Christmas is coming. And what’s better than a selection of Christmas-themed films to cheer up the holidays? Here is a small selection of the titles available in the Disney+ catalog to watch in the afternoons and evenings under the tree.
Mom, I missed the plane
Let’s start with a classic: Mom, I missed the plane (Home Alonein original). Year 1990, Chicago, Illinois. The McCallister family leaves for Paris and forgets their son Kevin at home. And then two thieves try to break into the house, but the boy is ready to face them. In the cast, among others, Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. And there’s also the sequel set in New York.
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Nightmare before Christmas
Let’s move on to the animation. And this time the year is 1993 and it all starts from an idea – or rather, a poem – by Tim Burton. How not to include in the list Nightmare Before Christmasthe story of Jack Skellington, king of pumpkins, who wants to bring Christmas to Halloween City and Sally, the rag doll who loves him.
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Nutcrackers
Let’s continue with a 2024 drama comedy: Nutcrackers (yes, the Nutcracker), film directed by David Gordon Lee (the man from Halloweenamong other things) with Ben Stiller as Mike, a bachelor businessman who is on the verge of closing the biggest deal of his career when he is plucked from his big city life to land on a farm in rural Ohio and help his recently orphaned grandchildren find a home.
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Die Hard – Crystal Trap
Strange, but true. In the United States Die Hard – Crystal Trapthe 1988 film, directed by John McTiernan with Bruce Willis as the iconic policeman John McClane, is considered a Christmas film. Indeed, even better: it started a trend that can be summed up with the expression “armed parties”. The plot? A group of terrorists take hostages in a Los Angeles skyscraper during a company Christmas party to obtain millions upon millions of dollars in bearer bonds. But John is also in the building. And he has a gun.
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Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
Let’s take a leap into the Marvel world and add it to the list of films to see Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (which is an integral part of phase 4 of the MCU, the Marvel Cinematic Universe). Written and directed by James Gunn, it stars none other than Kevin Bacon as himself. And it all starts with a special mission for the ragtag group of space “heroes”: recover the perfect gift for Peter Quill.
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Miracle on 34th Street
Let’s go ahead with a classic: Miracle on 34th Street, 1947 film written and directed by George Seaton. The film – starring Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn and Natalie Wood – tells of Kris Kringl, an elderly man who claims to be the real Santa Claus who is hired to be the Santa Claus at the Macy’s department store in New York. And it’s immediately magic. The remake from the nineties is also present on the platform.
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An Almost Christmas Story
Let’s go back to animation with the short An Almost Christmas Story which, despite the name, is a Christmas story through and through. Third and final chapter of a collection created by director Alfonso Cuarón – the other two are The pupils And The Shepherd -, the short film is directed by David Lowery. The story is inspired by a real-life incident that occurred in 2020, when a baby owl was rescued from the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York City.
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A Christmas Carol
We conclude this partial list of Christmas titles with A Christmas Carolthe 2009 motion capture animated film written and directed by Robert Zemeckis (yes, the film records, among a thousand other things, Back to the future). In the cast of the film adaptation of the story Christmas carol by Charles Dickens there are, among others, Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
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