This winter, celebrate the holidays the way they were meant to be celebrated: by basking in the glow of the TV with your family without saying a word to anyone for hours on end. Did you know that your Amazon Prime membership, which you will use to buy gifts days before Christmas because you were too busy watching Christmas movies, also comes with a library of streaming Christmas classics?
We’ve compiled the best Christmas movies available on Amazon Prime that you can watch now for free (with one essential exception), and they span everything from the traditional must-watches to the remade classics to the modern-day gems. Though to be honest, Amazon is a bit of a Grinch when it comes to some of the best Christmas movies available for free. However, it has most of the greats available to rent or buy if you got your Christmas bonus.
The Ultimate 2019 Holiday Specials and Movies Guide
Here are the best Christmas and holiday movies (and specials) available on Amazon Prime.
It’s a Wonderful Life
James Stewart, Donna Reed, Carol Coombs, Jimmy Hawkins, Larry Simms and Karolyn Grimes, It’s a Wonderful Life
A man contemplating suicide gets a visit from his guardian angel, who shows him how his life has positively affected people around him. Christmas doesn’t begin until someone has forced you to watch this. The original black-and-white version is available, as is the crimes-against-humanity colorized version.
Merry Christmas from Funny or Die
Ryan Gosling, Drunk History
OK, this isn’t a movie, but this is the perfect distraction while everyone is arguing about what Christmas movie to watch. This collection of holiday-themed sketches (each of the 14 bits runs 2 to 6 minutes long) includes Ryan Gosling‘s spot on Drunk History, a buzzed-up take on “The Night Before Christmas.”
Prancer
Prancer
Are you looking for a movie that A) is about one of Santa’s reindeers, B) stars Sam Elliott, Johnny Galecki, and Abe Vigoda, and C) will squeeze your heart so tightly that it bursts? This’ll do.
Miracle on 34th Street
Capitalism, courtrooms, and Christmas clash in this classic when a man takes over as Macy’s department store Santa. Either this man is a deranged lunatic or he is Santa Claus, and by the end, you will believe in miracles… or else!
The Best Christmas Movies on Disney Plus
The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show
The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show
Prefer your “Christmas movies” to be more like “holiday variety specials”? This 45-minute special hosted by Grammy-winner Kacey Musgraves features drop-ins from her friends James Corden, Kendall Jenner, and Lana Del Rey.
Bad Santa
Merry $@#%ing Christmas and a $#!@ New Year to this holiday movie starring Billy Bob Thornton as a mall Christmas Santa who tries to rob department stores. It’s got profanity, sex addiction, and suicide attempts, you know, the typical Christmas cheer. Amazon also has the unrated version available if you want to feel extra festive.
Babes in Toyland (1986)
Keanu Reeves and Drew Barrymore, Babes in Toyland
Tell your millennial kids that you’re going to put on Babes in Toyland — about a young woman who must believe in toys to save Toyland and Christmas — then watch as they cringe and complain about watching a boomer movie. Then skateboard into the living room with a backward baseball cap on and surprise them with this 1986 version starring Drew Barrymore and Keanu Reeves. Who’s cool now, eh? Amazon has the original 1934 version as well.
The Best Christmas Movies and Specials to Stream
Jack Frost/Jack Frost
Jack Frost
Every end of the spectrum of Christmas movies is covered by the double-feature of Jack Frost and Jack Frost. One’s a 1979 stop-motion animated film from holiday kings Rankin/Bass, the other is a 1997 horror about a serial killer who is turned into a murderous snowman after his prison transport collides with a trunk full of “genetic material.” Play eeny-meeny-miney-mo and let fate decide what tone your Christmas will take. Note: The Michael Keaton 1998 fantasy comedy Jack Frost is also available, but only to rent or buy.
A Christmas Cruise
Nick Viall, A Christmas Cruise
Like I said at the top, Amazon doesn’t have the best selection of Christmas movies. But it does have a movie starring The Bachelor‘s Nick Viall as the captain of a cruise ship on a Christmas voyage. In this Hallmark reject, a single writer takes to the seas with her best friend (Vivica A. Fox) to see if she can find true love or if that’s just what happens in stories.
Die Hard
Bruce Willis, Die Hard
You gotta rent or buy this one, but isn’t John McClain worth it? Make Detective Jake Peralta proud.
(Disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.)