6 Underrated Christmas Films to Watch This December

When it comes to Christmas movies, I find that everyone tends to have their own viewing traditions that they stick to religiously, whether it be watching whatever schmaltzy holiday rom-com Hallmark has recently produced or re-watching their favourite films from childhood. I personally can't get into the Christmas spirit unless I watch It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street at some point in December. There is just something about routine that give Christmas its nostalgic, comforting feeling. But what if these routines are keeping people from giving some overlooked films a chance?

Over the course of the pandemic, I've been challenging myself to expand my movie viewing tastes, including what I watch around Christmastime. The results have been . . . mixed, to say the least; usually ranging from "okay" to "unbearable." But once in a while, I've stumbled across gems that I'm still kicking myself for not watching sooner. The following list contains six of these films, and while I wouldn't say that they are all masterpieces of cinema, they all embody a piece of what makes the holiday season so special.

The Holly and the Ivy (1952) dir. George More O’Ferrall

Synopsis: Reverend Martin Gregory is excited to have his family for Christmas but is unaware that his children are keeping secrets from him.

With Christmas films released prior to 1970, I personally tend to gravitate towards those with more melancholic tones, such as Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life or Brian Desmond Hurst's Scrooge, and The Holly and the Ivy definitely fits right in. That isn't to say the film is dredged in misery; there is plenty of humour sprinkled throughout by the clashing personalities of Aunt Lydia and Aunt Bridget (played by Margaret Halstan and Maureen Delany, respectively). But I've never seen another film that perfectly encapsulates the tension that hovers over a family reunion when everyone is worried that one of the more conservative relatives will suddenly say something that makes the evening even more uncomfortable.

Martin Gregory (Ralph Richardson) isn't a cruel man, but he is incredibly ignorant of how his position in the church and the expectations he has for his children are affecting them. His son Michael (Denholm Elliott) has grown resentful for being forced to join the army, his youngest daughter Margaret (Margaret Leighton) has grown estranged from most of the family for unknown reasons, and his eldest daughter Jenny (Celia Johnson) feels that she has to reject her boyfriend's marriage proposal because she is the only sibling willing to look after their aging father. The Holly and the Ivy takes a deep look at how religious fanaticism can alienate individuals who feel they can't live up to the church's expectations. And for a film that came out in the early 1950s, it tackles this issue, along with atheism and unwed motherhood, in a mature and fairly openminded way.

If I have one criticism about the film, it's that the ending wraps up a little too quickly; I feel adding another 10 minutes to the runtime would have led to a better payoff. Aside from that, however, The Holly and the Ivy is a sweet little film that generations old and new can relate to and learn something from.

Tokyo Godfathers (2003) dir. Satoshi Kon

Synopsis: While scavenging on Christmas Eve, three homeless people—Gin, a middle-aged alcoholic; Hana, a trans woman and former drag queen; and Miyuki, a teenage runaway—discover a newborn baby in a dumpster. At Hana's insistence, the trio sets out to find the baby's parents.

Compared to Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, and Paprika , Tokyo Godfathers is the most conventional of the late Satoshi Kon's films. But don't let the lack of surrealism fool you: this film is a wild ride filled with hitmen, car chases, drag queens, and death-defying leaps from rooftops. Imagine a Christmas-themed Raising Arizona set in Japan.

The real strength of Tokyo Godfathers is how the film depicts its three protagonists. While story doesn't shy away from the troubles that homeless people face—there is a pivotal scene where Gin (Tooru Emori), the most cynical of the trio, comforts an old man who's freezing to death, only to then immediately get beaten up by a group of teenagers—it also shows that there is more to these characters than their suffering. This is best shown through Hana (Yoshiaki Umegami), who is incredibly complex for a transgender character in an early 2000s film. She can be overly dramatic and goofy, but she is also incredibly loving and unafraid to stand up for both herself and the people she cares about. Without her, the film would lose most of its heart.

However, certain choices regarding Hana haven't aged well: the English subtitles for the Japanese release of the film often use conflicting language when referring to her gender identity, and a cisgender man was cast as her original voice actor (though she is voiced by transgender actress Shakina Nayfack in the 2019 GKIDS English dub). That, along with the incredibly abrupt ending scene, are the biggest issues with this film. Still, if you're interested in a film with complex characters and beautiful animation, or if you're just interested in getting into Satoshi Kon's work, this is definitely one Christmas movie you should check out.

Last Holiday (2006) dir. Wayne Wang

Synopsis: After being diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder and learning that she only has a few weeks to live, salesclerk Georgia Byrd decides to quit her job and spend all her remaining money on a trip to a luxury Czech hotel for the winter season.

Serious cinephiles may know that this movie is actually a gender-flipped remake of a 1950 film starring Alec Guinness. While the original film has a fairly depressing tone and holds such prestige that it's now part of the Criterion Collection, the remake is more of an upbeat rom-com, though that feels like an inadequate description. There is a romance in 2006's Last Holiday, between Georgia (Queen Latifah) and her coworker Sean (LL Cool J), but the main focus of the film is a journey of self-love. Georgia is a meek, unassuming salesclerk who dreams of becoming a chef but doesn't even feel comfortable eating her own cooking. It's only after discovering she's going to die that Georgia learns to feel comfortable with herself and standing up to others, particularly those that look down on the working class.

While the remake isn't as critically acclaimed as the original film, I personally find it to be the more affective of the two. Alec Guinness is a fine actor, but I get more enjoyment out of watching a plus-sized Black woman learn to love herself and extend that love and joy to others than watching a skinny white man get mistaken for aristocracy. Yes, the script isn't perfect, and yes, the story does dip into several clichés, but sometimes we need that. We need movies where working class women of colour get to feel confident; where underpaid employees smash their self-obsessed bosses' cell phones into pieces right in front of them; where we get to enjoy beautiful shots of Czech mountains, chefs preparing gourmet meals, and LL Cool J hitchhiking across Europe just so he can confess his feelings to the woman he loves. Cheesy wish fulfillment? Sure! But what better time to enjoy it than at the end of a long and miserable year?

Tangerine (2015) dir. Sean Baker

Synopsis: Trans sex worker Sin-Dee Rella is released from a month-long prison sentence, only to discover that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with a cis woman. Righteously angry, Sin-Dee goes on rampage through Hollywood, determined to get revenge and make it to her friend Alexandra's Christmas concert on time.

You'd be forgiven for not considering Tangerine a holiday film despite it taking place entirely on Christmas Eve. Aside from Alexandra's (Mya Taylor) concert and the handful of extras wearing Santa hats in the background, Christmas doesn't play a major role in the plot, which there really isn't much of. Most of the film is just following Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) on her revenge quest, Alexandra trying to promote her show between turning tricks, and Razmik (Karren Karagulian)—a taxi driver and one of women's regular clients—driving people around Hollywood as he avoids his wife and mother-in-law. For all three of the protagonists, Christmas just seems to be another day of the year; a sentiment that I'm sure many people agree with nowadays.

This minimal plot does have a tendency to make the film drag in certain parts. In fact, if you're unaware of Sean Baker's other filmography, it's easy to mistake Tangerine as an early draft of a student film. But what the movie lacks in story, it makes up for in its performances. Every cast member puts their all into their roles, which is particularly impressive in the case of the leading ladies, both of whom had never acted in a film before. And much like Tokyo Godfathers, one of the film's greatest strengths is that it doesn't shy away from the hardships trans women and sex workers regularly face while still giving Sin-Dee and Alexandra the complexity and respect they deserve. There is also the fact that not all the problems the women and Razmik face are solved by the end of the movie; the film actually ends with several new problems arising for everyone. And yet, Tangerine never dips into nihilism. No matter what problems Sin-Dee and Alexandra face, it's their friendship that keeps them both going and leads to one of the most subtly heartwarming final scenes in cinema.

Pretty impressive for a film shot entirely on an iPhone.

Joyeux Noël (2005) dir. Christian Carion

Synopsis: On Christmas Eve 1914, French, German, and Scottish soldiers fighting in semi-occupied France decide to hold a ceasefire in honour of the holiday but find it difficult to continue fighting in the days that follow.

If you ever attended a Catholic high school, you likely spent at least one history class learning about the 1914 Christmas truce—a series of unofficial ceasefires that occurred across the Western Front during the first winter of WWI. Joyeux Noël isn't the first onscreen depiction of the truce (that honour goes to 1969's Oh! What a Lovely War), nor is it completely historically accurate. Some characters are inspired by real historical figures but have different names, and the events that occur are more an amalgamation of what happened across the Western Front, rather than of one particular battlefield. Despite this fictionalization, however, the film manages to come across as one of the more accurate depictions of this event.

Most retellings of the Christmas truce make it seem that all the troops involved were more than happy to immediately stop fighting and make merry with each other. But in Joyeux Noël, the viewer is constantly reminded of the tension between the armies, even before the plot reaches Christmas Eve. The movie opens with schoolchildren from France, Scotland, and Germany reciting patriotic poems that condemn the other countries. Later on, German tenor Nikolaus Sprink (Benno Fürmann) is briefly pulled from the battlefield to perform at a Christmas party for Crown Prince Wilhelm, while the elderly French couple whose home the Germans have commandeered are forced stay in the servants' quarters.

When the truce finally happens, the tense atmosphere doesn't entirely let up. The soldiers do share stories and gifts with each other, but it's not until the ceasefire enters its second day that the three armies get more comfortable with each other. This comes across as a more realistic depiction of the event, since it's hard to believe that men who have spent the past several months trying to kill each other would so easily let their guard down. The film also brings up points that most retellings tend to ignore, such as how likely not every soldier involved in the truce was entirely onboard with it. There is at least one Scottish soldier who is so traumatized by his brother's death that he refuses to bond with any of the Germans. Additionally, the film briefly acknowledges that not every soldier fighting in WWI celebrated Christmas: the German lieutenant (Daniel Brühl) ends up admitting that Christmas "means nothing to [him]" since he is Jewish, while an atheist officer decides to sit out the mass held in no man's land. It's these touches of reality the film adds that shows how significant this historical event was. Christmas truly should be a time for showing the best of humanity, and I can't think of a better depiction of this that watching Sprink sing "Silent Night" to his troops while bagpipes and a French choir join in from across the battlefield.

Anna and the Apocalypse (2017) dir. John McPhail

Synopsis: When a zombie plague hits the town of Little Haven the night of the high school Christmas pageant, Anna Shepherd and her friends are forced to fight their way through the horde to save their families, who are trapped in the school.

If the creators of Shaun of the Dead and the High School Musical franchise decided to co-create a Christmas film, Anna and the Apocalypse would likely be the outcome. I mean this in both a positive and negative way. Compared to the other films on this list, Anna and the Apocalypse is definitely the most flawed, which I feel has a lot to with the downfalls of the zombie genre as a whole. Several of the characters are underdeveloped, making their inevitable deaths underwhelming. It also doesn't help that the protagonist, Anna (Ella Hunt), has a fairly boring personal conflict—wanting to travel after high school instead of going straight to university like her father wishes—compared to the side character Steph (Sarah Swire)—a lesbian transfer student who seems to living out of her car long before the apocalypse begins.

The film works best when it leans into its wacky premise with endless visual gags (zombie snowmen, heads decapitated by bowling balls, and giant candy canes being used as spears) and catchy musical numbers, the highlights of these being "Turning My Life Around," sung by Anna and her friend John (Malcolm Cumming) as they dance obliviously through the zombies' carnage; the penultimate number "Give Them a Show;" and the credit song "What a Time to Be Alive," which perfectly mimics the sort of lounge style Christmas songs you'd hear on a Bing Crosby album. But the song that stuck with me the most and really cemented this film as an underrated Christmas flick was "Human Voice," sung by Anna and her companions as they are forced to hide in the local bowling alley, waiting to hear any radio updates from the military about the virus or their loved ones whereabouts. Watching this film during a pandemic made this moment far more impactful than I'm sure the creators ever expected.

While Anna and the Apocalypse seems like a campy horror-comedy, it has unintentionally grown in importance as the world now enters it's second Christmas season while COVID-19 rages on. Like the film's teenage protagonists, many of us have had to deal with suddenly changing our plans, losing friends and family while watching from the sidelines, and suffering at the whims of authority figures who are more concerned with keeping their status of power than doing what's best for the community. It's been terrifying and frustrating, and it doesn't feel right to celebrate when so many terrible things have happened. But the important thing is that we're here, we're surviving, and no matter what happens in the coming year, we have to keep hopes high.

"What a time to be alive," indeed.

Happy holidays, everybody. Stay safe.