The 10 Best Christmas Movies On Amazon Prime Video, Ranked According To IMDb

As Amazon Prime Video features both movies that are free to watch and movies that are available to buy or rent, the streaming platform essentially has everything. But spending $10 at a time to watch Christmas classics will make quite a dent in the gift fund.

However, though only a couple of them are classics, there are some gems that are free to watch on the streamer too. The platform has a surprising amount of Hallmarky movies available, but even some of them are highly entertaining. And between a “so bad its good” Arnold Schwarzenegger movie and the oldest, most beloved holiday film of all time, Prime Video is an essential streamer for the Christmas season.

10 Surviving Christmas (2004) – 5.4

Surviving Christmas is unknown to general audiences, which is rather astonishing considering the film stars both Ben Affleck and James Gandolfini. Alas, it was a huge box office bomb. For a movie featuring actors who not only bring star power but are genuinely incredible performers too, the movie is a complete dud.

It’s hard to get behind any of the characters, as they’re all so hateful, and not in an It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia kind of way. The movie follows a lonely but obnoxious millionaire who pays a family to invite him over for Christmas. Surviving Christmas feels like a Hallmark Christmas movie — and not in a good way.

9 Jingle All The Way (1996) – 5.7

Jingle All the Way isn’t just available on Prime Video, but it’s also available on Hulu and Disney+ too. With all the platforms that the movie is streaming on, anywhere viewers look, Arnold Schwarzenegger is there, and it’s a sign that families have to watch it this holiday season. It might not have the highest IMDb rating in the world, but it’s a holiday movie that gets better with age.

The film is about materialism, but where the protagonist would usually learn that material things aren’t the true meaning of Christmas in any other movie, there’s no such lesson in Jingle All the Way. However, it’s still loads of fun, endlessly quotable, and it’s more for adults than it is for children.

8 The Christmas Candle (2013) – 6.2

The Christmas Candle is a very British holiday movie, as it features singer Susan Boyle in a lead role, it’s based in the Isle of Man, and it follows a minister attempting to modernize the village. Ironically, though it’s about trying to bring a village into the modern-day, A Christmas Candle was dated on arrival and is very set in its ways.

The movie feels like it was made for TV, it’s overly cheesy, and Boyle is a much better singer than she is an actor. But there are a lot of things to love about The Christmas Candle too. There’s a load of Christmas spirit in the movie and the 1800s setting feels warm and lived in, making it perfect for the holiday season.

7 Same Time Next Christmas (2019) – 6.2

Same Time Next Christmas doesn’t exactly have a warm wintery feeling as it takes place in Hawaii. Instead of green trees and red tinsel, there are beige beaches and blue seas. That’s the movie’s biggest problem, as the rom-com feels like a B-rated 50 First Dates or Just Go With It.

With such a schmaltzy narrative, as the film follows a man and woman who meet once a year on vacation only for their romance to be interfered with by a big city boyfriend, the movie uses every cliche in the book. But for people who are looking for an uplifting, easy-to-watch flick that’s full of positive vibes, Same Time Next Christmas fits the bill.

6 The Spirit Of Christmas (2015) – 6.5

There are so many different versions of A Christmas Carol, but The Spirit of Christmas has to be the weirdest. The 2015 movie isn’t a direct adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens novella, but it gets creative with the concept.

The Spirit of Christmas is a strange mix of Ghost and A Christmas Carol. In the movie, Kate falls in love with the Ghost of Christmas Past. It’s another cheesy holiday movie that there are thousands of, but there’s a unique mystery element to the film too.

5 Christmas In Mississippi (2017) – 6.5

Christmas movies might always use the same cliches over and over, but it isn’t using them that’s bad — it depends on how they’re used. In the case of Christmas In Mississippi, it features all of the typical tropes, but they’re used in the best possible moments and they land perfectly.

The movie is about a photographer who returns home in Mississippi for the holidays, and she reunites with her high school sweetheart. What follows is a wonderfully cheesy Christmas movie where the two get to know each other all over again. Viewers might not remember it a year from now, but it’s one of the better Hallmark-esque movies.

4 No Sleep ‘Til Christmas (2018) – 6.7

When it comes to concepts in Christmas movies, a lot of them tend to get creative, but No Sleep ‘Til Christmas has one of the most bizarre, and it almost seems like the narrative was built around the title. The movie follows a man and a woman, both engaged to other people, who realize they are unable to fall asleep unless they’re next to each other.

It’s a strange movie, as it’s full of Christmas magic, but the two main characters are cheating on their other halves, and it’s difficult to see their point of view. However, they are two of the most charismatic leads in a recent Christmas movie, and they have such palpable chemistry too.

3 The Snowman (1982) – 7.3

Not to be confused with the Michael Fassbender-led 2017 movie of the same name, which is one of the worst 2010s thrillers, 1982’s The Snowman is a classic Christmas movie. Not just that, but it’s also a groundbreaking animated experiment and a beautiful audio/visual experience.

The movie sees a young boy go on a fantastical trip through the night with a sentient snowman, and though there’s no dialogue, its “Walking in the Air” soundtrack is what makes it so compelling. It’s runtime is fewer than 30 minutes, so it’s more of a short film than anything, but as it’s such an iconic part of the Christmas season that it’s mentioned in the same breath as The Polar Express and It’s A Wonderful Life.

2 The Bishop’s Wife (1947) – 7.6

As trends ripple through Hollywood as soon as a successful movie does something new, The Bishop’s Wife is one of many movies that followed It’s A Wonderful Life to feature an angel. The film is about an angel who visits Earth to help a bishop and their wife raise money to help build a new church.

That might not be enough to pull in new audiences, but it’s a wildly fun and charming romantic comedy too. The Bishop’s Wife is one of the oldest Christmas movies of all time, but even though it’s 74 years old and tons of classics have been released in the interim, The Bishop’s Wife remains one of the best.

1 It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) – 8.6

It’s A Wonderful Life isn’t just the highest-rated Christmas movie available on Prime Video, but it’s the best Christmas movie of all time according to IMDb. The 1946 movie laid the blueprint for almost every holiday film that followed.

Though Christmas films are full of cliches and overused tropes, those cliches and tropes didn’t exist when It’s A Wonderful Life was released, and it was wholly original back then. Between learning about the true meaning of Christmas and the schmaltzy romance, It’s A Wonderful Life was the first to do it, and no other Christmas movie has improved on the formula in the 75 years since.