The holidays are for family — for better or for worse. Whether it’s reuniting in the spirit of the season, butting heads over recipes, offering support, or retreating to friends who feel more like family than blood relations, it’s a time for reconnecting. Holiday movies about families are the perfect way to get festive. 

Gather your family to appreciate what you have. Or watch alone and be glad for the gift of personal space. Or let the dysfunction of onscreen families give you a newfound gratitude for the relative sanity of your own family’s dynamic. These family holiday movies will remind you that home is where the heart is, and the family that “sleighs” together stays together.

Best. Christmas. Ever!

A comedic Christmas mix-up leads Charlotte Sanders (Heather Graham) and her family to the doorstep of her frenemy, Jackie Jennings (Brandy Norwood). Stuck there for a few days over the holidays, Charlotte takes the opportunity to snoop into Jackie’s life, which appears annoyingly perfect. While Charlotte’s husband, Rob (Jason Biggs), and their two kids enjoy Jackie’s home and her impeccable hosting, Charlotte unearths truths that makes her rethink her negativity toward Jackie and what it means to be a real friend, as well as appreciate her own family a bit more.

Best. Christmas. Ever!

1h 21m   TV-PG   2023

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Family Switch

Lately, the Walker family has had a hard time relating to one another: The children feel misunderstood, and the parents can’t get through to their kids. One night at an astronomy event, Jess (Jennifer Garner), Bill (Ed Helms), and their three kids — CC (Emma Myers), Wyatt (Brady Noon), and baby Miles — take a family picture with the help of a mysterious woman, and a freak accident suddenly breaks the observatory’s telescope. When they wake the next morning, parents and children have magically swapped bodies. Forced to fill in for each other during a hectic day of work and school, they may just come to newly appreciate each other if they can find a way to reverse the situation.

Family Switch

1h 45m   PG   2023

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Father Christmas Is Back

A family with the surname Christmas comes together at the Yorkshire manor of the eldest daughter, Caroline (Nathalie Cox). Elizabeth Hurley, Talulah Riley, and Naomi Frederick play her sisters, each as different as can be. Unexpectedly, another guest arrives — the father the girls haven’t seen in 27 years, James Christmas (Kelsey Grammer). Now the women have to face the abandonment they’ve felt all these years and discover whether they want to forgive their father. But in this dysfunctional family comedy, no one is perfect, and it’s more than just Father Christmas who needs forgiving.

Father Christmas Is Back

1h 45m   PG-13   2021

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Happy Christmas

It can be hard to see families struggle, but the holidays are an excellent time for compassion. Twentysomething Jenny (Anna Kendrick) moves in around Christmastime with her brother Jeff (Joe Swanberg); his novelist wife, Kelly (Melanie Lynskey); and their two-year-old son. While struggling with her insecurities and a lack of direction, Jenny makes some immature choices that make Jeff and Kelly question her ability to help them around the house. Despite that, Jenny and Kelly bond over shared enthusiasm for a book idea, giving Jenny a chance at a grown-up friendship and Kelly some room to return to herself after a spell as a stay-at-home mom.

Happy Christmas

1h 22m   R   2014

Remind Me

Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas

Everyone’s favorite outspoken matriarch, Madea (Tyler Perry), travels with her niece Eileen (Anna Maria Horsford) to the small town of Buck Tussel to visit Eileen’s daughter, Lacey (Tika Sumpter), who says she can’t come home for the holidays. Lacey is avoiding her mother because she has secretly married Conner (Chad Michael Murray), a white man. When Eileen and Madea arrive at Lacey’s farm, she lies and claims Conner is an employee. Chaos ensues as the lie grows more complicated, and Lacey faces trouble organizing and funding the town’s Christmas Jubilee. Ultimately, the family supports each other, and Lacey discovers she has people she can depend on.

Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas

1h 40m   PG-13   2013

Remind Me

A Merry Little Ex-Mas

Being as mature as they can be, newly divorced Kate (Alicia Silverstone) and Everett (Oliver Hudson) agree to keep up their family’s Christmas traditions. She plans activities for the family, including her son, Gabriel (Wilder Hudson), who’s about to head out to college, and her daughter, Sienna (Emily Hall), who brings home her quirky boyfriend, Nigel (Timothy Innes). Kate is shocked to find out from her children that Everett is already dating someone, Tess (Jameela Jamil). When she meets a young man, Chet (Pierson Fodé), who asks her out at the Christmas tree farm, she sees an opportunity to stir up a bit of jealousy of her own. But nothing about this holiday goes according to plan, and seeing each other with new partners forces Kate and Everett to consider all they’ve given up.

A Merry Little Ex-Mas

1h 31m   TV-PG   2025

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The Price of Family

This Italian comedy shows just how far some parents will go to keep their families together. Carlo and Anna Delle Fave (Christian De Sica and Angela Finocchiaro) have watched their children, Alessandra (Dharma Mangia Woods) and Emilio (Claudio Colica), grow up and move out. They’ve also grown distant, not willing to visit their parents for the holidays. So Carlo and Anna pretend to have inherited money from a recently deceased aunt, luring their children back with the chance that their parents will bankroll their lives. The lie gets out of hand quickly when Carlo and Anna fall into debt trying to keep up the ruse. Eventually, they’ll need to tell the truth, but will it bring them closer to their children?

The Price of Family

1h 30m   TV-MA   2022

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The Snow Sister

Hailing from Norway and based on the bestselling children’s book by Maja Lunde and Lisa Aisato, The Snow Sister is the tale of Julian (Mudit Gupta), a 10-year-old grieving the death of his older sister, Juni. Julian’s family can’t muster any enthusiasm for the approaching holidays, and Julian is having trouble feeling the magic too. Then a new friend appears: Hedwig (Celina Meyer Hovland), a bubbly Christmas enthusiast who becomes Julian’s biggest champion. Slowly she thaws the coldness in Julian, but when he tries to understand more about her, she refrains from sharing anything personal. So Julian tries to find a way to be there for the mysterious Hedwig just as she’s helped him and his family.

The Snow Sister

1h 37m   TV-PG   2024

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