Our Top 10 Christmas Movies

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and what better time is there than the holidays to watch movies that celebrate the Christmas season. With that, we have made our definitive list of the Top 10 Christmas movies you can watch on your Roku player or Roku TV.

Love Actually (Netflix)
The Christmas romantic comedy (romcom) has become a staple of the holiday season thanks to Love Actually. The movie was a worldwide smash hit and while the film has its critics, many consider Love Actually is the best Christmas romcom ever. Cramming a dozen emotional love stories into a feature film, Love Actually has become a staple of the holiday season.

Elf (Google Play, Cineplex Store)
Elf quickly became a Christmas Classic as Buddy the Elf has become as much of a holiday staple as Rudolph and Frosty. Elf is a celebratory Christmas film with the eternal story of turning a holiday Scrooge into a believer. The on-screen magic is topped off by an amazing performance from Will Ferrell. With great one-liners and awesome star cameos, Elf is an incredibly funny and very sweet Christmas story.

Bad Santa (Netflix, Google Play, Cineplex Store)
On the other end of feel-good holiday movies is “Bad Santa”. In this dark comedy, the crotchety Willie T. Stokes (Thornton) and his partner take part in a yearly holiday con posing as a mall Santa and his elf as they rip off shopping outlets on Christmas Eve. Even this movie tries to redeem this character as Willie wonders if there’s hope for him when his kinder side comes out after he befriends a small boy.

Miracle on 34th St. (Google Play, Cineplex Store)
This Christmas classic done in 1947 and remade in 1994 is the story of someone going by the ironic name of Kris Kringle fills in for an intoxicated Santa in the Macy’s annual Thanksgiving Day parade. Kringle does so well in the parade that he is starts to appear regularly at the Macy’s in midtown Manhattan. When Kringle claims that he really is Santa Claus, it leads to a trial to determine if he really is jolly old Saint Nick.

Scrooged (Google Play, Cineplex Store)
Another take on the Christmas Carol featuring Bill Murray playing Scrooge in the form of Frank Cross, a successful television executive whose ambition and curmudgeonly nature has driven away the people closest to him from his life. After firing a staff member on Christmas Eve, Frank is visited by a series of ghosts who give him a chance to re-evaluate his past actions and right the mistakes he’s made from his past.

Home Alone (Google Play, Cineplex Store)
Bratty 8-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) is made to sleep in the attic after acting out the night before a family trip to Paris. The McCallister family mistakenly leave for the airport without Kevin leaving to an empty house. Kevin’s initial excitement is soured as he forced to protect the family home from con men determined to rob the residence, with absolutely hilarious results. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern steal the show playing the con men trying to get the best of Kevin.

White Christmas (Google Play, Cineplex Store)
Singers Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) and Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) join sister act Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy Haynes (Vera-Ellen) to perform a Christmas show in rural Vermont. While there, they run into Gen. Waverly (Dean Jagger), the boys’ commander in World War II. Wallace and Davis learn that the quaint country inn their former commander runs is failing. Quicker than you can say, Christmas Miracle, the quartet unhatch a plan for a Christmas musical extravaganza that you just know will turn things around.

A Christmas Story (Google Play, Cineplex Store)
This beloved holiday movie follows Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley), who spends most of his time evading bullies and dreaming of his ideal Christmas gift, a “Red Ryder air rifle.” Ralphie struggles to keep his Christmas spirit intact as he is frequently at odds with his father as he hopes to get rewarded for keeping his faith in the holidays.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (Google Play, Cineplex Store)
The third installment of a trilogy of films is rarely the equal of its two predecessors but the story of Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) wanting to have a perfect family Christmas is probably the funniest movie from this list. Clark pesters his wife and children, as he tries to make sure everything is in line, including the tree and house decorations. Things don’t go as planned when Clark’s hick cousin, Eddie (Randy Quaid), and his family show up unplanned and start living in their camper on the Griswold property.

It’s a Wonderful Life (Google Play)
Few films define Christmas like It’s a Wonderful Life. George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) has so many problems that he’s thinking about committing suicide at Christmas. When George is about to jump from a bridge, he ends up rescuing his guardian angel, Clarence, who shows George what his town would have looked like if it hadn’t been for all his good deeds over the years.

In case you don’t have a Roku streaming player yet, make sure you enter our contest to win one here.

Happy Streaming!