I do like "A Christmas Story" though I rarely watch it anymore. Strange as it seems, I've halfway adopted "Whistle Down the Wind" (Haley Mills, Alan Bates) as a holiday film (the Jesus references). I can do that and know it won't be shown on tv repeatedly every day from Thanksgiving through Christmas. I also like "Sleepless in Seattle" for it's multi-holidays.

I won't go into it now, but my worst holiday film as well as one of the worst all around films is "It's A Wonderful Life". Absolutely despise that movie, it just depresses the heck out of me!

For a Classic Holiday movie, I think it's hard to top "It's a Wonderful Life".

For a Modern one, Nothing beats "Bad Santa".

Mine would be Nightmare Before Christmas, Bad Santa and Scrooged. I love the mention of Die Hard, gotta throw that one in too!

I agree with just about all the contibutions thus far. One that doesn't get much play, but is a favorite of mine from childhood, is Santa Claus: The Movie starring Dudley Moore, John Lithgow, and Burgess Meredith(!). Looking at some websites, it gets pretty bad reviews, but I liked it at 8, and I don't think you stop liking a movie 20 years later.

Some of my favorites are Scrooged with Bill Murray, A Christmas Story which is a classic, embarresed to say it but I do like the first Santa Clause with Tim Allen, and probably my favorite holiday film is Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase, movie is hillarious!

1. A Christmas Story (1983). This movie is a classic period set piece with all the corny Christmas over the top comedy. It really is a narrative story that one can relate to as a kid. It has all the holiday spirit of something one might have been read to. It includes all the warm, fuzzy, innocence that the holidays are supposedly known for.

2. Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Miracle has one of the most unusual and uplifting endings of any movie. It is able to capture the range of emotions that finally end with a holiday cheer that can be remembered forever.

3. It's a Wonderful Life (1946). This most dramatically, comic, and reflective movie provides a surrealistic approach to life and meaning and continues to resonant with an eternal message that appears universal that is as important today as if was when it came out almost 60 years ago.

4. Love Actually (2003). A fine romantic comedy of a collage of love stories set around the holidays.

5. Jack Frost (1998) with Michael Keaton. A under-appreciated, odd but poignant father-son Christmas holiday movie.

6. A Christmas Carol (1984) with George C. Scott. A fantastical, Christmas classic.

7. The Bishop's Wife (1947). A funny, but ambivalently somewhat unsettling ending for me.

8. Babes in Toyland (1961). A childhood favorite.