Christmas movies: The celebrity-filled 2024 festive films to get you in the spirit  — quality not guaranteed

Everyone has their own specific silly season rituals in the lead-up to Christmas and, for many, that involves popping on their favourite movie they watch every year.

It might be the violent shenanigans of Home Alone and Die Hard or the sentimentalism of Love Actually, the classic vibes of It’s a Wonderful Life or the sensuality of Carol.

The Christmas movies business is an industry onto itself, which the Hallmark channel has cornered. They’re corny, usually banal and have no recognisable actors, but they definitely have fans, which didn’t escape the notice of Netflix who realised how lucrative the generally cheap-to-produce movies could be.

It used to be if you were a Hollywood celebrity, doing a Christmas movie meant your career was perhaps not at its peak. But now, everyone wants in on the action and you’ll find big (and medium) names pulling on those hideous jumpers.

It’s hard for a newcomer to crack the list of faves – none from recent years have joined the canon, although The Holdovers deserve to – but there are quite a few famous faces giving it a go in 2024.

RED ONE

This $US250 million big-budget extravaganza stars J.K. Simmons as Santa Clause, who is kidnapped by a black ops team on Christmas Eve. To save the holiday, his ELF (Enforcement, Logistics and Fortification) team must mount a rescue, led by Dwayne Johnson who plays the head of North Pole security, and aided by level four naughty lister Jack (Chris Evans).

Watch: Cinemas now, Prime Video soon

NUTCRACKERS

This family comedy stars Ben Stiller and is directed by David Gordon Green, whose other seasonal movies, Halloween trilogy, had a very different tone. Stiller plays Mike, a child-free guy who is called in to temporarily look after his four nephews after his sister and her husband is killed in an accident. The kids are little terrors and he’s meant to help them find foster families. You know where this is going.

Watch: Disney+

OUR LITTLE SECRET

This second Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie is much than the previous one by virtue of the fact she’s working with a director who knows how to draw her talent out better. Lohan is far less wooden here in this story about a woman who visits her boyfriend’s family for the holidays only to discover her ex is among the crowd. They decide to keep their past a secret from everyone including the very type-A not-quite-mother-in-law played by Kristin Chenoweth.

Watch: Netflix

A SUDDEN CASE OF CHRISTMAS

A remake of an Italian movie, this version stars Danny DeVito, Andie MacDowell and Wimer Valderrama in a cute family story about a young girl visiting her grandfather’s hotel in summer. Her parents are about to separate and her only wish is for them to have one last Christmas together. It’s Christmas in July in the Italian Alps!

Watch: Digital rental

A NONSENSE CHRISTMAS WITH SABRINA CARPENTER

Bill Murray has done it. Hannah Waddingham too. Now it’s Sabrina Carpenter’s turn and the pop songstress will be performing ditties from her EP Fruitcake along with a cavalcade of guest stars including Shania Twain, Chappell Roan, Quinta Brunson, Kyle Mooney, Cara Delevigne and Sean Astin.

Watch: Netflix

THAT CHRISTMAS

Technically no famous faces per se, but there are famous voices abound in this animated comedy based on Richard Curtis’s (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually) trilogy of children’s books of yuletide stories. The cast includes Brian Cox as Santa, Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker, Bill Nighy, Lolly Adefope and Rhys Darby.

Watch: Netflix

JACK IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS

A cross between a narrative feature and vignettes from a travel series, British comedian Jack Whitehall plays himself in this story about being stranded in the US and trying to make it home for Christmas with only four days to spare. His guest stars include Michael Buble, Dave Bautista, Jimmy Fallon and Tom Davies.

Watch: Prime Video

THE MERRY GENTLEMEN

There’s nothing complicated about this story. The short version is it’s Magic Mike but Christmas. The slightly longer version involves a former dancer trying to save her parents’ bar by staging a Christmas revue with lots of hot, shirtless men. Former teen idol Chad Michael Murray is having a ball as the centre of all that ogling.

Watch: Netflix

DEAR SANTA

It’s not the first time someone has made the joke that if you invert two letters in Santa, you get Satan. It might be the first time someone has stretched out the bit into a full-blown movie. Here, a kid accidentally writes to Satan instead of Santa and the dark lord himself appears in that child’s room, ready to do his bidding. It stars Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key and is made by the Farrelly brothers.

Watch: Paramount+

HOT FROSTY

OK, OK, so Lacey Chabert has basically been a Hallmark person for a while now but the latent stardust from her Mean Girls and Party of Five days remain. Hot Frosty is a twist on the Jack Frost movie in which she plays a woman who places a scarf on a sculpted snowman who then comes alive.

Watch: Netflix