Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas With These Underrated Holiday Favorites

"With the notable exception of the legendary orgy sequence, every frame of Stanley Kubrick’s final film bears a Hallmark-movie amount of holiday décor, whether it’s decorated trees, hanging lights, or the sight of Nicole Kidman wrapping gifts. The director famously never did anything by accident, so it’s clear he intentionally set this tale of marital discord at Christmastime; it’s a season we often associate with family togetherness, so there’s that much more impact when Kidman and Tom Cruise’s married characters experience a rift in their seemingly perfect life together."

"Barbara Stanwyck’s Christmas in Connecticut has become a Yuletide cable staple, but it’s far from her only holiday title. Here she plays a New York City shoplifter who gets arrested right before Christmas and winds up spending Christmas with Fred MacMurray’s district attorney, who takes her home to Ohio. Stanwyck’s hard-luck character blooms under the hospitality and warmth of the D.A.’s family (particularly Beulah Bondi, best known as Ma Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life), and a romance begins – but what happens when they head back east after the holidays, and he has to try to put her behind bars? One of the last Preston Sturges screenplays that Sturges didn’t direct, but rom-com legend Mitchell Leisen does right by the material. (Bonus Stanwyck: She stars opposite Gary Cooper in Meet John Doe, aka the other Frank Capra movie where the hero contemplates suicide on Christmas Eve.)"

"There’s often hilarity and heartbreak when real-life families reunite under one roof during the holidays, and that’s certainly the case in this charming ensemble comedy. An all-star cast plays the Whitfields: matriarch Loretta Devine keeps up appearances by asking longtime boyfriend Delroy Lindo to move into the garage apartment when her children arrive; dutiful daughter Regina King runs the family business and resents Sharon Leal’s cosmopolitan attitude; eldest son Idris Elba makes a surprise appearance, mainly because he’s ducking some debt collectors; and sons Chris Brown and Columbus Short have secrets they’re keeping from everyone. A witty comedy that understands everything from family dynamics to assigning dinner duty on December 23, This Christmas comes loaded with recognizable moments and empathetic performances."

"A relatively new addition to the canon, and one that audiences are bound to discover in the coming years. It’s the kind of movie light enough on plot that some might complain, “Nothing happens,” but if you’re paying attention, there’s a lot going on here. A family gathers once again to celebrate Christmas in a bustling home on Long Island, but it eventually becomes clear that this is the last time this particular get-together will be happening – the matriarch is ailing, and the house is being sold. But even with the undercurrent of melancholy, memories are being made and familial bonds are tested and strengthened through ritual and tradition, including the teens sneaking away to celebrate in their own way. Evocative, gorgeous, heartbreaking, and nostalgic, this one’s a legitimate new classic."

"The only Christmas 007 movie (to date, anyway; I hold out hope for Silver and Goldfinger or For Santa’s Eyes Only) often gets overlooked since it marks the one and only appearance of the much-unliked George Lazenby wearing the tuxedo of legendary secret agent James Bond. But I’d argue that not only is this a top-tier spy saga, complete with thrilling chases on a ski slope and bobsled track, but it’s also enough of an outlier to the series that it works better with Lazenby rather than Sean Connery or Roger Moore. (There’s a tragic element to this Bond that the series wouldn’t embrace again until the arrival of Daniel Craig.) Plus, it’s Christmassy as all-get-out, from the snowy vistas atop Switzerland’s Piz Gloria to the deadly viral weapon hidden inside beautifully-wrapped gifts."