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Offbeat, unexpected or poetic… Discover our favourite Christmas movies
The holiday season is here, and we are not giving up the traditional Christmas films and delightfully kitsch romantic comedies this year. But we are also turning our attention to more unusual feature stories happening at this time of year. From thrillers to horror films and family-friendly productions, Numéro has selected eleven movies to (re)watch curled up on the sofa, under a warm blanket, while drinking a hot chocolate or a chai latte…
and Alexandre Chevarin.
Published on 25 December 2025. Updated on 1 April 2026.
Last Christmas with Emilia Clarke
Among the best recent Christmas releases, we are particularly fond of the endearing, funny, but also moving Last Christmas (2019). Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones, Me Before You) carries the movie with her irresistible charm, flair and energy, as Kate, a young woman who works as an elf in a Christmas shop. After going through a terrible event, and still dreaming of becoming a singer, she crosses paths with Tom as the festive season is in full swing. The latter will quickly help her see life differently. Even if, as in all good romcoms, things didn’t get off to the best start between them…
Last Christmas (2019) by Paul Feig, available on Netflix.
Sheitan by Kim Chapiron, starring Leïla Bekhti
From Père Fouettard (French for “Father Whipper”) to the Grinch, there are plenty of terrifying figures in the world of Christmas. French actor Vincent Cassel embodies one of these nightmarish characters in Sheitan (2007) by French director Kim Chapiron. He portrays the handyman Joseph, a rough, neurotic caretaker of the country house belonging to the hypnotic Ève, played by the sublime Roxane Mesquida.
After a heavy night out at a club on Christmas Eve, the young woman invites a group of yong people, including French actors Leïla Bekhti and Ladj Ly, to stay with her at her farmhouse deep in the countryside. Little by little, a suffocating atmosphere sets in and the trap closes. The holiday stay soon becomes a massacre, whose climax takes place on the night of the Nativity. The faint-hearted ones should avoid watching it…
Sheïtan (2007) by Kim Chapiron, available on Canal + and Prime Video.
The Holiday with Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz
This 2006 film directed by the queen of melodrama Nancy Meyers has not aged a day. Its five-star cast, including Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black, is a treat. Just like the houses inhabited by the protagonists and the story itself, which explores two broken hearts in search of healing.
We follow an American woman, Amanda (played by Cameron Diaz), and an Englishwoman, Iris (portrayed by Kate Winslet) who, disillusioned by the men they loved, decide to swap homes. This reversal of their lives unleashes a torrent of heightened emotions and tears for the viewer. But thankfully, as is often the case in Hollywood, everything turns out well in the end.
The Holiday (2006) by Nancy Meyers, available on Netflix.
8 Women with Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert
In the 1950s, on Christmas Eve, a man is brutally murdered in a bourgeois family home. This is the premise of 8 Women (2002), a kitsch gem that brilliantly blends burlesque and glamour. Directed by François Ozon, it is based on a detective stage play written by Robert Thomas and first performed in 1958.
The cast brings together the crème de la crème of French cinema. Catherine Deneuve is the housewife, Isabelle Huppert is the bitter, hypochondriac sister, Fanny Ardant is a flighty femme fatale, and Emmanuelle Béart is a sensual governess. All of them deliver dazzling performances with a delightful mix of humour and macabre, even breaking into renditions of classic French pop songs on screen. These eight stars of French cinema will light up our Christmas night with elegance.
8 Women (2002) by François Ozon, available on Canal+ and Amazon Prime Video.
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Sharon Maguire
At first glance, the romance between the clumsy Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) and the deadpan Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) had nothing of a fairy tale about it. In Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) by American director Sharon Maguire, the first film in the saga, the two singletons meet at a Christmas party in a small village in the English countryside, where their respective parents live.
Ultra-kitsch reindeer jumpers, champagne and big moments of loneliness… Their first interaction is a flop and the Christmas magic cannot save them. A cult classic to watch during the holiday season, especially to see Bridget Jones in her pyjamas running barefoot in the snow.
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) by Sharon Maguire, available on Canal+ and Amazon Prime Video.
Season’s Beatings by Danièle Thompson
“Christmas, that delicious yet pernicious holiday, strikes the hour of truth for three sisters: Louba the singer, Sonia the bourgeois, and Milla the rebel. And for their parents too: Stanislas, a retired gypsy violinist, and Yvette, recently widowed from her second husband.” The premise of Season’s Beatings already hints at all the wit and sharpness it contains.
Led by a trio of great actresses – Emmanuelle Béart, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Sabine Azéma – this irresistible film perfectly captures the difficulties linked to the holiday season and the bittersweet atmosphere surrounding it. It offers a true catharsis at that moment when one wonders how on earth it will be possible to gather relatives who don’t necessarily get along around a turkey (or a vegan dish)…
Season’s Beatings (1999) by Danièle Thompson, available in VOD on Canal VOD and Apple TV+.
The Nightmare Before Christmas by Henry Selick
Written by the master of gothic aesthetics Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Wednesday) and directed by Henry Selick (Coraline), The Nightmare Before Christmas is undoubtedly one of the most singular Christmas films on this list. This Disney animated feature released in 1994 plunges us into the fantastical town of Halloween, home to the Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington. A living scarecrow who accidentally stumbles upon a neighboring town, named Christmas Town.
After this discovery, Jack decides to transform his own city, summoning the spirit of Christmas into Halloween Town. Nominated for an Oscar for its visual effects, the film stars Catherine O’Hara (Home Alone) and Danny Elfman, the famous composer behind the soundtracks of Spider-Man and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A little gem of animation to (re)watch without moderation during the holidays.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1994) by Henry Selick, available on Disney+.
Edward Scissorhands with Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp
Looking for a Christmas tale that is at once enchanting, poetic and gothic? Edward Scissorhands remains one of Tim Burton’s most beautiful and inventive masterpieces. Completely transformed for the role, Johnny Depp delivers a brilliant performance as the moving Edward Scissorhands, a man created by an inventor “with a heart to love and a brain to understand,” but left unfinished.
Indeed, Edward has sharp metal blades instead of fingers, which could injure people. Taken in by a suburban family living in what seems like an ideal neighborhood, he falls madly in love with the daughter Kim, played by the sublime Winona Ryder. But his difference soon brings him countless problems… The scene in which Winona Ryder dances in a white dress beneath the falling snow, while Johnny Depp sculpts an ice statue looking like her, is undoubtedly one of the most oneiric sequences in 1990s cinema.
Edward Scissorhands (1991) by Tim Burton, available on Disney+.
Die Hard starring Bruce Willis
Packed with high-octane action scenes, Die Hard (1988) by American director John McTiernan is an explosive take on the Christmas tale. The film is driven by the talent and sex appeal of American actor Bruce Willis, who plays police lieutenant John McClane. Living in New York, he decides to spend the holiday season in Los Angeles with his wife.
The luxury hotel where they are staying is suddenly taken over by a group of terrorists, determined to steal a haul worth several million dollars while holding the hotel’s guests hostage. John sets out to eliminate the members of this violent criminal organisation one by one as they occupy the building.
In the role of the cruel and sadistic Hans Gruber, we find British actor Alan Rickman, who a few years later would opt for a gentler take on the Christmas movie by joining the cast of Love Actually (2003), alongside Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson.
Die Hard (1988) by John McTiernan, available on Disney+.
Gremlins by Joe Dante
It is an adorable little creature with bulging eyes and a crystalline voice that young Billy receives from his eccentric inventor father on Christmas Eve. Like the small Gizmo, the mogwai are very cute companions, one strictly follows a few rules.
Despite the warnings of the man who sold the creature, the mogwai quickly begin to multiply, eventually turning into Gremlins — sadistic, bloodthirsty monsters with sharp teeth and reptilian skin that wreak havoc on the town during the holidays. As they rampage the city, young Billy will do everything he can to stop them. A genre classic blending humour and horror, to be watched with family over the holiday season… At least for the cult scene in which the Gremlins form a Christmas choir.
Gremlins (1984) by Joe Dante, starring Zach Galligan, available on HBO Max and Canal+.
It’s A Wonderful Life (1947) by Frank Capra. © Swashbuckler Films.
It’s A Wonderful Life by Frank Capra
Released in 1947, the sublime It’s A Wonderful Life is a great cinema classic, one that is especially enjoyable to watch as Christmas approaches. Directed by Frank Capra, the film tells the story of a Christmas miracle and life lesson through the character of George Bailey (played by James Stewart), who gradually rediscovers his desire to live. After contemplating suicide, despite the prayers of the inhabitants of his town, Bedford Falls, he encounters an angel sent to stop him from ending his life and show him what the world would have been like without him.
It’s A Wonderful Life (1947) by Frank Capra, available in VOD on Canal VOD and Amazon Prime Video.
