Watching movies, along with eating too much is pretty much a staple of the Christmas period, so we’ve got a few film suggestions to snuggle down to after you’ve had too much to eat. Many of these movies appear on the telly around this time but if you’re not a big fan of harking back to the 2000’s and watching TV, adverts and all, then we’ve also listed places where it’ll be appearing online.
Although a lot of these films aren’t on Kanopy, we’ve got to give a shout out to them just because it’s a pretty amazing service where you can watch free movies with your UCL logins.
And if you want to watch a few movies on Amazon Prime, then you can 6 months free as a student, and half-price thereafter. See the details for this here.
Home Alone
Ok, so this list might be a bit longer than five movies if you start watching all the Home Alone films (it does go a bit downhill after the third one, in our opinion). Imagine waking up one morning and finding out your family have accidentally left to go on holiday without you (we’re not sure how this would have happened anyway, but Christmas movies aren’t documentaries)? Oh, and to add to the mix, this is when two burglars decide to pop in.
Where to watch: Home Alone will be on our tellies on Christmas day and Boxing day. Online it’s available on Disney+
Elf
Christmas movies don’t really do the best plot lines, we’ll say that, and Elf doesn't break the mould here. One of Santa’s elves discovers he’s actually a six-foot tall human and he’s not an elf, after all. Sad for him but good for us since it results in a pretty funny movie as Buddy goes to New York to find his real father.
Where to watch: Sky Movies, Netflix
Die Hard
This is a bit of an odd one since it’s not like the others we’ve mentioned here. Die Hard is a action thriller where machine-gun toting terrorists take over the skyscraper and John McClane, who’s there to reconcile with his estranged wife, saves the day. It’s on every Christmas and the only correlation we can find to Christmas is that it takes place on Christmas Eve and there’s a point in the movie where John McClane says “Ho-ho-ho”...
Where to watch: Film4, Sky, NowTV and Amazon Prime
The Polar Express
There’s something about this movie that’s so magical. It might be because Tom Hanks is in it. Or it might be because it’s about a little boy who goes on a journey to the North Pole, onboard a train that appears outside his bedroom window. It’s a movie filled with kindness and warmth and we love it.
Where to watch: In cinemas now, Sky Cinema, NowTV
Love Actually
Is this a British thing? Watching Love Actually every Christmas? Regardless, it’s become a Christmas classic here. It’s a rom-com of sorts, with lots of interlaying storylines of budding romances, and heartache, during the festive period. Not all the plot strands work, and there might be more than a few plot holes but Christmas movies aren’t made to have 100% Rotten Tomato ratings so we’ll look past the discrepancies.
Where to watch: Film4, Amazon Video, Sky Cinema
We’ll that’s our top 5 Christmas movies to watch this year. We pretty much watch the same movies and they really don’t get old or boring! Hope you like them too!