Watching Christmas movies is a beautiful way to spend time with family.
However, finding Christmas movies with a plot discussing the season’s true meaning can be difficult.
Here’s a list of 10 of the best Christmas movies to watch with your family this year:
The Nativity Story
The Nativity Story presents a scripturally based story of Jesus’ birth. This 2006 Christmas movie details the biblical timeline. In all honesty, it's one of my favorite live-action films about the Birth of Jesus.
Fun fact: Oscar Isaac plays Saint Joseph in this movie. He also plays Poe Dameron in the new Star Wars trilogy.
A Christmas Carol
There are multiple retellings of this Christmas story based on the Charles Dickens classic. Ebenezer Scrooge meets the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. These ghosts show him his life, which ultimately ends in his conversion.
Watch the 1984 version below:
It’s a Wonderful Life
It’s a Wonderful Life is one of the most popular Christmas movies of all time. If you haven’t seen it, you should consider it this year!
Directed by Frank Capra, the movie stars James Stewart, Donna Reed, and Lionel Barrymore. It focuses on banker George Bailey (played by James Stewart), who is downtrodden after losing several thousand dollars on Christmas Eve.
He wishes he had never been born, so God sends George a guardian angel to show him the profound impact his life makes on others. The angel shows him what life would be like had he never existed.
Fun fact: Director Frank Capra was a Catholic Hollywood director who had a conversion in the 1930s. Many of his movies, he said, were scripturally and spiritually based.
Learn more about his Catholic roots here.
Watch the trailer below:
The Bells of St. Mary’s
This 1945 movie starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman is about a priest and a nun, who, despite their rivalry, come together to prevent their Catholic school from shutting down. This movie is a Christmas classic, and very Catholic-oriented!
Fun fact: Henry Travers, who plays Horace P. Bogardus in this movie, also plays the guardian angel in It’s a Wonderful Life!
Watch the trailer below:
Angela’s Christmas
This 30-minute 2018 Netflix film tells the story of an Irish girl on a mission to shelter the Baby Jesus.
Warning: This movie is a tear-jerker!
Watch the trailer below:
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
It’s no secret that this C.S. Lewis classic is symbolically based on the story of Jesus. Each of the four characters joins a lion to fight an evil witch. The storyline is also set around Christmastime.
Watch the trailer below:
Ernest Saves Christmas
This might come as a surprise to you, but this classic comedy inserts little messages about Jesus throughout the entire film, including a close-up of a “Keep Christ in Christmas” bumper sticker and a nativity scene as a background.
Even though the movie centers around Santa working to find a replacement, as well as the "magic" of Christmas, Ernest Saves Christmas focuses on the goodness of the human person and following Christian principles in life.
Watch the movie below:
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is another 30-minute classic. It centers on Charlie Brown’s quest to find the true meaning of Christmas amid all the commercialism in society.
Spoiler alert: This movie tells the true story of Christmas!
Watch the clip below:
The Little Drummer Boy
This 1968 film is incredibly moving. It’s about a little orphan boy who hates humanity after bandits murder his parents, burn down his house, and steal his family’s livestock.
His most prized possession is the drum his parents gave him. His mindset changes after meeting the three Wise Men, who lead him to the baby Jesus.
Watch the movie below:
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town
This 1970s film starring Mickey Rooney and Fred Astaire tells a fictional story of Santa Claus. However, at the end of the movie, Santa questions which night he should deliver presents.
He chooses “the holiest night of the year…Christmas Eve,” implying the night of Jesus’ birth.
Listen to this clip below: