Movies to Watch This Christmas Season
When it comes to these two weeks between Christmas and New Year’s, we find there’s a lot of eating involved (gingerbread cookies!), game-playing (Spontuneous!), snowy recreation (if flakes fall) and TV-watching. If you do any of the latter before the New Year, here’s what to watch on the latest best-of lists!
Serious – Sort Of – Christmas Dramas
According to Harper’s Bazaar (we know, not usually your go-to movie guide), this year’s Christmas content is shaping up to deliver endless entertainment for everybody. Whatever that means! Blackbird is a two-hankie flick, we’re told, so scroll down if you want something more comedy and less drama. It stars the ageless Susan Sarandon as a woman who wants one final season with her family before ending her battle with ALS. Wait a minute, before you say “pass on sad movies,” and watch the trailer. There’s also deadpan humor. Drama and comedy. Pathos and “maybe the most beautifully complete film you’ll see all year.” Watch it on Amazon Prime Video.
The Man Who Invented Christmas tells the magical journey that led to the “birth” of Ebenezer Scrooge (Christopher Plummer), Tiny Tim and other classic characters from A Christmas Carol. Directed by Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day), the film depicts how Charles Dickens — played by Dan Stevens — mixed real-life inspiration with a vivid imagination to invent unforgettable characters and a timeless tale, forever making it part of every Christmas season from then to now. Watch it on Amazon for $3.99.
Willow and Hatch offers up its list of Best Period Dramas: Christmas Classic, set in every age, era and country, including A Christmas Carol (1984) starring George C. Scott and A Midnight Clear (1992) with a young Ethan Hawke.
Holiday Rom-Coms
How hard is it to find love over the holidays? If you asked any of the singles we know, they’ll tell you love isn’t elusive just because of the pandemic! Even with masks (obviously filmed pre-2020), we think you’ll laugh at this Christmas-themed movie about two people who agree to be each other’s plus one for holiday parties. Holidate stars Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey, two strangers who companion date and end up in a delightfully comedic romance you can watch on Netflix. Here’s a Youtube teaser.
For a list of more romantic comedies from Christmases Past, head to The Cinemaholic for its list of the top seven films, including Love Actually (2003) and Carol (2015).
Holiday Documentaries
The U.S. Postal Service is often essential, especially at Christmas and veteran filmmaker Dana Nachman’s documentary about the USPS’s 100-year-old program, Operation Santa, is a nice alternative diversion. Every year, thousands of wish lists, addressed to Kris Kringle at the North Pole, are collected at post offices around the country. From there, the letters are adopted by individuals who respond on behalf of Santa. Last year Nachman and her crew were given unprecedented access to this annual effort and this heartwarming film – Dear Santa – is the result.
The Digest Online has its own list of 12 best Christmas docs to watch– if you’d like to binge on reality this year – including Becoming Santa from OWN about a man who alters his whole lifestyle to become Santa Claus.
Best Movies of All Time
CNET, Rotten Tomatoes, Esquire and Good Housekeeping all have their own lists of the best Christmas movies of all time.
CNET’s focuses on some of the best movies to stream on Disney Plus, while Good Housekeeping covers movies from classic to contemporary and everything in between.
The usual suspects are here, lots of comedies, a few musicals, in black and white, color and colorized.
Cozy on Your Couch in Crystal Valley
Settle into a living room of one of the new homes in the master-planned community of Crystal Valley, and start to enjoy life, like never before! The natural surroundings, the lovely downtown environs of historic Castle Rock, the beautiful models with more than two dozen floor plans from which to choose. Check out the offerings from Richmond American Homes, Kauffman Homes, Century Communities and D.R. Horton –ranch or two-story models — priced from the $300s.
