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- We Don't Need to Check Twice – We're Sure These Horrible Holiday Movies Made Santa's Naughty List
We Don't Need to Check Twice – We're Sure These Horrible Holiday Movies Made Santa's Naughty List
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Holiday movies can bring a lot of cheer, but not always. And thinking about really great holiday movies has us wondering: what are the worst holiday movies of all time? For every smart, funny, and heartwarming movie, there’s one that’s the cinematic equivalent of a big lump of coal in your stocking.
These horrible holiday movies truly have the potential to make you feel like it’s the most miserable time of the year. We’ve found plenty of duds – filled with plenty of big-name stars – that failed big-time to find that holiday magic. From comedies that just weren’t funny to holiday horror movies that miscalculated their tone, there’s a whole wide world of holiday movies that are anything but jolly. Although holiday settings are obviously popular for a number of reasons, it seems like a lot of filmmakers simply never figured out how to make a Christmas movie that hit the right spot.
So what are truly the worst holiday movies ever? We’ll leave it up to you to decide what takes the number-one spot as Worst Holiday Movie Ever, but these are a few titles to choose from that we’re pretty sure aren’t going to be anyone’s favorites. For the sake of this list, we’re sticking with theatrical and direct-to-video releases, rather than trying to sort through the numerous made-for-TV holiday movies that populate Lifetime, Hallmark, and other channels all winter long. How many of these infamous holiday flops have you seen?
Last Christmas
Everything about this movie sounded great on paper: Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding in a rom-com co-written by Emma Thompson and based on a catchy, cheesy Christmas pop song. Then . . . the movie came out. While it’s not as heavily panned as most of the movies on this list, its sub-50% Rotten Tomatoes score reflects the deep drop of disappointment after a lot of hype.
A Bad Moms Christmas
The raunchy girl-comedy stars some of the funniest women working today: Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines, and Susan Sarandon. Instead of being a spiky cup of eggnog, it’s just kind of bland.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
It’s a holiday classic that’s charming enough that you forget how it’s not a particularly good movie. At least this sequel ranks above the increasingly diminishing returns on later “sequels” in the Home Alone universe.
Home Alone 3
The first (of what would be several) Home Alone movies to move away from the McCallister family ended up being a big pile of coal.
Unaccompanied Minors
An early Paul Feig movie, this comedy about a group of – you guessed it – unaccompanied kids stranded at an airport over the holidays just totally failed to take off.
Noel
Another case of “great cast, terrible results”: Robin Williams, Penelope Cruz, Susan Sarandon, and Daniel Sunjata all star in this dud of an ensemble Christmas drama about the interlocking lives of New Yorkers.
Four Christmases
This Vince Vaugh-slash-Reese Witherspoon comedy about a couple stuck going to several different family Christmas celebrations earned criticism for having a cliche storm of a script, among other things.
I'll Be Home For Christmas
’90s kids probably have this Disney-produced flop starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas burned into their collective memory, despite the fact that it was critically panned.
Fred Claus
The mid-2000s were an era of dudebro slapstick comedy, so it’s no wonder that the genre took a swing at a Christmas flick. This one, about Santa’s washed-up, overshadowed brother, can’t decide if it’s a crass comedy or a sentimental tearjerker.
Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas
While some of Perry’s Madea movies have become classics, this Christmas entry, centering on a secret marriage lie that spins out of control, isn’t one of them.
Love the Coopers
With a cast that includes Diane Keaton, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, and Olivia Wilde, this family-reunion Christmas comedy should have been hilarious and touching. Instead, it turned into a paint-by-numbers mini-melodrama.
The Perfect Holiday
A divorced mother, a daughter setting up her mom, a department store Santa, and Queen Latifah all collide in a cliche-ridden comedy that struggled to get positive reviews.
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
The first two Santa Clause movies were fairly cute, goofy comedies for the whole family. By the time this third one rolled around, though, franchise fatigue had set in, resulting in a bonkers time-travel plot and an increasing reliance on the same old tired gags.
Jingle All the Way
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Christmas movies is not exactly a combination you’d expect. The result: a slapstick-y comedy that tries (and mostly fails) to satirise Christmas consumerism.
Black Christmas
The 2006 remake of the horror classic winds up being a slasher flick with a holiday setting and not much in the way of creativity, as four sorority sisters try to evade a serial killer on campus over the holidays.
Surviving Christmas
You’d think a family comedy starring Ben Affleck, James Gandolfini, Christina Applegate, and Catherine O’Hara would be delightful, right? Unfortunately, the movie suffers from forcing its talented cast to play deeply unlikable characters.
Deck the Halls
What might have been a fun comedy about neighbors trying to one-up each other with extravagant holiday decorations instead devolves into a surprisingly mean movie devoid of any real cheer.
Christmas With the Kranks
When a couple decides to take a break from the merriment and go on a holiday cruise instead, their super-competitive neighbours take it as a personal offense and turn them into the neighbourhood pariahs in a comedy that mostly picks the lowest-hanging fruit.
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
Quite possibly the strangest holiday movie title ever, this one is the perfect terrible marriage of overly-earnest Christmas comedies and schlocky 1960s sci-fi. It really is all there in the title. Martians abduct Santa Claus to introduce the concept of “fun” to their society, while a handful of dissident Martians try to sabotage him every step of the way, all with ridiculous plotting, even more ridiculous dialogue, and poor production value that looks even more dated now.
Trapped in Paradise
Another Christmas crime comedy, another dud. This one centers on a trio of brothers – two ex-cons and their “good” brother – who wind up attempting to rob a bank. While the robbery itself goes off without a hitch, getting away turns into a long-winded comedy of errors. It’s meant to be funny, but with the humor falling flat, it really just never feels enjoyable to watch.
Mixed Nuts
You’d think that a Nora Ephron-directed movie starring Steve Martin, Rita Wilson, Anthony LaPaglia, Juliette Lewis, and Adam Sandler would be a highlight in the Christmas movie genre. Unfortunately, this was a misfire for everyone involved. The convoluted dark comedy involves the workers at a suicide-prevention hotline, their personal crises, and a bunch of slapstick-y hijinks that happen over the course of one night, all of which ends up just being a questionable mishmash of oddball scenes.
Reindeer Games
Truly, the image of Ben Affleck dressed in a Santa suit, peering around a corner with a gun, tells you everything about this holiday-themed heist flick. After a prison fight results in the death of his cellmate, a convict escapes and takes on his dead friend’s identity and tries to make it home for Christmas. Instead, he finds out that his pal had been involved with a criminal gang’s planned casino heist, and now he’s forced to do the job for them. The bizarre blend of out-and-out violence with an unintentionally comic holiday theme makes this a must miss.