Best Christmas Movies of 2024

If you have read most of my Christmas movie reviews this season, you’ll know that a majority of the movies were super boring. They were so boring that it made it really difficult to keep watching them. (And I didn’t watch the last five of the season!) However, this is the list of the bright, shiny Christmas lights that kept me going even when I wanted to stop early. These are the best Christmas movies of 2024.

BeBe Winans’ We Three Kings - It’s rare for me to want a Christmas movie to be longer. This was one that did.
All I Need For Christmas - The movie that proved that adults can apologize to each other when they screw up.
Hanukkah On The Rocks - Hallmark airs one Hanukkah movie each season. It is amazing when the movie teaches about the various Hanukkah traditions.
The 5-Year Christmas Party - Sometimes a movie needs to be a slow burn. This wouldn’t have worked any other way.
Debbie Macomber’s Joyful Mrs. Miracle - I never thought I would love a Mrs. Miracle movie. I was wrong.
Sugarplummed - My favorite movie of the season. Anyone who disagrees is just plain wrong.

Honorable Mentions:
Holiday Crashers - This one was just plain fun.
A Christmas Castle Proposal - A sweet little change-up to the prince trope. Though it may have slipped onto the honorable mentions list because it’s a sequel.

There were a few other movies that were decent but not quite good enough to make the Best list. These are the ones that really did make me think “Oh, maybe the next movie will be this good too!” instead of making me want to cancel my streaming subscriptions. I hope Christmas movies keep getting better instead of worse. Next up, my big Christmas wrap-up post where I talk about my plans for Christmas 2025.

Worst Christmas Movies of 2024

While I don’t normally like to start the year out on a negative note, I want to get the worst movie list out of the way so we can talk about the good movies this year! A lot of the movies this year weren’t bad, just boring. I’d hate to put them on the worst list for being boring. With that said, let’s get into the worst Christmas movies of 2024.

A ‘90s Christmas - When you link your movie to a specific decade, the viewers are looking for nostalgia. This movie only gives confusion.
Five Gold Rings - A mystery movie that completely fell apart by the second ring.
Christmas On The Alpaca Farm - This was a movie written by people who heard of alpacas but never actually saw one.
Tails Of Christmas - Never, ever make dogs the focus of your movie. It always ends up making your movie bad.
Mistletoe & Matrimony - I wasn’t sure about putting this on the list because it wasn’t completely terrible. Then I remembered the bride wanted to book a horse-drawn carriage at the last minute for a Christmas Eve wedding in Chicago.
Christmas By Candlelight - Bad script, bad plot, bad acting. There isn’t much more to say.
Christmas With The Singhs - This one wouldn’t have been on the list if the writers didn’t make the Singhs so unbearable. It’s possible to make a “sucky in-laws” movie without making them whiny babies.
Leah’s Perfect Gift - I almost rage-quit this movie. We need a sequel where Leah leaves the awful family before she marries their son and finds someone awesome who actually loves her.

Dishonorable Mentions:
Deck The Walls - While this movie wasn’t awful, the product placement was so bad and so in-your-face that it gets a dishonorable mention.
Sincerely, Truly Christmas - When the main female character acts like a child, it’s an immediate ‘no, thank you’ from me.

There you have it. These are the movies I thought were the worst this year. Let me know if you want a separate list for the movies I thought were the most boring. There were a lot of them! Coming up next: The BEST movies!

Carry-On | 2024 Christmas Movies

Taking a short break from the romance and family friendly fare, we’re turning to Netflix’s newest thriller, Carry-On. It’s only rated PG-13 so it shouldn’t be too scary.

Ethan (Taron Egerton) is a TSA agent at LAX. When he asks his supervisor about a possible promotion, he gets moved to the carry on luggage scanner as a test. Unfortunately, this puts him directly in the path of an unknown traveler (Jason Bateman) who wants him to pass through a carry on no matter what the scanner says or else Ethan’s pregnant girlfriend, Nora (Sofia Carson), will die. Ethan, unwilling to put his girlfriend or everyone on the target airplane in danger, does everything he can to avoid disaster.

Carry-On is a pretty typical terrorist type of action movie. Something along the lines of Die Hard, which also takes place during the Christmas season. Much like Die Hard, this was quite enjoyable. As with most movies like this, there were a few parts where I wondered how many bullets a certain gun could hold or why an officer didn’t respond to someone acting weird in an airport. But none of that took anything away from the movie itself. If you are looking for something beyond Christmas romance, this should fit the bill.

Rating: I will never look at carry on luggage the same

That Christmas | 2024 Christmas Movies

There hasn’t been a ton of new Christmas movies for kids this year. Thankfully, Netflix has released That Christmas, an animated story that kids will probably love. The plot is a little difficult to describe so hold on tight!

A huge blizzard is about to hit the town of Wellington-On-Sea. As Christmas Eve approaches, Sam (Zazie Hayhurst) worries that her naughty twin, Charlie (Sienna Sayer), won’t receive any presents from Santa. Meanwhile, Sam’s friend, Danny (Jack Wisniewski), who happens to have a crush on Sam, is having trouble with loneliness since his single mother has been very busy with work and his father is unable to reach him due to the snow. Then there is another group of children who have been left home under the care of Bernadette (India Brown), the eldest of the children, as their parents attend a family wedding. Will they all be able to have a happy Christmas?

While this is a strange movie, it was really cute. From an American perspective, it does seem that most of the parents are awfully neglectful but I think things are very different in the United Kingdom. Also, maybe they should learn to check the weather report before they leave their children home alone. But it’s this loneliness that brings them all together and shows them that community is very important. Especially around the holidays.

Rating: I would also like to celebrate Kids Christmas

Trading Up Christmas | 2024 Christmas Movies

There are only a few more days left until Christmas. That means there are only a few more Christmas movies left to watch! The last movie from Hallmark Mystery is Trading Up Christmas. Did they end on a high note?

Keri (Meredith Forlenza) is a single mother desperately in need of a house. Her sister, Michelle (Italia Ricci), read the story of a boy who traded a red rubber band for a house. Michelle decides to try the same thing except she will trade a family heirloom stocking for a house for her sister. When the local newspaper catches wind of Michelle’s story, reporter Dan (Michael Xavier) gets assigned the story. Can they manage to get Keri a house before Christmas?

While this is a very sweet story, the execution is so boring. I didn’t hate the movie but I wasn’t very captivated by it. I was hoping that they would make the trading stuff more interesting. Also, the little conflicts between Michelle and Keri were kind of annoying. Despite the fact that they keep saying Michelle is the “dreamer” of the family and that she always makes her dreams come true, Keri was very negative about the whole trading idea. I get that she’s supposed to be a realist but she didn’t have to be so against it that she tells Michelle to stop trying. Like, let Michelle do her thing. If she gets you a house, great. If she doesn’t, you are in the same position you were before.

Rating: Will someone trade me something for this movie?

Nutcrackers | 2024 Christmas Movies

I am not sure how I completely missed a Ben Stiller Christmas movie. Nutcrackers premiered on Hulu on November 29. And somehow I just found out about it. Either the marketing is bad or I really do live under a rock.

Mike Maxwell’s (Stiller) sister and her husband recently passed away. Now he has to travel to her farm to sign the paperwork for her four boys to go to foster care. Unfortunately, the social worker, Gretchen (Linda Cardellini), is having trouble finding a home for the boys because it is so close to Christmas. As Mike tries to find someone to adopt the unruly kids, he finds that one of the boys has rewritten a version of the Nutcracker ballet. In addition, the boys are lovely ballet dancers since their mother was a prima ballerina at one point in her life and owned a dance studio before her death. The family decides to put on the show in order to find a new family. Little does Mike know that they have found their family.

Nutcrackers is one of those movies where you are supposed to dislike characters. Mike is very selfish. To the point that he doesn’t actually seem to mourn his sister’s death. He just wants to get rid of the kids and move on with his life. The kids themselves are, in the beginning, awful. They break into a closed carnival and destroy some of the attractions. They run around unsupervised causing all sorts of havoc. But they are also grieving children that no one pays attention to. All they need is a good adult figure to care about them and listen to them and not simply bark rules at them.

Interestingly, this movie felt a lot like movies from the 80s or 90s. Something like Overboard or Problem Child. I’m not sure if the throwback feeling of Nutcrackers will be a turn off for people but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, myself. There were even a few tears shed at the end.

Rating: Yes, The Nutcracker does need some updating.

Operation Mistletoe | 2024 Christmas Movies

Heading over to Hulu, I thought Operation Mistletoe looked a lot like a Hallmark Christmas movie. It even features Jen Lilley, who has done her fair share of Hallmark (and Great American Family) movies. How does it compare to the OG Christmas movie channel?

Grace (Lilley) is an interior designer who works with her best friend, Olivia (Melanie Leishman), and her brother/Olivia’s husband, Jack (Steve Belford). When her former classmate, Ryan (Nick Bateman), comes home to sell his grandmother’s house, Mayor Sami (Lisa Michelle Cornelius) convinces him to hold the Ribbon and Bows charity ball one more time before he lets the house go. Grace agrees to decorate the house for the ball with a little help from Ryan. Olivia, meanwhile, tries to get Grace and Ryan together by hiding mistletoe all over town for them to kiss under.

Well, this is another bland Christmas movie. There is nothing special about any of the characters or the story or any of the locations they are in. Then there are entire scenes that are completely overpowered by the background music. They might as well not even be talking. Though many of those scenes are just Grace offering to buy people hot chocolate. Girl has an addiction problem.

I would recommend staying away from this one. There are way better movies out there to spend your time on.

Rating: The hot chocolate must be laced with something

Mistletoe & Matrimony | 2024 Christmas Movies

For those of you that don’t know, Oprah Winfrey has her own television network called OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network). I’ve been wanting to watch their movies for awhile but I didn’t have a way to access it. This year they have released at least one of their Christmas movies - Mistletoe & Matrimony - on HBO Max. Let’s check it out.

Olivia (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) is an amazing wedding planner. When her sister, Rosemary (Asha James), announces not only her engagement to her girlfriend, Gwen (Krista Nazaire), but also that they want to get married on Christmas Eve in two weeks, Olivia tries her best to step up to the plate and plan her sister’s dream wedding. To add to the stress, Gwen has asked her best friend, Isaiah (Etienne Maurice), Olivia’s ex-boyfriend, to be the wedding photographer. Can Olivia give her sister everything she wants?

This is one of those movies where the family dynamic is crazy. The older sister gave up her dreams of traveling to take care of their mother after she had a bad fall. Then she’s trying to fulfill all of her sister’s insane requests, while everyone is else responds with “You know how your sister is.” (Who wants a horse-drawn carriage in Chicago in DECEMBER? You will die of frostbite.) To be honest, having to hang around her ex-boyfriend is the least of Olivia’s problems. Of course, everything resolves itself at the end but it is very stressful and annoying during the rest of the movie.

While I found Rosemary entitled and ungrateful, that doesn’t make the movie unwatchable. Just maybe stay away if you have a bit of a toxic family life. It may keep you from enjoying Mistletoe as much as you should.

Rating: I’m not sure the writer has ever seen winter.

Following Yonder Star | 2024 Christmas Movies

Surprisingly, with Following Yonder Star, I have caught up on all of the currently aired Hallmark/Lifetime/Great American Family Christmas movies. I don’t think I’ve ever caught up to the airing schedule before. I’m blaming the fact that Hallmark has released a bunch of movies on their Hallmark+ app that I decided not to get this year. But don’t worry, I still have Netflix and Hulu and all of the other streaming apps to keep me going!

Abby Marshall (Brooke D’Orsay) used to play the perfect wife and mother on TV. Now her life is falling apart thanks to a scandal. So she attempts to spend the holidays at a luxury resort in Vermont…but she accidentally booked the suite for next year. Thankfully, there is a room at a local bed and breakfast owned by Tom (John Brotherton). Abby spends her vacation helping Tom direct the church Christmas pageant, allowing her to find what is truly important to her.

For the first time in a long time, Hallmark has released a movie that references God a lot. Usually they stick to movies that make vague references to religion or they stay away from religion altogether. While it made a little bit of sense with the nativity Christmas pageant, it still felt odd in the context of the movie. Abby didn’t seem particularly religious through most of the movie then suddenly God has a plan. It was weird.

Beyond that, Following Yonder Star is fine. There’s nothing spectacular about it but it’s not awful either. It fits perfectly in that in-between space Hallmark loves.

Rating: People really are that delusional about celebrities

Christmas On The Alpaca Farm | 2024 Christmas Movies

I am nearing the end of the Christmas movies on my list and I will be very happy when this is over. I was looking forward to Christmas On The Alpaca Farm because how can you screw up a movie about alpacas, right? You make it not ab0ut alpacas.

Jess Hilliard (Kirsten Comerford) wants to create a line of sustainable high fashion. When the New York City fashion label she works for scraps her line of alpaca fleece sweaters, she quits to enter a Christmas competition with her own designs. Since the Flannery Farm, where she got her alpaca fleece previously, had to fire their entire staff when the sweater line was scrapped, Jess goes to help Andrew (Matt Wells) and his daughter, Georgia (Ai Barrett), harvest the fleece.

This movie should have been about a city girl being forced to work on an alpaca farm for some reason and she fails, at first, before falling in love with the animals and learning how to care for them and maybe she makes them silly little hats or scarves or something and, in the end, she falls in love with the alpaca man. But no, this movie had to be about fashion. They throw around the term high fashion a few times and nothing here is high fashion. Luxury, yes. High fashion, no. Those are two very different things.

I’m also annoyed that Andrew kept pulling this “You can’t blend my alpaca fleece with ANYTHING!” There are, like, 20 alpacas on his farm that we see. How much fleece does he really think they can generate? Google tells me that an average sweater uses about a pound of alpaca fleece and the average alpaca produces 5 to 10 pounds of fleece per year. Even though Jess is making some chunky sweaters, let’s be nice and say she’s only using one pound. And let’s say these alpacas are amazing at producing fleece so each one gives us 10 pounds. (Yes, I’m being super generous.) Ten pounds of fleece times twenty alpacas is 200 pounds of fleece. Each sweater takes one pound so Jess can make, at most, 200 sweaters per year with this fleece. That might be good for a starting point but there were big companies wanting to sell these sweaters. 200 sweaters per year isn’t a sustainable business plan.

Was there anything good about this movie? I guess Georgia was kinda cute. Ooh, maybe we can have a Georgia & The Alpacas movie and just forget about the adults. That could be adorable!

Rating: These sweaters were ugly and boring too