Given how stressful the festive period can be these days, many choose to turn to the world of movies to help take the edge off of things. Whether they're looking for a feel-good flick to refill their dwindling stock of festive spirit or a laugh-out-loud Christmas comedy to distract them from their long to-do lists, tinsel-town tends to have an answer for everything.

Not all Christmas movies are suitable for families, however, with some better enjoyed alone or with a more mature group of people. That's not to say that none of these movies are appropriate for children, though there's arguably a much better selection of Christmas movies for kids available elsewhere.

Updated December 21, 2023, by Tom Bowen: There's a lot to love about Christmas, from spending time with loved ones to giving and receiving gifts. Perhaps one of the greatest things about the festive season, however, is the chance to sit down and enjoy a good Christmas movie, with plenty of great options available on streaming platforms. The best Christmas movies for adults can take a viewer right back to their childhood, or provide a few good laughs at a time that can otherwise be quite stressful for those with responsibilities. For grown-ups looking to escape for a few hours this holiday season, these adult-oriented Christmas movies are well worth the watch.

1 Spirited

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

• Available on Apple TV

When most people sit down to watch Spirited, they'll likely find themselves wondering why Apple didn't just make an Elf sequel. Truth be told, that question will probably still be lingering when the credits start to roll, though that's not to say that Spirited doesn't still make for an enchanting and entertaining Christmas movie when all's said and done.

The A Christmas Carrol-inspired flick sees Will Ferrell play the Ghost of Christmas Present, who's determined to help Ryan Reynolds' Clint Briggs character to change his ways. He soon finds, however, that it's he who needs help changing and that his motivations for choosing Clint are a lot more personal than he'd ever care to admit.

2 The Ref

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73% (Certified Fresh)

• Available on Amazon Prime Video

The Ref may not have been the best Christmas movie for adults to come out of the nineties, but it still makes for an incredibly entertaining watch nonetheless. It's a comedy-drama that tells the story of a cat burglar who ends up taking a bickering couple hostage after his accomplice ditches him midway through a break-in.

Despite having potential for some dark and questionable moments, the movie instead plays more into the lighter side of the situation, with the would-be burglar helping the couple deal with some of their lingering personal problems. Packed full of funny moments, The Ref is surprisingly relatable and well worth a watch this Christmas.

3 Fatman

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 44%

• Available on Peacock

Those looking for something a little darker to watch this Christmas would do well to check out Fatman: a 2020 indie flick starring Mel Gibson and Walton Goggins. It sees jolly old Saint Nick agreeing to produce military equipment for the US government to make up for the loss of income from his faltering toy-making business, which has seen a sharp decline in recent years due to more and more children's names being added to the naughty list.

One such child is Billy Wenan, a spoiled rich kid who expects everything to be handed to him on a plate. When Billy finds a lump of coal in his stocking rather than the gifts that he wanted, he swears revenge on Santa. This is no idle threat either, with Billy even going as far as hiring a hitman to take Chris Cringle out. What follows is a mixture of action and comedy that is well worth checking out.

4 A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%

• Available on HBO Max & Paramount Plus

While it's great to see Kal Penn and John Cho getting bigger and bigger roles, the pair's success in recent years has had a negative impact on the Harold & Kumar movie franchise. It's now been more than a decade since the last H&K movie was released, with fans receiving no solid confirmation that a true follow-up to A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas will ever see the light of day during that period.

As with the other two Harold & Kumar movies, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas is an incredibly silly affair that is very much a product of its era. Neil Patrick Harris once again appears as himself, with the titular characters' drug-fuelled escapades offering up a slightly more viewer-friendly alternative to the likes of Cheech & Chong and the Friday trilogy.

5 Bad Santa

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78% (Certified Fresh)

• Available on Paramount Plus & Fubo

Bad Santa is a movie that takes great pride in its vulgarity and often goes out of its way to be far ruder than it really needs to be. It can therefore be a little puerile in places, though, for the most part, the writing feels pretty true to the characters. With all this in mind, for those looking for a laugh-out-loud no-holds-barred Christmas-themed movie, they really don't come too much better than this.

Billy Bob Thornton delivers a real gift of a performance that's in stark contrast to some of his other leading roles. The supporting cast also play their parts well, particularly Tony Cox. Sadly, the 2016 sequel fails to come close to matching the original in any department, though it did help to show that the humor in the original was actually quite well-measured rather than just the writers throwing out curse words and vulgar one-liners for the sake of shocking the audience.

6 Die Hard

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% (Certified Fresh)

• Available on Disney+

Even though Bruce Willis himself likes to maintain that Die Hard isn't actually a Christmas movie, the majority still tend to see it as one anyway. It's a little strange in that respect, as the first Lethal Weapon movie is also set at Christmas and yet rarely crops up during conversations regarding festive flicks. Some would perhaps argue that this is simply due to Die Hard being a much better movie though.

In John McClane and Hans Gruber, Die Hard boasts one of the most memorable, not to mention the most compelling hero/villain combinations of all time. The near-constant banter between the pair perfectly punctuates the movie's excellent action scenes and is just one of the many reasons that tens of thousands of people sit down to watch Die Hard every year during the Christmas period.

7 Eyes Wide Shut

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76% (Certified Fresh)

• Available on Paramount Plus

For the more cynical movie lovers out there, Eyes Wide Shut does a fantastic job of critiquing the increasingly consumeristic nature of Christmas. The lavishly decorated backdrops help to make the movie feel pretty festive too, though much of the on-screen conversation is centered firmly around spending rather than celebrating. It's perhaps a little depressing, but also a fairly accurate representation of Christmas in modern times.

Eyes Wide Shut would also wind up being Stanley Kubrick's final gift to the world, with the legendary director dropping dead just six days after delivering his supposed final cut to the higher-ups at Warner Bros. Some have questioned whether it was truly finished before Kubrick's death, but it remains an excellent movie regardless and one that every cinephile should watch at least once in their lifetime.

8 Home Alone

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66%

• Available on Disney+ & Starz

Had the first two Home Alone movies been released in 2021 rather than in the nineties, they would almost certainly have fallen under the PG-13 rating due to the ridiculous amount of slapstick violence they each contain. One thing that hasn't changed, however, is the humor that's found throughout the movies, which remains just as funny today as it was three decades ago.

Watching Hank and Marv getting repeatedly outsmarted by an eight-year-old child is highly enjoyable, as too are some of Kevin's attempts at being a grown-up once he's come to terms with being left alone. There's also the whole nostalgia factor, with most adult Americans having watched the original movies at one point or another during the nineties; many of them multiple times.

9 It's a Wonderful Life

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% (Certified Fresh)

• Available on Amazon Prime Video, Fubo & USA

Based loosely on Dickens' A Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life is widely regarded as being one of the best movies of all time; let alone one of the best Christmas movies. This is perhaps a little ironic, as when it was first released back in 1946, the movie struggled to break even at the box office and received mixed reviews from critics despite picking up five Academy Award nominations. In fact, were it not for the clerical error that led to the movie entering the public domain early in 1974, it probably wouldn't be anywhere near as revered as it is today.

The aforementioned error allowed broadcasters to screen the movie without the need to pay any royalties, meaning that it was shown frequently across multiple stations every year around the festive period. This in turn led to it becoming an iconic and ever-present seasonal fixture; a status that it still holds in many households to this very day. The movie has also been colorized in recent years to better adhere to modern standards, but the original still holds up fairly well too.

10 The Nightmare Before Christmas

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95% (Certified Fresh)

• Available on Disney+

The Nightmare Before Christmas started life as a poem written by a young Disney animator in the early eighties. Just over a decade later, however, it would go on to become one of the most successful Christmas movies of all time, raking in more than $90 million at the box office and wowing both critics and audiences with its fantastic stop-motion animation and incredible originality.

With the massive improvements in CGI technology and the more intuitive animation techniques that are on offer in the modern age, The Nightmare Before Christmas is arguably no longer as much of a spectacle as it once was. That doesn't make its story or characters any less magical though, nor can these advancements take away the nostalgic bliss that revisiting the movie can still evoke almost three decades on from its original release.