Christmas Movies (2024)

Christmas is my favorite time of year and probably the month when I watch the most movies, including May when I watch all 11 Star Wars movies.

As always there are default movies that I watch every year. For any movie that doesn’t appear on the “default” list, I will write a short review as I’ve been doing for all the previous months.

Let’s get started.

Default Choices

The following list is the movies I always watch every year and 2024 was no different.

• White Christmas – I always start the Christmas season with this movie.
• Scrooged
• 8 Bit Christmas
• Christmas Vacation (National Lampoons)
• A Christmas Story
• A Christmas Story Christmas

We also watch the Vince Vaughn movie Four Christmases every Christmas. It’s our go-to movie when my wife and I are wrapping presents. It is a really fun Christmas movie and will probably become a permanent film on the default list.

We also watched Spirited for the second year because my daughter really enjoys it. It might be one of those movies that we watch every year until she finds a new obsession. I don’t really mind the movie. It’s fun and they do make fun of themselves. She could have chosen a worse film to watch.

Other Selections

There are three movies on the “non-default” list, one film which I ended up watching twice. Here is the list and their respective mini-reviews.

Red One

Directed by: Jake Kasdan
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu
My Review:

Santa has been kidnapped and his head of security, Dwayne Johnson, must enlist the help of a hacker (Chris Evans) who has earned a spot on the naughty list. This is the movie I ended up watching twice. I think I enjoyed it more the second time.

It’s a fun movie to watch during the holiday season. I think Chris Evans and Dwayne Johnson have some good on-screen chemistry. J.K. Simmons is old Saint Nick and does a great job in the role. This movie could be a reoccurring film each season as well.

A Christmas Carol (1951)

Directed by: Brian Desmond Hurst
Starring: Alastair Sim, Jack Warner
My Rating:

This is an underappreciated version of A Christmas Carol. It’s probably one of my favorite versions of the Charles Dickens tale and is widely considered the gold standard of all the filmed versions. Alastair Sim gives one of the best performances of Ebenezer Scrooge in all the versions I’ve seen. If you haven’t checked this one out, I highly recommend it.

Christmas with the Kranks

Directed by: Jim Roth
Starring: Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd
My Rating:

Tim Allen must really love Christmas given all of the Christmas themed films and shows he’s in. This is not his best film. It’s a little hokey in places but it has some redeeming qualities. The end of the movie makes up for everything. The sudden appearance of Austin Pendleton‘s character, Marty, and the subtle hints to his identity make a pretty good ending.

Well, that’s it for Christmas 2024. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a great start to 2025. Now it’s time for some science fiction in January.

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