50 Best Christmas Movies

Most Christmassy Moment: Take your pick.

All permutations are here, from grand romantic gestures (cue card-laden Andrew Lincoln in the snow) to quiet family bonds (Laura Linney and her mentally ill brother), to the raucous singletons' Christmas of Bill Nighy and Gregor Fisher spending the big day together getting drunk and watching porn.

Most Christmassy Moment: Samantha's 'cover' is blown when she is recognised playing Mrs Claus in the local Christmas parade.

Most Christmassy Moment: Everyone's equal at Christmas, as chambermaid Louise strips out of her uniform while singing 'Heads or Tails.'

Most Christmassy Moment: The Grinch waits expectantly to hear the Whos crying at the loss of their presents, only to be flummoxed by a chorus of singing brought on by Christmas spirit.

Most Christmassy Moment: The cons make Christmas dinner for their hosts.

Yes, the food might be stolen but it's the thought that counts.

Most Christmassy Moment: The climactic performance in Coventry Cathedral, featuring schoolkid TJ dangling high above the ground on wires as the Angel Gabriel.

Most Christmassy Moment: Simon (Desmond Askew) overindulges as he gate-crashes a wedding, has a threesome with two bridesmaids and sets fire to his hotel room.

There's always one who takes things too far.

Most Christmassy Moment: When the robbers ransack the family home for the money (which they'd originally stolen), dad Ronald (James Nesbitt) decides the best way to stop them getting it is a spending splurge on Christmas pressies.

Most Christmassy Moment: On a balcony outside the Hudsucker Christmas party, Norville bonds with undercover reporter Amy Archer (Jennifer Jason Leigh) by imagining her as a gazelle.

"Perhaps we met once, a chance encounter in a forest glade. I must have been an antelope or an ibex."

Most Christmassy Moment: The whole thing rings painfully true for anyone who's ever had an awkward family Christmas.

Most Christmassy Moment: An authentically horrible works do, with office affairs and terrible 1970s suits competing with a raucous sing-a-long.

Most Christmassy Moment: Rocky gets exactly what he wanted from Santa, as he takes out Drago in the 15th round.

Most Christmassy Moment: The ceasefire begins after German private Sprink (Benno Fürmann) sings Silent Night and is accompanied by a Scottish bagpipe player from across No Man's Land.

Most Christmassy Moment: When the boss of the mine throws candy at the village kids in a false attempt at Christmas spirit, they do what anyone would do under the circumstances - they chuck snowballs back at him.

Most Christmassy Moment: Christmas is as much a state of mind as an actual day, which is how Lucy manages to meet and fall in love with Jack when the family arranges a belated Christmas celebration.

Most Christmassy Moment: A victim's screams are drowned out by the jolly sound of Christmas carollers outside.

Most Christmassy Moment: A lifetime of memory condensed into one stunning 12-minute take, as the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge what he gave up in pursuit of wealth.

Most Christmassy Moment: Airport cop Carmine Lorenzo (Dennis Franz) makes amends with John McClane (Bruce Willis) by ripping up his parking ticket.

"Ah, what the hell! It's Christmas!"

Most Christmassy Moment: Kevin McCallister (Macauley Culkin) is reunited with his mom under the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.

Most Christmassy Moment: A family squabble outside a girl's home about who will deliver is present is resolved when everybody remembers that it should be down to the person most eager to make the child happy, ie Arthur.

Most Christmassy Moment: Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) gets Batman (Michael Keaton) where she wants him - under the mistletoe.

"You know, mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it," he warns.

"But a kiss can be even deadlier... if you mean it," she replies, licking him from chin to masked forehead

Most Christmassy Moment: They might be vicious gangsters, but Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and his family know how to throw a Christmas feast.

Most Christmassy Moment: The wry opening sequence, in which three not-so-wise-men get hopelessly lost and arrive in Brian's stable

Most Christmassy Moment: Scott inadvertently signs the Clause by putting on the Santa suit and taking the reindeer out for a spin.

Most Christmassy Moment: The two finally declare their love on Christmas Eve.

Most Christmassy Moment: Santa is introduced to the elf workshop - the big screen's most dazzling depiction of a global toy manufacturing factory.

Most Christmassy Moment: The punchline to the film, as Alice (Nicole Kidman) tells Bill what she's going to give him while they're out Christmas shopping.

Most Christmassy Moment: The picture-postcard look of Bruges itself.

Most Christmassy Moment: Brought low with the Christmas blues, C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is picked up by fellow lonely heart Margie MacDougall (Hope Holiday) for a Christmas bonus - only to find an even more depressed character, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) has attempted suicide in Baxter's apartment.

Most Christmassy Moment: Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) dressed a pep talk from a man dressed as Santa.

Shame it's Minister of Information Helpmann (Peter Vaughn), offering just platitudes and clichés before Sam is led off to be tortured.

Most Christmassy Moment: Esther (Judy Garland) uses the power of song to tell kid sister Tootie (Margaret O'Brien) to 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'.

Most Christmassy Moment: Michelle Monaghan in a Santa suit.

Most Christmassy Moment: True to legend, the 'real' Santa cares if you're naughty or nice... but only because he kills anyone who falls into the former category.

Most Christmassy Moment: Scrooge orders Bob Cratchit (Mervyn Johns) into his office - and then confounds him by raising the clerk's salary, and then bursts into uncontrollable laughter.

Most Christmassy Moment: The opening Christmas celebrations, as Bergman maps out the family relationships against the backdrop of an astonishing, extravagant Yuletide feast.

Most Christmassy Moment: Riggs tells a joke unlikely to make it into any Christmas cracker - "What did one shepherd say to the other shepherd? Let's get the flock out of here!"

Most Christmassy Moment: A disgraced Louis, disguised as Santa, is forced to eat the stuffing from his costume and is so down-on-his-luck he can't even get a suicide attempt right.

Most Christmassy Moment: Despite nearly blinding himself with the gun, Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) contentedly goes to bed with his prize present by his side.

Most Christmassy Moment: All together - "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas."

Most Christmassy Moment: Clark gets the best Christmas show on the street, by virtue of a methane explosion propelling his decorations into the sky.

Most Christmassy Moment: Having seen the light, Willie races home, cops in pursuit, to hand The Kid (Brett Kelly) a Christmas present.

Most Christmassy Moment: Frank goes mad with joy, live on air, by preaching to his audience to switch off their sets and spend Christmas with their loved ones

Most Christmassy Moment: Susan is sure her hunch about Kringle is right when he effortlessly slips into Dutch while speaking to a Jewish refugee girl.

Most Christmassy Moment: The Kenosha Kickers, led by jovial Gus Polinski (John Candy) offer Kevin's mom Kate (Catherine O'Hara) a lift home on Christmas Eve so she can be with her son on the big day.

Most Christmassy Moment: The Ghost of Christmas Present has a crack at persuading Scrooge of the joys of Yuletide in festive anthem 'It Feels Like Christmas.'

Most Christmassy Moment: Jack Skellington discovers Christmas Town. "What's this?" as every festive cliché comes to life in joyous fashion.

Most Christmassy Moment: Where else is the final battle between cuddly Mogwai Gizmo and chief Gremlin Stripe going to take place at this time of year?

In a department store, as would-be stocking fillers are put to uses their manufacturers never anticipated.

Most Christmassy Moment: Jovie (Zooey Deschanel) leads New York in a rendition of 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' to restore the Christmas Spirit needed to power Santa's sleigh.

Most Christmassy Moment: Yuletide, L.A. style as McClane's chauffeur Argyle (De'voreaux White) plays rap in the limo.

"Don't you got any Christmas music?" asks McClane.

"This is Christmas music!" replies Argyle, cranking up Run DMC's 'Christmas in Hollis'.

Most Christmassy Moment: George Bailey returns home on Christmas Eve to find that friends and family have bailed out the "greatest man" in town, while Clarence the second-class angel finally gets his wings.