9 Christmas Movies to Stream that You Might Not Have Seen Yet … Including Several Underrated Period Dramas
You can rewatch Home Alone or the many iterations of The Grinch till you’re blue in the face… but why would you?
No shade to the Christmas classics, but there are plenty of other great holiday movies to watch that you may not have seen yet. Here are nine of them.
(And, bonus, six of these nine are Christmas movie period dramas! I marked those with an asterisk*.)
The Holdovers* (Alexander Payne) — rent it on Amazon Prime
Image courtesy of Focus Features
A truly heartwarming yet non-cliche Christmas movie, if I have ever seen a single one.
Unlikable curmudgeon Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is the one teacher at his 1970s New England boarding school who stays behind over Christmas break with the few other people who have nowhere to go. After only a couple days, it’s down to Hunham and Mary (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) the cook, whose son has just died in Vietnam. Just one student remains: Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) is a good pupil, but an awful troublemaker… and they soon find out he has good reason. Together over the holidays, this bummer of misfits holds each other together, and inconceivable friendships are formed.
I’m serious. If you want a truly Christmassy period drama that will make you feel the spirit like A Christmas Carol makes you feel the spirit, this is the one Christmas movie to stream right now.
Watch it with anyone. Hell, everyone.
Carol * (Todd Haynes) —streaming on HBO and Hulu
Let me begin by saying, this movie is an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel, The Price of Salt. So. Get ready for a gritty romantic thriller annnnnd period piece!
Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) is a seasonal employee-slash-aspiring photographer at a 1950s Manhattan department store. When she spots the elegant Carol (Cate Blanchett, obviously), an infatuation begins and eventually develops into a complicated romantic relationship with some pretty severe consequences.
This is a great Christmas movie to watch on Hulu with your partner.
Look at this incredible post by author Carmen Maria Machado and her partner, if you need convincing:
The Christmas episode of The Bear, “Seven Fishes” (Christopher Storer) – streaming on Hulu
Not only is this 66-minute-long episode of The Bear’s season 2 an honest representation of a family holiday and the equivalent of a standalone film in itself, but it is the most stressful episode of a very stressful show.
Like I said, the most honest representation of Christmas.
This extended Italian family shows up to DD’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) house—as demanded—for the traditional Italian Christmas meal of seven fishes. This matriarch is both proud to make it in her abyss of a kitchen… but she also comes unglued because of how unappreciated she feels (though her efforts are actually very much appreciated). That’s not all: there’s palpable tension between Mikey (Jon Bernthal) and the pseudopatriarch (Bob Odinkirk) whose bio-relation is never quite clear, and of course, the Faks (Matty Matheson and Ricky Staffieri) rope the cousin-by-marriage (John Mulaney) into a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s funny-not-funny.
This one might not be a Christmas movie to watch with family… but this is the one to watch with your cousins who get it. You know what “it” is. Don’t play dumb.
The Fabelmans * (Steven Spielberg) — streaming on Fandango
Spielberg’s most autobiographical film—it’s not a holiday movie throughout, but it does start off with the Jewish experience of Christmas and the formative experience of viewing Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. It’s nostalgic (1952), informative, and a fun look into the filmmaking experience from the first-hand experience of a master.
Watch this one with family who loves Spielberg.
Babygirl (Halina Reijn) — streaming on HBO and Hulu
All right, this one, too, only takes place during the holiday season, beginning specifically at the corporate Christmas party.
By the way, am I the only one who loves a corporate Christmas party? Lately I’ve only been a plus-one, which is to me the most coveted position to any event—zero expectatiosn! All you got to do is look good and make light, interesting conversation! Seriously, I will go to your corporate event as a platonic plus-one. You can DM me on Instagram or contact me through this site.
But anyway, Babygirl an “erotic thriller” in which a high-powered female executive (Nicole Kidman) finds herself seduced by her scruffy intern (Harris Dickson).
This is the Christmas movie to watch with your partner… or, actually, maybe not?
Eileen * (William Oldroyd) – streaming on Hulu
Photo Credit, Jeong Park, Courtesy of NEON
If you can believe it, another awesome gritty romantic thriller period drama!
Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) works at a juvenile correctional facility in Massachusetts in 1964, and she barely seems older than the residents. Her home life with her alcoholic, emotionally abusive, former chief of police father is depressing, and she often fantasizes about ending her life. Until Rebecca Saint John (Anne Hathaway) joins the prison staff as its psychologist. Then, Rebecca is all Eileen can think about, and it seems like Rebecca likes Eileen, too. Although… Rebecca is also preoccupied with a particular inmate who is incarcerated at their facility because he murdered his father.
It's set at Christmastime, and besides the murder and intrigue, it really embodies the spirit of the hometown at Christmas. (So does Happiest Season, by the way. And Christmas Eve at Miller’s Point.)
Watch Eileen with your friends, partner, cousins… maybe not your dad, though.
Also, this film is adapted from Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel, Eileen, which I absolutely adore.
Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton)– streaming on Disney+
You forgot this was a Christmas movie, didn’t you!?
It’s a Tim Burton classic, but it’s not often considered a classic holiday movie. I guess that’s because the plot doesn’t really have a lot to do with Christmas itself: when Avon saleswoman (Dianne Wiest) calls on the spooky mansion in her suburb, she finds Edward (Johnny Depp), the unfinished, artificial boy with scissors for hands. He is odd, but the town falls in love with him… while he falls in love with his rescuer’s daughter (Winona Ryder).
I would argue it is among the best Christmas movies on Disney plus.
And did you know that Christine McConnell recreated Winona Ryder’s iconic dress from the snowfall scene?
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever * (Dallas Jenkins) — streaming on Starz
I’m not really a Christmas person. I try to get onboard, and not to be That Guy, but it has truly become so commercial.
If you want to get back to the meaning of Christmas (and do it with a period piece!) you want to see these kids from the wrong side of the tracks, in the early ‘70s, show up at the church because they heard there are free snacks. And then bully both the other children and adults into the giving them the starring roles of the Nativity pageant.
No one expects the fresh perspective that these parentless children lend to the Nativity. For example, the eldest girl (Beatrice Schneider) asks, Why would the so-called wise men bring perfume to a baby?
This is a great option for a Christmas movie to watch with kids or family. And the film is an adaptation of a young adult novel by the same name, so that’d be a great gift, too.
Nosferatu * (Robert Eggers) — streaming on Amazon Prime
Image courtesy of Focus Features
He is coming.
Seriously, if you haven’t seen Robert Eggers’ reimagining of Nosferatu, you must.
It is not the Dracula knock-off you might think—oh no. The inspiration is irrefutable, but this iteration follows the original, Eastern European folklore more closely than any other vampire movie I’ve ever seen. (I have a whole article coming soon to expand on this idea. It is coming.)
A lonely girl named Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) prays for a companion and unwittingly invokes the evil being Nosferatu (Bill Skarsgård). Her later fiancé, Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), travels to Transylvania to sell a house in Germany to the decrepit Count Orlok… enabling Nosferatu to find the girl.
And it all happens in the 1830s, amid gorgeous, lush Romanian, Romani, and German design.
Have I forgotten your favorite off-the-beaten-path Christmas movie? Let me know!
If this story stuck with you, then you might like…
What to Watch with Your Dad during the Holidays
7 Ways to Improve Your Corporate Christmas Party according to DIE HARD (1988)
