The five most overrated Christmas movies of all time
What’s Christmas without sitting down to watch a good festive film, such that if movies can bring people together, quite literally uniting us around the television, then surely a festive one is the ultimate example.
Forcing us, some more reluctantly than others, to bask in the joy of community, magic, and optimism, these films are a staple of the holiday period. However, while many of these movies are considered proper beloved classics that we watch every year, helping us to get into the festive spirit, when you actually step back and analyse them, you realise that some of them really aren’t all that they’re cracked up to be.
Now, I’m not talking about It’s A Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street, because these are undisputed classics that are actually brilliant, nor do I want movies like The Muppet Christmas Carol or Home Alone anywhere near this list.
You might argue that this is a matter of personal preference, but you can’t surely deny that the films listed below aren’t actually as good as they’re made out to be, and maybe the only reason we watch them is for a quick and easy dose of festive nostalgia.
Five overrated Christmas movies that need to be retired:
‘Scrooged’ (Richard Donner, 1988)
Bill Murray was at the height of his fame when he starred as Frank Cross in Scrooged, Richard Donner’s modern interpretation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but this isn’t on the level of something like The Muppet Christmas Carol, though. Scrooged is a rather bleak tale, about which Roger Ebert said it best, noting, “The movie’s overriding emotions seem to be pain and anger”.
It’s not necessarily a terrible film, but it’s certainly an overrated festive favourite that often teeters too far into the realm of being overly sentimental. I might sound like I’m being harsh, but after everything we’ve heard about Murray in real life, it’s hard to root for his character, who is hardly very likeable at all.
‘The Polar Express’ (Robert Zemeckis, 2004)
The hideous motion capture technique used to create The Polar Express makes it feel like more of a horror movie than a Christmas classic, with every human character in the film giving off a strikingly uncanny effect. There is something so unsettling about the visuals of Robert Zemeckis’ film, and while some call it a feat of motion capture technology, these people clearly have low standards because it truly just looks awful.
Regardless, many claim to adore the film, but I have no idea why anyone would want to see a strange animated version of Tom Hanks threatening to kick a child off a train because her ticket has flown out the window. There are many moments where the train almost causes a serious disaster, and it leaves you questioning how this could all be considered very merry at all.
‘The Holiday’ (Nancy Meyers, 2006)
The cosiness of Nancy Meyers’ The Holiday has ensured its status as a go-to festive favourite over the years, but let’s be real, it’s no When Harry Met Sally. When a house swap lands an annoying American in a cosy British cottage in the countryside, where she meets a charming British man (a little too charming, if you ask me), the pair form an unlikely romance that is utterly predictable and utterly unrealistic.
Meanwhile, our slightly less annoying British protagonist is paired up with one of the last people you’d cast as a rom-com love interest (sorry), Jack Black. There’s no chemistry between him and Kate Winslet, unsurprisingly, and their scenes make you long to go back to the cute cottage, even though Cameron Diaz’s character is just as irritating. At almost two-and-a-half hours long, The Holiday is a slog full of unlikeable characters and overacting and unreal outcomes.
‘Elf’ (Jon Favreau, 2003)
Speaking of overacting, Will Ferrell in Elf is a great example: there’s only so much of an overexcited man-child one can take, so how some people manage to watch Jon Favreau’s 2003 film every year is beyond me. Playing a man who has been raised by elves in the North Pole, Ferrell’s Buddy ventures out to America for the first time to try and meet his biological father, yet his development is particularly stunted.
He’s incredibly annoying, and while this is meant to be charming, it tires fast. Sure, it’s got James Caan in it, but that’s not enough to save Elf from becoming irritating once you’ve seen it enough times. It’s obnoxious, with many child-like jokes rammed down audiences’ throats in the hopes of crafting a holiday classic, which it certainly has become, but at what cost?
‘Love Actually’ (Richard Curtis, 2003)
There is a time and a place for a Richard Curtis rom-com, but whether you’re in the mood for one or not doesn’t matter at Christmas, because you’re undoubtedly going to be subjected to at least a chunk of Love Actually while you’re trying to put your feet up. You’d think that with an all-star cast and lots of romantic vignettes to dig your teeth into, the film would actually be very good, but really, it’s painfully average.
The only reason it’s rewatched every year is out of pure festive nostalgia, but let me tell you, if this weren’t Christmas-themed, I bet you wouldn’t get half as many people discussing the characters and their infuriating plotlines year on year. It’s time that Love Actually was retired, because it’s full of perfectly healthy women being body-shamed and questionable power dynamics, basically reeking of the kind of misogyny people somehow got away with back in the early 2000s.
