There are only so many times you can watch Home Alone before the traps lose their sting, Love Actually starts to feel like homework, and Elf tips from charming into mildly unhinged. The Christmas movie canon is beloved for a reason, but sometimes the festive spirit needs a slightly different delivery system.
That’s where the alternative Christmas film comes in. The ones that still feel Christmassy without leaning on Santa, snow globes or a third-act airport sprint. Maybe they’re a bit darker, a bit weirder, or just quietly perfect for a sofa session with a tin of Quality Street and no expectations of cheer.
From cult classics to leftfield picks that still hum with festive energy, these are the Christmas-adjacent movies that will put you in the mood without forcing you to endure another identical rom-com misunderstanding.
Consider them a palate cleanser for your December viewing schedule.
10. Trading Places
Trading Places is set mere days before the big day and features one of Dan Aykroyd’s best scenes ever, where he is drunk and dressed as a bedraggled Santa Claus, crashing his old job's Christmas party and stuffing buffet meat into the big pockets of his outfit. Which is pretty much how we act when the Boxing Day buffet is unleashed.
9. Iron Man 3
Even Marvel has admitted that Iron Man 3 is pretty much a Christmas film. It has all the trappings: it’s set over the holiday season and Tony Stark is visited by a number of ‘ghosts’ from his past and he comes out the other side redeemed and a new, better person. Oh, and a lot of it is just him and a slightly annoying kid which adds a good deal of schmaltz to proceedings.Image Credit: Marvel
8. In Bruges
Nothing says Christmas more than a heady dose of existential dread, and that’s exactly what you get with In Bruges. Set over the Christmas period and focusing on a pair of hitmen shipped to Bruges, for the most part the movie is about two killers trying to figure out whether they should be pardoned (or, in other words, on the naught or nice list) for the amount of sin they’ve committed in their lives, all to the backdrop of the fairytale architecture of the Belgium town.
7. Batman Returns
Set amongst the festive season, Batman Returns oozes frosty appeal. It’s a snow-flecked movie packed with red, white and black (the only colour Tim Burton seemed to use in the ‘90s) and its most memorable scene is the tree-lighting ceremony where a white-haired Max Shreck is flanked by evil circus people jumping out of oversized presents.
6. Lethal Weapon
We all know Mel Gibson is a big fan of the, er, big guy in the sky, so it’s apt that Lethal Weapon is set at a time when Christmas is in town, even if that town is LA.
Again, this is a movie with an iconic scene set to Jingle Bell Rock and Riggs even spends Christmas with Roger “I’m getting too old for this shit” Murtaugh’s family. There’s even a ruck in a Christmas tree lot, midway through the movie.
5. Rare Exports
A dig sit in Finland uncovers an ancient tomb, believed to be the resting place of the “real” Santa Claus. But what they find is altogether more horrifying than expected. This is a horror film, but one laced with a strain of comedy. You’ll have to turn on the subs for it, unless you can understand Finnish, but it’s not absolutely packed with dialogue, as you might imagine.
4. Eyes Wide Shut
Of course, Eyes Wide Shut is an adjacent Christmas movie. It’s set over the festive period and begins with the pair coming home after a Christmas party, where they make love while fantasising about other people.
Personally, we prefer a kebab and snuggling up to a sick bowl on the sofa post Xmas party drinks, but we don’t think Kubrick would have made a movie about that.
3. Mean Girls
“Ugh, lip gloss!” You will never be able to hear Jingle Bell Rock the same way again once you watch Santa’s Helpers (AKA The Plastics) doing a dance to it in Mean Girls. It’s a perfect, if completely misjudged, routine for a school talent show. Mean Girls is a fantastic film to watch any time of the year but it has enough Christmas in it to watch repeatedly in December.
2. Lord of the Rings trilogy
Sure, we don’t get to see hobbits celebrating Christmas in Lord of the Rings. But this trilogy is definitely a festive film on a few fronts. First up, each of the three movies came out just before Christmas (more than 20 year ago now).
And a festive holiday is just about the only time we have enough spare hours for a re-watch, without leaving days or weeks between the viewings. The only question left: do you go for the extended or theatrical cuts?
1. Gremlins
Ah, Gremlins. The anti-Christmas movie that has one of the creepiest stories ever told about Santa getting stuck down a chimney.
Couple this with Gizmo playing keyboard with a Santa hat on, numerous gremlins carol singing and Mogwai being the ultimate ‘a pet isn’t just for Christmas’ present, and Gremlins is as festive as your Uncle Charles’ ruddied face trying to sing to Fairytale of New York while his mouth is full of volovants.
- Okay, if you want 'real' Xmas movies, then head to the best Netflix Christmas movies
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