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Elisabeth Vincentelli, a contributing writer for the Culture section at The New York Times, never considered herself an expert on holiday films. She grew up in France, where Christmas just wasn’t as big a deal as it is in America, she said.
But then, in 2019, she noticed that Netflix was putting out a lot of holiday films.
“I thought it’d be fun to rank them,” said Ms. Vincentelli, who estimates she has now seen more than 100.
Ever since, Ms. Vincentelli has made her way through each year’s original holiday releases, from heartwarming to horror, compiling a list of films most likely to bring readers joy as they roast chestnuts on an open fire. The list now includes movies from many major streaming services, is capped at 10 and is no longer ranked.
“I hope people can use it like a cheat sheet,” said Ms. Vincentelli, who, when she’s not writing about hotties caught in blizzards and big-city dwellers discovering the joys of country life, covers theater — and, occasionally, skiing — for The Times.
In an interview, she outlined how she plans her strategy each year, discussed her favorite releases this season and explained how she stays open-minded amid so many holiday clichés. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
When do you start thinking about each year’s list?
People start publishing lists of upcoming holiday movies in October, so I’ll compile a master list. I’ll usually ask for screeners — advance copies of films sent to journalists — or sometimes they come out early enough for me to watch them the regular way. Then I start watching in November.
What qualifies as a movie worthy of your list?
They have to be new, and they have to be streaming. I don’t cover films that are solely theatrical releases. And I don’t do Hallmark, Lifetime or Great American Family movies. There are just too many of them. I also don’t include films that come out after the list publishes. Unfortunately, that means I miss out on potentially interesting latecomers; this year it’s “Merv” with Zooey Deschanel and Charlie Cox.
Do you watch the films with family or by yourself?
I watch them with my wife. She’s a very good consult on this particular genre.
Has your relationship with holiday movies changed since you started doing the roundup?
I wouldn’t have called myself a holiday movie fan, but once I started doing it, I really got into it. Now I take it very seriously! Having watched so many now, I get really annoyed when critics write reviews of movies and say things like, “It’s one cliché after another.” That’s kind of the whole point. There’s definitely a formula to it, but it’s how you pull it off, and some really do. Every year there are surprises, good and bad.
What are some of the standouts from this year’s list?
One of my favorite movies this year is “Oh. What. Fun” on Prime Video. It’s laugh-out-loud funny. And I quite like “Tyler Perry’s Finding Joy” because it’s so over the top. It has everything — crazy romance, opposites attract and also the really familiar Christmas trope of being stuck somewhere in a blizzard. It’s so preposterous, but the holiday genre is one where the word preposterous can be a big compliment.
Do you watch every film all the way through?
I can usually tell pretty quickly if a movie is going to be bad. But once I’ve started a movie, I tend to finish it. Unlike regular movies, which have undergone inflation in their run times, Christmas movies tend to be 90 minutes. It’s extremely rare that they pass two hours. To me, that’s the platonic ideal of the movie experience in many ways.
How do you stay open-minded?
I’ve learned not to modulate my expectations. I really go in completely open to every movie, like, OK, here we go, let’s get this tinsel show on the road. It’s like when I’m reviewing theater: I’m like, Show me what you got. The play starts, or the movie starts, and my clock resets. We all have baggage we bring when we see something, but I’m like, All right, just convince me.
What is something you never want to see in a holiday movie ever again?
I’m so over bakers. Bakers, as a symbol of everything that’s good and honest and crafty and homey, are overused. But then it only takes watching one with a really fun baker for me to be like, All right, bakers are good.
Who played the best Santa of all time?
The people around Santa are always more interesting than Santa himself. There’s only so much you can do in that outfit and that beard and that pipe. But Kurt Russell in “The Christmas Chronicles” was a great one. And then there’s a French movie called “Christmas & Co.,” where Alain Chabat played Santa. That’s one of the funniest Santa movies I’ve seen.
What are some of your all-time favorite holiday movies?
“Fanny and Alexander,” by Ingmar Bergman. I’m also very fond of “Die Hard,” which I consider a Christmas movie. And I’m a big fan of “Elf.”
Sarah Bahr writes about culture and style for The Times.
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