The calendar has officially turned to November, which means it’s now completely acceptable to get into the Christmas spirit. (For some, it’s always acceptable, but now it’s really acceptable.) HBO Max knows what time of year it is, and it’s ramping up its collection of Christmas movies, including a new update to a Christmas classic. These are the best Christmas movies on HBO Max right now.
Looking for more holiday picks? We’ve also assembled guides to the best Christmas movies on Netflix and the best Christmas movies on Amazon Prime.
Genre
Family, Comedy
Stars
Peter Billingsley, Erinn Hayes, Zack Ward
Directed by
Clay Kaytis
Nearly 40 years after the original, A Christmas Story is getting a sequel! A now grown-up Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) returns to his old house on Cleveland Street to try to give his kids the kind of magical Christmas he experienced as a kid. But between reconnecting with childhood friends and reconciling the passing of his Old Man, things don’t go as smoothly as Ralphie hoped.
88m
Genre
Comedy, Romance, Drama
Stars
Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall
Directed by
Seth Gordon
When you’re in a relationship, you have to spend Christmas with two different families. It’s stressful, right? Well, in Four Christmases, that idea is taken to its greatest extent as Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) get caught red-handed in their annual ruse of avoiding their families during the holidays. Suddenly, each of their single parents knows Brad and Kate have been trying to get out of Christmas, and everybody wants a piece of them on Christmas Day.
97m
Genre
Drama, Animation, Family, Comedy
Stars
James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy
Directed by
Sarah Smith
Everybody knows that each Christmas, Santa and an army of dutiful elves manage to produce and distribute gifts to children all over the world. But how do they do it? Well, Arthur Christmas tells you through the lens of Santa’s misfit son, Arthur (James McAvoy). When one of the 600 million children to receive a gift from Santa gets mistakenly overlooked, Arthur takes it upon himself to execute an unauthorized mission to get the last present to the other side of the world before Christmas morning.
102m
Genre
Comedy, Romance
Stars
Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet
Directed by
Peter Godfrey
Soak up some classic Christmas vibes with Christmas in Connecticut! Barbara Stanwyck stars as Elizabeth Lane, one of America’s most famous food writers, who adopts a persona as a hard-working farm woman and perfect housewife and mother. Unfortunately, it’s all a lie. In real life, she’s an unmarried New Yorker who can’t use a toaster — she’s just been taking recipes from her friend, Felix (S.Z. Sakall). So, when her magazine publisher decides to send a heroic sailor, Jefferson (Dennis Morgan), to spend Christmas with Elizabeth as a publicity stunt, she has to pull out all the stops to fake it until she makes it.
136m
Genre
Comedy, Romance
Stars
Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law
Directed by
Nancy Meyers
Christmas can be a wonderfully romantic time, or it can be devastatingly painful. For Iris (Kate Winslet) and Amanda (Cameron Diaz), it’s the latter — just on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. After each woman experiences a bad breakup, they go on a house-swap website, deciding to trade their Los Angeles and U.K. homes to be alone for the holidays. However, when they get set up in their temporary new homes, they soon find potential new romances have come knocking.
93m
Genre
Comedy, Family
Stars
Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Peter Billingsley
Directed by
Bob Clark
If you grew up in the ’80s, or heck, any decade after that, Bob Clark’s classic comedy of childhood Christmas obsession is about as good as it gets as far as Christmas movies goes. All young Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) wants to find under the tree is an “official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle.” But, as he’s told over and over again by his over-protective parents: “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.” But Ralphie’s dream won’t be crushed as he does whatever it takes to let Santa know what he wants. A Christmas Story is a hilarious glimpse into one family’s life in small-town Indiana in the 1940s, and all the foibles and magic the holidays bring.
104m
Genre
Family, Comedy, Fantasy
Stars
Jim Carrey, Taylor Momsen, Jeffrey Tambor
Directed by
Ron Howard
The live-action adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ beloved Christmas story doesn’t hit quite the same as the animated version, but it’s some good fun nonetheless. Jim Carrey stars as the reclusive green Grinch who hates how much the citizens of Whoville love Christmas. So, he resolves to steal it. With the help of his reluctant dog, the Grinch comes down from the mountain top and swipes absolutely everything holiday-related from Whoville. But when he meets the adorable Cindy Lou Who, the Grinch struggles to maintain his grouchiness.
106m
Genre
Fantasy, Horror, Comedy
Stars
Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton
Directed by
Joe Dante
When you think about it, Gremlins is really just about the worst Christmas ever. A gadget salesman wants to make a splash for his son on Christmas so he brings home a “mogwai,” a special creature that hates bright light, can never get wet, and should never be fed after midnight. Of course, his son proceeds to do all of these things to his mogwai, Gizmo, soon unleashing a gang of gremlins on the town on Christmas Eve.
98m
Genre
Family, Comedy
Stars
Neil Patrick Harris, Winslow Fegley, Sophia Reid-Gantzert
Directed by
Michael Dowse
This HBO Max Original takes place in suburban Chicago in the late 1980s. It’s something of a refresh of A Christmas Story as 10-year-old Jake Doyle (Winslow Fegley) makes it his life’s (or at least his Christmas) mission to get the latest 8-bit gaming system for Christmas.
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