10 Favorite Vintage Christmas Films

For those who want to stray from the standard Christmas movie fare

Dec 17, 2024

*to the tune of Rudolph* You know Elf and Home Alone and A Christmas Story and The Santa Clause? The Polar Express and How the Grinch Stole Christmas and National Lampoon and Love Actually? But do you recall any movies prior to 1980?

For most people I know in my age group (Gen Z), the answer is probably “no.”

In the past several years, I’ve had to introduce older Christmas classics to friends and roommates because they had never seen them, let alone heard of them. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good rewatch of movies like Elf and still laugh at the “fra-gi-le…must be Italian!” type of lines from classics like A Christmas Story, but there’s something so festive about watching really old holiday movies. They have such an earnestness to them, and it’s fun to see what type of films people were making at that time.

Here are 10 old Christmas movies that I really love. Some might not be considered Christmas classics, but I think they’re overlooked and deserve their flowers as much as the others.

1. The Thin Man (1934)

I had to include William Powell and Myrna Loy’s adorable silly faces because their attitudes toward each other in this gif is basically how they are the whole movie. Nick and Nora (portrayed by Powell and Loy) are a husband and wife detective team and are given a case about a missing inventor right around Christmastime. There’s witty banter, an adorable dog, a disturbing amount of alcohol consumption, and a fancy holiday dinner hosted by Nick and Nora with all the suspects as guests at the end. It’s deliciously fun and very festive.

2. Heidi (1937)

A Shirley Temple classic that reminds me of my childhood! Heidi, a Swiss orphan girl, is brought to live with her grandfather, a gruff, old man who is a recluse. Due to her charm, kindness, and love for him despite his demeanor, his icy exterior begins to melt, and she brings him out into society again. Most of the latter half of the film takes place at Christmas after the two are separated by a malicious and greedy aunt and her grandfather vows to find her again. Is it cheesy and fluffy? Yes. But is it an absolute joy to watch Shirley Temple dance around in wooden shoes? Also yes.

3. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan play two coworkers at a gift shop who loathe each other. What they don’t know is that they are each other’s anonymous pen pals and are falling in love over each other’s letters. The end of the film takes place on Christmas, the perfect time for the two to set grudges aside and learn who their pen pals really are. This movie is based on the play “Parfumerie” by Miklós László which has inspired not only this film but also the film You’ve Got Mail. (Note that Meg Ryan’s bookstore in You’ve Got Mail is called, “The Shop Around the Corner” in homage to this movie!)

4. The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941)

Okay, Christmas doesn’t really play a part in the story until the very end, but this is one movie I watched last holiday season that made me double over laughing so I had to include it. Monty Woolley plays an incredibly opinionated radio personality who is on a speaking tour, and while stopping in Ohio injures himself and becomes an unexpected houseguest of a local, prominent family. His personal assistant, played by the radiant Bette Davis, stays with him and, embracing the joy of the season, unexpectedly falls in love, something her employer wants to meddle with.

5. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Judy Garland stars in Vincent Minnelli’s classic about the life of a large family living in St. Louis, MO between the years 1903 and 1904. The movie covers all four seasons, starting in Summer and ending in Spring at the St. Louis World’s Fair. The movie is most famous, however, for it’s period in Winter, particularly Christmas, when Judy Garland sings “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” a song written for the movie. At times very funny and other times very poignant, this film is a sentimental, emotional family portrait that never fails to make me cry every time.

6. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

This list would be incomplete without this absolute monument of a film. The film follows George Bailey throughout his life, and once he reaches a point where he wants to end it all, is guided by an angel to see what his life would look like if he’d never been born. It’s poignant, at times haunting, and at all times beautiful. The film ends with a Christmas scene that includes a rousing chorus of “Auld Lang Syne” and one of the most famous lines in cinema spoken by Bailey’s youngest daughter, Zuzu. “Teacher says, every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings!”

7. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

I know many people grew up with the 90s remake, but in my opinion, the original will always reign supreme. Miracle on 34th Street is about Kris Kringle, a man who is uncannily like ol’ St. Nick, working as Santa at the Macy’s in New York City. He believes he is Santa, and many other people, including the skeptical daughter of the Macy’s Event Coordinator, start to believe him, while others start to question his sanity. Even though the movie was made almost 80 years ago, it has such a magical quality to it, reminding us that seeing isn’t believing, but believing is seeing. And like I mentioned in my Christmas Essentials post, the scene where Kris starts speaking Dutch to the little girl always makes me feel wonder and awe like a little kid.

8. White Christmas (1954)

This is definitely one of my favorite Christmas movies, period. It isn’t Christmas in my house if we don’t watch White Christmas at least once! The story follows two song and dance men, played by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, who team up after Kaye’s character saves Crosby’s life in the war. The two befriend a sister act, the sisters played by Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen, and follow them to Pine Tree, Vermont for the holidays. Hilarity, fabulous musical numbers, and some tearjerking moments ensue! Basically this entire movie is spent with me laughing at all the same jokes and pointing out the costumes in every scene because they are AMAZING.

9. All That Heaven Allows (1955)

This one is for fans of melodrama! Cary, a wealthy widow, falls for her younger gardener, Ron, and although Ron’s friends are accepting of the two of them at social gatherings, they face disapproval from Cary’s country club friends and college-aged children. I was pleasantly surprised when I first watched this with how candid it was when showing a woman’s desire to love freely and society’s expectations of her as a middle-aged widow in the 1950s. Not only are there scenes surrounding the Christmas season, but this movie also has some of the most breathtaking winter landscapes I’ve ever seen in film.

10. The Apartment (1960)

Probably the most unconventional on the list, but still a good one to watch during the holidays. The Apartment, stars Jack Lemmon as C.C. Baxter, a good-natured accountant who works his ways up the corporate ladder by lending his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. Things get complicated, however, when the most important man at work starts seeing the girl from the office he’s interested in. Taking place between Christmas and New Year’s, this sometimes funny, sometimes melancholy movie is not only a delightful masterpiece, but also offers a bittersweet reminder that it’s okay if it’s not the most holly and jolly of times for you. All that matters in the end is if you are with the people you love the most during the holidays.

I have a few others on my watchlist, including The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945) and The Bishop’s Wife (1947). Let me know if there are any others that I should check out!

- Lillian

P.S. I won’t be posting next week as it will be Christmas Eve! My last post of the year will be on New Year’s Eve. Thanks for understanding and I hope you all have a Happy Holidays!