21 Best Christmas Movies on Max in 2024

The holiday season is a time for love, laughter, and creating cherished memories with family and friends. One of the best ways to celebrate is by indulging in the magic of the best Christmas movies on Max, formerly HBO Max, which offers a spectacular lineup to make your holiday viewing unforgettable.

Whether you’re revisiting childhood favorites or discovering new gems, Max has a collection that perfectly captures the festive spirit. From comedic classics like Elf and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation to heartwarming tales like The Polar Express and A Christmas Story, the selection is brimming with films that celebrate the season’s joy, nostalgia, and values.

Grab your favorite snacks, cozy up by the fire, and let Max transport you to a world of holiday cheer with its incredible array of Christmas movies. With this guide, you’re sure to find the perfect film to make your holidays merry and bright!

A Christmas Story (1983)

Director: Bob Clark
Starring: Peter Billingsley, W. Lyle Richardson, Melinda Dillon, Ian Petrella
Watch On: Max

In the 1940s, a young boy named Ralphie Parker attempts to convince his parents, teacher, and Santa Claus that a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot BB gun really is the perfect Christmas gift.

It is one of the best Christmas movies on Max to watch with you family and friends.

A Christmas Carol (1938)

Director: Edwin L. Marin
Starring: Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Terry Kilburn, Barry MacKay, Lynne Carver
Watch on: Max

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)

Director: Clay Kaytis
Starring: Peter Billingsley, Julie Hagerty, Erinn Hayes, Ian Petrella
Watch On: Max

Follows the now-adult Ralphie as he returns to the house on Cleveland Street to give his kids a magical Christmas like the one he had as a child, reconnecting with childhood friends, and reconciling the passing of his Old Man.

Elf (2003)

Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Asner, Bob Newhart
Watch On: Max

Raised as an oversized elf, Buddy travels from the North Pole to New York City to meet his biological father, Walter Hobbs, who doesn’t know he exists and is in desperate need of some Christmas spirit.

Four Christmases (2008)

Director: Seth Gordon
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Jon Favreau, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw, Kristin Chenoweth, Jon Voight, Sissy Spacek
Watch On: Max

The best holiday movies on Max which follows, Brad and Kate have made something of an art form out of avoiding their families during the holidays, but this year their foolproof plan is about go bust — big time. Stuck at the city airport after all departing flights are canceled, the couple is embarrassed to see their ruse exposed to the world by an overzealous television reporter. Now, Brad and Kate are left with precious little choice other than to swallow their pride and suffer the rounds.

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Director: Vincente Minnelli
Starring: Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Leon Ames, Lucille Bremer
Watch On: Max

“Meet Me in St. Louis” is a classic MGM romantic musical comedy that focuses on four sisters (one of whom is the nonpareil Judy Garland) on the cusp of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. The film spotlights the sisters’ education in the ways of the world, which includes, but isn’t limited to, learning about life and love, courtesy of the prototypical boy next door. In the end, love — accompanied by song, dance and period costumes, all in glorious Technicolor — conquers all.

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Starring: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut
Watch On: Max

Eschewing regional politics in the years leading up to World War II, the film is about two employees at a leathergoods shop in Budapest who can barely stand each other, not realizing they are falling in love as anonymous correspondents through their letters.

Last Christmas (2019)

Director: Paul Feig
Starring: Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Emma Thompson
Watch On: Max

Last Christmas is a rom-com Christmas movies on Max, that you can enjoy with your loves one. The story follows, Kate is a young woman who has a habit of making bad decisions, and her last date with disaster occurs after she accepts work as Santa’s elf for a department store. However, after she meets Tom there, her life takes a new turn.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quaid, Diane Ladd
Watch On: Max

Based on Hughes’s short story, “Christmas ’59”, published in National Lampoon, the film tells the story of Clark Griswold’s efforts to have a good old-fashioned family Christmas as they take a hilarious turn for the worse.

The Polar Express (2004)

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Tom Hanks, Michael Jeter, Nona Gaye, Peter Scolari
Watch On: Max

Set on Christmas Eve, it tells the story of a young boy who sees a mysterious train bound for the North Pole stop outside his window and is invited aboard by its conductor. He joins other children as they embark on a journey to visit Santa Claus, who is preparing for Christmas.

A Hollywood Christmas (2022)

Director: Alex Ranarivelo
Starring: Jessika Van, Josh Swickard, Anissa Borrego
Watch on: Max

Jessica, a young, up-and-coming filmmaker in Hollywood has made a name for herself directing Christmas movies. But when handsome network executive Christopher shows up threatening to halt production on her latest movie, Jessica’s assistant, Reena, points out the irony: Jessica isn’t just trying to save her Christmas movie, she’s actually living in one. Jessica must now juggle all the classic tropes—her actors falling in and out of love, a wayward elf dog, and her own stirring romantic feelings for her perceived nemesis—in order to get her movie and her life to their happy endings.

Batman Returns (1992)

Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken
Watch On: Max

While Batman deals with a deformed man calling himself the Penguin wreaking havoc across Gotham with the help of a cruel businessman, a female employee of the latter becomes the Catwoman with her own vendetta.

Gremlins (1984)

Director: Joe Dante
Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Frances Lee McCain
Watch On: Max

A young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.

8-Bit Christmas (2021)

Director: Michael Dowse
Starring: Neil Patrick Harris, Winslow Fegley, June Diane Raphael, Steve Zahn
Watch On: Max

In 1980s Chicago, a 10-year-old sets out on a quest to get the Christmas gift of his generation: the latest and greatest video-game system.

Holiday Harmony (2022)

Director: Shaun Paul Piccinino
Starring: Annelise Cepero, Lauren Swickard, Jeremy Sumpter, Brooke Shields
Watch on: Max

Holiday Harmony is certainly a modern Christmas movie on Max in both its plot and potential appeal to younger viewers. It’s a story of singer/songwriter Gail (Annelise Cepero) lands an opportunity to compete for a once-in-a-lifetime shot at the big time, and heads cross country-only getting as far as Harmony Springs, Oklahoma when her ride, her budget and all her hopes are stalled. With just two weeks to get to the iHeartRadio Christmas Eve performance of her dreams, she takes the advice of local Jack-of-all-trades, Jeremy (Jeremy Sumpter), and takes on a group of misfit kids hoping to perform in a Christmas Eve Gala of their own. Gail and Jeremy grow close, but if she’s going to fulfill her lifelong dream, she may have to leave him and the town she’s grown to love behind. Brooke Shields also stars.

Krampus (2015)

Director: Michael Dougherty
Starring: Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, Conchata Ferrell, Emjay Anthony, Stefania LaVie Owen, Krista Stadler, Lolo Owen, Queenie Samuel, Maverick Flack, Sage Hunefeld
Watch On: Max

In the film, a dysfunctional family squabbling causes a young boy (Max) to lose his festive spirit. Doing so unleashes the wrath of Krampus, a fearsome, horned demonic beast in ancient European folklore who punishes naughty children at Christmas time. As Krampus lays siege to the neighborhood, the family must band together to save one another from a monstrous fate.

Serendipity (2001)

Director: Peter Chelsom
Starring: John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, Molly Shannon, Jeremy Piven, Bridget Moynahan, Eugene Levy
Watch On: Max

Although strangers Sara and Jonathan are both already in relationships, they realize they have genuine chemistry after a chance encounter – but part company soon after. Years later, they each yearn to reunite, despite being destined for the altar. But to give true love a chance, they have to find one another again.

Santa Camp (2022)

Director: Nick Sweeney
Starring: Dan Greenleaf
Watch on: Max

Santa Camp is a documentary film about a training camp for people to learn the roles of Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, and the elves, run by the New England Santa Society in New Hampshire.

The film focuses on the camp’s efforts to address the lack of diversity in the portrayal of Santa, and follows three new trainees: a Black Santa, a transgender Santa, and a Santa with a disability. The film also explores the role of Mrs. Claus and the call for equal pay and billing for public appearances.

A Christmas Mystery (2022)

Director: Alex Ranarivelo
Starring: Violet McGraw, Santino Barnard, Lauren Lindsey Donzis
Watch on: Max

When her best friend’s father is falsely accused of stealing the town’s prized jingle bells, a young amateur sleuth and her friends must find the real thief before Christmas.

Black Christmas (2019)

Director: Sophia Takal
Starring: Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Lily Donoghue, Brittany O’Grady, Caleb Eberhardt, Cary Elwes
Watch on: Max

It is the loose second remake of the 1974 Canadian film of the same name, after the 2006 film. A group of sorority pledges are stalked by a stranger during their Christmas break. That is until the young women discover that the killer is part of an underground campus conspiracy.

One Delicious Christmas (2022)

Director: Stacey N. Harding
Starring: Bert Cardozo, Judy Deboer, Elana Dunkelman
Watch on: Max

Follows Abby, who inherited the property of Haven Restaurant and Inn, but being unable to manage both, she must team up with with hot shot chef Preston Weaver to “shake up” the holiday menu and get an investment from a restaurant mogul.

List of Classic Christmas Movies on Max

Here is the list of the best classic Christmas movies on Max to stream now. These are the best classic holiday movies on Max to watch right now.

• A Christmas Story (1983)
• Elf (2003)
• A Christmas Carol (1938)
• Gremlins (1984)
• National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
• 8 Bit Christmas (2021)
• Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
• The Polar Express (2004)
• Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
• The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

List of Kids & Family Christmas Movies on Max

Here is the list of the best kids and family Christmas movies on Max to stream now. These are the best kids and family holiday movies on Max to watch right now.

• A Christmas Story (1983)
• Elf (2003)
• A Christmas Carol (1938)
• Gremlins (1984)
• National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
• 8 Bit Christmas (2021)
• The Polar Express (2004)
• A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)
• Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
• A Christmas Mystery (2022)

List of Romantic Christmas Movies on Max

Here is the list of the best romantic Christmas movies on Max to stream now. These are the best romantic holiday movies on Max to watch right now.

• Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
• Four Christmases (2008)
• Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
• The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
• Last Christmas (2019)
• A Hollywood Christmas (2022)
• Holiday Harmony (2022)
• One Delicious Christmas (2022)
• Serendipity (2001)