The Ultimate Ranking of the Best Holiday Movies Ever — December 2025 Edition

If your holiday queue is stuck on repeat and the thought of firing up Elf or Scrooged again makes your brain feel like eggnog, good news: there are Christmas movies that go down easy and still qualify as the real cinematic deal. Here are the top-rated holiday films that actually put Christmas to work in the story, not just as background twinkle lights.

How I put this together

I pulled Rotten Tomatoes scores and cross-checked critical reviews, then filtered out anything where Christmas is just a vibe. These all use the holiday in a meaningful way, not just as set dressing. Scores are current to the time of writing, and I call out ties where they land.

• Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) — 99% on Rotten Tomatoes
  The MGM musical that introduced 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' to the world. Set in early-1900s St. Louis, it follows the Smith family over a year leading up to the World’s Fair, with romance, sibling clashes, growing pains, and a big warm-family hug of an ending. Critically adored and still a crowd-pleaser: it also carries an 86% audience score (the popcorn one) from 26,000+ ratings.
• The Shop Around the Corner (1940) — 99% on Rotten Tomatoes
  A sharp, deceptively simple holiday romance starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as gift-shop coworkers who can’t stand each other, while unknowingly falling in love as anonymous pen pals. It tends to get overshadowed by newer favorites (and Stewart’s other Christmas staple), but the score doesn’t lie — it’s tied for the highest-rated holiday movie on RT.
• The Holdovers (2023) — 97% on Rotten Tomatoes
  Written by David Hemingson and directed by Alexander Payne, this one nails a 1970 vibe despite coming out two years ago. Paul Giamatti plays a cranky New England prep school teacher stuck on campus over winter break, bonding with the school’s head cook (Da'Vine Joy Randolph, whose character is grieving a son lost in Vietnam) and a brilliant, trouble-magnet student (Dominic Sessa in a breakout turn). Smart, funny, and quietly devastating in all the right ways.
• Miracle on 34th Street (1947) — 96% on Rotten Tomatoes
  The gold standard for Santa-on-film. A department store hires a guy named Kris Kringle who’s a little too good at the job — because he swears he’s the real deal. That sincerity snowballs into a courtroom showdown over belief itself, anchored by a little girl named Susan who’s been raised to skip the fairy tales. It still lands, because the movie isn’t preaching; it’s just asking if faith is really gone or just buried under adulthood.
• Little Women (2019) — 95% on Rotten Tomatoes
  Greta Gerwig’s take edges out the beloved 1994 version on RT by a hair. Set in the years after the Civil War, the March family scrapes by on love and creativity, with four sisters at the center: Jo (Saoirse Ronan), Meg (Emma Watson), Beth (Eliza Scanlen), and Amy (Florence Pugh). It’s warm, funny, gently heartbreaking, and full of snow-dusted holidays that actually matter to the story.
• Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) — 95% on Rotten Tomatoes
  Tied here at 95%. A perennial favorite that sits comfortably on both the Halloween and Christmas shelves.
• Klaus (2019) — 95% on Rotten Tomatoes
  Another 95% tie. A modern animated standout that earned its spot with critics and audiences alike.

The short version

These aren’t just festive; they’re legit great movies that happen to wear tinsel well. If you want holiday spirit without dropping your standards, start here.