favourite christmas movies

While actually a Thanksgiving themed comedy, John Hughess film has a festive, family feel thats made it a Christmas viewing favourite. Pitting Steve Martins uptight traveller up against John Candys optimistic salesman, it blends slapstick and innuendo with classic character comedy. Just the thing for a tipsy Christmas afternoon.

Opening with Jingle Bell Rock and ending with a family gathering around the Christmas tree, Lethal Weapon has a Christmassy start and finish, book ending a story of drug busts, suicide and torture. Theres a shootout in a Christmas tree lot, mind you.

The holiday season sees an influx of spirits to New York City, so who you gonna call? This sequel may not have wowed like its predecessor but it reunited the charming cast in a suitably festive setting. Who can resist the Ghostbusters charging around in Santa hats, eh?

A girl finds one of Santas magical reindeer in this cute live action kids film starring Sam Elliott as the gruff, grieving father of eight year old Jessica (Rebecca Harrell), whos obsessed with Christmas. Jessicas optimism will teach the town a thing or two about the true spirit of the season.

This musical is the ultimate 40s cheerer as Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby sing and dance their way into the ladies hearts. The set up is pure Broadway theyre a musical troupe who only perform on holidays, from Easter to Christmas. The film scored an Oscar for the now iconic song White Christmas.

Christmas may have been white, but this time Irving Berlins musical was in Technicolor. Inspired by Holiday Inn, this follow up could not be more Christmassy if it tried (and try it probably did). Snow, shows and romance all added up to a massive festive box office hit that would run and run on TV.

This Oscar nominated Disney short film casts Mickey as Bob Cratchit and Scrooge McDuck as his selfish boss, while Goofy, Jiminy Cricket and other familiar characters morph into the various ghosts. A nifty blending of Disney favourites with the Dickens classic.

Yule crack up promised the posters for this now cult comedy, which gives you a fair idea of the level of humour were dealing with. Nonetheless, theres something irresistible about this third in the comedy series, as Chevy Chase and family have an accident prone Christmas. Also notable for featuring a young Juliette Lewis as the daughter.

Laurel and Hardy go family friendly in this fairytale mash up featuring characters from the stories of Mother Goose, Little Bo Peep and others. The duo play the Toymakers Apprentices in this slapstick heartwarmer, which was a Christmas TV favourite throughout the 60s and 70s.

He's back on top after Welcome to New York and Pasolini, but back in the early 2000s the great New York director Abel Ferrara couldn't get arrested in Hollywood which might explain why hardly anyone knows about this intense, gritty but surprisingly festive gangland thriller starring Ice T and The Sopranos actress Drea De Matteo.