A Christmas Almanac: Part 2
A brief history & analysis of holiday movies, the 1950s–2020s
Welcome to Part 2 of my series on the history of Christmas movies.
If you haven’t read Part 1, you can find it here.
As we track the evolution of the Christmas film from the 1950s through the 2020s, we find the ebb and flow of it coincided with sentiment in the country as a whole. The 1940s saw the genre reach influential heights that lasted generations. What followed was a very large ebb (the 50s-70s), eventually leading to a flood of variations on the theme in the 80s and 90s that reinfused the genre so fully that we still feel the reverberations today.
The Brakes are Pulled: The 1950s-60s
The 1950s
Following the huge boom of Christmas movies in the 40s, there was a general about-face beginning in the 50s. The war years seemed to invite the need for catharsis and the comfort-watch, whether it be through the struggles of characters like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, or the comic antics of Barbara Stanwyck in Christmas in Connecticut. By the 1950s, despite some holdovers from the classic era, the public seemed disillusioned with the sentimental Christmas flick. I believe there were a few reasons for this departure.
First, with the rise of television sets in homes, so rose the Christmas TV program. Variety shows like Bob Hope’s ran specials, as did Perry Como. Sitcoms like I Love Lucy also had their own holiday themed episodes. In 1951, Amahl and the Night Visitors, a made for TV opera partially about the Nativity, was a huge hit and played every season for years going forward.
As mentioned in my 1959 Almanac post, by the mid to late 50s the studios struggled competing to get viewers into theaters, so the productions became either tentpole “sure things” or indie passion projects. This was due not only to the rise of television but also to the struggles and fears people experienced following World War II. The country began fracturing through racial tensions, anxiety over the atomic bomb, and the cold war leering around every corner. This helped lead the public towards a disillusionment of the sentimental film.
The 50s did have a few highlights worth mentioning that were an exception to the rule though. One of the best versions of “A Christmas Carol”, titled Scrooge in the U.S., was released in 1951 starring probably the best to play the title role, Alastair Sim. The great director, Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) made the first VistaVision film in technicolor glory, White Christmas in 1954, starring Bing Crosby and Danny (“fucking”) Kaye, as Clark Griswold would say. Curtiz immediately followed that up with another Christmas adjacent film, We’re No Angels—a comedy about convicts who eventually grow a heart, à la the Grinch.
The 1960s
Cynicism in the country only grew as we entered the 60s, starting with The Apartment, directed by Billy Wilder. The film largely takes place around the Christmas season, but the romcom theme is darker now, with infidelity playing a central role. 1961 continued the deep cynicism with the terrific, low budget, bleak, and violent noir, Blast of Silence, along with the fun heist Christmas film, Cash on Demand. 1968’s The Lion in Winter, starring Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn, is sort of a medieval Christmas answer to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), directed by George Stevens (Giant), is one of the most notable productions about the birth of Jesus ever made. The over 3 hour long epic became a traditional TV watching event for many households around Christmas and Eastertime. Another significant development in the tradition of Christmas home viewing is the animated film. The 60s saw a huge boom in the cartoon Christmas movie. Perhaps adults liked the way it took the pressure off of them to put on a happy face. Rankin/Bass’s stop motion Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was the first big hit to start the trend in 1964, followed by the wildly popular, A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965). Continuing with the animated hits, Chuck Jones, of Looney Tunes fame, made Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) come to life, with Boris Karloff expertly voicing The Grinch and narration. Finally, Rankin/Bass finished off the decade in 1969 with the animated classic Frosty the Snowman, narrated by Jimmy Durante.
A Rejection of Christmas: The 1970s
If sentiment in the 60s were turning bleak, the 70s were lights out. Between Watergate, Vietnam, The Pentagon Papers, recession, and racial tensions, the public was in no mood for Christmas merriment. Add to that the rise of the independent film movement and the holidays were screwed for the decade.
Beyond Ronald Neame’s musical adaptation of “A Christmas Carol”, Scrooge (1970), a few more Rankin/Bass stop motion shorts, and Jim Henson’s short Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas (1977), the decade hardly produced a Christmas film. Perhaps the most notable entry came in the form of a horror: Black Christmas (1974), considered by many to be the one to jumpstart the slasher subgenre. In many ways the film is the perfect 70s Christmas flick, as it expresses the very sentiment that withheld holiday films to be produced throughout the decade. Notably, it gave Bob Clark his first directorial hit—he’d go on to make A Christmas Story nine years later.
My personal favorite from the cynical ‘70s is 1978’s The Silent Partner, starring Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer. It’s yet another Christmas heist film (there’s a surprising amount of this specific genre) but for this one the robber is dressed up as St. Nick. The movie is super well-written and directed—highly recommended.
Full Throttle Christmas Focus: The 1980-90s
The 1980s
Though the cynicism took a while to wear off and continued through much of the 80s, this is when we began to regain the holiday movie spirit. Animated films also continued to grow in popularity. A childhood favorite of mine was released in 1980, Yogi’s First Christmas. Then the classic short The Snowman, based on the picture book, was released in ‘82. Disney then released their version of Dickens’ classic as Mickey’s Christmas Carol in 1983. That year also saw the tremendously popular aforementioned A Christmas Story, based on a short story of the same name by Jean Shepherd—three sequels have been made since.
Joe Dante gifted us the darkly inventive Gremlins in 1984, which was a massive box office hit despite its dark Christmas humor. ‘84 also saw yet another version of A Christmas Carol, albeit a mostly made for TV production, this time with George C. Scott helming the role of Scrooge. The mid 80s continued in the classic tradition with the magical Santa Claus: The Movie, followed by Carroll Ballard’s (The Black Stallion) wonderfully cinematic Nutcracker: The Motion Picture.
The late 80s was really when the action-Christmas genre, that everyone loves to argue about, was born. Though not quite as heavy handed with the holiday references, Lethal Weapon (1987) walked so Die Hard (1988) could run. The Christmas theme is a background character in Weapon, with trees and lights creating a holiday atmosphere more than anything. With Die Hard though, the theme becomes more explicit by including references of Christmas directly in the script:
“If this is their idea of Christmas, I gotta be here for New Year’s.”
John McClane wasn’t the only character who saved Christmas in 1988. Jim Varney also saved it with his goofy Ernest Saves Christmas. We were also blessed with yet another take of “A Christmas Carol”, this time starring Bill Murray as the title character in Scrooged, directed by Richard Donner (Superman).
The 80s concluded with one of the greatest Christmas films of all time, one that I won’t go a year without watching: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Written and produced by the great John Hughes (who produced the great Thanksgiving film, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles), Christmas Vacation never lets up with the hilarity and provides catharsis for all ages (though the kiddos may have to close their eyes and ears a few times).
The 1990s
The 80s gave way to probably the best Christmas movie decade since the 1940s—maybe we can call this the “silver age”. The 90s continued with some of the cynicism and darkness of the 70s-80s, while giving it a more whimsical twist of fantasy. The year began with what is probably the most accessible Christmas film for all ages and one of the all-time greats of the canon: Home Alone. Also written by John Hughes, this one cemented his legacy as the king of the holiday film (when including Thanksgiving).
1990 brought another gift of a classic in the form of Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands. This is another one of those that brings vibes more than an explicit Christmas theme, but the wintery vibes are so strong that one can’t help but feel the magic of the season. A few years later Burton directed another Christmas-adjacent film that also fits the action genre: Batman Returns. Jim Henson’s son, Brian, joined the fray in 1992 with his take on Dickens in The Muppet Christmas Carol, with Michael Caine playing Scrooge and with the Muppets filling out the rest of the cast. The dichotomy of darkness and light was expressed brilliantly in another Burton conceived film, this time in stop motion, with 1993’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. The brilliance is really in that it works as both a Halloween and Christmas film perfectly for children and adults.
The hits kept coming in the early 90s with another solid adaptation of The Nutcracker (1993), starring Macaulay Culkin, Grumpy Old Men (1993) with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in their twilight years, the hugely successful Disney hit The Santa Clause (1994), and perhaps the best adaptation of Little Women (1994). The decade slowed down in the latter half. Jingle All the Way (1996) was a huge hit that got negative reviews, but has become a bit of a cult classic. Penny Marshall remade The Bishop’s Wife as The Preacher’s Wife in 1996 with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston starring. And finally, the decade was punctuated in ‘99 with yet another telling of A Christmas Carol starring Patrick Stewart as Scrooge.
An Eclectic New Century: The 2000s-Present
As we entered the 21st century, the popularity of the Christmas movie maintained its strength. Saint Nicolas Cage gifted us with his take on It’s a Wonderful Life with The Family Man. In November of 2001 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone lended a darkly Christmassy feel. Japan took an animated turn on their take of 3 Godfathers with Satoshi Kon’s (Perfect Blue) Tokyo Godfathers. England got in on the Christmas action with 2003’s massive hit, Love Actually. To round out the Christmas trio here in the U.S., Jon Favreau (Iron Man) directed Will Ferrell in the instant classic, Elf.
The aughts brought about plenty more festive (some darkly so) films. Bad Santa was a comically irreverent take. Robert Zemeckis’ The Polar Express (2004) scratched the itch of millions of train-loving children. After having written Christmassy action flick Lethal Weapon nearly 20 years earlier, Shane Black took another comic-action twist on the genre in 2005 with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The French stepped up with a very well done WWI take on the holiday in Joyeux Noel. Though a big hit at the time The Family Stone is an oft forgotten family Christmas comedy from 2005 as well. The end of the decade didn’t offer a whole lot—Oscar Isaac starred as Joseph in The Nativity Story and Zemeckis made yet another motion-captured animated film, this time as another adaptation of A Christmas Carol.
The 2010s
The 2010s proved to be a relatively weak decade for the Christmas movie. Aardman (Wallace & Gromit) produced the animated comedy Arthur Christmas (2011). Seth Rogen’s producing team made the irreverent comedy The Night Before (2015). Sofia Coppola directed a Netflix special musical variety show of sorts called A Very Murray Christmas, starring none other than...Bill Murray. Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman starred in the off-color comedy Office Christmas Party (2016). Kurt Russell starred in the family comedy The Christmas Chronicles in 2018. The end of the decade was treated to a rare hand drawn animated film with Netflix’s Klaus (2019). And finally, it’s worth noting that FX released a nearly three hour miniseries of A Christmas Carol that is almost a horror take on the classic story.
The 2020s
We’ll see where the 2020s continues to lead us, but it’s been an interesting balance of family comedy and bloody action. On the one hand we have two revengeful Santas in Fatman (2020) starring Mel Gibson and Violent Night (2022) starring David Harbour. On the other hand, both from 2021 there is the solid 8-Bit Christmas and A Boy Called Christmas. Christian production company Angel Studios also released Christmas with the Chosen: The Messengers, an odd mashup of two television episodes about the Nativity paired with musical performances. From 2023, Alexander Payne’s (Sideways) The Holdovers is my personal favorite of the decade so far. Netflix’s That Christmas (2024) is a worthwhile children’s animated film. 2025 brought Michelle Pfeiffer back in Oh. What. Fun. (it’s kinda fun) and another favorite of the decade for me, Jay Duplass’ The Baltimorons.
The Christmas movie, despite experiencing a lull in production popularity from time to time, has proved to ultimately have staying power as a genre in the United States. The films, in many ways, represent our culture at the times in history when the films were made. There are plenty of other movies I’m leaving out, notably the huge bundle of Hallmark trash (guilty pleasures for many I’m sure) and other hard to fathom works like A Very Jonas Christmas Movie. I tried as best I could to include all films worth mentioning in the Christmas canon, though I am sure I’ve missed plenty due to space restraints. I wish you a very Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas!
Realized I accidentally left out Ron Howard's How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) starring Jim Carrey and 2018's animated The Grinch (Benedict Cumberbatch voicing the title character). Funny, I just didn't think about them simply because I'm not a big fan. They should have been mentioned though.