It’s the hap-happiest season of all. We bring nature inside as we adorn our living spaces with seasonally appropriate trees, and we light up the longer nights with bright and colourful lights. Music from generations long since passed is re-played and re-contextualised, and centuries old iconography is re-evaluated and repurposed.

There’ll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting, and carolling out in the snow. If we’ve been good, we’ll receive gifts (thanks Santa!), and if we’re lucky we’ll eat so much food we can barely move. Almost certainly, we’ll watch a movie. From the Netflix Originals of the current era to the silver screen classics of wartime Hollywood, Christmastime movie watching doesn’t discriminate based on picture quality, colour or the lack thereof, acting powerhouses or barely trained actors – if it works, it works. And if it’s good, we’ll hold onto it forever.

In this Movie List from The Film Magazine, we’ve scoured the annals of Christmas movie history to bring you the very best of the best to watch this holiday season. These films are Christmas classics and beloved cult hits, some culturally significant and others often overlooked. These films are seasonal treats; two advent calendars worth of movie magic from the big-wigs in Hollywood and beyond.

Short films (those with a runtime of under one hour) will not be included here, nor will films that cross multiple seasons but feel like Christmas movies – sorry You’ve Got Mail and Bridget Jones’s Diary. Debatable Christmas movies like Gremlins have also been omitted because of their inclusion in our alternative list “10 Excellent Non-Christmas Films Set at Christmas“. Seasonal classic The Apartment has also been disqualified on the grounds that it covers Christmas and beyond, and is arguably more of a new year’s movie.

These are 50 Unmissable Christmas Movies as chosen by The Film Magazine team members. Entries by Mark Carnochan, Kieran Judge, Martha Lane, Sam Sewell-Peterson and Joseph Wade.

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1. Remember the Night (1940)

Golden Era stars Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray (who would go on to star in The Apartment) spark an unlikely romance when Stanwyck’s Lee Leander steals a bracelet from a jewellery store and MacMurray’s John “Jack” Sargent is assigned to prosecute her over the Christmas holidays.

One of the era’s many beloved studio romantic comedies, Remember the Night features all the elements that would come to define the genre while encompassing some screwball comedy and classic transatlantic accents. The tagline read “When good boy meets bad girl they remember the night”, and it’s likely you’ll remember this seasonal treat too. JW

2. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Few things signal classic Hollywood Christmases like Jimmy Stewart, and 6 years before arguably his most memorable performance in the iconic Frank Capra Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life, he starred in a seasonal favourite that was just as beloved by critics, The Shop Around the Corner.

This holiday romance from Ernst Lubitsch (who also directed Heaven Can Wait) sees Stewart’s Alfred fall in love with his pen pal who, unbeknownst to him, is the colleague he most despises at his gift store job – You’ve Got Mail has got nothing on this. With some hearty moments and all of the circumstantial comedy of the best movies of the era, The Shop Around the Corner will make you laugh and fill your heart in that special way that only the best Christmas movies can. JW

3. Holiday Inn (1942)

Early sound pictures were revolutionised by famed tap dancer Fred Astaire, and by 1942 he was a certified movie musical megastar. In Mark Sandrich’s seasonal musical Holiday Inn, he teams with would-be Christmas icon and man with a voice as sooth as silk, Bing Crosby. The result is one of the most iconic and influential Christmas movies ever made.

The film’s outdated attitude towards race are cringe-inducing and inexcusable in a 21st century context (there’s a whole sequence featuring blackface), but its other dated sensibilities shine bright amongst more modern and commercial Christmas films; its wholesome aura, classic dance scenes, and era-defining songs making for an unmissable experience. To top it all, Bing Crosby sings “White Christmas” for the first time in this film, cementing it in history as a seasonal classic. JW

4. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Widely acknowledged as one of the holiday season’s best-ever films, Vincente Minnelli (An American in Paris) illuminates his would-be wife Judy Garland in arguably her most established performance, bringing Christmas cheer to all without sacrificing any of the harsh realities facing the American people in the first half of the 20th century.

Featuring the original (and arguably the best) rendition of Christmas classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, and being anchored by some heartbreaking story elements, Meet Me In St. Louis maintains its power and relevance 80 years on. It offers a Christmas movie that will forever mark the height of its sub-genre, as well as the two filmmaking careers (of Minnelli and Garland) that helped to define the era. JW

Recommended for you: There’s No Place Like St. Louis at Christmas

5. Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Remember the Night star Barbara Stanwyck is once again front and centre for a Golden Era Hollywood Christmas movie, this time playing a city magazine editor whose lies about being a perfect housewife are put to the test when her boss and a returning war hero invite themselves to her house.

This is screwball comedy with all the spirit of the festive season is as romantic as it is funny, and prominently features the shadows of World War II to gift the film a unique emotionality that has ensured it is rewatched year on year. JW

In this edition of Ranked, we’re looking across Dreamworks Animation’s twenty-plus years of animated feature films to rank each and every one of the studio’s thirty eight releases from worst to best in terms of entertainment value, artistic endeavour, animation standard, critical reception and audience perception, for this: Every Dreamworks Animation Movie Ranked.

No doubt there will be some contention regarding the order, so let us know your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to follow The Film Magazine on Twitter.

38. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)

Budget: $60million
Worldwide Box Office: $80.8million
Starring: Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer, Joseph Fiennes

It seems that nobody can remember this one. Even Brad Pitt, the movie’s star, has forgotten about it, stating in the build-up to the release of Megamind that he wanted to be a part of the 2010 movie so that his children could enjoy him playing a part in an animated film.

37. Shark Tale (2004)

Budget: $75million
Worldwide Box Office: $367.3million
Starring: Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Renée Zellweger, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Martin Scorsese, Ziggy Marley

Hugely successful, but disastrously awful. Shark Tale’s animation was almost completely lifeless, and was especially embarrassing in comparison to Pixar’s immaculately presented Finding Nemo from the previous year. Some people do have fond memories of this film, but we’ll put that down to nostalgia and Christina Aguilera’s rendition of “Car Wash”.

36. Shrek the Third (2007)

Budget: $160million
Worldwide Box Office: $799million
Starring: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, Eric Idle, Justin Timberlake

Shrek was outstanding and Shrek 2 was a worthy follow up, but Shrek the Third lacked all the magic of its predecessors and left a disgusting taste in many a Shrek fan’s mouth: the taste of disappointment. Whose idea was it to make a children’s animated film about a middle-aged married couple with children anyway?

35. Shrek Forever After (2010)

Budget: $165million
Worldwide Box Office: $752.6million
Starring: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Jon Hamm, Walt Dohrn, Jane Lynch, Craig Robinson, Lake Bell

After the franchise’s third movie, we expected this nonsense. That’s it… the only reason Shrek Forever After is above Shrek the Third on this list is because it didn’t have to follow a gem like Shrek 2 and thus didn’t leave us all disappointed in the franchise’s sudden drop in quality. It owes its standing above other films to one thing: a familiarity with once engaging characters.

34. Bee Movie (2007)

Budget: $150million
Worldwide Box Office: $287.6million
Starring: Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Patrick Warburton, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Kathy Bates, Barry Levinson, Larry King, Ray Liotta, Sting, Oprah Winfrey, Rip Torn

‘Bee Movie’ is more often remembered as a meme and a source of mockery than as a movie. That’s all you really need to know.

Recommended for you: Laika Animated Movies Ranked

33. The Boss Baby (2017)

Budget: $125million
Worldwide Box Office: $456.7million
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Jimmy Kimmel, Lisa Kudrow, Tobey Maguire

Based on a picture book with not enough content to transform into a meaningful silver screen story, The Boss Baby feels like an overly long joke that doesn’t quite pack the punch you thought it would, yet still leaves you quietly chuckling away to yourself. This makes it one of the “not so bad it’s unwatchable” movies in this list.

32. Home (2015)

Home Review

Budget: $135million
Worldwide Box Office: $386million
Starring: Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Steve Martin, Jennifer Lopez

It’s arguable that this movie’s lack of popularity can be owed to the state that Dreamworks was in at the time of its release, because with Rihanna at the centre of the picture and the ever popular Jim Parsons playing her alien friend, it seemed to have the perfect formula for success. As it turns out, the movie was pretty good too, but “pretty good” doesn’t push a movie up this list.