacher do something. I thought it was miscast; DW should be the troubled preacher, and CBV should be the upstanding angel. Little did I know that the original had exactly the same dynamic.
Elf

Not as good as everyone says, but still pretty good.
Nightmare Before Christmas

Did you know this movie is only 76 minutes long? And much of that time is padded out with musical numbers, so there is almost no plot to speak of. Great art style, of course, but pointless otherwise.
Bad Santa

One of my favorite Christmas movies. Billy Bob Thorton plays a lowlife scumbag who every year gets a job as a mall Santa in order to rob the mall (along with his dwarf partner Tony Cox, who gets a job as one of Santa’s elves). Unrepentently crude and totally void of sentimentality. Brilliant.
The Ref

We tried to watch this one twice and fell asleep both times.

2016

Things were very different in the second year. Maisah was working and in school, and I had started my very first programming job the Monday after Thanksgiving. Both of us were very tired, and we ended up running out of steam halfway through. And this was even allowing for repeats, which we didn’t do in subsequent years.

Rent

I saw this musical in high school and hated it. This time around I liked it more. Maisah loves it, and has met some of the actors in real life.
Bad Santa

Repeat from previous year.
Uncle Nick

Brian Posehn stars as a creep who plans to get with his brother’s twenty-year-old stepdaughter on Christmas. I enjoyed it enough, but Maisah hated it. It tries for shock comedy and family drama, but as they say, chase two rabbits and you’ll lose them both. There’s also a weird parallel narrative telling the tale of the infamous Ten Cent Beer Night incident.
Surviving Christmas

I don’t know if this is the worst Christmas movie ever made, but it’s certainly up there. It’s 91 minutes long, but it feels like three hours. Ben Affleck is horribly miscast; Dennis from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia would have been a much better choice. James Gandolfini plays a regular working jackass and has a beard.
Santa Conquers the Martians

Yes, this 1962 sci-fi flick has comically cheap sets and costumes, and yes, the story is absurd, but I think there’s a kernel of a good movie in there somewhere. I think somebody at some level put some thought and care into this movie, elevating it over a typical cheesy bad movie. Maisah claims that she hated it, but I’m pretty sure she fell asleep towards the beginning.
Fred Claus

Repeat from previous year.
Ernest Saves Christmas

Surviving Christmas was terrible, but I don’t regret watching it. I can’t say the same for Ernest Saves Christmas. Apparently the Ernest character was developed for television commercials, and gained enough popularity to have some feature films made. That low pedigree shines through, with tons of ham-fisted product placement. This movie is garbage, and I would recommend against ever watching it.
Home Alone

Obviously a great movie in its own way. Not new to either of us, and I assume most readers have seen it too.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas

How could a Dr Seuss adaptation be so joyless? We didn’t finish it. On the plus side, some of the Whos are briefly shown throwing a key party (look it up).
Die Hard

This is the classic did-you-know-it’s-a-Christmas-movie movie. It was my first time seeing it, and I was worried it wouldn’t live up to the hype. But it did. The action is great, the Christmas imagery is great, and Alan Rickman is in it. The only thing I didn’t like was Die Hard Man’s crappy action movie one-liners. I don’t get the appeal of that kind of thing. I would rather he remain silent, like the main character in an RPG.
Four Christmases

Repeat from previous year.
Tangerine

Comedy about some transgender sex workers in Los Angeles who go on some kind of caper, and an Armenian immigrant client of theirs. The Christmas stuff is all in the background, but it’s there. Shot on an iPhone 5S! I don’t remember as many of the details as I would like, but I definitely want to see it again.
Miracle on 34th Street (1994)

Remake of the original. Stars the guy from the first season of American Horror Story. Forgettable.
Happy Christmas

Mumbly millenial family drama starring Lena Dunham. Don’t bother.

2017

If you want to try twenty-five days of Christmas movies yourself, here are the three most important things to do: plan, plan, and plan. Figure out the movies you want to watch before you start, and figure out where you’re going to find them. I’m serious. We failed to do that in our second year, and we failed; this year we planned, and we succeeded without any problems.

Bad Moms Christmas

Bad Moms was a reasonably successful comedy, so why not make another one? Instead of focusing on the moms and their kids, it can focus on the moms’ moms. Oh, and make a it a Christmas movie too? Why not. We saw this one in the theater.
Lethal Weapon

Not nearly as good as Die Hard, but it does contain one of my favorite pieces of Christmas imagery: the backside of the windows of an empty storefront, painted with “Christmas SALE Everything MUST GO” in red and green letters.
Rare Exports

Researchers unearth some kind of frozen old Santa Claus demon in Finland. It comes back to life, and local reindeer herders have to stop it. Features more naked old men than any other Christmas movie that I’ve ever seen.
Batman Returns

Tremendous Christmas ambiance from start to finish. Almost literally: the second or third scene features the bad guys attacking during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, and the final line of the film is Bruce Wayne saying “Merry Christmas, Alfred. And good will towards men…and women.” This is probably in my top ten favorite Christmas movies.
Why Him

Bryan Cranston is a middle-class father whose daughter has gotten engaged to an eccentric young tech millionaire. This is perhaps the lowest-brow movie in this whole list, with a central comic set piece involving a tank full of urine.
Almost Christmas

I had to look this one up, because I don’t remember watching it. Danny Glover is in it, and he says “I’m too old for this shit.”
Bad Santa 2

Bad Santa was a great movie, and it didn’t need a sequel. Did we really need to learn the backstory of Willie Soke? Wasn’t it enough that he was just some lowlife who had gotten into an unusual criminal line of work? Here Kathy Bates stars as his mother, who we learn is also involved in Christmas crime, and Bad Santa actually grew up doing it. I strongly recommend that nobody watch this movie ever; it isn’t particularly funny, and it cheapens the original.
Gremlins

A lot of people love this movie. I didn’t. How many people like Gremlins who didn’t see it as children? Mostly I found it dull. Great Christmas decorations though.
The Man Who Invented Christmas

We saw this one in the theater. It tells the story of how Charles Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol, and how the events in his own life shaped it. I thought for sure that I would forget about this movie immediately after watching, but it turns out that I remember much of it.
The Apartment

Mad Men was a period TV series dealing with the wild lives of New York City executives in the early 60s; The Apartment was a contemporary look at the same. Jack Lemmon stars as a low-level white-collar worked who lends out his apartment to the executives at his company as a place to bring back mistresses, prostitutes, good-time girls, and so on. This plot was controversial when it was released, and I was rather taken aback myself. This was the first old movie that we watched, and it was also the last non-throwback black-and-white movie to win the Best Picture Oscar. It may have been my favorite movie of this year.
Polar Express

A Tom Hanks vanity project: he plays six characters, narrates, and executive-produced. I didn’t see this movie when it came out, but I remember hearing about a pronounced “uncanny valley” effect. I was hoping that this would make the movie interesting, but it didn’t, and I was bored.
Deck the Halls

Matthew Broderick is “the Christmas guy” in his neighborhood, but then Danny DeVito moves in and also considers himself “the Christmas guy”. They compete over Christmas decorations and such. Not a great movie by any means, but watchable. More of a “funny-bad” movie.
Love the Coopers

Like The Family Stoned, but more boring.
Last Holiday

Queen Latifah is diagnosed with brain cancer and decides to spend her “last holiday” at a luxury hotel in Central Europe (I can’t remember where exactly, or if they specify). The diagnosis at the beginning takes place around Christmas, but in fact this is really a New Year’s movie. I believe this movie would have been a lot funnier if it had starred Wanda Sykes instead; imagine her saying “Brain cancer?!”
Die Hard 2

I wouldn’t describe myself as someone who is easily shocked, but I was shocked by how violent this movie is. Is it better than the first Die Hard? Sometimes I think so.
Office Christmas Party

A company throws a wild, raging Christmas party. Not a surprising movie, but definitely enjoyable. A good counterpoint to the office Christmas party depicted in The Apartment.
Trading Places

Eddie Murphy stars as Billy Ray Valentine, a vagrant who is roped into a “nature-vs-nurture” experiment run by two wealthy assholes. Possibly my favorite piece of Christmas imagery in any of these movies: a dive bar with a long mirror on the wall painted simply “XMAS”.
Harold and Kumar Christmas

Harold and Kumar go to White Castle wasn’t a great movie, and neither is this one. Features the following slapstick gag: a guy who loves Chrstimas grows his own Christmas trees, starting them several years in advance, and someone accidentally burns them down. This same gag appeared in Deck the Halls, which came out five years earlier.
Krampus

A family is attacked by Krampus, the evil demon counterpart of Santa Claus. Christmas horror movies are rare, and good ones are rarer still, but this is one of the good ones.
Edward Scissorhands

It’s a bit of a stretch to say that Edward Scissorhands is a Christmas movie. The main story is actually told as a frame narrative, and only the frame takes place at Christmas. But who cares? This movie is extraordinariy, and I would watch it any time.
The Family Man

A shitty Nicolas Cage movie directed by accused rapist Brett Ratner.
Planes Trains and Automobiles

Some idiot put this on a Christmas movie list, and that’s why we watched it. But it takes place at Thanksigiving, not Christmas. I don’t remember if we finished it. By the way, if you want to see a real shitshow of a Thanksgiving movie, check out Home for the Holidays.
“Twas the Night” (Fresh Prince episode)

One day caught us mostly in transit. The airplane behind-the-seat screen thing only had movies that we had seen before, so we watched an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It was a good one. Will tells the family that he knows Boyz II Men from when he lived in Philadelphia and that he can get them to play for Christmas. That isn’t true, and hilarity ensues as he tries to make the performance happen.
The Night Before

A guy’s parents are killed by a drunk driver on Christmas Eve when he is in his early twenties; subsequently, his vow to spend every Christmas Eve with him. Ten or fifteen years on, they begin to wonder whether they need to grow up and move on. Like a Judd Apatow movie, but I don’t think he was involved. Solid comedy.
Jack Frost

Stars Michael Keaton as a snowman. Didn’t finish.

2018

In previous years we had, with the exception of The Apartment, refused to watch old Christmas movies. Having pretty much run out of non-old movies, we started watching old ones. Coinciding with this, we decided to watch a wide variety of adaptations of The Christmas Carol.

A Christmas Carol (1938)

This is a short one, only 69 minutes. A fairly light-hearted adaptation, with the darker parts of the story mostly absent. My favorite part is when Scrooge’s schoolmate says “I say, your governor’s a crusty old bird.” Leo G. Carroll, who was over a barrel, stars as the ghost of Marley.
Ms. Scrooge

TV-movie adaption of A Christmas Carol with Scrooge as a black woman name Ebenita. Pretty good as far as flat, lifeless TV movies go. What is it about TV movies that makes them so flat and lifeless?
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Fast-paced dark-comedy detective-heist movie. I think there was a heist, at least, but the plot is a little hazy in my mind. Great comedy, great action, great Christmas settings.
We’re No Angels

Three convicts escape prison in some tropical country, and slapstick comedy ensues when they trick a dim-witted store manager into hiring them. There’s some kind of murder plot, but I don’t remember the details. The tropical Christmas decorations are nice, and I liked the 1955 film’s soft pastel colors, but not the most interesting movie overall. Leo G. Carroll, who was over a barrel, stars as the dim-witted store manager.
White Christmas

Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye have a musical act, and Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen have a musical act, and they combine their musical acts at a lodge in Vermont as a tribute to an old general. Maybe it’s because I’m a cynic, or maybe it’s because times have changed, but the plot rings false to me. A fun movie overall though.
It’s A Wonderful Life

This has a reputation as a Christmas movie, but most of it does not take place at Christmas. Jimmy Stewart stars as a guy who over and over made sacrifices in his life to help out those around him, and he ends up as a sad-sack and a martyr. Is this movie supposed to be uplifing? The moral of the story seems to be to eat shit your whole life and hope things will turn around eventually, and that’s a bad moral. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the depictions of the past (the movie came out in 1946, but the story goes back to 1919). If you have a choice between black-and-white and colorized, watch the colorized – the colors look great. Note: Maisah wanted me to add that she really, really hated this movie.
The Princess Switch

I think this was a Netflix movie?
Miracle On 34th Street

A beloved old Christmas classic, but it shouldn’t be. The trial scene is funny, and every scene involving the feuding business executives is hilarious, but the rest of the movie is truly contemptible. There’s a single woman and her precocious daughter, and two men literally conspire to bring the woman under their control and fill the daughter’s head with lies and fantasies. This movie is a great example of how women just can’t win: so often they’re told that they are emotional and hysterical, but when the daughter shows clear and independent logical thinking, she’s told that she lacks wonder and childhood innocence. Fuck this movie.
Holiday Inn

Bing Crosby is part of a musical act, and he has a plan to turn a farm into a venue for performing holiday-themed musical numbers. In execution, this movie is a lot like White Christmas, except that it is deeply racist. One of the holidays they perform is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday (this was before the advent of Presidents’ Day), and the musical number features the whole act in blackface. Louise Beavers is featured playing a classic “mammy” character. Unless you are specifically interested in historical displays of racism, I would stick with White Christmas.
Santa Claus vs The Devil

A supposedly funny-bad old movie along the lines of Santa Conquers the Martians. It’s boring, and we didn’t finish it.
Scrooge / A Christmas Carol (1951)

This adaptation was considerably less light-hearted than the 1938 one. We had the option to watch it black-and-white or colorized. The colorized version looked like the film had been soaked in stale urine, so we went with black-and-white. The most notable line was the ghost of Marley yelling “Bus-i-ness?! Mankind was my bus-i-ness!”
The Last Boy Scout

If anyone tells you that this is a Christmas movie, slap them in the face. One troubled child draws a picture of “Satan Claus”, and that’s it. This isn’t Lethal Weapon; it’s just a crummy Lethal Weapon knockoff.
The Unholy Three (1930)

This was the earliest movie we watched, and amongst the weirdest. Three sideshow performers – a little person, a strongman, and a ventriloquist – run a theft ring, and they hatch a plan to rob a wealthy family on Christmas Eve. The ventriloquist is played by Lon Chaney, in his first and last speaking role, and the little person is played by Harry “Doll” Earles, who also played one of the Munchikins in The Wizard of Oz. This movie was made before the puritanical Hays Code, and it contains some rather ribald humor: at one point Harry Earles stands there and farts, Terrance-and-Phillip-style, and at another point there is a joke about him eating and then shitting out some jewelery. You should watch this one. It’s only 72 minutes.
Christmas Chronicles

I think this was a Netflix movie too?
The Bishop’s Wife

This is the movie remade by The Preacher’s Wife. As I mentioned earlier, the casting of this movie makes no sense to me. The angel is way more charming and likeable than the bishop; this makes it seem like the angel is there to replace him, and that angel is really some kind of con-man. This one has the angel performing some basic magic spells. Was that in the remake?
Everybody’s Fine

Robert De Niro is an old man whose wife has died. He wants to get his children together for Christmas, but it turns out that they’ve been withholding the truth from him for years and they have more problems in their lives than they’ve been letting on. Fantastic family drama, even though the DVD case made it look like a cheap throwaway comedy.
A Christmas Carol (1997)

Animated musical adaptation. Tim Curry does the voice of Scrooge. I don’t remember much of it.
A Bill of Divorcement

A guy has been in a mental hospital for twenty years. He gets out, but has to come to terms with the fact that his family has moved on, and in particular that his wife has remarried. I think that was a hot social issue when the movie came out in 1932. This was the film debut of Katherine Hepburn, who steals every scene she’s in. I didn’t really know who she was (I had her mixed up with Audrey Hepburn I guess), and I was instantly struck by her star presence. The Christmas decorations are strange, mostly wreaths and pine boughs without any ornaments. Definitely worth watching.
Christmas in Connecticut

A single woman living in New York City writes food articles for magazine aimed at housewives. She doesn’t cook, but she makes up elaborate recipes and descriptions of her made-up family farm. Somebody famous wants to go to the farm to meet her and her family for Christmas, and she and her editor have to scramble to make the whole thing look real. Basically an extended sitcom plot. Not bad.
A Christmas Carol (2004)

Musical TV movie starring Kelsey Grammer as Scrooge. In this one, the story of Scrooge’s early life (boarding school, distant father) is replaced with the story of Charles Dickens’s early life (debtors’ prison, shoe-blacking factory). Arguably the latter is more interesting than the former, though it makes the overall story a little on-the-nose. Not a great movie.
Mixed Nuts

Mild slapstick comedy written and directed by Nora Ephron (who also wrote and directed Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail). Wacky people living on the beach in Los Angeles doing wacky things around Christmas. This movie is “peak 90s”, as they say, but it isn’t very funny.
Black Nativity

A teenager from a poor black family in Baltimore goes to stay with his well-off grandparents in New York City for Christmas. Deep family drama and class differences come into play. I wouldn’t say I loved the movie, but it’s very different from the rest of the movies we watched, and that is per se a good thing.
Bell, Book, and Candle

Jimmy Stewart gets involved with an underground group of witches in New York City. Pleasant enough to watch, but only the first few minutes take place at Christmas, so I can’t in good conscience call this a Christmas movie. A Siamese cat named “Pyewacket” is prominently featured.
The Shop Around the Corner

Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan are co-workers with an antagonistic relationship, but it turns out that they were both carrying on a romantic correspondence with each other. Christmas comes up, but only in passing, so I wouldn’t call it a Christmas movie. You’ve Got Mail was adapted from it.
Bridget Jones’s Diary

There’s some dispute as to whether or not this is a Christmas movie. The plot spans from Christmas to the New Year’s of the next year, so two Christmases total. Further, a character’s ugly Christmas sweater is a minor plot point, so I am inclined to admit it as a full-fledged Christmas movie. I would recommend this movie just for the “tarts and vicars” party scene.