HBO Max is one of the new kids on the block, but its dedication to the holiday season remains admirable. The amount of holiday episodes of its many TV shows that HBO Max can offer is staggering. For this list, however, we will focus on service’s holiday movies alone (save for one TARDIS-y exception). If you’ve got an HBO Max subscription and a burning need for Christmas movies, here is what you can expect.
Doctor Who Christmas Specials
HBO Max If the British know one thing, it’s tea. If they know two things, it’s tea and Christmas specials. Many big-time U.K. television shows have their own excellent holiday specials. Decades-old sci-fi institution Doctor Who, however, takes the cake when it comes to Christmas excellence.
Last Christmas (2019)
HBO Max Shortly after taking in the cheerful trailer for Emma Thompson and Paul Feig’s 2019 holiday hit Last Christmas, the Internet stood up as one and agreed on an important point: there’s a twist in here, isn’t there? And of course, the Internet was right…as it so often is. Last Christmas features a very prominent and important twist in its plot that you’ll have to watch the movie (or read Wikipedia) to figure out. But twist or no, this is a perfectly enjoyable entry into the modern Christmas canon. Emilia Clarke takes some time off from torching King’s Landing to star as Kate, an aspiring young singer going through hard times around Christmas. That all changes when she meets the alluring and devastatingly handsome Tom (Henry Golding). What follows is a minor Christmas miracle.
Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus (1991)
HBO Max “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” is one of the most enduring sentences in Christmas history. It comes from an 1897 newspaper editorial in which The Sun (of New York) editor Francis Pharcellus Church responds affirmatively to young Virginia O’Hanlan’s question about the existence of Santa Claus. And here’s the complete list, just in case you don’t like our choices! Black Christmas (2019) HBO Max A Christmas Carol (1938) HBO Max HBO Max Elf Pets: Santa’s St. Bernard Save Christmas (2018) HBO Max A Flintstone Christmas (1977) HBO Max HBO Max Holiday Affair (1949) HBO Max Home Alone: The Holiday Heist (2012) HBO Max HBO Max Nothing Like the Holidays (2008) HBO Max Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas (2016) HBO Max HBO Max Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays (2012) HBO Max The Search for Santa Paws (2010) HBO Max HBO Max The Town Santa Forgot (1993) HBO Max A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas (2011) HBO Max HBO Max Yogi’s First Christmas (1980) HBO Max