The 10 Best Christmas Movies That Aren’t ‘Die Hard’

Look, we’ve all met the guy who says, “You know Die Hard is a Christmas movie, right?” And yes, we all know that John McTiernan’s 1988 action flick takes place at Christmas—it’s why my family watches it every year. What that now-rote statement elides is that there are a lot of other movies that happen to take place at Christmas that aren’t explicitly Christmas movies.

So if you need a break from Home Alone or National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, you might want to check out one of the offerings on this list. Some are poignant, some are badass, some are just plain funny, but all of them are guaranteed to provide a fresh experience if you—like me—tend to get a little Christmas-ed out. Let’s ring in the holiday right, shall we?

Eager but untested knight Gawain (Dev Patel) finds himself in quite a pickle when he beheads but does not kill the mysterious Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) after agreeing to receive a blow of equal strength in kind. Now tasked with facing his fate a year later at Christmas by his uncle, King Arthur (Mission: Impossible’s Sean Harris), Gawain must travel the length of Britannia weighing his desire for honor and renown with his desire to keep his head. David Lowery’s film is told as a series of vignettes, and in addition to being incredibly poignant, it features arresting performances from Patel, Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), and Joel Edgerton (Constant Gardener).

Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) receives a mogwai—a furry little monster—from his father Randall (Hoyt Axton) for Christmas, and he’s given explicit instructions not to get it wet and not to feed it after midnight. Naturally both of those things happen in this Joe Dante-directed horror-comedy, leading to Billy’s town being overrun with gremlins—reptilian, evil versions of his new pet. Considered something of a cult classic now, the film is probably most famous for a positively ghoulish monologue wherein Billy’s love interest Kate Beringer (Phoebe Cates) explains exactly why she hates Christmas. And to think the film is written by Home Alone director Chris Columbus!

Sadsack private eye Holland Marsh (Ryan Gosling) is partnered with thuggish enforcer Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) to unravel a mystery involving everything from porn stars, student activists, and a plot to sabotage the catalytic converter in this Shane Black-directed film. Putting this one on the list was kind of a gimme (Black sets all his films at Christmas), but it’s a truly excellent neo-noir that’s also riotously funny. Crowe plays Healy with disarming gravitas and heart, and Gosling’s performance as Marsh is spectacularly wormy and pathetic—revealing his impressive range as a comedic actor.

The second installment of the Tim Burton/Michael Keaton Batman partnership sees Keaton don the cowl again to face off against The Penguin (Danny DeVito), who’s framing Batman for misdeeds throughout of Gotham with the help of evil industrialist Max Shreck (Christopher Walken). Aiding Batman is Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer), Shreck’s formerly meek assistant who adopts her alter ego after Shreck pushes her out a window. The plot is kind of a mess, to be frank, but Burton’s uniquely grimy design and the star-studded cast make this one worth a watch, especially if you haven’t seen it in a while.

Boorish commodities trader Louis Winthorp III (Dan Aykroyd) has his life upended when his bosses the Duke Brothers (Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy) have him replaced with streetwise vagrant Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) to settle a $1 bet. When Valentine and Winthorp discover the ruse, they decide to turn the tables on the Dukes by financially ruining them. This movie is a staple of my family’s viewing around Christmas time, and even if we’ve never fully grasped how Winthorp and Valentine pull off the film’s climax, the performances and Murphy’s onscreen charisma more than make up for it.

Three homeless residents of Tokyo find a baby in a trashcan in this Satoshi Kon-directed feature, and do their level best to return the child to her rightful parents. A rare comedic turn from the Perfect Blue director, Tokyo Godfathers is a great entry into Kon’s body of work for people who might not be as down for a thriller like Paranoia Agent. The film’s most recent dub also corrected an important gap of representation by having the character Hana (who’s a trans woman) actually be voiced by a trans woman, rather than a man like the previous dub. 

Dr. Bill Hartford (Tom Cruise) stalks the streets of New York City around Christmas looking for a good time in all the wrong places following a fight with his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman). The film is notable for its wild speculation about what the rich and powerful get up to because they can’t be stopped (profane sex parties, having people murdered), but also because director Stanley Kubrick finds a way to turn Tom Cruise’s undeniable star power against him. Although Cruise acts like the same affable everyman he’s played for the entirety of his career, seeing him shrug and smile his way through interactions like helping his powerful friend revive a drugged prostitute or watching a costume shop owner solicit his underage daughter adds a grotesque and fascinating dimension to his performance I don’t think we’ll ever see again. This isn’t one to enjoy with grandparents or kids, but it’s a compelling antidote to all that holiday saccharine.

Naomi Watts runs afoul of the Russian mob in London when she becomes wrapped up in a teen’s death. Directed by David Cronenberg, the movie also stars Viggo Mortensen as Nikolai, an enigmatic “cleaner” for the mob. The movie is fairly gruesome (though not nearly as goopy as Cronenberg’s earlier work), but it’s a gripping crime thriller, and also contains one of the most intense 2-on-1 fights ever put on film.

Hitmen Ray and Ken (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) find out that their employer Harry (Ralph Fiennes) is planning to have one of them killed in Bruges during Christmas in this black comedy. Although suspenseful and kind of gruesome, Gleeson and Farrell play their characters with an almost sweet goofiness that makes their bond seem even more precarious. But it’s Fiennes’s performance as their shrill boss Harry who really steals the show.

Disgraced applejack salesman Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) pivots to fur trapping in the hopes of marrying the local shopkeeper’s daughter in this madcap comedy that, at bare minimum for entry in this list, features a man clearly dressed as Santa Claus and takes place in the winter. Hundreds of Beavers is about as close to a live-action Looney Tunes movie you’re ever going to get, with Tews’s increasingly Wile E. Coyote-esque animal traps (and pratfalls) providing the bulk of the comedy. The last 30 minutes (where the movie makes good on the title’s promise) feature some of the funniest comedic setpieces I’ve ever seen.