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William Smith
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William Smith is a freelance writer currently living in the Midwest with his wife and daughter, where he spends too much time watching movies and then writing about them. He doesn't read your hurtful comments and doesn't have any social media, so any criticisms must be sent by carrier pigeon.
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The holidays are in full swing, and many people this year may be experiencing an even greater sense of seasonal anxiety as they try and make their holiday plans while contending with rising prices and uncertain travel delays. When the holidays start to feel like a chore, sometimes it can be comforting to put on a familiar holiday film and watch some fictional characters flail about in seasonal disorder. While a great many Thanksgiving or Christmas movies come wrapped in warm and fuzzy nostalgia and schmaltzy sentiment, a select few classics embrace the chaos that is the holiday season.
Whether it's the insanity of Christmas shopping, the scourge of visiting relatives, or the torment of traveling, these movies shine a bright light on the good and the bad that holidays bring into our lives. Some are intentionally funny, others accidentally, and some are downright horrifying, but they all share the same insanity. Misery loves company, and the chaos of the holidays is something that everyone can commiserate with. So if you're looking for some movies that capture that chaos, these ten are your best holiday bets.
'Jingle All the Way' (1996)
Howard (Arnold Schwarzenegger) holding a huge candy cane from Jingle All The WayImage via 20th Century Studios
While online shopping has certainly mitigated some of the chaos of tracking down a specific Christmas gift, anyone who lived through the '80s and '90s toy mania of the Cabbage Patch riots or Tickle Me Elmo hysteria can certainly relate to the plight faced by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the cleverly conceived, but poorly executed, comedy Jingle All the Way. The movie was inspired by the real-life frenzies caused by in-demand toys such as Power Rangers, which are represented in the story by the fictional Turbo Man.
That action figure becomes the bane of workaholic dad Schwarzenegger's existence as he tries to track one down on Christmas Eve to make amends with his young son. The movie is jam-packed with chaotic physical comedy that mostly falls as flat as Schwarzenegger often does in the role, but it does certainly capture the anarchy that toy companies could cause during the time period in which the movie was released. Schwarzenegger's struggle is definitely real for many parents, though most don't also have to contend with a hilariously horny Phil Hartman putting the moves on their spouse.
'Thanksgiving' (2023)
John Carver, a masked killer holding an ax, in Eli Roth's Thanksgiving posterImage via Sony Pictures Releasing
If there's one aspect of holiday shopping that reigns as the chaotic king over all others, it's Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving shopping spree has become so synonymous with violence and avarice that it's been satirized in South Park and even been given its own horror movie, aptly titled Black Friday. If there's one film that best exemplifies the wholesale slaughter of the corporate-created holiday, it's Thanksgiving, Eli Roth's seasonal slasher that was adapted from the fake trailer that premiered in the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez joint Grindhouse.
While the film is mostly focused on the slasher antics that come one year after a Black Friday massacre, the inciting incident is appropriately blood-soaked and the perfect satire for the real carnage that has been wrought by shoppers. Still, Thanksgiving is far less of the exploitation extravaganza some audiences might expect based on Roth's pedigree and the sleazy nature of the fake trailer it was based on. The movie is a surprisingly more developed slasher film that shows some real growth in Roth as a director from the frat-like attitude of his early work, and the shopping slaughter sequence is its chaotic highlight.
'Krampus' (2015)
Image via Universal Pictures
Similar to Thanksgiving, Michael Dougherty's Christmas horror film Krampus kicks off with a shopping center melee that, if less gore-filled, is just as chaotically satirical of the American excess of the holiday season. That chaos introduces the audience to the Engel family, who have clearly lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas as they head home to endure yet another unfortunate Christmas inconvenience: visiting family. The movie presents the conflict between the affluent and liberal Engels with their red state relatives as a catalyst for conflict that eventually brings the Krampus, the devil of Christmas, down on their heads.
Dougherty's Christmas follow-up to his Halloween-themed Trick 'r Treat is just as filled with twisted holiday imagery as that film. While its ambiguous ending seemingly shows the power of the Christmas spirit to overcome our differences, Krampus makes clear what a fresh hell dealing with blood relatives can be. It's enough that some people might actually wish for a half-goat demon man to crash their holiday festivities.
'The Oath' (2018)
Image via Roadside Attractions
The partisan politics that were mild flavoring to the family conflict in Krampus become the whole meal in The Oath, a black comedy starring, written, and directed by Ike Barinholtz. Set in suburban near-future America on Thanksgiving, the movie imagines a world where the American president has issued a request for all citizens to sign a pledge of loyalty to him. That's a premise that might've seemed a bit more like a liberal panic two years into Donald Trump's first term as president, but now seems a little too plausible.
Barinholtz's directorial debut explores its thought-provoking premise through the lens of a politically divided extended family Thanksgiving, but never quite reaches its full potential. The Oath isn't as pointed or darkly humorous as it wants to be, but it definitely nails the discomfort and chaos that comes with hosting family members who hold sharply contrasting political views. That's something that has certainly evolved from awkward comedy to full-blown horror in America in the 21st century.
'Pieces of April' (2003)
Image via MGMImage via MGM
For some people, having to sit through a political argument might actually be preferable to the prospect of cooking a full-fledged Thanksgiving meal for their families. That's the predicament that faces Katie Holmes in the indie dramedy Pieces of April. Living in a small New York City apartment, Holme's April has pledged to host her dysfunctional family for the holiday, but faces a series of hindrances as she attempts to prepare the food, including a broken oven.
Anyone who has ever had to host their first family holiday after leaving home will relate to April's plight, especially those who had to do it in the less-than-ideal space of a rundown apartment. It's that aspect that makes Pieces of April an endearingly small-scale holiday film and one that's filled with a gentler chaos as well as some standout performances from Holmes and especially an Oscar-nominated Patricia Clarkson.
'Home for the Holidays' (1995)
Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr. talk while on the phone with someone in Home for the HolidaysImage via Paramount Pictures
As bad as playing host can be, it can seem like paradise compared to the prospect of traveling and spending the holiday back at home, which can feel akin to being held hostage. That's the setup for a number of holiday comedies, including Four Christmases, The Family Stone, and for Holly Hunter in the Jodie Foster-directed Home for the Holidays. Hunter plays a recently fired single mother who flies home to Baltimore to spend the holiday with her dysfunctional family, including her chaotic brother, played by Robert Downey Jr., conservative sister, and mentally declining aunt.
The clashing personalities and fractures of family are all exposed in Foster's messy comedy, which has garnered something of a cult following over the years. Hunter and Downey's performances are particular highlights, keenly observing the kind of sibling bond that can help individuals endure in times of great stress brought on by family stress, which naturally escalates into physical blows in the film. Even when the movie succumbs to broad humor or sentiment, it still manages to capture the good and bad inherent to holidays at home.
'Home Alone' (1990)
Most people, hopefully, can't relate to being left Home Alone as children and having to fend off intruders, but many have likely experienced events similar to those depicted in the film that serve as the cause for its premise. Travel can be an absolute nightmare any time of the year, but it's especially chaotic during the holiday season, and nowhere is that better depicted than in the McCallisters' mad dash to the airport, set to John Williams' rendition of Tchaikovsky's Trepak, in Chris Columbus' Christmas classic.
Parents will especially relate to the panic caused by sleeping through an alarm on the day of a trip, as well as the plight of Catherine O'Hara trying to get home to her child and being faced with constant airline delays. A Golden Globe-nominated Macaulay Culkin gets all the praise (deservedly so), but O'Hara is the secret MVP of Home Alone, and her escalating exasperation is too real for any parent who has ever traveled at Christmastime. If only we were all so lucky to be able to hitch a ride with a polka band headed by John Candy.
'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' (1987)
Image via Paramount Pictures
As funny and well-observed as the holiday travel chaos is in Home Alone, it can't match the perfection that John Hughes achieved in his earlier comedy classic, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Hitting every pain point that any holiday traveler, or at least those who ever traveled in a pre-smart phone era, has ever experienced, Hughes' best movie is a chaotic buddy comedy that is mandatory holiday viewing. From the very beginning, it throws every hilarious obstacle it can at Steve Martin as he tries to make his way home for Thanksgiving.
From getting kept late for a meeting, missing a cab, getting bumped on a flight, sitting next to the world's worst traveler, rerouted and delayed, spending a night in a ratty motel, and blowing his top at an overly cheery rental car associate before having a rental car blow up on him, Martin is the '80s comedy equivalent of the biblical Job. The late, great John Candy is his personal Satan as an obnoxious shower curtain ring salesman who latches on to him and won't let go. All the hell of holiday travel never overwhelms the ultimate spirit of warmth and friendship within the film, as embodied by the inimitable comedic duo.
'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' (2000)
The Grinch and Max in Whoville in 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'Image via Universal Pictures
Dr. Seuss' classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas is an enduring and classic children's book that celebrates the giving spirit of the holiday season over crass commercialism. Ron Howard's 2000 film adaptation is a garish yuletide hellscape populated by a bunch of greedy, ratfaced monsters of gluttonous excess who deserve to have their Christmas stolen by Jim Carrey's misanthropic Grinch. The Whos of Whoville, as depicted in the film, are not the joyous beings of the original Seuss book, but rather a population that has been completely absorbed into the commercialization of Christmas, save for the innocent Cindy Lou.
The insanity and excess here is so much that the message of the true meaning of Christmas is completely obliterated. The movie is a truly bizarre adaptation, but that, along with Carrey's fully committed performance, is what has made it such a fan-favorite for many viewers who grew up on it. There truly may be no better distillation of the chaos wrought by holiday excess than this dystopic children's Christmas movie.
'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation' (1989)
Clark Griswold wearing a Santa hat and looking intently in National Lampoon's Christmas VacationImage via Warner Bros.
Insane relatives. Exploding turkey dinners. Cats electrocuted by Christmas lights. No chaotic stone is left unturned in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, yet another holiday classic from John Hughes. In this third installment of Griswold antics, the Chicago household decides to host an old-fashioned family Christmas, bringing with it a cavalcade of increasingly destructive events. Trying to hold the festivities and his sanity together is patriarch Clark, played by Chevy Chase in his signature role, who has expectations of creating forever Christmas memories.
Anyone who ever grew up with a parent who set holiday standards too high will relate to the chaos that ensues for Clark and his entire family. Likewise, anyone who has endured those relatives who make landfall like a holiday tornado will find something all too familiar about Randy Quaid's cousin Eddie. The same goes for relating to poor young Russ being tasked with untangling an untenable ball of Christmas lights. There's a brand of chaos for everyone, all of it eventually escalating to an abduction and police raid on the Griswold house, which, hopefully, is less familiar for most viewers. Christmas Vacation is a perennial holiday favorite that mixes just the right amount of sweet, saccharine cheer with its chaotic Christmas spice.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
PG-13
Comedy
Release Date
November 30, 1989
Cast
Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki, John Randolph, Diane Ladd, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Randy Quaid, Miriam Flynn, Cody Burger, Ellen Hamilton Latzen, William Hickey, Mae Questel, Sam McMurray, Nicholas Guest, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nicolette Scorsese, Keith MacKechnie, Brian Doyle-Murray, Natalija Nogulich, Tony Epper, Billy Hank Hooker, Alexander Folk, Jeremy Roberts
Runtime
97 minutes
Director
Jeremiah S. Chechik
Writers
John Hughes
Genres
Comedy
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