10 Most Dysfunctional Family Holiday Movies, Ranked

Although the holidays are a time when some families come together, participate in time-honored traditions, and make new and lasting memories, that doesn’t mean they’re always a good time. Indeed, for many families, the holidays are a time when what can go wrong does go wrong, and it’s no different in the movies.

Whether devastating secrets surface, long-standing affairs are revealed (or started up in the broom closet), or the turkey is forgotten entirely (nevermind the kid), many festive films demonstrate no shortage of drama. These zany movie families make dealing with the real thing look like a piece of Christmas cake.

10 Happiest Season

Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis star in this semi-autobiographical comedy-drama from co-writer and director Clea Duvall. On the drive to a five-day stint with her social media-obsessed political family, Harper (Davis) reveals that she’s not out to them and begs her girlfriend to masquerade as her roommate. For her part, Abby (Stewart) has been planning to secure a fatherly blessing for her upcoming proposal.

While Abby attempts to keep up the charade (going so far as to literally hide in a closet), the secret can only be kept for so long, and the annual holiday party is derailed by all-out sibling warfare.

9 The Preacher’s Wife

Reverend Henry Biggs leads a small but troubled family in this musical remake of the 1947 film The Bishop’s Wife. While Henry throws himself into his work at his New York City church, his wife, former club singer Julia, and their son suffer neglect at home.

The family is visited by a suave and handsome angel (played to perfection by Denzel Washington), creating a love triangle that forces Henry to reevaluate his priorities. While even Christmas miracles can’t save some families, that isn’t the case in this holiday heartwarmer.

8 Love The Coopers

While this ensemble dramedy wasn’t a critical darling upon its release in 2015, it still has much to offer as far as family squabbles. Charlotte and Sam Cooper are about to host one last perfect gathering before they announce they’re ending their 40-year marriage.

While they struggle to hide the truth, their daughter is convincing an airport stranger to be her fake boyfriend, and Charlotte’s sister is slipping shoplifted jewelry into her mouth at the department store. If that wasn’t unusual enough, the whole affair is narrated by the Coopers’ St. Bernard.

7 Home Alone

This holiday classic launched Macaulay Culkin’s career with a role as Kevin McCallister, a neglected youngest son who is forced to fight off robbers when the rest of the brood forget him at home. The opening scenes of bickering, bullying, and infighting are classic holiday fare.

Although this comedy is most remembered for Kevin’s mind-boggling booby-trapping skills, the crucial subplot in which a frantic Catherine O’Hara wrangles her clan back home is just as entertaining.

6 Krampus

An ancient Germanic demon descends upon a family to punish their lack of spirit in this unconventional holiday-horror flick. Tom and Sarah Engel are a couple who hide their marital conflicts behind wreaths, stockings, and Christmas cookies.

But tensions rise as their extended family arrives in preparation for Christmas, leading their sweet, Santa Claus-believing son to rebuke the holiday. A fierce blizzard arrives and along with it, a beast to test the fractured family’s resilience.

5 Four Christmases

A happily unmarried, childless couple is planning their annual holiday getaway to Fiji to avoid their two sets of divorced parents. But when flights are canceled due to bad weather and a news crew exposes that they’re stuck at home, they’re forced to make the rounds at all four quirky households.

In the course of meeting each other’s eccentric relatives, the pair come to know each other more deeply, for better and sometimes for worse. They’re made to reconsider their cosmopolitan, child-free lifestyle, but also whether they’re really so alike after all.

4 Almost Christmas

One year after the passing of his beloved wife, patriarch Walter Meyers invites his four grown children, each facing their own issues, home for Christmas. While eldest daughter Cheryl’s husband exhibits a wandering eye, her siblings are in over their head with work, dealing with financial troubles, or struggling to get off painkillers.

The siblings and their spouses quickly begin butting heads, and with an all-star ensemble and a hilarious turn from Mo’Nique as the wild Aunt May, it doesn’t take long for this comedy-drama to reach explosive heights.

3 Dan In Real Life

Steve Carell stars in this bittersweet romantic-comedy about secrets kept at an annual cold-weather gathering at a Rhode Island family home. Down-on-his-luck advice columnist and widower Dan (Carell) spends a wonderful, chemistry-filled afternoon away from his family with a charming stranger. Turns out, she’s his brother’s girlfriend, and she’s on her way to his parents’ place.

Trying to win over his three grieving daughters and hide his obvious feelings for the family’s newest guest, the beleaguered Dan quickly becomes everyone’s least favorite relative.

2 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

A jolly road trip and some caroling open this wacky holiday comedy. Little does the first-time viewer know, they’re in for one of the most hectic Christmas viewings of all time.

Full of explosions, electrocutions, and abductions, Christmas Vacation, which John Hughes wrote based on his story published in the titular humor magazine, finds dedicated patriarch Clark Griswold trying to cobble together a successful celebration for his family, amidst countless complications.

1 The Family Stone

New York City businessman Everett Stone brings his uptight, career-minded girlfriend (an exquisitely rigid Sarah Jessica Parker) home to his sprawling, bohemian family, and the culture shock is immediate.

With the stilted Meredith offending relatives she’s just met with thick-headed comments and matriarch Sybil concealing a grim diagnosis from her children, the drama in the Stone house is never-ending. But when Meredith calls in her sister for backup, it proves to be just the salve needed to bring the family together.

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