2025 Christmas Movie Roundup

I’ve actually had time to watch Christmas movies this year, so wanted to share three new ones (and one oldie) that have been my favorite this season that may not already be on your list.

-          The Family Man, with Nicholas Cage. I stumbled across this movie one night and was not expecting to love it as much as I did. From what I gather, my takeaways and viewpoint of this movie are very different than the average viewer. I personally resonated so much with his character, a hardworking, single individual climbing the corporate ladder who lives in a beautiful city apartment (and gets to belt music to himself whenever he wants). On Christmas morning, he gets a “glimpse” of what his life would have looked like if he married his college sweetheart and wakes up in a chaotic, suburban household with a wife and young kids, including a crying baby. This may upset people, but I did resonate to his sentiment about this switch in environment (this was some sort of version of hell for him, again, sorry parent friends). The movie was really cute and I loved how he ultimately was able to realize he could have found fulfillment in either versions of his life and I love to joke that there is some version of me in another dimension that happily married my high school sweetheart and is living out that life I wanted at the time. Some people are disappointed and find the ending sad, but I personally love it and think people are not realizing that the two characters at the end are in their early 30s, super rich, and still have plenty of time to start a family if they still want to. And this time they will both be a city loving, fancy couple who will want to share that lifestyle with their kids. Or they will change their minds and move to the suburbs, but probably be living a very comfortable life.

-          Christmas Cupid, with Christina Milian, Ashley Benson, and CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY. My inner high schooler may be a bit biased with this one because it has Chad Michael Murray in it. Christina Milian played another highly ambitious, unmarried female character that I really related to. In “a Christmas Carol” fashion, the overly hard working woman learns lessons from her past boyfriends and learns that she is sacrificing her own happiness and friendships by always chasing the overly ambitious man. I sadly relate to this plot way too much and it kicked my butt this year. The movie was super cheesy and a bit cringe at parts, but in the end, she still gets the promotion but learns how to soften her heart and ends up realizing that she wants a softer kind of love. A lesson I am currently working on as well. If you are going to watch this one, you probably need a martini to get through it.

-          Snow Day. Other than the really squeaky voice of the main younger girl, the characters are so cute and endearing. It is primarily a not too cheesy (or at least surprisingly self aware cheesy) teen crush story with a really cute ending that I won’t spoil. It also has Chevy Chase in it as the dad which is a cute bonus. And, it features another workaholic character, the mom, who has to stay home with her youngest and very goofy son. It’s a cute movie and would definitely recommend watching it with your kids.

-          Love Actually. I know this movie gets a lot of hate, and trust me I went through a phase where I was one of the haters. But once you accept that it is not in fact a love story but a social commentary drama/dark humor, it is a lot better to watch. I love some of the scenes in here and I think it shows what a lot of messy and raw real love actually looks like. I love Natalie so much and love her entirely inappropriate love story with Hugh Grant (sigh). I also never used to understand how Jamie and Aurelia could fall in love without ever speaking a word to each other, but now that I am all woo woo and into energy, I am totally here for their story too. And who cannot love Just Judy and John (who I just this very minute realized is NOT in fact Frodo, and am slightly disappointed in that realization). This year has been a theme of me loving messy and more “real” characters that have good and bad and are more human, and this movie is definitely full of them. I actually find the interactions in the movie very realistic. Give it a re-watch with this mindset and let me know what you think.

Runners up/No description needed:

• The Santa Clause

• Christmas Vacation

• The Grinch

Some hot takes: I cannot watch any of the movies where there is too much yelling or chaotic drama, which has been a general theme of mine for the last few years and why I hate reality TV. I had to turn off Four Christmases and Christmas with the Kranks, which used to be some of my favorites.

Here is a picture of my beautiful tree and living room where I am watching all of these. What are your favorite movies?