Jingle All the Way with These Celeb-Approved Christmas Movies

Angelina Jolie – Frozen (2013)

It's no surprise that Angelina Jolie chose this fairy tale adaptation as her favourite Christmas movie. The actress, who played the good Maleficent and the superhero Thena in Eternals, watches the animated movie with her daughter Vivienne.

Frozen is inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. Sisters Anna and Elsa live happily in their kingdom until Elsa discovers a magical gift: she can control ice. Their parents separate the girls for their own safety, and they live without seeing each other until the king and queen are killed in a storm. The eldest Elsa, who still has not learned to control magic, must ascend to the throne.

Jennifer Lawrence – The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Oscar-winning star of The Hunger Games and Mother! prefers the cult Coen brothers film to romantic melodramas. The Big Lebowski premiered at Sundance, the most important film festival in North America, only to be panned by critics. But it has since gained a cult following.

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The plot follows Jeffrey Lebowski, whom his friends call the Dude. He lives a lit bachelor life until two thugs break into his place demanding payment for his ex-wife's debts after mistaking him for millionaire Lebowski: the Dude never even had a wife. Without thinking twice, the Dude heads to his name-sake's place. The latter needs help handing over a million dollars to the thugs who abducted his trophy wife.

Benedict Cumberbatch – Die Hard (1988)

Like The Big Lebowski, Die Hard might seem like an odd choice for a favourite Christmas movie list. But it is a Christmas movie: it happens at Christmas, it's about a family reunion, and it's got miracles.

In Die Hard, John McClain, a New York cop played by Bruce Willis, goes to Los Angeles to try and mend things with his wife, who works for a big Japanese corporation that's throwing a big Christmas party for their staff in a high-rise office block. No sooner does John enter the building than it gets taken over by terrorists.

Emma Stone – The Holiday (2006)

It's not a particularly popular movie, but many celebrities love it(Emma Roberts, Hilary Duff). Emma Stone says she's seen it at least 12 times, and it's her favourite movie to stress-eat to.

Like in many other films of this kind, the plot is driven by serendipity. Iris Simpkins(Kate Winslet ) and Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz) have both been unlucky in romance: Iris is in love with a man who uses her, and Amanda's boyfriend is cheating on her. The two protagonists are thousands of miles apart but meet in an online forum and decide to trade holidays.

Kathy Bates – It's a Wonderful Life (1946).

The Oscar-winning comic and star of American Horror Story chose a classic. It's A Wonderful Life was in the running for the Academy Award, but lost out to William Wyler's postwar classic The Best Years of Our Lives, made little money at the box office and bankrupted director Frank Capra's company. But things changed in 1974 when the film was shown on television before Christmas and became a huge hit.

It's a Wonderful Life tells the story of George Bailey (James Stewart), a relatively wealthy local businessman who is tired of life and is thinking of ending things. But many people in town pray for the man, so God sends an angel, Clarence, to help. God's messenger decides to show George the best moments of his life and what the world would have been like without him.

Emilia Clarke – Love Actually (2003)

Emilia Clarke is a big fan of British romantic comedies. While working on the 2019 film Last Christmas, Clarke was inspired by Love Actually, whose structure has also been copied by quite a few other films as well.

Love Actually is an anthology of several novellas about love, each beginning a few days before Christmas. One character finds happiness abroad; another reunites with his son; two porn performers realise they have feelings for each other; the British prime minister falls for a staff member because love, actually, is all around us.