Last Updated on November 22, 2022 by Diane Hoffmaster
My kids have already started hunting through Netflix, Comcast on Demand and Amazon Prime looking for Christmas movies. I keep telling them to wait til after Thanksgiving before worrying about the best Christmas movies but they will have none of my life lessons. I decided to give in to their obsessive holiday spirit and started looking for the best Christmas movies for teens last night.
There are so many to choose from! I definitely encourage you to choose a few holiday movies and settle in for a Christmas moving night with your family!
Table of Contents
Best Christmas Movies for Teens
Christmas ideas for teens like these DVDs make great stocking stuffers. You can also play them at a fun sleepover night while they are on winter vacation.
This Christmas movie list includes a wide variety of old classics to modern-day comedies. Hopefully, your teens will find one on the list that they enjoy!
While you are choosing your Christmas movies, remember that family movie night is a great way to bond with your teen. So, pop some popcorn, top it with homemade nacho seasoning, and join them! Movie night is a tradition that can bring families closer together!
It’s a Wonderful Life
George Bailey has so many problems he is thinking about ending it all – and it’s Christmas! As the angels discuss George, we see his life in flashbacks. As George is about to jump from a bridge, he ends up rescuing his guardian angel, Clarence.
Clarence then shows George what his town would have looked like if it hadn’t been for all of his good deeds over the years. Will Clarence be able to convince George to return to his family and forget suicide? Buy It’s a Wonderful Life (60th Anniversary Edition)
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens. It was first published by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. Carol tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation resulting from a supernatural visit by the ghost of his former business partner
Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. The book was written and published in early Victorian era Britain, a period when there was strong nostalgia for old Christmas traditions together with the introduction of new customs, such as Christmas trees and greeting cards.
Dickens’s sources for the tale appear to be many and varied, but are, principally, the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales
*This is one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies and should be on everyone’s list of Christmas movies for teens! Buy A Christmas Carol
Miracle on 34th Street
Six-year-old Susan doubts childhood’s most enduring miracle Santa Clause. Her mother told her the “secret” about Santa a long time ago, so Susan doesn’t expect to receive the most important gifts on her Christmas list.
But after meeting a special department store Santa who’s convinced he’s the real thing, Susan is given the most precious gift of all – something to believe in. BUY Miracle on 34th Street
Scrooge
Scrooge was designed as a follow-up to 1968’s Oliver, the Oscar-winning musicalization of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist. In the umpteenth musical version of Dickens’ 1843 novelette A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is blessed with several sprightly Leslie Bricusse songs, including the bonafide hit Thank You Very Much.
Once more buried under mounds of latex, Albert Finney is perfection itself as Ebeneezer Scrooge, proving as effective as a young (un-made up) man as the old skinflint we’ve grown to love. The Three Ghosts who turn the miserly Scrooge’s life around on Christmas Eve are portrayed by Edith Evans (Past), Kenneth More (Present) and Paddy Stone (Yet to Come).
Our favorite among the huge, predominantly British supporting cast is Sir Alec Guinness as a fussy, slightly effeminate Marley’s Ghost. Best of all, Finney performs his many songs “live” and not lip-synched to a pre-recording. BUY Scrooge
Home Alone: The Complete Collection
Eight-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) has become the man of the house, overnight! Accidentally left behind when his family rushes off on a Christmas vacation, Kevin gets busy decorating the house for the holidays.
But he’s not decking the halls with tinsel and holly. Two bumbling burglars are trying to break in, and Kevin’s rigging a bewildering battery of booby traps to welcome them! (Collection includes 4 movies, each one featuring Kevin in new and hilarious escapades!)
*Great Christmas movies for teens if they haven’t seen these already! BUY Home Alone: The Complete Collection
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Make merry as Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quaid, and an ensemble of comedy favorites strive to gift-wrap the “perfect Christmas” for the Griswold family. The most successful of the three vacations. Year: 1989 Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quaid
*This is one of the funniest Christmas movies for teens that we have seen yet. Honestly, everyone in the house enjoys this one! BUY National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
The Polar Express
The Polar Express is the story of a young boy who on Christmas Eve boards a powerful magical train headed to the North Pole and Santa Claus’s home.
What unfolds is a journey of self-discovery, which shows the boy that the wonder of life never fades for those who believe. This beloved Christmas movie on DVD was directed by Robert Zemeckis and features the voice of Tom Hanks in many of the lead roles. BUY The Polar Express
Silent Night
Linda Hamilton, Cassian Bopp, Michael Elkin. On Christmas Eve 1944, three American soldiers and three German soldiers confront the realities of war and discover the true meaning of courage, as well as the true spirit of a blessed night.
Based on real events. 2002/color/86 min/NR/fullscreen. BUY Silent Night
Christmas in Connecticut
Barbara Stanwyck stars as a famous expert on marriage, cooking, and homemaking who is asked by her publisher to host a national hero for Christmas dinner at her famous Connecticut home.
It should be simple, but she must scramble to keep the secret that she’s single, can’t cook, and doesn’t own a home. With a lot of help, meticulous planning, and split-second timing, the urban sophisticate may succeed . . . but the unforeseen happens when she falls in love with her guest in this classic romantic comedy. BUY Christmas in Connecticut
The Santa Clause
Superstar comedian and Golden Globe(R) winner Tim Allen shines brightly in Disney’s magical, larger-than-life hit comedy that “People” magazine dubbed “The most playfully amusing, inventive cinematic … fable in several decades!”
Now in this all-new special edition DVD release, your entire family can enjoy never-before-seen bonus footage, interactive games, and more, making this original holiday classic a joyful new experience! BUY The Santa Clause
The Christmas Wife
A widower not wanting to face his first Christmas alone responds to an ad for “social introductions.” He meets a woman who is happy to celebrate the holidays with him.
She bids him to not ask about her personal life which harbors a secret that threatens their developing friendship. It could ultimately change both of their lives forever. BUY The Christmas Wife
Bad Santa
The baddest Santa ever comes to town with the hilarious Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, and John Ritter! Ill-mannered store Santa Willie Stokes (Thornton) is really a safecracker with a holiday tradition of making one big score every Christmas Eve with his clever Elf-partner-in- crime Marcus.
But this year’s heist-fest could be completely foiled by a snoopy store manager (Ritter), savvy mall detective (Mac), sexy Santa fan, and an innocent 8-year-old misfit who thinks the intoxicated and felonious Willie is the real Santa he seeks.
Forget the cookies and milk; this is the gritty gut-busting comedy Rolling Stone pegs as “a Christmas perennial for Scrooges of all ages!” BUY Bad Santa
We’re No Angels
Humphrey Bogart plays one of his rare comedy roles in this jaunty excursion about three convicts – Joseph (Bogart), Albert (Aldo Ray) and Jules (Peter Ustinov) – who are plotting their escape from Devil’s Island.
Fate intervenes when they hide out with kindly, but inept Felix (Leo G. Carroll) and his family. Felix manages a store for his arrogant cousin Andr e (Basil Rathbone), who makes the fatal mistake of stealing Albert’s pet, a poisonous snake.
After resolving Felix’s problems, the convicts return to prison, convinced that the world is much too wicked. Based on the play by Albert Husson. BUY We’re No Angels
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Elf
This is our all-time favorite if you are looking for Christmas movies for teens that even younger kids can enjoy. This hilarious Christmas film tells the tale of a young orphan child who mistakenly crawls into Santa’s bag of gifts on Christmas Eve and is transported back to the North Pole and raised as an elf.
Years later Buddy learns he is not really an elf and goes on a journey to New York City to find his true identity. BUY Elf
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Now digitally restored and remastered with state-of-the-art technology, The Nightmare Before Christmas is deeper, darker and more brilliant than ever — just as Tim Burton originally envisioned it.
Can Christmas be saved? Bored with the same old scare-and-scream routine, Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, longs to spread the joy of Christmas.
But his merry mission puts Santa in jeopardy and creates a nightmare for good little boys and girls everywhere! BUY The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Muppet Christmas Carol
Greetings, holiday movie fans, and culture lovers, I am the Great Gonzo. Or, as I am better known to fans of this classic motion picture — literary legend Charles Dickens.
Ready to laugh, cry, sing, frolic, cavort and enjoy yourself beyond belief!? Well, you’re in luck. This 20th Anniversary Edition of Disney’s THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL is guaranteed to put you in a holiday spirit that will stay with you forever.
Or at least until your Aunt Ruth starts complaining that nobody is eating the fruitcake she brought…again! BUY The Muppet Christmas Carol
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Discover the magic of the Mean One this holiday season! Oscar-winning director Ron Howard and Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer bring Christmas’ best-loved grump to life with the help of the irrepressible Jim Carrey as The Grinch.
The Grinch is a celebration of the holiday spirit no home should be without! Why is The Grinch (Carrey) such a grouch? No one seems to know until little Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) takes matters into her own hands and turns both Whoville and The Grinch’s world upside down, inside out… and funny side up in her search for the true meaning of Christmas. BUY How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Holiday Movies Make Family Movie Night Memorable!
This is just a small selection of some of the best Christmas movies for teens that I came across. There are a lot of vacation hours coming up in the next month or so. We definitely have a lot of Christmas movies to watch together.
What Christmas movies for teens do YOU recommend? Settle in for a fun holiday-themed family movie night with your teenagers! Getting ready for Christmas doesn’t have to be stressful!
These are great movie titles! When I was younger I also loved Christmas Everyday which was awesome!
We watch ELF and the Muppets Christmas Carol every year. They are the best Christmas movies! The husband also likes A Christmas Story, but I usually roll my eyes on that classic.
Muppetts Christmas Carol is a must watch every year, as well as The Grinch (cartoon classic!). I haven’t heard of some of these though! Definitely need to check them out.