Best Christmas Comedies

Around the holidays, nothing is better than kicking back with your family and laughing until your stomach hurts. Holiday Cheer is real. With the stress of Christmas shopping, it can be hard to remember why we do it all. One surefire way is to put on a fun comedy and let yourself be drawn into the spirit of the season. To enjoy your holiday to the maximum, let’s go over the best Christmas comedies.

The Night Before (2015)

This fun holiday film centers on three friends with an annual tradition of getting together on Christmas Eve and spending the night getting into as much debauchery as possible. Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Anthony Mackie star as the three friends. When they realize that their adult lives are making it harder and harder to keep the tradition going, they decide to make this year’s reunion the best one they have ever had. They seek out a legendary Christmas party that only the elite can gain entrance to. Really funny performances and situations make this one a can’t miss. If you missed this one, fix that. It’s for sure one of the best Christmas comedies.

Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)

Everyone’s favorite buffoon Ernest P. Worrell is back, and this time he’s trying to raise everyone’s holiday spirit and save Christmas. Santa has arrived in Florida to find his successor but finds that people don’t like Christmas like they used to. He runs into Ernest, and the two have to find Santa’s misplaced bag while also convincing everyone that his replacement is the correct man for the job. Hijinks ensue when Ernest is charged with delivering Santa’s sleigh to the correct location at just the right time. A lot of fun and full of heart, this film will make everyone smile for the holiday season.

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Perhaps one of the most famous Christmas stories gets the Muppets treatment. This usually dark story is . . . well, it’s still dark even for a kids movie. The addition of the Muppets adds a lot of fun elements to the film and still tells a great version of the story. Perhaps the real MVP of the movie is Michael Caine, playing Scrooge. He told director Brian Henson that he planned to play the role completely straight, as if he wasn’t in a movie with puppets. It would be as if he was performing it in a straight-up dramatic version, and Henson loved it as that was what he had wanted. This lends a lot to the film and makes everything work so well. If you haven’t revisited this one in a while, check it out.

Love Actually (2003)

An anthology Christmas film that shows multiple couples dealing with various problems leading up to the holiday. The cast is completely stacked with stars like Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant, Laura Linney, Keira Knightley, and more. Each situation is looked at through a humorous lens, but each one has heart. The film was very successful and has become a holiday favorite among fans. If you need some cheer and some love this Christmas season, it’s the one to check out.

Bad Santa (2003)

This raunchy comedy might be what everyone needs for a good laugh this year. Billy Bob Thorton plays Willie, a con man who takes the job of a mall Santa every year. Once the holiday season is over, he and his partner rob all the department stores in the mall to earn their haul for the year. This time, Willie gets caught up in more than just playing Santa, and their plans might completely fall apart. Everything in this movie is guaranteed to make you laugh until you have eggnog shooting out of your nose. For sure one of the best Christmas comedies. A yearly watch for sure.

Scrooged (1988)

A modern take on the Dickens classic tale. Bill Murray stars as a miserable television executive who is not very nice to his employees. He fires one of his staff members on Christmas Eve and is then visited by his old mentor, who died seven years before. He warns him that he is going to be visited by three ghosts. Well, you know how the story plays out, but every character in the film is fun and quirky, as most Bill Murray movies are. It’s a great twist on the classic story and has a lot of famous faces that you’ll recognize. If you’re a Bill Murray fan, this movie is for you.

Home Alone (1990)

This great family comedy plays as a reverse version of A Wonderful Life. After a fight with his family on the night before they all leave for a trip to Paris, Kevin McCallister wishes his family would disappear. Through an electrical outage and a mistaken head count, he is left alone as the family heads to Europe. At first, he takes the freedom in stride as he can now do what he wants, but soon learns that he misses his family. Also, it turns out there are a couple of robbers in the neighborhood, and he has to defend his house by any means necessary. This is a lot of fun and a Christmas classic for kids of all ages.

Elf (2003)

This Will Ferrell comedy has the actor playing a human that has been adopted by Santa’s elves. As he has gotten older, it’s time for him to finally find his real family so he enters back into the regular world but is unprepared for how it works. This great comedy shows the importance of your family, biological or not. Buddy the Elf’s innocence is initially perplexing to people but eventually shows that maybe we all could learn something from him in our outlook on the world. We all need a little holiday cheer.

A Christmas Story (1983)

This mild hit from the early 80s has become a Christmas classic after being rerun constantly on TBS every year. The twenty-four-hour marathon has pushed this to even bigger heights than anyone expected. No one can deny it’s one of the best Christmas comedies. We follow Ralphie in the 1940s as he desperately tries anything he can to make sure he gets a Red Ryder Range 200 shot BB gun. He tries to subliminally convince his mom to buy it, writes an essay to his teacher about how great it would be, and even tells Santa of his wishes. What does he get? Told that he’ll shoot his eye out. The fun situations Ralphie gets into with his friends make this a memorable watch every year. Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.

Christmas Vacation  (1989)

The Griswolds are back, but this time, the family is coming to their house as they host the family Christmas this year. In typical Griswold fashion, everything falls apart just like it usually does. The extended family is super obnoxious, the Christmas lights on the house don’t work, and Clark barely even knows who his kids are. The hijinks ensue as everyone is under one roof together, and the situations keep getting more and more outrageous. This classic has kept people laughing for years and will for many more to come. Is it even Christmas if you don’t see Randy Quaid emptying the septic tank on his RV? I don’t think so.

What are some of the best Christmas comedies? Let us know in the comments.