Your favorite holiday classics are not available on a single streaming service. We get it! It totally upsets you. But looking at the bright side, this might actually be the time to give up on a re-watch and discover some new gems. Amazon prime video has a rare collection of vintage festive movies included with Prime membership. And of course, you don’t have to waste time endlessly scrolling through suggestions.
We have the list ready for you.
- It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
You might be impacting more lives than you think you are. That is exactly what is this movie intends to convey. George Bailey is a businessman whose business sinks owing to an accidental mishap. The only thing that can protect his family is his life insurance and you can imagine what he must be thinking. Disappointed and distressed the man contemplates suicide. Enter Clarence. She, just like an angel helps him realize his life is worth more than he can imagine. The film has a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is all in all a feel-good experience. And over the years has stood strong at that spot.
- A Christmas Carol (1954)
Ebenezer Scrooge is a London based cranky loan shark who does not believe in Christmas. His late business partner Jacob Marley visits him over Christmas with the hope of changing his attitude towards the festival but fails miserably. Marley does not give up yet and sends ghosts to help Scrooge realize what he is missing on. The film is made utterly sublime in a way that uses the actors forming an important part of Scrooge’s life to playing the ghosts of Christmas past and present. This holiday Christmas story is based on Charles Dickens 1843 Novella of the same name.
- Babes in Toyland (1986)
An 11-year-old Lisa Piper (Drew Barrymore) is not at all into toys. A sudden turn of events transports Lisa to a fantasy Toyland on Christmas eve. A wicked Barnaby Barnicle has trolls walking all around Toyland to capture the girl who he wants to marry- Mary (Jill Schoelen). But Mary is in love with his nephew, Jack (Keanu Reeves). The girl now faces the choice of saving the land of the very thing she despises- the toys. She and the two lovers turn to the Toymaster (Pat Morita) for help. The Toymaster agrees to help them but there is one condition. Lisa must believe in power if toys. Will she?
- A Norman Rockwell Christmas Story (1996)
Its pain that connects us with people more than anything else. And this film takes the idea to a whole new level. An old gentleman, Samuel Cavanaugh, is not very content in his senile days thinking about his difficult past. A young Michael Grant is going through tough times as his father is missing in action amidst a war in Korea. Samuel and Michael bond in the most heartening ways over their visits to a frozen pond where they come to take a break from an otherwise heavy life.
- One Special Night (1999)
The iconic pair of the 60s James Garner and Julie Andrews come together once again, this time to recreate love onscreen. Robert (Garner) often visits his wife at the hospice where Catherine (Andrews) works. On a snowy night, Robert is stuck without a cab and Catherine offers him a ride. It’s Hollywood. Ride through a storm obviously means getting stuck on the way and seeking refuge in a cabin. Cheesy? Not so much! Because this is the night that helps the two mature beings realize their feelings for one another.
- Home for the Holidays (1995)
Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter) is out of her job and comes back home to celebrate thanksgiving. But her stay is not exactly all honky dory thanks to her overtly strange parents (Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning) and her devious brother Tommy (Robert Downey Jr.). A holiday comedy by Jodie Foster to lighten up your mood with some of the most unconventional characters.
