When Disney+ premiered last month with Noelle on its opening day slate, it was a bit early to think about holiday movies. But with Christmas just a couple of weeks away, let’s take a look through the streaming service’s catalog to find some of the best options—some classic, some a bit more under-the-radar—for your holiday season viewing.
8) Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas (1999)
Your favorite Disney characters are all here in this direct-to-video (remember when that was a thing?) anthology. Donald and his nephews get “Stuck on Christmas” when Christmas day starts repeating, Goofy and Max try to find out whether Santa is real, and Mickey & Minnie play a variation on The Gift of the Magi. And it all wraps up with the whole gang doing a medley of Christmas carols. Not to be mistaken for the sequel Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas, which features creepily plastic-looking CGI versions of the characters.
7) Santa’s Workshop (1932)
Get ready for some of those “outdated cultural depictions” Disney+ warns us about, in one of the oldest pieces of content on the streaming service. This 6-minute “Silly Symphony” takes us to the North Pole for all the Christmas eve preparations, including scaring dolls with spiders to get their hair into curlers, and using assembly line techniques to put together a rocking horse. If you need a quick dose of what Disney did for the holidays back when the company was still in its infancy, here’s your choice.
6) The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
You need to get past the fact that the “Muppet” part of this movie isn’t particularly effective—it was the first feature after the death of Jim Henson, and you can feel them still trying to find their way—but as a recounting of Charles Dickens’ beloved story, it’s actually one of the best film versions. The silly humor doesn’t always work with the attempt at taking the story seriously, but Michael Caine’s Scrooge is so ferociously committed to his role that it’s kind of remarkable.
5) 12 Dates of Christmas (2011)
“Disney Channel original” + “Christmas movie” + “blatant rip-off of Groundhog Day” doesn’t sound like the formula for a winner, but it’s surprising how much charm the filmmakers wrestle out of the concept. Amy Smart plays Kate, a young woman whose Type A personality gets rattled by the realization that she’s re-living the same Christmas Eve over and over. Mark-Paul Gosselaar adds a warm presence as the guy she can’t quite see is right for, yet it’s Smart who really sells Kate’s transformation into someone open to new possibilities, and to the needs of the other people in her life.
4) Home Alone (1990)
It’s not just Macaulay Culkin yelping with his hands on his face! If you can get past the sometimes-awkward collision between sentimentality and wild slapstick, you can certainly understand how young Kevin’s ingenious defense of the family homestead made this a smash hit with young audiences.
3) Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)
Scrooge McDuck was around for 35 years before the obvious choice was made to put him at the center of a version of A Christmas Carol. With Mickey as Bob Cratchit, Goofy as Marley’s ghost, Jiminy Cricket as The Ghost of Christmas Past and Donald Duck a touch miscast as the upbeat, Christmas-spirit-filled Fred, this 25-minute short is an energetically animated re-telling of a familiar story that’s fun and truly appropriate for the whole family.
2) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Or should this actually be a Halloween movie? That eternal question aside, the adventure of Jack Skellington, Sally and company holds up remarkably well, thanks mostly to the iconic character design of director Henry Selick’s stop-motion characters. More than 25 years later, there’s still nothing else that looks or feels quite like it.
1) Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Disney’s acquisition of Fox included this terrific tale of a department store Santa (Edmund Gwenn) who might be the real thing. A young Natalie Wood is also part of this story that isn’t just some twinkly paean to believing in the magic of the holidays; it’s also a movie where the climactic courtroom battle is built around a judge trying desperately to avoid any decision that will ruin his re-election hopes.
It’s Disney Vacation Time!
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Just imagine giving the gift of a Disneyland vacation to someone special in your life:
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Let’s Hear From You
What have been some of your favorite holiday movies on Disney+? Are there any seasonal favorites still missing from the streaming platform? Let us know in the comments below.