Best-Rated Holiday Movies of All Time (December 2025)
If you’ve made your way through the Christmas movie canon but are craving something a bit more elevated in taste (because we can all only watch Elf or Scrooged so many times before the holiday mind-melt starts to set in), you’re in luck. There are plenty of films that are as festive as they are fun while also standing as true cinematic achievements. We’ve gathered the best-rated Christmas movies that satisfy both the spirit of the season and the cinephile.
What are the best-rated Christmas movies?
To compile this list, we looked at films’ Rotten Tomatoes scores and cross-referenced critical reviews to find the most consistently praised holiday favorites. While some top-rated titles on Rotten Tomatoes could loosely be considered holiday films, we focused on movies where Christmas plays a meaningful role in the story.
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
There are a few songs that capture the brilliant and sometimes quietly painful feeling of Christmas quite like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” This time of year isn’t always filled with pure joy, and the song offers comfort and quiet hope. It first appeared when Judy Garland introduced it to the world in the MGM musical-comedy Meet Me in St. Louis. Set in early-1900s St. Louis, the film follows the Smith family as they experience love, loss, and plenty of change over the course of a year leading up to the World’s Fair. There’s blossoming romance, sibling rivalry, coming-of-age lessons, and cherished family bonds in this holiday classic.
Meet Me in St. Louis holds a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a solid 86% popcorn meter across over 26,000 reviews.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
One of the lesser-known Christmas movies, The Shop Around the Corner, is the holiday rom-com long before we were gifted the films of Nancy Meyers. Alongside Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart stars in a different festive turn — his most iconic, of course, being It’s a Wonderful Life — in a film that tells the story of two gift-shop employees who can’t stand each other. During the holiday season, however, they unknowingly begin to fall in love through letters exchanged with anonymous pen pals who happen to be each other.
Despite being overlooked in favor of more recent favorites or the more famous holiday classics, The Shop Around the Corner is tied for the highest score of any holiday movie on Rotten Tomatoes at 99%.
The Holdovers (2023)
A recent release written by David Hemingson and directed by Alexander Payne, The Holdovers features Paul Giamatti as a New England prep school teacher who spends winter break at the university along with a handful of students who have nowhere to go. He unexpectedly forms a friendship with the school’s head cook (the fantastic Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who recently lost her son in the Vietnam War, and with a brilliant but mischievous student (Dominic Sessa in his breakout role). Between feeling perfectly 1970 for being made only two years ago, The Holdovers is smart, witty, extremely well-written, directed, and acted. If this isn’t already on your holiday watchlist, add it to the queue. The Holdovers currently has a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
What would this list be without an appearance from jolly old St. Nick? One of the highest-rated Christmas movies of all time and certainly one of the best cinematic depictions of Santa Claus, Miracle on 34th Street tells the story of a man named Kris Kringle who takes on the job of a department store Santa. He’s remarkably good at it, and pretty soon everyone starts to notice there’s something special about this Santa.
When Kris insists that he is the real Santa Claus, his sincerity sparks a charming courtroom battle that puts belief itself on trial. At the heart of this classic holiday film, however, is Susan, the daughter of the department store operations manager, who has been taught not to believe in fairy tales. This is another season favorite that reminds us (painfully so) that even though we’re grown, we’re all really still children who have outgrown magical fantasies. It’s hard not to see ourselves in the renewed faith of this little girl. And maybe it’s a reminder that faith isn’t lost so much as waiting to be found again. It has a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Little Women (2019)
It’s hard to decide which adaptation of Little Women shines brighter — the beloved 1994 version or Greta Gerwig’s 2019 retelling. Both films are richly festive, full of warmth and humor, quietly heartbreaking (ouch!), deeply nostalgic, and simply beautiful. Both received audience and critical acclaim, but according to Rotten Tomatoes ratings, the more recent version has a slightly higher rating at 95%.
Set in the years following the Civil War, the story follows the March family as they struggle to make ends meet while holding fast to love, creativity, and one another. At the center of the story are four very different sisters — the spirited Jo (Saoirse Ronan), gentle Meg (Emma Watson), kind-hearted Beth (Eliza Scanlen), and determined Amy (Florence Pugh). Through snowy Christmas mornings, handwritten letters, first loves, epic adventures, and personal loss, the sisters move from girlhood into adulthood. Little Women is, quite simply, a tender story of family, imagination, and the magic of home.
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Klaus (2019) also hold a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, tying for fifth place on our list.
Source: Comingsoon.net