The 10 Best Christmas Films to Watch Every December

George Bailey has spent his life helping the people of Bedford Falls, and on one desperate Christmas Eve an angel shows him what the town would have been without him. It is eighty years old and still lands every time.

Watch it if: you want the one that makes the whole room go quiet.

Eight-year-old Kevin is accidentally left behind when his family flies to Paris for Christmas, and has to defend the house from two burglars. The traps are legendary, and the John Williams score sounds like December.

Watch it if: children are choosing.

Buddy was raised by elves at the North Pole, and travels to New York as an adult to find his real father, who is on the naughty list. Will Ferrell plays it with total sincerity, which is exactly why it works.

Watch it if: you need cheering up.

In 1940s Indiana, nine-year-old Ralphie wants one thing for Christmas, a Red Ryder BB gun, and every adult he asks tells him he’ll shoot his eye out. A string of small, perfectly observed family disasters.

Watch it if: you like your nostalgia with a sense of humor.

Clark Griswold wants a perfect old-fashioned family Christmas, complete with 25,000 lights on the house, and absolutely nothing goes to plan. One of the funniest films ever made about holiday stress.

Watch it if: your own relatives have just arrived.

Michael Caine plays Scrooge completely straight opposite a cast of Muppets, with Gonzo narrating as Charles Dickens. It stays remarkably close to the book, and the songs are wonderful.

Watch it if: you want Dickens that a five-year-old will sit through.

Jim Carrey disappears under green fur as the Grinch, who lives on a mountain above Whoville and decides to steal Christmas from everyone in it. Loud, colorful and a hit with younger children.

Watch it if: the kids want something noisy.

A spoiled postman is sent to a frozen island town where nobody writes letters, and befriends a reclusive toymaker in the woods. A beautifully hand-drawn origin story for Santa Claus, and already a modern classic.

Watch it if: you want something newer that feels old-fashioned.

A handful of loosely connected love stories play out in London in the weeks before Christmas, from the Prime Minister to a pair of film stand-ins. Not one for the kids, but a December tradition for a great many adults.

Watch it if: the wrapping is done and the wine is open.

Two women, one in Los Angeles and one in an English village, swap houses for Christmas to escape their love lives, and each finds something better. Snowy cottages and a very likable cast.

Watch it if: you want pure comfort.