Best Christmas Movies on Max: 2023 Edition

Some years, it seems like you can’t escape certain holiday movies, the ones that run on a 24-hour loop. Other years, you’re scrambling to figure out why no one is streaming your old favorites anymore. So before you can Google “Where can I stream A Christmas Story?” let me get right to it: in 2023, you can watch Ralphie pine for his Red Rider BB Gun on Max, along with loads of other holiday classics like Elf, Four Christmases, and perhaps a controversial holiday pick, Gremlins.

As a quick aside, Max is also the place to find tons of homey decorating and cooking content, too. If you’re hoping to settle in for some food and decoration shows, check out the new season of Selena + Chef: Holidays or the HGTV show Celebrity Holiday Homes for some seasonal inspiration.

1. A Christmas Story

   A Christmas Story is a Christmas tradition for many of us – even if we don’t actually watch it every year, I can guarantee there will be references to the Italian pronunciation of “Fragile!” and “mommy’s little piggy” and “I can’t put my arms down!” On Max, you can check out not just the original 1983 film starring Peter Billingsly, Melinda Dillon, and Darren McGavin, but you can also watch the (less good) A Christmas Story 2, and last year’s reboot, A Christmas Story Christmas.

   Watch A Christmas Story on Max

2. Four Christmases

   In 2008’s Four Christmases, Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn play a couple who have to visit all four of their divorced parents over the holidays. The supporting cast, which includes Sissy Spacek, Jon Favreau, Mary Steenburgen, and Robert Duvall is all wonderful, but we suggest watching if only to notice the palpable tension between Vaughn and Witherspoon, as it’s been reported that they hated working with each other.

   Watch Four Christmases on Max

3. A Christmas Mystery

   2022’s A Christmas Mystery is a charming family film and a classic yuletide whodunnit. 100 years ago, a set of jingle bells fell from Santa’s sleigh in the town of Pleasant Bay, Oregon, bringing prosperity to everyone who lived there. In the present day, the bells have gone missing from the museum that holds them, and everyone in town panics. It’s up to 11-year-old Violet Pierce (Violet McGraw), with no real help from her sheriff dad (Eddie Cibrian) to find out who stole them.

   Watch A Christmas Mystery on Max

4. 8-Bit Christmas

   In 8-Bit Christmas, Neil Patrick Harris plays a man named Jake, who recounts his childhood quest for a Nintendo game system to his daughter. The film flashes back to the 1980s, and we see 10-year-old Jake, played by Winslow Fegley, desperately wishing for the latest video game console for Christmas and he will stop at nothing to get it. For those of us who grew up during the era when Duck Hunt and Cabbage Patch Kids reigned supreme, this is a delightful throwback.

   Watch 8-Bit Christmas on Max

5. Fred Claus

   Frank Stallone. Stephen Baldwin. Fred Claus. It sucks to be a brother overshadowed by your more famous brother, and that’s the general premise of 2007’s Fred Claus. Vince Vaughn stars as the less successful brother to Nicholas, better known as Santa Claus (played by Paul Giamatti), and Fred has to work off a debt by helping his brother out at the North Pole. (Not coincidentally, Frank Stallone, Stephen Baldwin, and Bill Clinton’s brother Roger all appear in cameos.) The film is a goofy slapstick comedy, elevated by performances from a shockingly good cast which includes Rachel Weisz, Kathy Bates, and Miranda Richardson.

   Watch Fred Claus on Max

6. Nothing Like The Holidays

   Nothing Like The Holidays stars a who’s who of incredible Latinx performers including John Leguizamo, Luiz Guzman, Jay Hernandez, and Elizabeth Pena, as a Puerto Rican family in Chicago celebrating a chaotic Christmas together. Dramatic and heartfelt, the film’s great ensemble makes this one a solid entry in the holiday canon.

   Watch Nothing Like The Holidays on Max

7. Gremlins

   Adding Gremlins to a Christmas movie list is a little like including Die Hard. You can argue that it’s not a holiday movie and more of a straight-up horror, but let me say this: after watching Phoebe Cates’s character Kate deliver a monologue about how her father died impersonating Santa climbing down the chimney, you will never spend another Christmas thinking about anything else. The 1984 film is actually about a young man (Zach Galligan) whose father gifts him a creature called a Mogwai which unleashes a wave of destruction and horror all over town, but to me, it will only ever be about Phoebe Cates’ poor dad who met his maker in the flue.

   Watch Gremlins on Max

8. Elf

   Watch ELF on Max

   Elf has become a staple at the holidays, and Max is one of the many places (including Hulu and Prime Video) where you can watch the antics of Buddy the Elf (Will Ferrell) as he travels from the North Pole to New York City to find his father (James Caan).