Funny Christmas Movies

Christmas comedies, shown youngest guide age first: a 22-minute elf special at the top, the slapstick grade-schoolers love in the middle, and the comedies to save for teenagers and adults at the bottom. Each note says what kind of funny it is, who it suits and what to watch out for.

Every pick comes from our parents' guide and has a guide age between 4 and 16, with a clear break in the middle: no pick has a guide age of 10, 11 or 12. Through Candy Cane Lane, a 9 whose language stretches its PG, the comedy is mostly slapstick, though Home Alone and its sequel make burns and bricks to the head look painful. From Scrooged on, the jokes are meaner and the language stronger, and Violent Night, the last pick, is an R-rated bloodbath played for laughs.

Several of these are also on Classic Christmas Movies and Specials, which covers how the older ones have aged. For gentler choices, see Family Christmas Movies; for a night with teenagers, Christmas Movies for Tweens and Teens; for love stories, Christmas Romance Movies. The Christmas movie guide sorts every Christmas title we've checked by age, and after December there's Movies That Are Actually Funny.

• Prep & Landing

  TV special · 2009

  Funny for parents too: Dave Foley voices Wayne, a veteran elf who sulks after being passed over for promotion and gets stuck with an eager rookie on Christmas Eve. Fine from four, and over in about 22 minutes. It's clean and harmless throughout, the comedy is office politics, and the point, that any job done well matters, arrives without a lecture.

  Where to stream →4+ Parents' guide

• The Santa Clause

  Movie · 1994

  The laughs come from Tim Allen's sarcastic toy-company dad turning into Santa against his will: a beard that grows back as fast as he shaves it, a waistline that won't stop growing. Fine from six. Content is light, one 'hell' and a couple of flatulence jokes, but the plot starts with the old Santa slipping off the roof and vanishing, presumed dead, grown-ups keep telling Charlie there's no Santa, and police draw guns to arrest Scott.

  Where to stream →6+ Parents' guide

• Elf

  Movie · 2003

  Jon Favreau directed, and Will Ferrell commits completely as Buddy, whose four food groups are candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup. Fine from six, and grandparents laugh at the same scenes. To know: several jokes turn on Peter Dinklage's height, Buddy wanders into the women's locker room and sings along while Jovie showers (seen from the shoulders up), he gets drunk after spiking his coffee by mistake, and the language runs to 'crap' and 'pissed.'

  Where to stream →6+ Parents' guide

• Arthur Christmas

  Movie · 2011

  From Aardman, the studio behind Wallace & Gromit, with James McAvoy as Arthur, Hugh Laurie as his slick brother Steve and Bill Nighy as cantankerous Grandsanta. The jokes come fast enough that parents catch ones kids miss. Fine from six. To flag: a quick gag of a dog humping slippers, insults like 'moron' and 'fatty,' a few jokes that lean on national stereotypes, and a man firing a shotgun at Arthur's crew, which can make six-year-olds jump.

  Where to stream →6+ Parents' guide

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

  Movie · 2000

  Ron Howard's live-action Grinch, with Jim Carrey contorting and cackling under the green fur and Anthony Hopkins narrating. It's cruder and creepier than the cartoon, so wait until about seven. Expect rear-end jokes, a fall face-first into a woman's cleavage, a key-party gag for the adults, and a stretch where the Grinch swigs from a liquor bottle and acts drunk.

  Where to stream →7+ Parents' guide

• A Christmas Story

  Movie · 1983

  The jokes live in the narration: Jean Shepherd, as grown-up Ralphie, recounting every scheme for a Red Ryder BB gun with mock-epic gravity. Best from eight. The swearing is frequent but mild, and the leg-lamp innuendo is pitched at adults. Two scenes deserve a word first: Ralphie's fight leaves the bully Scut Farkus with a bloody face, and the Christmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant gets its laughs from the staff's accents.

  Where to stream →8+ Parents' guide

• Home Alone

  Movie · 1990

  Funniest once kids are old enough to enjoy the burglars' suffering, about eight. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern take an iron to the face, a blowtorch to the head and a nail through the foot, and the whole last act is built around it. It ends with the pair catching Kevin, hanging him on a door and threatening to bite off his fingers; the language includes one s-word and 'bitch.'

  Where to stream →8+ Parents' guide

• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

  Movie · 1992

  The sequel follows the first film almost beat for beat, and kids rarely mind: Kevin boards the wrong plane, bluffs his way into the Plaza Hotel and rigs his uncle's half-renovated townhouse. Tim Curry's suspicious concierge is the best new joke. From eight. The traps escalate to bricks, staples and an exploding toilet, and Harry tries to shoot Kevin and the pigeon lady.

  Where to stream →8+ Parents' guide

• Jingle All the Way

  Movie · 1996

  Arnold Schwarzenegger as a workaholic dad hunting the sold-out Turbo-Man action figure on Christmas Eve, with Sinbad as a mailman chasing the same toy. Loud, broad and best from eight or so. Expect a punch-up with a ring of fake Santas, a package bomb that scorches a cop's face, a neighbor forever trying to seduce the hero's wife, and one racist line about Chinese restaurants.

  Where to stream →8+ Parents' guide

• Candy Cane Lane

  Movie · 2023

  Eddie Murphy as a dad who'll do anything to win a Christmas decorating contest, Tracee Ellis Ross as his wife and Jillian Bell as the scheming elf he makes a deal with. Best from nine, a step up from the films above. Box-wine jokes and a line about a decorations 'supplier' are for the adults, but kids will hear God's name misused about 25 times.

  Where to stream →9+ Parents' guide

• Scrooged

  Movie · 1988

  Bill Murray at his most sardonic as a TV executive staging a live Christmas Carol, with David Johansen as a cab-driving Ghost of Christmas Past. Best for teens of thirteen and up who enjoy a truly nasty hero. There's no f-word, but there are s-words and 'goddamn,' a dancer's costume partly bares her breasts, and the last ghost has souls writhing inside its ribcage.

  Where to stream →13+ Parents' guide

• National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

  Movie · 1989

  The set pieces carry it: a sled greased into a blur, a squirrel bursting out of the tree, Cousin Eddie emptying his RV's toilet into the storm drain. Thirteen is the age for it. The language runs to about eleven s-words and one f-word, plus a little girl repeating a crude phrase; there are crude sex jokes, a moment of nudity in Clark's pool fantasy, and a cat that chews through a wire with fatal results.

  Where to stream →13+ Parents' guide

• Violent Night

  Movie · 2022

  David Harbour's hard-drinking Santa, John Leguizamo's mercenary boss and a young girl rigging traps make it a pitch-black joke on the Home Alone films above. It's R, and we'd say sixteen: kills by sledgehammer and woodchipper played for laughs, with blood spray, f-words by the dozen, and a family held at gunpoint while their young daughter hides in the attic.

  Where to stream →16+ Parents' guide

🎄 All 55 Christmas movies and specials, sorted by age →

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Picks are editorial recommendations. Streaming availability changes by region and over time — the “where to stream” links check current availability on JustWatch.