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Best Christmas Movies on HBO Max (2023)

From classic Christmas comedies to treasured black-and-white traditions, Max has something for everyone this holiday season. Check out our picks for the best movies and shows to stream in celebration!

Looking to stuff your stocking with more streaming Christmas classics? Check out these treats:

Best Christmas Movies to Stream on Max

  • Elf

    October 9, 2003

    When young Buddy falls into Santa’s gift sack on Christmas Eve, he’s transported back to the North Pole and raised as a toy-making elf by Santa’s helpers. But as he grows into adulthood, he can’t shake the nagging feeling that he doesn’t belong. Buddy (Will Ferrell) vows to visit Manhattan and find his real dad, a workaholic publisher (James Caan).

    If you love this holiday treat, check out Netflix’s “Movies That Made Us” to learn more about the making of this modern classic.

  • National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

    November 30, 1989

    It’s Christmastime, and the Griswolds are preparing for a family seasonal celebration. But things never run smoothly for Clark, his wife Ellen, and their two kids. Clark’s continual bad luck is worsened by his obnoxious family guests, but he manages to keep going, knowing that his Christmas bonus is due soon.

  • A Christmas Story

    November 18, 1983

    The comic mishaps and adventures of a young boy named Ralph, trying to convince his parents, teachers, and Santa that a Red Ryder B.B. gun really is the perfect Christmas gift for the 1940s.

    You may also enjoy the 2022 sequel.

  • A Christmas Carol

    December 16, 1938

    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.

  • The Shop Around the Corner

    January 12, 1940

    Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other’s anonymous pen pal.

  • Arthur Christmas

    November 10, 2011

    For hundreds of years, the Claus family has delegated the title “Santa” to a chosen few of its members, which can be passed down upon retirement. Each Christmas, Santa and his vast army of highly trained elves produce gifts and distribute them around the world in a one-night high-tech operation. However, when one of 600 million children to receive a gift from Santa on Christmas Eve is missed, it is deemed ‘acceptable’ to all but one—Arthur Claus, the current Santa’s misfit son deemed ineligible for the title, who executes an unauthorised rookie mission to get the last present halfway around the globe before dawn on Christmas morning.

  • 8-Bit Christmas

    November 24, 2021

    In suburban Chicago during the late 1980s, ten-year-old Jake Doyle embarks on a herculean quest to get the latest and greatest video game system for Christmas.

  • The Polar Express

    November 10, 2004

    When a doubting young boy takes an extraordinary train ride to the North Pole, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery that shows him that the wonder of life never fades for those who believe.

  • Fred Claus

    November 9, 2007

    Fred Claus and Santa Claus have been estranged brothers for many years. Now Fred must reconcile his differences with his brother whom he believes overshadows him. When an efficiency expert assesses the workings at the North Pole and threatens to shut Santa down, Fred must help his brother to save Christmas.

  • Christmas in Connecticut

    July 27, 1945

    While recovering in a hospital, war hero Jefferson Jones grows familiar with the “Diary of a Housewife” column written by Elizabeth Lane. Jeff’s nurse arranges with Elizabeth’s publisher, Alexander Yardley, for Jeff to spend the holiday at Elizabeth’s bucolic Connecticut farm with her husband and child. But the column is a sham, so Elizabeth and her editor, Dudley Beecham, in fear of losing their jobs, hasten to set up the single, childless and entirely nondomestic Elizabeth on a country farm.

  • Carole's Christmas

    November 22, 2019

    An overworked businesswoman learns the meaning of “be careful what you wish for” after she off-handedly wishes she had taken another path in life.

  • Four Christmases

    November 26, 2008

    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.

  • South Park

    August 13, 1997

    This vulgar animated series follows the misadventures of four irreverent grade-schoolers in the quiet, dysfunctional town of South Park, Colorado.

    “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut” is a must-see movie if you enjoy this series. It shows off the musical inclinations that would later lead the creators to make “The Book of Mormon.” You’ll also enjoy the behind-the-scenes documentary, “6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park.”

    If you’d like to see the episode featuring Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo, it’s Season 1, Episode 9.

Didn’t get your fill of Christmas joy with Max? Try these streaming services:


Ben Bowman was the Content Director of The Streamable. He cut the cord in 2009. He roots for all Detroit sports and is a fan of Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Edgar Wright, Paul Thomas Anderson, Billy Wilder, Buster Keaton, and the Coen Brothers. Ben streams on an Apple TV.

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