Underrated Christmas Movies

As many of us have experienced watching TV, its that time of the year where either movie channels are airing Christmas Movies non stop or people are starting their routine of watching Christmas films they watch every year. Many would argue that movies like A Christmas Story, Its a Wonderful Life, Die Hard, or other films are the best Christmas movies ever made, but what are some Christmas movies you feel are overlooked? I have 2 that come in mind:

• Scrooged: Alex recently said this was his favorite Christmas movie on the latest Blue Bombin' video, but I feel this movie doesn't get enough attention. For its time, it was a solid modernization of A Christmas Carol, but Scrooge's Character is replaced by a corrupt and arrogant TV Executive named Frank Cross, played by Bill Murray. Cross is responsible for producing and advertising a live telecast of an adaptation of the original Christmas Carol. To really drive home of how horrible of a person Cross is, he gets excited over the news of an 80 year old women dying from watching a terrifying commercial for his program for the sake of publicity.
• Arthur Christmas: This was a film I saw two days ago on the Freeform 25 Days of Christmas Marathon, and its a bummer that this isn't often discussed for best Christmas Movies. Made from Aardman Studios, whose best known for Claymation classics like Wallace and Gromit (Arthur is CGI though), brings up an interesting theory of Saint Nick. Santa Claus isn't 1 person, but instead a title given to a lineage of family members as one member is responsible for delivering gifts to homes until he is ready to pass on the job to the next relative in line. Arthur himself is in the family, but is only designated to answers letters to Santa. The rest of family as well as elves coordinate the complex procedures of making Santa's mission a success. However, Arthur finds out that the current Santa missed 1 child who didn't get the gift she wanted and its up to him alongside a retired Santa and an elf to deliver the missing present before the sun rises on Christmas Day. Also fun fact, Hugh Laurie of House fame plays Arthur's brother, Steve.

The Last Holiday remake with Queen Latifah. Pretty cliche, but well executed and "very feel good".

I don't really think it's underrated or overlooked but I remember liking Elf quite a bit.

Iron Man 3 and Jingle All the Way.

Gremlins and Jingle All the Way.

Jingle all the way is amazing.

+1 for Jingle All The Way

Krampus. I really loved it when I saw it in theaters last year and am hoping to give it a second watch before this year closes out.

The ATHF episode where Meatwad end up summoning Santa in the middle of freaking July and Santa ends up being severely burnt by Eggzilla and Meatwad ends taking Santa's place and giving kids really messed up gifts.

The only christmas movie I have any desire to watch every year is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Hell, I'd watch it anytime of year.

I'm tempted to unironically say Die Hard.

Obviously I don't mean underappreciated by the internet because, come on.

Off the internet though? Most people I've met refuse to even acknowledge it as a Christmas movie. And those people are monsters.

Fanny and Alexander is underappreciated, like a lot of foreign movies.

Definitely Jingle all the way.

THEY ARE MY COOKIES TED. PUT THAT COOKIE DOWN!

I second Arthur Christmas, I remember seeing the trailer when it was first released, and thought it was some throw away kids movie, but I caught it on cable a few years back and really enjoyed it, so much that it's become a must watch during the holidays.

It's not underrated by any means, but it's a family tradition to watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation sometime in December. I can't think of many other other than that since I don't usually watch christmas movies. I like Elf a lot for a kids Christmas movie. Then there's the usual classics they show on tv I grew up watching like rudolph, frosty, etc.

Wow...My people, can't believe so many said Jingle All The Way and no one started to bash it, love that movie despite all the hate it gets, one of the ones that I have to watch and pay attention to every year.

A Christmas Carol, the one with Patrick Stewart. So damn good, mainly because of Stewart.

@mocbucket62:

GO PHINS TOMO

ALL ABOARD THE MOORE TRAIN!!!!

Santa's Slay and Jingle All the Way

Santa with Muscles, people.

Also, for real, though, I really don't mind Nothing Like the Holidays, with John Leguizamo and Doc Ock from that second Spider-Man movie. It's hammy as hell, but it's got a lot of heart. And while it's not exactly Christmassy in spirit, Nic Cage's Family Man gets a watch from me this time of the year. It's sort of Christmas adjacent.

And while it's not a movie, I think Hulu still has the Garfield cartoon's Christmas special, which is always worth a watch.

There isn't that many underrated xmas movies. Lot's of overrated ones, but very few underrated.

Side question: what is currently the easiest, legal way to watch Tokyo Godfathers? It was on netflix at one point, but I was a fucking idiot and missed it. I've never seen it and really want to change that!

So much this. It warms my heart that my fellow duders appreciate this fine piece of cinema as much as I do.

Arnold Schwarzenegger gets into a fight with a warehouse full of Santas that are trading in illicit, counterfeit toys.

Does this sound like anything other than a great movie?

@ericjasonwade:All I want for Christmas from the Dolphins is a winning record. It can start tomorrow night if they beat the Jets.

@stonyman65: Santa's Slay is the one film where the wrestler Bill Goldberg is a murderous Santa right? Never seen it, but does Santa land a Jackhammer on anyone? Does he say who's next? As for Jingle All the Way, that is an incredibly flawed film, but I can't help but enjoy seeing it year in and year out for how ridiculous it is. Too all of those who straight up don't like that movie...

@mocbucket62:

Yea if they end with a winning record that would be much more than anyone expected this year but I'm still hoping they sneak into the playoffs. Not expecting much once in but still. Sorry for being off-topic, I just saw your emblem and couldn't help myself.

Carry on.

I don't have a movie but the Hey Arnold Christmas special is fantastic.

Iron-man 3!!!

Die Hard

Three films I watch every Christmas:

- Die Hard

- Jingle All The Way

- Scrooged

@mocbucket62: You stole my answer. Arthur Christmas is one of the best Christmas movie I've ever seen and was a huge surprise when I first saw it.

Also, just like everyone else has been saying, Jingle All the Way is a treasure. I watch it every year.

Arthur Christmas was a surprise to me too. It looks utterly generic, but that's one quality movie, definitely the best of the more recent Christmas movies I have seen.

Bad Santa.

I'm a big fan of Jingle All The Way

As far as Christmas Specials, the one not a lot of people have seen is "Merry Christmas Mr. Bean" . Its fantastic humor and probably the best episode of the show, and one of the best episodes of any comedy of all time. Also the Trailer Park Boys X-Mas special is great too.

Earnest Saves Christmas holds some nice childhood memories for me. Home Alone is another good one, but I don't think that's very underrated.

I watch jingle all the way each Christmas. It's a very poorly made movie, even by cheap cash ins standards, but i find it genuinely entertaining.

The Chuck Norris classic Invasion USA:

Muppet Christmas Carol.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Love, Actually.

White Christmas.

I forgot to mention it earlier, but the Jim Carrey version of Christmas Carol is really pretty neat. Just stay the hell away from his Grinch. Ugh.

Gonna have to go with Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer which has garnered some hate online due to the stop motion animation and "flatness" of its characters. A shame, because it's feel good family fun. Also the Year Without a Santa Claus has also garnered some hate, which I don't understand at all. I mean who can say this sucks:

I try to watch jingle all the way and home alone every year. Is small soldiers a christmas movie? I think the finale takes place around christmas.

I searched imdb for keyword 'christmas' and rating 5.9 or less and Cobra came up. So I'm gonna say Cobra.

I really should watch Scrooged for the first time this year.

I'll second Arthur Christmas as a pretty good Christmas film though.

@trulyalive said:

If we're including Die Hard in this discussion, then you have to give me Eyes Wide Shut. It's THE MOST Christmasy of Christmas movies

Jingle all the way obviously.

@zleunamme: Truth...

I feel like nobody really talks about The Santa Clause, one of my favourites.

New entry to this thread, how about The Ref starring Dennis Leary? That is a fucking Christmas movie.

Since Die Hard was already mention I'll go with Die Hard 2 also there's a episode from the outer limits in the 90's called the conversation which is pretty good.