‘Tis the Christmas weekend, finally! The trees have been decorated, the presents packed, the eggnog’s chilling in the fridge, and we’re all set for our favourite week of the year. While you wait for the festivities to kick off in full swing on Christmas Eve, why not sit back, relax and get in the proper holiday mood with a good, old-fashioned, couch-locked TV binge? We’ve put together a list of Christmas comedies for you to watch as you sip on some mulled wine (and as you neck paracetamol and hard seltzer the morning after). Just hit play and feel the seasonal spirit!

Elf

20 years ago, director Jon Favreau and screenwriter David Berenbaum got together to deliver one of the biggest Christmas cult classics—Elf. Starring the inimitable Will Ferrell as Buddy, an overgrown elf, the film is a quintessential Christmas watch for comedy fans. Why is Buddy larger than Santa’s other helpers? Because he’s actually a human orphan who stumbled into Santa’s bag as a child and unwittingly landed up at the North Pole. Once he’s finally made aware of this fact, Buddy sets out to New York to find his birth father. Hijinks inevitably ensue.

Elf‘s wholesome schmaltz sets it apart from the more edgy comedies of the early 2000s, but it still provides plenty of room for Ferrell to show off his comedic chops, as Buddy tries to make sense of and fit into the Big Apple. Starring another comedy heavyweight—Bob Newhart—as the droll senior elf who raises Buddy, alongside Ed Asner (as Santa), Peter Dinklage and Zooey Deschanel, Elf is sure to deliver the laughs, even two decades after its release.  

Available to rent on Amazon Prime Video

Love Hard

If you’re one of the many people who traverse the barren landscape of online dating apps in search of love only to be stuck wading through cringe-y pick up lines, Love Hard is going to… hit hard (Ed: #sorrynotsorry). Natalie (played by Nina Dobrev) makes a living by chronicling her unlucky dating life for a publication. Talk about mining your misery for content. As you’d expect, Natalie is looking for someone to hopelessly fall in love with, which is probably why she jumps at the opportunity to fly out and surprise an online crush on the other side of the country. Yeah, you know what’s coming next. She’s been catfished.

Her Prince Charming turns out to be Josh (played by Jimmy O Yang), a basement-dwelling Chinese-American candle-maker who had stolen his former friend’s photos for his online profile. A classic unrequited-love-triangle follows, the formulaic plot is elevated by Yang’s deadpan one-liners. It’s nothing that we haven’t seen before but Love Hard is a light-hearted watch that delivers exactly what it promises.

Available on Netflix

Noelle

Another fish-out-of-the-North-Pole film in the style of Elf, Noelle will give you the warm fuzzies that you so desperately long for in December. It’s the quintessential by-the-numbers Christmas comedy (complete with CG reindeer), with a feminist twist. The film imagines a world where Santa’s duties are passed down generations. But when it’s time for Nick Kringle (played by Bill Hader) to step into the big black boots, he gets cold feet and runs off to Arizona to work in a yoga studio. It’s left up to the titular Noelle (played by Anna Kendrick) to save the biggest day of the year—Christmas. 

Hader’s neurotic personality and sardonic demeanour contrast with Kendrick’s upbeat, glass-half-full optimism, producing some of the more joke-heavy sections of the film. And Kendrick pulls her weight, sometimes even outshining the Saturday Night Live legend with her endearing gags. While people are suckers for tradition when it comes to the holidays, Noelle tells us it’s okay to bend the rules on occasion to have some fun.

Available on Disney+ Hotstar

Spirited 

There have been innumerable on-screen adaptations of Charles Dickens’ classic 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. What sets 2022 musical-comedy Spirited apart is the inspired casting of Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. The prolific comedy actors both delivered fine performances, and the film is packed with enough emotionally charged moments, laugh-out-loud scenes and tweaks to the Dickensian formula to keep things fresh and entertaining.

A perfect example of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, the film chronicles the life of Ghost of Christmas Present (played by Ferrell), who is out to reform his final Scrooge-like subject Clint Briggs before heading on to retirement. Most of the comedy stems from our protagonists being at loggerheads, which is amplified further by the seamless chemistry between Ferrell and Reynolds. It’s also hard to ignore the stellar work of songwriting duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (of La La Land fame). A film that explores the concept of redemption, Spirited is a fun, silly and occasionally outrageous Christmas romp.

Available on AppleTV+ 

Krampus 

There have been a few Christmas-themed horror movies in the past, Gremlins being arguably the most famous one. But a horror-comedy that captures the spirit of Christmas is extremely rare. Which is why when we came across 2015’s Krampus, we couldn’t help but hit play. Based on a figure from European folklore, Krampus is the evil twin of jolly Saint Nicholas, who comes about to punish the naughty kids and adults who just aren’t feeling the seasonal spirit. 

When his family’s constant bickering makes young Max (played by Emjay Anthony) give up on his Christmas spirit, evil dolls, demonic harlequins and creepy looking snowmen start taking over the family home. But that’s just the precursor to the main act. With some satirical takes on the holiday and a blend of creepy and subversive humour, Krampus is not your usual post-lunch movie. But it’s worth definitely worth a watch if you like some spooks with your jokes.

Available to rent on YouTube

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

What HC Verma is for engineering students in India, the National Lampoon used to be for up-and-coming comedians and writers in the United States all the way through the 1970s to the late 1990s. One of the most influential comedy publications of all time, Doug Kenny, Henry Beard and Robert Hoffman’s brainchild gave the world some of its biggest comedic writers, cartoonists and actors, including Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and John Belushi. You’ve probably heard of their cult comedies such as Caddyshack and Animal House, but for the holidays, we recommend the lesser-known National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Starring Chevy Chase as Clark W. Griswold Jr., this is the typical “everything goes wrong” story. But just because something has been done before doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable. Obviously, some bits haven’t aged particularly well over the 34 years since the film’s release. However, Chase’s excellent comedic timing and the film’s masterfully slapstick tone are sure to grab your attention and make sure you have a merry time.

Available to rent on Amazon Prime Video

A Very Harold And Kumar Christmas 

Six years after everything that went down in Guantanamo Bay, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) are estranged and leading quite different lifestyles. Harold, now sober, is a successful Wall Street banker while Kumar’s life has continued to follow the Cheech and Chong trajectory. But fate brings the duo back together. This time, they embark on an epic quest to find a Christmas tree for Harold’s no-nonsense father-in-law. 

This wild adventure features an angry Russian gangster, a waffle-making robot (who eventually saves the day) and Neil Patrick Harris making his duly contracted appearance. A quintessentially Harold-and-Kumar comedy-of-errors classic, this film is enjoyed with a side of the devil’s lettuce. 

Available on JioCinema

Home Alone

There can be no Christmas movie list without this classic. Even the disastrous 2021 reboot cannot taint our love for the original, which is a household favourite to this day. When eight-year-old Kevin McCallister is unintentionally left behind by his family amidst a last-minute scramble to make their flight to Paris, he enjoys his newfound freedom as master of the house, living out every one of his pre-teen fantasies. But danger lurks, as his house is targeted by two burglars (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) hell-bent on robbing the McCallisters of everything they own.

What they didn’t count on was Kevin, who has a merry time confounding “the wet bandits”, adorning the house with complex and painful booby traps. Full of cartoonish PG-13 violence, Home Alone revels in its absurd slapstick comedy, earning a well-deserved reputation as an all-time Christmas favourite.

Available on Disney+ Hotstar

Klaus

Despicable Me creator Sergio Pablos continues his tradition of making heart-stirring family flicks with his directorial debut Klaus. Netflix’s original animated film, Klaus opens with Jesper, a pampered teenager (voiced by Jason Schwartzman) who has enraged his father, the Royal Postmaster General. He gets banished to the dismal island of Smeerensburg, near the Arctic Circle, for fear of what the future may hold for him.

Jesper is informed that if he does not deliver 6,000 letters by the end of the year, he will never taste luxury again. The plot follows Jesper as he travels to Smeerensburg, where he enlists the support of the town’s children by urging them to write letters to Klaus, a retired toymaker (voiced by JK Simmons). Klaus is a unique Santa origin story set in a stunningly beautiful winter-world. And for all the comedy enthusiasts, THE Norm Macdonald has voiced a character. Can you tell which one?

Available on Netflix