Ranking the top 5 Christmas movies of all-time

Best Christmas Movie
Photo credit (Getty Images / Roi and Roi)

They're everywhere.  Each time you turn on the TV, fire up Netflix/Amazon/Disney+.  The Hallmark Channel never seems to stop showing Christmas movies.  

Let's be really honest for a moment.  The vast majority of them are terrible.  Scan the on-demand Christmas movies on Amazon Prime and you're likely left wondering who these people are.  Cookie-cutter, feel-good Christmas movies that really aren't good at all.  There are a good number that ARE good however.   

RELATED: WCCO Programming Schedule for Christmas Eve and Day.

So, what are the five best?  These are our picks.  You've probably seen them (multiple times).  But they're so good, they're worth watching over and over again!

#5- Scrooged (1988)There are a dozen "Christmas Carol" stories.  This is loosely based on that story, set in Reagan-era 1980's and the movie carries a little of that darkness and cynicism with it.

Bill Murray stars as an over-committed, arrogant and thoughtless TV Executive who gets the usual visit from three ghosts in this riff on Dickens' classic.  

It's Murray that steals this film.  He's terrific in the way he portrays Frank Cross, who is busy staging a live action production of A Christmas Carol on his network (Buddy Hackett everyone!). 

Will Ferrell plays a human who accidentally ends up being raised by Santa's elves.  He stumbles innocently into New York City trying to find his real father.  The movie is absurd.  And surprisingly sweet in the way it gets the entire city to believe in Santa Clause again.  

James Caan is good as Ferrell's cynical father, and so is a super sweet Zooey Deschanel as the love interest for Ferrell's wacky Elf (their "date" together is so great). 

Starring Michael Caine as Scrooge, and of course that zany cast of Muppet characters, the Muppet Christmas Carol actually stays very true to the Dickens story, even using Gonzo (yes, Gonzo) as a narrator reading lines from the book as Charles Dickens.  Along with Rizzo, his rat friend ("Light the candle, not the rat!").  Because why not? 

Caine plays it mostly straight alongside his Muppet co-stars which is part of why the movie works so well.  The movie also uses songs in that sweet, Muppet way to break up the tale. 

Cutting to the heart of it, this is one of the funniest films ever made.  And this was the third installment.  When has the third movie been leaps and bounds better than the first two?  

There are so many iconic lines:"Can't see the lines, can you Russ?""S&%@*er's full!""Save the neck for me, Clark!""Oh, it's just a little dry.""If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised.""Oh, he's just yakking on a bone.  There, he got it."

It's not a story about Christmas, as much as it uses Christmas as a setting during the tear-jerking end.  But, the moral of this story, the heart of the film and George's redemtion are as "Christmas" as you'll get.  It's about giving, it's about goodness and generosity.  And it works so well because it's not afraid to take you to dark places before lifting you back up.  

What else could top it?  

An interesting tidbit, It's a Wonderful Life flopped when it first came out.  But local TV stations began airing it incessently in the 1970's and 80's, where it suddenly caught on as a Christmas movie. 

A Christmas Story (1983)- I've never understood the popularity of this nostalgic story about a boy who desperately wants a Red Ryder B.B. Gun?  I don't get it.  I don't remember 1970, let alone 1940 and that might be the disconnect.  It's a love or hate movie.
Christmas Carol (1938, 1951, 1984, and probably more)- A lot of versions. 1951 is probably the best of this bunch, starring Alastair Sim in a really great performance as Scrooge.  Give me the Muppets or Bill Murray in a different type of telling I guess. 
Bad Santa (2003)- Funny?  You're (instert swearing here) right!  This black comedy is great, if you're into that sort of thing, but it goes a little too much off the rails to make our list.  Billy Bob Thornton does kill it as a hard-drinking con artist though.  
Die Hard (1988)- Is not a Christmas movie. You could set it anywhere and it's the same movie.  Case closed. 
White Christmas (1954)- It's got a great song, which actually came from a 1942 movie with Bing Crosby called Holiday Inn.  The rest of the movie is just silly.  
Love Actually (2003)- This beloved movie interweaves several tales across the pond in a totally corny, sometimes annoying and simple take on love and Christmas.  Silly fun.  Not a great movie. 
Home Alone (1990)- It's funny.  It is charmingly sweet at the end.  But, it's a Three Stooges-like romp at the expense of a couple of knucklehead criminals and sits a level below our others.  Plus, there's Home Alone 2 (ohhhhh, they escaped prison!) and that alone disqualifies it.