The best Christmas films to watch on Amazon Prime this festive season, from It's A Wonderful Life to Scrooged

The Christmas break is now just a few days away and we're well and truly into the silly season.

After back-to-back work parties, and a very long 2023, we're all due a long well-earned rest, planted on the sofa. And, as always, there are dozens of heart-warming festive films to enjoy.

Here's our pick of some of the best Christmas movies to watch on Prime Video.

It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

There is a reason this utterly glorious film is still screened at cinemas across the country every December. James Stewart stars as George, who has spent his entire life putting aside his own wishes and ambitions for the sake of his friends, family and community. But one Christmas Eve, everything goes wrong with his family’s business, and George ends up contemplating suicide, believing everyone around him would have been better off if he hadn’t existed. Thankfully, angel Clarence (Henry Travers) turns up to change his mind, using his magic to show George how important he is, and how worthwhile his life has been. Impossible to watch without sobbing.

White Christmas (1954)

On Christmas Eve in Europe in 1944, Bob (Bing Crosby) and Phil (Danny Kaye), two American soldiers, agree to become a double act after a close brush with death. One lucky night, years later, the now successful producers and performers meet sister act Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy (Vera Ellen), and the real fun begins. The crackling jokes, singing and dancing routines, and romantic scenes that follow make White Christmas festive gold. Though, as mentioned in the 1954 New York Times review, there is quite a lot of “nostalgia for the war years”, which some people might find a bit off-putting.

Scrooged (1988)

In a way, all Bill Murray films are Christmas films: just a glance of the comedian conjures up the same feelings as being wrapped into a wool blanket and handed a hot toddy. But Scrooged, an Eighties update of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, is a particular hoot of a festive film. Murray plays miserly TV exec Frank Cross, who is visited by a series of ghosts – all of whom are rather zany – on Christmas Eve. They have been sent by his old dead mentor, Lew Hayward, to try and save his soul.

Jack Frost (1998)

It’s a Christmas fantasy-comedy with a sprinkling of sadness: Jack Frost dies in a car crash but comes back as the snowman in the front yard of his house so that he can spend time with his family. It stars Michael Keaton as Jack Frost (and the voice of the animated snowman) Kelly Preston as his widow Gabby and Joseph Cross as his son Charlie, and is something of a heartbreaker.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

Ron Howard’s now 23-year-old (!) adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ 1957 children’s book is still, even after the squillionth watch, a blast: Jim Carrey plays the Grinch, a cantankerous green creature who, feeling particularly malevolent one year, decides to steal all the presents, decorations and food of the Who, the townspeople of Whoville. As artists, Carrey and Seuss are individually zany, kooky - a bit mad. So it follows that seeing them converge in this film results in eccentric, noisy, silly Christmas fun. Anthony Hopkins narrates and Christine Baranski, Bill Irwin and Molly Shannon also star.

The Holiday (2006)

The Holiday is one of the best festive films ever made (possibly): Nancy Meyers’s old-school rom-com about two women unlucky in love – a high-flying LA film producer (Cameron Diaz) and an English journalist (Kate Winslet) – who swap homes over Christmas is just the right amount of corny, dorky and gooey. Finding themselves refreshed by their new settings, both women immediately find extremely charming suitors. Result! Winslet’s Iris meets laid-back and gentle film composer Miles (Jack Black), while Diaz’s Amanda meets the debonair widower Graham (Jude Law).

Deck The Halls (2006)

There are surely few Christmas films more mindlessly fun to watch than this 2006 movie about Danny DeVito who moves in next door to suburban dad Matthew Broderick prompting a pitch battle over their Christmas lights. The Christmas spirit nearly gets cast aside as the duo lose all sight of reason, and go deep into their one-upmanship. John Whitesell, who also directed Calendar Girl, Big Momma’s House 2 and Holidate, directs, and Kristin Davis (Sex and the City), Kristin Chenoweth (The West Wing) and Fred Armisen (The Ex) also star.

Four Christmases (2008)

One Christmas, couple Bradford (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) end up having to visit every one of their parents - who are all divorced - after their holiday abroad gets cancelled. This means four separate parties in one day, and so the chaotic premise has been set. Secrets are exposed, relationships start to unravel and personal discoveries are made - just a little bit more hectic than a normal Christmas, then. Robert Duvall, Jon Favreau, Jon Voight and Sissy Spacek also star.

The Night Before (2008)

If you have had your fill of fuzzy, nostalgic fare, look no further than Jonathan Levine’s (Warm Bodies) comedy stoner film, The Night Before. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen and Anthony Mackie are three childhood friends who have made a ritual of spending Christmas Eve together. Now, 15 years later, all grown up, they decide to end their tradition, but plan to go out with a bang, looking for the best party in New York City on Christmas Eve. Marijuana is a central component of the plot - but so is friendship, love and honesty, which makes this alternative film fit the Christmas model in the end.