1Dashing Through the Snow (2023)
DisneyIf you're looking for a film that reminds you about the joy and magic of the holiday season, you'll want to put this new Disney+ film on. Eddie Garrick, played by Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, loses the true meaning of Christmas and must go on a journey to restore his faith alongside his daughter.
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2Frozen (2013)
DisneyWintertime means Frozen is on your kids' mind. In the film, Anna must save her hometown from an eternal winter created by her sister, Elsa. Anna's journey leads her to meeting new friends like Olaf, a talking snowman. Her adventures don't stop here and continued in Frozen II, where she seeks unknown lands beyond her hometown with Kristoff, Sven, Elsa and Olaf. And if that's not enough Olaf for your kids, they can follow the two films up with Olaf's Frozen Adventure and Once Upon a Snowman.
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3Jingle All The Way (1996)
Disney+Just as any loving parent desiring to fulfill their child's Christmas wish would do, businessman Howard Langston (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) finds himself on a wild goose chase to find a sold out toy on Christmas Eve. Don't stop the holiday adventures there, follow it up with the sequel Jingle All The Way 2.
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4The Santa Con (2014)
Disney+A con man (played by Jaleel White) becomes an unlikely helper after his parole officer orders him to take a job as a mall Santa. What lengths will he go to in order to reunite a young boy's estranged parents? It'll take a Christmas miracle.
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5The Small One (1978)
Disney+A young boy learns the true meaning of Christmas after he is tasked with selling his father's donkey, Small One. After failing to find a buyer in a Jerusalem market, he finally meets a man named Joseph who takes on Small One to become an important figure in a larger story.
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6The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
DisneyKermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie and all the rest of the Muppet friends teach Scrooge — played by Michael Caine, who takes his role as seriously as any other and doesn't do any winking just because he's acting with Muppets — the true meaning of Christmas. In addition to the iconic holiday story, this version of A Christmas Carol features original songs by Paul Williams (who wrote "Rainbow Connection"). For diehard fans, a deleted song, "When Love Is Gone," was added to the film's extra's page on Disney+ late last year.
If you just can't get enough of the Muppets, you can also watch A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, which features cameos from stars like Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, Uma Thurman and more.
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7Home Alone (1990)
DisneyWhen you think of Christmas, you think of getting cozy, relaxing on the couch and foiling some robbers. Well, now that Home Alone has been a staple for more than 30 years, you do. In this holiday classic, Kevin McCallister learns about the importance of family — and gets the upper hand on some burglars — when he's accidentally left alone to defend his house over the holidays. Home Alone 2, Home Alone 3, Home Alone 4 and Home Alone: The Holiday Heist are all also on Disney+, but you'll have to look elsewhere for Angels With Filthy Souls.
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8The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
DisneyThe only Christmas move you can appropriately start watching in September, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a stop-motion holiday mash-up. If someone tells you it's too Halloweeny for December, point out that it's the movie that gave us "What's This?"— aka one of the greatest Christmas songs of all time.
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9Mickey Saves Christmas (2022)
DisneyNothing screams Disney more than Mickey Mouse. After Pluto causes Santa to crash his sleigh and lose all his presents, Mickey and his pals must travel to the North Pole and save Christmas. With this 22-minute holiday special, your kids won't have to sit for hours in front of the TV to watch Mickey attempt to save the day.
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10Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
DisneyThere have been dozens of adaptations of the Charles Dickens classic of the years — and the Muppet version may have claimed the top spot on this list because of its feature length — but some (me) might say that this one is the best. It distills all the essential elements of the story into 25 all-killer-no-filler minutes. Plus, Goofy is Jacob Marley!
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RELATED: Animated Christmas Movies That Are Too Cute to Resist
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11The Santa Clauses (2022)
DisneyThis is kind of a cheat, since it's actually a TV series, and not a movie. But hey, isn't everything a movie if you sit on your couch all day and watch it all in one go? In it, the Santa played by Tim Allen starts to think about hanging up the red suit and finding a successor. Season 2 was released on Disney+ on November 8.
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12The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022)
Marvel StudiosCan the Guardians of the Galaxy also be the Guardians of the Holiday Spirit? Will Rocket learn to have some holiday cheer? Will Groot wear a string of Christmas lights? This 2022 Disney+ special can even be enjoyed alongside the LEGO Guardians of the Galaxy advent calendar.
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13LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special (2020)
DisneyThe original Star Wars Holiday Special was notoriously bad, so the LEGO crew took a big risk by attempting another one. This time, it works! It follows Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose and Chewie for a "Life Day" adventure with the signature zany LEGO sense of humor (and plenty of delicious tip-yip).
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14Prep & Landing (2009)
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15Babes in Toyland (1961)
DisneyIn some parts of the country, it's an annual tradition to watch Babes in Toyland as the first movie of the holiday season with a yearly viewing on Thanksgiving Day. (There's also an earlier, 1934 version often shown on Turkey-Day, but unfortunately that one's not on Disney+.) When Mary Contrary, Tom Piper and a host of other storybook characters getting mixed up in a fantasy story that takes place in an enchanted Toyland, it takes a holiday-worthy march of wooden soldiers to set things right.
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16A Christmas Carol (2009)
DisneyYes, another Dickens inspired film — it seems you can watch a different take on A Christmas Carol every week from Thanksgiving to New Year's and never run out of options. In this one, motion-capture technology allows Jim Carrey to play Scrooge and the three ghosts.
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17Duck the Halls (2016)
DisneyThis animated short stars Mickey and his pals, but it's anything but sweet and treacly. In it, Donald decides he wants to stay home for Christmas instead of migrating south — but he can't really handle the cold. The resulting travails are silly in a way that's almost more reminiscent of shows like Ren and Stimpy than your typical Mickey movie. If your family finds it hilarious, The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse is done in the same style.
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18The Santa Clause (1994)
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19Noelle (2019)
Cate Cameron//DisneyThis was Disney's first big, original holiday movie for Disney+ way back when the service debuted. It centers on Santa's children: His son, Nick (Bill Hader) goes missing when he's supposed to take over as Santa Claus and his daughter, Noelle (Anna Kendrick), has to put things right to save Christmas.
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20Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999)
DisneyIf you only have a little bit of time and need a quick dose of Christmas cheer, Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas is an hourlong anthology of holiday-themed shorts starring classic Disney characters. You can follow it up with Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, which is also in the anthology format, or Pluto's Christmas Tree (from the '50s!), which is just six minutes long.
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Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; previously, she wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her toy-collecting husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found helping out her team at bar trivia or posting about movies on Twitter and Bluesky.

Lilli (she/her) is an editorial intern at Good Housekeeping and a senior undergraduate student at Syracuse University majoring in magazine, news and digital journalism. When she’s not looking into the latest news and trends, she’s seeking her new favorite ice cream flavor or dream travel destination. She has previously covered news at The Daily Orange and The Evening Sun and lifestyle content at The Fit Magazine and Jerk Magazine.
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