If you’re addicted to the holiday season, and you notice yourself getting funny looks from your neighbors if you choose to leave your decorations up until June, there’s one sure-fire way to get yourself back in the holiday spirit – holiday films. Nowadays, though, having a full collection of personal holiday films isn’t as necessary as it used to be, so it’s as simple as hunting down your favorites, or some new entries into the holiday canon, on streaming. Here are five holiday movies you can stream right now.
A Christmas Story Christmas
For years, there was a TV Christmas tradition of running A Christmas Story for a 24-hour marathon. Now, you can finally break up your day-long binge with the long-awaited sequel, which takes place in the 70s. Much of the original cast is back, including Peter Billingsley as Ralphie. Now Ralphie is a middle-aged man, trying to sell the great American novel, and finds his inspiration in the one place he can count on for a good story – his family.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
The original Home Alone was so popular it was in theatres for months, and was re-released, making a young Macaulay Culkin an overnight sensation. The only sequel film to feature Culkin was the second film, where he somehow gets lost again on Christmas, only now he gets on the wrong plane and ends up in New York City. The most recent sequel, Home Sweet Home Alone, features a reference to Culkin’s character, who in the canon of the films now owns a home security company.
Santa Clause 2 and 3
Perhaps best known for teaching a whole generation of kids to forget how to spell Santa Claus’s name because of a pun, the Santa Clause movies have had two sequel films, and recently went on to have a sequel TV series, all starring the original film’s protagonist, played by Tim Allen. The sequels continue on the story of Santa, though they also explore the stories of other people in his world, like Jack Frost and the Tooth Fairy.
Gremlins 2
One of the more non-traditional Christmas films is Gremlins, which is a goofy semi-horror film that gets a lot of mileage out of knowing that it is a goofy semi-horror film. The sequel is even stranger, with weirder gremlins and a lot of meta-humor, probably not appropriate for younger viewers.
Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas
With a new cast of voice actors including The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons in the role of Buddy, and Mark Hamill as Walter, Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas was a TV sort-of sequel, and more of a remake. It is an animated version of the same story as 2003’s Elf, starring Will Ferrell, and, as the title suggests, a musical. It came out 11 years after the original, and reimagines the same story but with a more traditional animated TV holiday special feel and look to it, complete with fun songs and a new cast.