EW: "12 Must-Watch Christmas Classics"

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The Thin Man (1934)





Relationship goals: the sophisticated, urbane, and witty Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy) Charles (created by mystery author Dashiell Hammett) as they galavant through Manhattan nightlife solving crimes.

Powell and Loy have an effortless chemistry (they eventually made 14 movies together, including several Thin Man films), adding to the movies' lighthearted feel, even in the face of investigating a murder.

This first in the series appropriately kicks off during the holidays: If only we were all able to call out killers at glamorous dinner parties or celebrate the festive season with a long line of martinis.







Bachelor Mother (1939)





Ginger Rogers was just departing her successful musical partnership with Fred Astaire when she embarked on this entertaining romp set during the holiday season, which interestingly conveys the concerns over an unwed mother several decades ago. Rogers is shopworker Polly Parrish, who gets mistakenly identified as the mother of an abandoned baby.

A series of complications ensue, especially when her boss (a dashing David Niven) gets tangled up in the scandal and is assumed to be the father. Rogers has wonderful chemistry with both Niven and the baby, and even though Polly seems (rightfully) dubious about everyone's assumption that the ideal Christmas present for a young woman is a child, eventually she rises to the task.







The Shop Around the Corner (1940)





Real-life friends Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan are co-workers who loathe each other as they fall in love over an anonymous pen-pal relationship.

If you're a fan of You've Got Mail, you'll likely appreciate its source material here, while director Ernst Lubitsch crafts a charming cast of characters in Budapest, no less, as the shop workers get ready for the holiday season. The characters are on a lower pay scale than your typical showy Hollywood setting, yet still look past initial pride and prejudices to find a love story for the ages in a humble stockroom.







Meet John Doe (1941)





Frank Capra takes on the "forgotten man" in this 1941 charmer. Barbara Stanwyck, as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the His Girl Friday vein, crafts an anonymous letter in the paper from a man who says he'll jump off the top of city hall on Christmas Eve due to man's continuous inhumanity to man.

The John Doe becomes a sensation, as the whole city wants to offer him a job and prevent him from jumping. So Stanwyck and the paper find an actual man living life on the rails (Gary Cooper) to pose as John Doe, who quickly becomes overwhelmed by all the attention.

This movie may even out-Capra It's a Wonderful Life with its celebration of everyday people and the connection between neighbors — a sentiment that fits perfectly within the holiday season.







The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)





The houseguest from hell takes precedence in this fun adaptation of a Kaufman and Hart play, probably spied at a high school near you. Prestigious man of letters Sheridan Whiteside (Monty Woolley) spills down the snowy front steps at the home of small-town family the Stanleys, where he's planned a promo dinner in Mesalia, Ohio, right around the holidays.

He proceeds to commandeer the entire household, hilariously insulting one and all, until, of course, he turns his attention to fixing all of the Stanley family's problems. Bette Davis masters a rare light comedy turn as Sherry's long-suffering secretary, with Billie Burke as the overwhelmed matriarch of the Stanley clan.







Christmas in Connecticut (1945)





In this delightful romp, Barbara Stanwyck is a 1940s career woman who has essentially billed herself as a domestic goddess precursor to Martha Stewart. But in fact, she's anything but. She's just a really good writer. So when her publisher wants to meet her in person, she rents out a lovely Connecticut home, complete with a makeshift husband and baby.

Then, a visit by an extremely charming war vet (Dennis Morgan) threatens to derail her entire ruse. This film is a holiday joy from start to finish, complete with tree trimming, flapjack flipping, and a flirty carriage ride.







The Bishop's Wife (1947)





Cary Grant's cinematic charm has always seemed otherworldly, but never more so than in his turn as an actual angel in The Bishop's Wife.

David Niven is a young bishop who's so tripped up by ambition and the desire to build a cathedral that he's forgotten what's truly important — even his own family. An angel named Dudley (Grant) shows up to set things right again.



Honestly, it's tough to find a Christmas movie more charming than this one. Dudley's walks through the city make it seem as bucolic as a small town, while each amiable resident, from the Professor (Monty Woolley) to the title character herself (Loretta Young), is more appealing than the next.

Naturally, with Dudley's help, the bishop eventually rediscovers the true meaning of Christmas, a message that The Bishop's Wife ably passes along to its holiday audience.







It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)





A pair of men who are unhoused solve their housing problem by squatting at the Fifth Avenue home of a rich industrialist when he heads south for the winter. Obviously, hijinks ensue, especially when the wealthy man's daughter heads to the New York mansion after running away from finishing school, and a few other WWII vets and their families enter the mix just in time to spend the holidays together.

It Happened on 5th Avenue not only highlights the post-war housing crisis, but also offers an appealing communion between the haves and the have-nots as they switch places and experience life from the other side.







Miracle on 34th Street (1947)





Divorced, busy career woman Doris (Maureen O'Hara), with a wise-beyond-her-years daughter, Susan (Natalie Wood), hires an unusual man to play Santa Claus at Macy's department store. In fact, he truly believes he's Santa himself!

Along the way, he gets into a bit of trouble over his proclaimed persona, but he's even able to crack the hardened hearts of Doris and Susan, as an ambitious young lawyer (John Payne) aims to defend Santa legally.

Edmund Gwenn won an Oscar for the role he was born to play, Kris Kringle. And honestly, couldn't we all use a reason to believe in Santa Claus, especially one that stands up in court?







Holiday Affair (1949)





A brunette Janet Leigh and a broad-shouldered Robert Mitchum have chemistry in spades in this post-war romance. The pair meet at a department store (a popular setting in many of these holiday movies!) and immediately spark a connection just before Christmas, but she's a young widow with a 6-year-old son and a devoted suitor (too bad, Wendell Corey).

Safety and security are obviously going to lose in the fight against such fierce romantic magnetism, especially with Mitchum in the mix.







A Christmas Carol (1951)





The definitive version of Dickens' Christmas parable features Alastair Sims as an absolutely iconic Scrooge. His dourness at the start of the film is in such contrast to the jubilant Ebenezer at the end, they scarcely appear to be the same person, and the stark black-and-white cinematography makes the legendary tale seem even more like a straight-up ghost story.

There are a multitude of Christmas Carols to be viewed: animated, CGI, Muppets, Bill Murray's Scrooged, and even Spirited with Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell. But this Christmas, you may just want to go back to the ultimate classic and ponder your own Christmases past, present, and future.







The Apartment (1960)





Jack Lemmon plays office lackey C.C. Baxter with a crush on cute elevator gal Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) in director Billy Wilder's attack on the emptiness of corporate culture.

Baxter's eponymous home is being used by all the higher-ups for their extramarital dates — which he takes advantage of to climb up the corporate ladder, until he finds out that Fran is involved with his own boss (Fred MacMurray, expertly playing against type).

Framing The Apartment at the holidays (The office Christmas party! The melancholy New Year's Eve celebrations!) just makes the solitary status of our players more acute, until they manage to craft a true connection of their own.

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