The best NOW Christmas movies to stream today

You will have to wait until 8th December but the good news is that Elf is coming to NOW TV. The movie has become, quite rightly, a Christmas classic and follows the adventures of a grown-up 'Elf (Will Ferrell) as he heads to New York in search of his real father.

If you like a little comedy and irreverence with your festivities, then Bad Santa is for you. It's about a sweary guy (played by Billy Bob Thornton) who dresses up as Santa in his local department store. To say he's not thrilled about being Santa is an understatement, which is one of the many reasons he makes a living from robbing the places he works, along with his elf assistant.

Gremlins is a fantastic movie to watch at Christmas. No, it won't get you in the festive spirit but it is full of comedy and horror that it will bring a sense of menace to the season. Plus, it has one of the darkest stories about 'Father Christmas' to ever be told on film.

If you’re not crying by the end of this then your heart is cold and black. Who hurt you so much that you wouldn’t tear up at this Aardman Animation (the minds behind Wallace & Grommit) classic about a young lad who travels around the world to make sure a little girl, who’s been missed off the list by a now distant Santa Claus, gets her present on Christmas morning?

Krampus is an alpine folklore monster who punishes naughty children at Christmas. This horror film turned him from a regional figure to a global icon among horror fans. It's a cracker of a film, with some real scares and a good few laughs. It's not one for the young kids, though, as it's no lightweight.

Forget Love Actually, The Holiday is the Christmas romcom we keep coming back to. It stars Cameron Diaz and Jude Law, Jack Black and Kate Winslet as genuinely likeable characters you grow to know over the two hours and change of this charming film.

All Clark Griswold wants is to have a nice Christmas. But nothing ever seems to work out. This time his family are coming around, and that's fuel for some classic 1980s Chevy Chase hijinks. Christmas Vacation dukes it out with National Lampoon's Vacation and Caddyshack as Chase's best movie. Definitely worth a rewatch if you have some nostalgia for this era, and aren't turned off by the stories that suggest Chevy Chase really isn't the nicest chap.

David Harbour has a particularly tired and fed-up take on Santa in Violent Night, in which he gets caught up in a home invasion. Santa's norse warrior origins come out as he cleans up house with a hammer in hand. It's gory, it's funny and it's fun. This is anything but a family watch, though. Not unless the kids are grown-up.

A boy heads to a faraway land to search for his father in this festive adventure. Written by Matt Haig it's a sentimental movie, like all the best Christmas films are, which blends real life with some more fantastical elements. It's by no means perfect but it's got a lot of heart.