If holiday films were a drop in the ocean then you’d be drowning from all of thecheesy Christmas movieson Amazon Prime Video. There’s apparently a Christmas film for every occasion, and not all of them are good or even watchable.
Prime Video isn’t the only streamer to suffer from this issue, but it does better than most because it still has access to some legitimately great Christmas movies includingIt’s a Wonderful LifeandScrooged. This year, Christmas rom-comsLove ActuallyandThe Holidayare both part of Prime Video’s library and easily among the top choices to stream this holiday season. You can find these films and more among the best Christmas movies on Amazon Prime Video right now.
Looking for more holiday picks? We’ve also assembled guides to thebest Christmas movies on Netflixand thebest Christmas movies on Hulu.
Love Actually (2003)
Richard Curtis’Love Actuallyis definitely a Christmas movie, it’ just also about ten different rom-coms smashed into a single film. Critics weren’t very kind to it, but audiences have warmed to it as a Christmas classic. Fair warning: You may need a flow chart to keep track of all of the different romances in the film, and how they intersect. The immediate attraction between stand-ins John (Martin Freeman) and Judy (Joanna Page) is one of the notable subplots, as is the slow burn attraction between the Prime Minister, David (Heretic‘s Hugh Grant), and Natalie (Martine McCutcheon), a member of the staff at 10 Downing Street. But the most memorable story in our opinion, is the one focusing on a grieving widower named Daniel (Liam Neeson), and his stepson, Sam (Thomas Sangster), who is smitten with an American girl Joanna (Olivia Olson).
The Holiday (2006)
Hallmark Holiday movie filmmakers probably wish they could pull off romantic comedies likeThe Holidaydid. It certainly helps to have the right cast. A British woman named Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) and an American woman, Amanda Woods (Back in Action‘s Cameron Diaz), have had their hearts broken too many times. Although the two ladies are strangers to each other, they agree to swap houses for the holidays.
Amanda quickly meets Iris’ brother, Graham Simpkins (Jude Law), and falls hard for him. Meanwhile in America, Iris finds herself connecting with a more unconventional guy, Miles Dumont (Jack Black). There’s a real love connection between both couples, but can their newfound romance live beyond the holiday season?
The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)
The Man Who Invented Christmas’s title might be giving Charles Dickens (Abigail‘s Dan Stevens) too much credit, but he really did play a major role in how we celebrate the holiday season. That’s how much influence Dickens’A Christmas Carolhas had over the last 180 years. This particular film dramatizes Dickens’ life when he struggles to write his next story before coming face-to-face with his own creation: Ebenezer Scrooge (Christopher Plummer).
The visions of Scrooge and other characters fromA Christmas Carolmay not be real, but the emotions they bring out of Dickens force him to reconsider his story and his relationship with his own family. From there, a classic novel is born.
Scrooged (1988)
Scroogedis basicallyA Christmas Carol, but modernized and played more for laughs with Bill Murray in the leading role as Frank Cross, a Scrooge-like network executive at the IBC Television network. On Christmas Eve, Frank forces his employees to work onA Christmas Carolbroadcast while giving them chintzy gifts for Christmas.
In other words, Frank is a perfect candidate for someChristmas Carolmagic to find any humanity under his sleazy exterior. The Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen), the Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane), and the Ghost of Christmas Future (Robert Hammond) are really going to have their hands full trying to convince Frank to change.
