Directed by: Sean Baker

Transgender sex-worker, Cin-Dee Rella, gets out of jail on the morning of Christmas Eve only to discover her boyfriend (and pimp) has been cheating on her, so she goes on an Odyssean voyage across L.A. to find him, encountering a non-stop parade of fringe characters along the way.

This small-stakes, slice-of-life cinema isn’t for everyone, but it’s funny and immediate, and if you’re still reading this article, it’s probably for you.

Directed by: Don Hartman

I grew up loving Robert Mitchum as an unrepentant tough-guy with a cruel streak. I was not prepared to see him as this sexy, devil-may-care, whirlwind of positive energy (a role he took to rehab his image after a marijuana bust).

In Holiday Affair, he plays an under-employed veteran who explodes into the life of single mother Janet Leigh just in time to upset her Christmas plans.

The chemistry between them is hot. Romantic comedy tropes ensue, but Mitchum’s relentless optimism keeps this one buoyant throughout.

Directed by: Mike Dougherty

Although not “unknown” this one is still definitely under-loved. Dougherty understands that holiday production design is all about excess (just look at his Halloween-themed Trick ‘r Treat) and he gives it to you with both barrels in this wildly violent, hilariously scary, and oddly heartfelt take on the Krampus myth.

The tone is instantly set with a Black Friday shopping melee and doesn’t relent until its incredibly weird and dark ending.

Directed by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

This is the first of several riffs on Dickens “A Christmas Carol” you’ll find on this list, and by far the weirdest.

Written by Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling and directed by four-time Oscar-winner Joseph L. Mankiewicz, this version of the tale stars Sterling Haden as Daniel Grudge, a wealthy industrialist with power, which he exerts to manipulate foreign policy… and nuclear war is in the balance.

With fantastic supporting performances from Ben Gazzara, Robert Shaw, and Peter Sellers as “Emperor Me,” this take on the classic Christmas ghost story is bizarrely funny and appropriately frightening.

Directed by: George Gallo

Okay, this one comes with a caveat: Dana Carvey’s characterization of a half-wit kleptomaniac is a bit much. But this super-kooky, caper-flick features Carvey, John Lovitz, and Nicolas-fucking-Cage as bickering brothers who rob a small-town bank on Christmas Eve.

Yes, the mechanics of the first half of the film are plotty, and mean-spirited at times, but the payoff is heartwarming, sentimental, and full of Christmas magic.

Directed by: John Hancock

You know what’s more fun than family movie night with the kids? Family movie night that leaves the kids sobbing and begging for a pet reindeer.

In this gentle gem, 8-year-old Jessica has a run-in with a wounded reindeer whom she believes to be Prancer -- yeah, Santa’s Prancer. So, of course, she has to nurse the animal back to health while protecting Prancer from the townsfolk bent on harming or exploiting her.

It’s magical. Be prepared for tears. Bonus points for co-staring Sam Elliott.

Directed by: Rene Manzor

This French thriller was originally titled 3615 code Père Noël, then renamed Dial Code Santa Claus for U.S. distribution.

The movie is about a Kid who sets up booby-traps to protect his home from a home-invader dressed as Santa Claus came out the year before Home Alone, and the similarities are clear. But this one is darker, weirder, and its violence is less cartoony.

It isn’t “better” than Home Alone, but if you’re burnt out on that one, this is the perfect pivot.

Directed by: Peter Godfrey

Last Sunday, I dragged you through the gutter with Tangerine; this Sunday we’re going super-wholesome in this madcap comedy of false identities and comeuppances.

Barbara Stanwyck is effervescent as an urban magazine writer pretending to be a farm-wife who is cajoled into preparing a country-style Christmas for a returning war hero. Of course she possesses none of the skills to perform this task.

Romance and hijinks ensue in this classic that seems to have fallen out of popularity as of late. Put it back in rotation.

Directed by: Billy Wilder

I don’t care if you think this masterpiece is too well-known to be on this list. None of my screenwriting students have seen it (no matter how much I implore).

Desperate to climb the corporate ladder, Jack Lemmon lets his married boss use his apartment to carry on an illicit affair throughout the Christmas season. I won’t say any more, other than it’s funny. It’s sad. It’s sweet. It’s melancholy. If you haven’t seen it. Watch it. If you have seen it, watch it again!

Directed by: Glen Morgan

No, not Bob Clark’s absolutely perfect, 1975 masterpiece Black Christmas; I’m talking about Black Christmas, the sleazy, mid-aughts reimagining of the source material.

This ultra-lurid Christmas horror is bathed in colored lights and delivered with high-camp performances that drip with venom. You don’t want to know the plot, just let the weirdness wash over you. It’s gross. It’s over the top. It’s great.

Directed by: Eric Til

I could probably make a full 24-movie list of just “A Christmas Carol” iterations, but this made-for-tv version is just so… weird.

Henry Winkler (who was still on Happy Days as “Fonzie” at the time) was odd casting, but a big enough TV start to make this project happen as “Benjamin Slade,” a depression-era miser who, with the help of 3 ghosts… blah, blah, blah. We all know how it goes.

Winkler is surprisingly good playing the old man, but this one gets special weirdo points for actually including a Dickens-signed copy of “A Christmas Carol” as a plot-point. Very meta. Check it out.

Directed by: Tommy Wirkola

For those who say Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie, this is essentially Die Hard with the real Santa plopped into it. David Harbour chews scenes as an alcoholic, depressed Santa who has completely lost the Christmas spirit until he crashes a high-stakes robbery on Christmas Eve.

It’s gleefully violent. It’s funny. It’s got a big heart. I’m sure in 10 years this one will be as over-exposed as Christmas Vacation, so be the cool person who loves it now before the whole world does.

Directed by: Jim Henson

This hour-long, made-for-Canadian-TV, Muppet holiday special is possibly the saddest, sweetest entry on this list.

Henson and crew take a few liberties with O’Henry’s “Gift of the Magi,” setting it in the frozen Canadian north and populating it with singing Otters, Beavers, and other river-critters to create a magical bit of musical puppetry sure to warm the heart. It isn’t “feel good” but it’s sweetly comforting.

Directed by: Christian Carion

Every list needs a war flick, and this French film is the perfect entry.

Based on the true story of a Christmas Day truce on the front lines of World War I, Joyeux Noel shows how the Christmas spirit can bring warring factions together, even if only for a few hours. French and German soldiers sing carols to each other from their respective trenches and eventually meet in no-man’s-land to exchange drinks and gifts and good cheer… all the while knowing they will have to kill each other in just a few hours.

It’s a dark film, which makes the lightness within it shine even brighter by contrast.

Directed by: Jonathan Levine

There are plenty of big, irreverent Christmas films about partying and making bad decisions, but this one has something to it that other entries like Christmas Office Party don’t have – deep friendship.

In The Night Before, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anthony Mackie play friends who love partying together on Christmas Eve, so when Rogen’s character is facing fatherhood, he knows this is his last Christmas Eve with the boys… and they’re going to make it an epic booze-and-drug fueled adventure.

It’s surprisingly heartwarming and genuine sweet to see a story of male friendship on Christmas Eve.

Directed by: Paul Feig

Okay, this one needs a little explaining.

Yes, it’s silly. Yes, it’s trite. Yes, it’s full of Christmas cliches, over-the-top characterizations, and non-stop WHAM! tracks. But this Emilia Clarke-lead Christmas romance has a kookiest “Christmas Magic” reveal ever.

The film had me in hysterics the first time I saw it, and its charm has only grown over the short years since its release. It’s so very weird for such a mainstream film.

Directed by: Tyler MacIntire

In this slasher retelling of It’s A Wonderful Life, teen Winnie is one-year-removed from saving the town from a masked killer known as the “The Angel,” and her life has only gotten worse, so she wishes she had never been born and – you get it.

But Winnie never being born means The Angel is still out there, and ready to kill again on Christmas Eve. It’s a fun, queer reinvention of the source material that always has its heart in the right place.

Full disclosure: I placed three of my original songs in the movie (including “Holy Fucking Shit, It’s Christmas”), so I might be a tick biased.

Directed by: Mervyn Nelson

This is a new discovery for me that absolutely demands to be put on this list.

The movie takes place in a gay bar in a pre-disco Manhattan on Christmas Eve. It expertly interweaves multiple storylines to create a very real sense of time & place. Sometimes heartwarming and sometimes shockingly violent, Some of My Best Friends Are… is unrepentant and unflinching in its depiction of chosen family gathering in the only place they feel safe and seen.

Look for appearances by a pre-Golden Girls Rue McClanahan and Buck Rogers himself Gil Gerard!

Directed by: Daryl Duke

In this crime thriller written by Curtis Hanson, Elliott Gould plays a bank teller who figures out that a mall Santa is going to rob the bank in which he works, so he hatches a plan to… well, I don’t want to spoil the fun.

This Canadian tax-break film co-stars the always great Christopher Plummer and features an early screen appearance by John Candy! Add the score by jazz legend Oscar Peterson and you get a truly brilliant, holiday-set, caper-gone-wrong film.

Directed by: Brian Henson

Okay, this is probably the most popular film on this list and the third time Dickens' immortal classic pops up, but it’s honestly one of the best.

Yes, the Muppets are always charming, and yes I’m a sucker for them every time, but this movie is not great because of them… it’s great because of Michael Caine.

Caine's is one of the best takes on the Scrooge, because even though he is acting against felt and plastic, he never once gives anything less than his all. Caine’s stunning performance grounds the Muppet silliness in his malevolence. It’s a great way to introduce the kiddies to this enduring Christmas staple.

Directed by: Jalmari Helander

Santa Claus is a jolly old elf filled with Christmas cheer, right? Not according to this Finnish film that starts off investigating reindeer deaths and corporate malfeasance before evolving into a mystery about Santa’s wild-man elves and the big guy himself who’s frozen in a block of ice.

Take my word for it, it’s completely fucking bonkers, and the reveal of the title is a perfect punchline to this slice of arctic horror.

Directed by: Roy Del Ruth

Since discovering this film only a few years ago, it has become my favorite black & white entry into the Christmas movie subgenre.

Every year, the second-richest man in the world boards up his Fifth Avenue mansion to winter in his Virginia estate, and every year Aloysius T. McKeever, a big-hearted hobo (the term of the times), moves in and lives like a king for the same period of time. But this year a pair of unhoused veterans catch on and lean on his good nature to let them join him.

Soon the mansion is crawling with a rogue’s gallery of underhoused individuals living in a state of communistic bliss…in palace built to celebrate capitalism. False identities, old loves, new romances, and even a Scrooge-like change of heart all blend to make this one a can’t-miss screwball holiday comedy.

Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch

Forget the terrible Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks remake You’ve Got Mail, the original Lubitsch movie is a sterling example of letting the audience in on the gag while keeping the characters in the dark for as long as possible.

Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan play salesperson rivals who are unaware that each other is their beloved pen pal. It’s set in Budapest, but there is no attempt to play it as anything but American, which makes it all feel just left-of-center.

The writing, directing and acting are all superlative. If you haven’t seen this one yet, do yourself a favor and dive in immediately.

Directed by: Lewis Jackson

In true saving-the-best-for-last fashion, this is my absolute favorite film on the list.

Originally titled “Better Watch Out,” Christmas Evil is deeper, weirder and more nuanced than any of the other killer-in-a-Santa-suit flicks out there. Instead of a slasher film, this is a deep character study of a middle-aged toy-shop worker whose deep mental illness is manifested in a desire to BE Santa Claus.

He obsesses on the behavior of his neighborhood children and marks them down as “naughty” or “nice” in his book. And yes, he kills… but there is a sequence of cinematic magic in which he invades a random Christmas gathering and becomes the life of the party. It’s probably the most joyous beat you’ll find in a Christmas horror film.

If you only watch one film on this list, make it Christmas Evil!!!!!