Best Christmas Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of christmas cinema — measured across 6,616 indexed frames from 88 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
Christmas films over-index on christmas tree, string lights and snow — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
Ron HowardDP Donald PetermanIMDb 6.4TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →
Inside a snowflake exists the magical land of Whoville, wherein live the Whos, an almost-mutated sort of Munchkin-like people who all love Christmas. Just outside of their beloved town lives the Grinch (Jim Carrey), a nasty creature that hates Christmas and plans to steal it from the Whos, which he equally abhors. Little Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) decides to befriend the Grinch.
- 2
Black Christmas (2006)
Glen MorganDP Robert McLachlanIMDb 4.7TMDB 5.2See in full on FrameThrower →
Katie Cassidyas Kelli Presley
Michelle Trachtenbergas Melissa Kitt
Mary Elizabeth Winsteadas Heather Fitzgerald
In the 70's, the boy Billy is born with yellow skin due to a liver disease and his dysfunctional mother rejects him. Later he witnesses his mother and her lover killing his beloved father and burying him in the basement of their house, and he is locked in the attic alone along his childhood. When he is a teenager, he is sexually abused by his mother and she has a baby girl called Agnes. During Christmas, the deranged Billy escapes from his imprisonment, kills his mother and stepfather and blinds one eye of Agnes. He is declared insane and his sister is sent to an orphanage. In the present days, Billy escapes from the Clark Sanatorium to spend Christmas with his family. Meanwhile, his former house is the Delta Alpha Kappa sorority house in the campus of the Clement University, and the housemother and the sisters Kelli Presley, Dana, Lauren Hannon, Megan, Heather, Megan Helms, Melissa and Eve Agnew are preparing the house for Christmas party in a stormy night while Clair Crosby is in her room writing a card to bury the hatchet with her sister. When three sisters vanish, the others receive weird phone calls and believe something is wrong, but they find that they are trapped in the location.
- 3
Terrifier 3 (2024)
Damien LeoneDP George SteuberIMDb 6.2TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →
Five years after surviving Art the Clown's Halloween massacre, Sienna and Jonathan are still struggling to rebuild their shattered lives. As the holiday season approaches, they try to embrace the Christmas spirit and leave the horrors of the past behind. But just when they think they're safe, Art returns, determined to turn their holiday cheer into a new nightmare. The festive season quickly unravels as Art unleashes his twisted brand of terror, proving that no holiday is safe.
- 4
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
Frank CapraDP Joseph F. BirocIMDb 8.6TMDB 8.3See in full on FrameThrower →
George Bailey has spent his entire life giving of himself to the people of Bedford Falls. He has always longed to travel but never had the opportunity in order to prevent rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town. All that prevents him from doing so is George's modest building and loan company, which was founded by his generous father. But on Christmas Eve, George's Uncle Billy loses the business's $8,000 while intending to deposit it in the bank. Potter finds the misplaced money and hides it from Billy. When the bank examiner discovers the shortage later that night, George realizes that he will be held responsible and sent to jail and the company will collapse, finally allowing Potter to take over the town. Thinking of his wife, their young children, and others he loves will be better off with him dead, he contemplates suicide. But the prayers of his loved ones result in a gentle angel named Clarence coming to earth to help George, with the promise of earning his wings. He shows George what things would have been like if he had never been born.
- 5
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Stanley KubrickDP Larry SmithIMDb 7.5TMDB 7.5See in full on FrameThrower →
After his wife, Alice, tells him about her sexual fantasies, William Harford sets out for a night of sexual adventure. After several less than successful encounters, he meets an old friend, Nick Nightingale--now a musician--who tells him of strange sex parties where he is required to play the piano blindfolded. All the men at the party are costumed and wear masks while the women are all young and beautiful. Harford manages to find an appropriate costume and heads out to the party. Once there, however, he is warned by someone who recognizes him, despite the mask, that he is in great danger. He manages to extricate himself, but the threats prove to be quite real and sinister.
- 6
Gremlins (1984)
Joe DanteDP John HoraIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.1See in full on FrameThrower →
Minature green monsters tear through the small town of Kingston Falls. Hijinks ensue as a mild-mannered bank teller releases these hideous loonies after gaining a new pet and violating two of three simple rules: No water (violated), no food after midnight (violated), and no bright light. Hilarious mayhem and destruction in a town straight out of Norman Rockwell. So, when your washing machine blows up or your TV goes on the fritz, before you call the repair man, turn on all the lights and look under all the beds. 'Cause you never can tell, there just might be a gremlin in your house.
- 7
Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
Satoshi KonDP Katsutoshi SugaiIMDb 7.8TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →
Christmas in Tokyo, Japan. Three homeless friends: a young girl, a transvestite, and a middle-aged bum. While foraging through some trash, they find an abandoned newborn. Hana, the transvestite with delusions of being a mother, convinces the others to keep it overnight. The next day, using a key found with the baby, they start tracking down the parents, with many adventures along the way.
- 8
Scrooged (1988)
Richard DonnerDP Michael ChapmanIMDb 6.9TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →
Francis Xavier Cross is a cynical, mean spirited television executive, he treats his loyal assistant with contempt. He just sacked a member of staff on Christmas Eve for simply disagreeing with him, and he's alienated himself from his brother who still insists on inviting Frank to Christmas dinner despite him refusing to go every year. However, Frank is forced to learn the true meaning of Christmas when he's visited by three ghosts.
- 9
The Conjuring 2 (2016)
James WanDP Don BurgessIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →
In 1977 Enfield, the paranormal investigators, Lorraine and Ed Warren, travel to London to help the Hodgsons. After sensing her daughter to be possessed, and her four children haunted by supernatural happenings, Peggy Hodgson asks for help when a malicious entity takes possession of the second eldest child, Janet. However, there's something more threatening, not only for the inhabitants but also for the investigator-couple; something that they couldn't even imagine.
- 10
The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Mark PellingtonDP Fred MurphyIMDb 6.4TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →
John Klein (Richard Gere) is involved in a car accident with his wife, but while he is unharmed, his wife mentions a moth-shaped creature appearing. After her death, John begins to investigate the secrets behind this mentioned Mothman. It takes him to the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where he discovers a connection with the same problem. Here he meets Connie Mills (Laura Linney), while he continues to unravel the mystery of what the Mothman really is.
What christmas films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a christmas frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — christmas tree is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- christmas tree34.0×
- string lights9.0×
- snow3.8×
- scarf2.5×
- coat2.2×
- girl2.1×
- sweater1.7×
How christmas films are shot
Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate christmas from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 18%high keyvs 12% baseline
- 34%naturalvs 43% baseline
- 86%eye levelvs 69% baseline
- 53%nightvs 43% baseline
What breaks the pattern
The Green Knight (2021) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.
Method
Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 6,616 frames from 88 films carrying the christmas label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.
Machine-readable: /api/list/christmas
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