chill out with these

12 best Christmas movies to binge during the Houston arctic freeze

Yes, this is a Christmas movie.

Die Hard Movies/20th Century Fox/Facebook

Few things say "Netflix and chill" like a literal arctic freeze. As Houston preps for at least two days of freezing temperatures, many are wisely staying indoors, camped out in front of the TV.

With that in mind, we've rounded up our favorite holiday movies to steam and, natch, binge. Many our classics, some are kooky comedies, and one sparks a dispute if it's even a holiday movie at all.

Stay warm and add these to your queue and watchlist as you wait out our below-30s temps. Here's our list of what to binge in Houston.

Best Christmas movie (more than 50 years old)
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

With help from his guardian angel, a suicidal-on-Christmas Jimmy Stewart finds out how messed up life would be if he wasn’t around. Honestly, you should know this movie backwards and forwards by now.

Best Christmas movie (more than 25 years old)
A Christmas Story (1983)

You most likely know this movie backwards and forwards, since TBS usually shows this all the freakin’ time during the holidays. Nevertheless, the saga of little Ralphie Parker getting a BB gun for Christmas is a timeless standard. And we sure love Dad and his Major Award.

Best adaption of A Christmas Carol — for kids
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1993)

No doubt your little ones will enjoy the sight of the Charles Dickens classic being recreated by Kermit, Gonzo, Miss Piggy and them, with Michael Caine killing it as the one-and-only Ebenezer Scrooge.

Best adaption of A Christmas Carol — for adults
Scrooged (1988)

Bill Murray assumes the Scrooge role as a morally bankrupt TV exec who learns the true meaning of Christmas. Robert Mitchum, Karen Allen, Alfre Woodard, Carol Kane and Bobcat Goldthwait are a few of the folk who appear in this all-star holiday jam.

Best Christmas horror flick
Black Christmas (1974)

Forget about the two recent remakes. The original, directed by A Christmas Story’s Bob Clark and starring Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder as sorority girls being terrorized by a killer during the holidays, is still the bloody standard.

Best foul-mouthed Christmas movie starring Billy Bob Thornton
Bad Santa (2003)

Although his 2005 black-comic caper The Ice Harvest comes a close second, nothing beats this R-rated laugh riot. Thornton plays a miserable, drunken, department-store Santa who tries to pull off a crime while instilling some holiday cheer in a little boy.

Best Christmas movie from Shane Black
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

A pre-Iron Man Robert Downey, Jr. and a pre-throat cancer Val Kilmer become a pair of unlikely sleuths in this sarcastic neo-noir, one of many flicks the writer/director (Lethal Weapon, The Nice Guys) has set during the holiday season.

Best little-known Christmas movie
Comfort & Joy (1984)

Coming straight from Scotland, Local Hero director Bill Forsyth did an offbeat holiday flick where a DJ (Bill Paterson) gets over a breakup while reluctantly becoming part of a turf war between rival ice-cream vendors.

Best Christmas movie for goths
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

We’re sure all those kids who grew up wearing black and listening to The Cure rejoiced when producer Tim Burton and director Henry Selick joined forces for a stop-motion animated flick where a Halloween-minded dude aims to take over Christmas.

Best LGBT Christmas movie
Tangerine (2015)

Before he went on to make the Oscar-nominated The Florida Project, filmmaker Sean Baker did this unlikely holiday film about a transgender sex worker (transgender actress Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) who spends Christmas Eve looking for her cheating boyfriend/pimp.

Best budding Christmas movie
Friday After Next (2002)

The final installment in Ice Cube’s hood-comedy trilogy has him and Mike Epps serving as strip-mall security guards ducking thugs, angry grandmothers, and a gift-jacking Santa. They still find time to get high though.

Best Christmas movie that is indisputably a Christmas movie — The End
Die Hard (1988)

Bruce Willis, terrorists, explosions – blah, blah, blah. We know it came out during the summer. But all of it happened on Christmas Eve, so it’s a Christmas movie. We’re done talking about it—let the debates begin!

Steven Devadanam contributed to this story.

Hottest Headlines of 2025

Ren Fest drama tops Houston's hottest entertainment headlines of 2025

Texas Renaissance Festival/ Facebook

The Texas Renaissance Festival returns October 11.

Editor's note: This year was a busy one for CultureMap's Entertainment section. A lawsuit brought changes to the Texas Renaissance Festival, country star Post Malone left a life-changing tip, and one of Houston's most respected pitmasters came up a little short on the national stage. Houston’s entertainment news proves the diversity of our city.

Read on for the 10 top Houston entertainment headlines of 2025:

1. Winner of Ren Fest lawsuit plans to keep the event mostly unchanged. The Texas Renaissance Festival got a new owner this year, following a contentious court battle. But what would that mean for the beloved fall festival that generations have come to love? Surprisingly little for attendees. The new owner vowed to keep RenFest mostly the same. “...We're sticking with what works,” said Anthony Laporte, the attorney representing the new owner. “...Both the old owners and the new ones are planning to give visitors a great time.”

Texas Renaissance Festival/ Facebook

The Texas Renaissance Festival has a new owner.

2. Judge rules Texas Renaissance Festival owner must sell his kingdom. For more than half a century, George Coulam reigned as king of the Texas Renaissance Festival in Todd Mission. In 2023, he agreed to sell the beloved festival, then reneged on the deal. In May, a Grimes County judge ordered the sale to go through in the culmination of a long legal battle. The drama behind the festival was depicted in the HBO docuseries Ren Faire.

3. Star Houston pitmaster flames out on Food Network barbecue competition. On July 20, Houston pitmaster Greg Gatlin’s run on the Food Network show BBQ Brawl came to an end. Judges criticized his preparation of New York strip with grilled broccolini with Calabrian chili. The owner of Gatlin’s BBQ and Gatlin’s Fins & Feathers, took the disappointing news in stride. “It hurts, but I think I did my family’s name proud,” he said.

4. Premier Houston nightclub group reopening iconic strip club this month. This summer, the Colorado Club became part of The Clé Group’s portfolio. The strip club was a magnet for A-listers in the 1990s and early ‘00s. Following the death of founder Dallas Fontenot in September 2021, the venue passed to his son Dakota, who ultimately decided to sell the club. The new owners upgraded the food and implemented a host of other improvements like state-of-the-art lighting and sound, an updated design, and multiple stages.

5. Bun B, Ludacris, Keith Sweat, and more throw epic birthday bonanza at RodeoHouston. Houston hip-hop legend Bun B threw himself a birthday party on March 7, in his appearance at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s Black Heritage Day. TSU’s Ocean of Soul and Prairie View A&M’s Marching Storm bands performed sets, and video greetings from celebs were part of the pre-concert festivities. The concert had strong performances but some unfortunate technical glitches.

6. All the White Linen Night parties happening in the Heights and beyond. From its beginnings in the Heights, White Linen Night has spread across the Bayou City. This list gave readers a guide to 25 of the summer tradition’s parties and specials, from a build-your-own succulent bar to band performances.

7. Post Malone shocks Houston bartender with 'life-changing' $20,000 tip. When the music superstar stopped in to visit The Railyard on Christmas Eve 2024, bar regulars picked up his tab. But that didn’t stop him from leaving a $20,000 tip for bartender Renee Brown. "His generosity … blew me away,” she said. “This definitely wasn't the Christmas Eve I was expecting, but one I'm forever thankful to have had."

8. RodeoHouston taps Post Malone, Bun B, Reba McEntire, and more for 2025 concerts. One of Houston’s most anticipated lineups was announced in January, at a media event at NRG Center. Performers for the March 4-23 event represented a variety of genres, heavily focused on country, but also including pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, regional Mexican, and Christian music.

9. Nine Inch Nails hammers Houston at career-spanning Toyota Center concert. Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inductees Nine Inch Nails returned to Houston and the Toyota Center on September 12, opening the show with the industrial ballad “Right Where It Belongs.” “NIN has always had a forward propulsion,” wrote our reviewer Craig Hlavaty. “There’s no concept of nostalgia, just raw nerves endlessly being rediscovered by fresh ears.”

10. Post Malone's road show lifts up RodeoHouston with heart and soul. Months after headlining the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Post Malone was back in the Houston spotlight in a show that “was easily the hottest ticket of the season.” He used the evening to share his latest album F-1 Trillion, “a collection of expertly crafted pop-country.”

hot-headlines