The 30 Worst Christmas Movies Ever Made

Christmas movies arrive every year by the dozen, and most are forgotten by New Year’s Day. A few stick around for the wrong reasons. These are the holiday films critics panned the hardest: big studio comedies with famous casts, cheap oddities, and sequels nobody asked for.

The ranking leans on each film’s Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score, which is the share of reviews that are positive, along with Razzie history and box office results. Scores can move a point or two as new reviews are added, so treat them as a snapshot.

A bad review is not the same as a bad time. Several of these films made plenty of money, and a few have loyal fans who watch them every December, sometimes for the very reasons critics hated them.

For the other side of the season, see the 30 best Christmas movies of all time. Below are the 30 worst Christmas movies ever made, starting at the very bottom of the stocking.

1. Saving Christmas (2014)

Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas is the rare movie with a perfect score in the wrong direction: 0 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 19 reviews. Directed by Darren Doane, it plays more like a lecture than a story. Cameron, playing himself, sits in a car outside a Christmas party and explains to his doubtful brother-in-law why trees, presents and Santa have Christian roots. After release, Cameron asked his Facebook fans to help him “storm the gates” of Rotten Tomatoes with positive ratings, and the backlash briefly made it the lowest-rated movie on IMDb. At the 35th Golden Raspberry Awards in 2015, it won Worst Picture, Worst Actor for Cameron, Worst Screenplay and Worst Screen Combo. Made for roughly $500,000, it grossed about $2.8 million in North America, so it actually turned a profit.

2. The Nutcracker in 3D (2010)

Andrei Konchalovsky’s take on the Christmas ballet story is one of the costliest flops in holiday movie history. The film reportedly cost about $90 million and earned only around $20 million worldwide, with a tiny U.S. release that barely registered. Elle Fanning plays Mary, a girl in 1920s Vienna whose new nutcracker comes to life on Christmas Eve, and Nathan Lane plays her Uncle Albert, a character modeled on Albert Einstein. John Turturro plays the Rat King, whose army burns toys to blot out the sun and wears uniforms that many reviewers compared to Nazi imagery. Critics were baffled by the mix of a children’s fairy tale and wartime menace. It holds 0 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 32 reviews, and it was nominated for a Razzie in the one-off category Worst Eye-Gouging Misuse of 3D.

3. Christmas with the Kranks (2004)

Based on John Grisham’s 2001 novel Skipping Christmas, this comedy stars Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis as Luther and Nora Krank, a suburban couple who decide to skip the holiday and take a Caribbean cruise after their daughter leaves for the Peace Corps. Their neighbors, led by Dan Aykroyd’s Vic Frohmeyer, answer with pressure, protests and chants of “Free Frosty” until the couple gives in. Chris Columbus wrote the screenplay and Joe Roth directed. Critics found the message about fitting in sour and the slapstick strained, and the film sits at just 5 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 129 reviews. Audiences did not seem to mind. Made for a reported $60 million, it took in more than $73 million in North America and roughly $96.6 million worldwide, enough to make it a December regular on cable.

4. Deck the Halls (2006)

Matthew Broderick plays Steve Finch, an optometrist who sees himself as the king of Christmas in his small Massachusetts town, until car salesman Buddy Hall, played by Danny DeVito, moves in across the street. Buddy sets out to cover his house in so many lights that it can be seen from space on an online satellite map, and the rivalry turns into a long string of pranks and pratfalls. Kristin Davis and Kristin Chenoweth play the wives. Directed by John Whitesell, the film holds 6 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 85 reviews, with critics calling it loud and joyless. It earned three Razzie nominations: Worst Supporting Actor for DeVito, Worst Supporting Actress for Chenoweth and Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment. Against a budget of about $51 million, it grossed roughly $47 million worldwide.

5. Surviving Christmas (2004)

Ben Affleck plays Drew Latham, a lonely advertising executive who pays a family $250,000 to let him spend Christmas in his old childhood home and treat him as one of their own. James Gandolfini and Catherine O’Hara play the parents, and Christina Applegate plays their annoyed daughter. Directed by Mike Mitchell, the film opened in late October, an odd date for a Christmas movie, and it sank fast. It holds 8 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 108 reviews. Against a reported $45 million budget, it took in about $11 million in North America and roughly $15 million worldwide. At the Razzies it was nominated for Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay, and Affleck was nominated for Worst Actor for this film and Jersey Girl in the same year. Few holiday comedies have vanished from theaters so quickly.

6. Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)

Disney’s revival of the Home Alone series went straight to Disney+ on November 12, 2021. Directed by Dan Mazer, it stars Archie Yates as Max Mercer, a boy accidentally left behind when his family flies to Tokyo for Christmas. The twist is that the would-be burglars, a struggling couple played by Ellie Kemper and Rob Delaney, are written as decent people trying to save their house, and many viewers found themselves rooting against the kid. Devin Ratray returns as Buzz McCallister, now a police officer, in a nod to the 1990 original. Critics were not charmed. The film holds 15 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 72 reviews, far below the original film’s reputation, and reviewers said the traps lacked the wit of the first movie. Because it premiered on streaming, there are no box office figures to compare.

7. Jack Frost (1998)

Not to be confused with the 1997 horror film of the same name, this Warner Bros. family film stars Michael Keaton as Jack Frost, a rock musician who dies in a car crash and comes back a year later as a snowman to spend time with his son Charlie, played by Joseph Cross. Kelly Preston plays his wife. The snowman was built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, and its look became the film’s biggest talking point. Roger Ebert called it the most repulsive creature in the history of special effects, and other critics found a dead dad in snowman form more creepy than comforting. Directed by Troy Miller, it holds 18 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 56 reviews. It opened in third place with about $7 million and finished with roughly $34.6 million in North America, well short of its reported budget.

8. Love the Coopers (2015)

This ensemble film gathers four generations of a Pittsburgh family for one tense Christmas Eve. Diane Keaton and John Goodman play Charlotte and Sam, a long-married couple planning to split after the holidays, and the cast also includes Alan Arkin, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde, Ed Helms, Marisa Tomei and June Squibb. Directed by Jessie Nelson, the film is narrated by the family dog, Rags, voiced by Steve Martin, a reveal saved for the end. Critics found it overstuffed and sugary, with too many storylines and too few laughs, and it holds 19 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 118 reviews. It opened in third place behind Spectre and The Peanuts Movie with about $8.3 million. Made for a reported $17 million, it went on to earn about $42.4 million worldwide, so it was not a money loser.

9. Fred Claus (2007)

Vince Vaughn plays Fred, the older brother of Santa Claus, a Chicago repo man who has spent centuries in his saintly sibling’s shadow. When Fred needs bail money, he has to work off the debt at the North Pole just as an efficiency expert arrives to decide whether Santa’s operation should be shut down. Paul Giamatti plays Nick, and the cast includes Rachel Weisz, Miranda Richardson and Kathy Bates as Mother Claus. Directed by David Dobkin, who had made Wedding Crashers with Vaughn, the film had a $100 million budget, huge for a holiday comedy. It grossed about $72 million in North America and $97.8 million worldwide, short of its cost. Critics called it overlong and unsure whether it was a crude comedy or a family film, and it holds 19 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

10. Jingle All the Way (1996)

Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Howard Langston, a Minnesota mattress salesman who forgets to buy his son the season’s hottest toy, a Turbo-Man action figure, and spends Christmas Eve fighting crowds to find one. Sinbad plays Myron, a mail carrier chasing the same toy, and Phil Hartman plays a smug divorced neighbor with designs on Howard’s wife. Directed by Brian Levant, the film turned holiday shopping panic into a long chain of chases, brawls and a climactic parade. Critics found it loud and cynical, and it holds 20 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 45 reviews. Families went anyway. It opened with about $12 million and finished with roughly $60.6 million in North America and $129.8 million worldwide. Years later it found new life on cable, and a sequel starring Larry the Cable Guy went straight to video in 2014.

11. Santa with Muscles (1996)

Hulk Hogan plays Blake Thorn, a selfish millionaire who hits his head while fleeing police in a mall Santa suit and wakes up believing he really is Santa Claus. He then defends an orphanage from a villain who wants the magic crystals hidden beneath it. A young Mila Kunis appears among the orphans in one of her earliest film roles. Directed by John Murlowski, the film is so obscure that Rotten Tomatoes has too few reviews to give it a score, but Variety called it “a weakling of a comedy,” and it turns up on nearly every list of the worst Christmas movies. Theaters had little interest either. Released in November 1996 by Cabin Fever Entertainment, it made about $121,000 in its opening weekend and around $220,000 in total, before finding a second life on home video and cable.

12. Trapped in Paradise (1994)

Nicolas Cage, Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey play the Firpo brothers, who rob a bank on Christmas Eve in the small town of Paradise, Pennsylvania, and then find they cannot get out. A snowstorm closes the roads, and the townspeople are so kind to the thieves that the brothers start to feel guilty. Writer and director George Gallo, who had written Midnight Run, aimed for a holiday caper with heart, but critics found it slow and shrill, with the characters played by Carvey and Lovitz treated as walking annoyances. It holds 11 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. 20th Century Fox opened it in December 1994 in 1,286 theaters, where it took in about $2.7 million in its first weekend and only around $6 million in North America overall, making it one of the bigger holiday flops of that year.

13. All I Want for Christmas (1991)

Ethan Randall and Thora Birch play Ethan and Hallie O’Fallon, two New York kids whose one Christmas wish is to get their divorced parents back together. Hallie even asks a department store Santa, played by Leslie Nielsen, to make it happen. Lauren Bacall plays their wealthy grandmother, and Harley Jane Kozak and Jamey Sheridan play the parents. Directed by Robert Lieberman for Paramount, the film had big names and a holiday release, but critics found it syrupy and thin, and some disliked its message that kids should scheme to undo a divorce. It holds 14 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 14 reviews. It did modest business, earning about $14.8 million in North America against a reported $12 million budget, and today it turns up mostly on holiday TV schedules rather than on lists of favorites.

14. Black Christmas (2006)

This remake of Bob Clark’s 1974 slasher, one of the earliest holiday horror films, moved the story of a killer stalking a sorority house over winter break into far gorier territory. Writer and director Glen Morgan added a long backstory for the killer, Billy, full of abuse, murder and cannibalism, and swapped the original’s slow dread for graphic deaths. The cast includes Katie Cassidy, Michelle Trachtenberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Lacey Chabert, plus Andrea Martin, who had also appeared in the original. Critics were harsh, and it holds 14 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 63 reviews. It opened in U.S. theaters on Christmas Day and grossed about $16.2 million in North America and $21.5 million worldwide, then did better on DVD. Horror fans can find far better choices among these entertaining Christmas horror films.

15. The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006)

Tim Allen’s third outing as Scott Calvin, the man who became Santa by putting on the suit, finds him juggling a pregnant Mrs. Claus, a visit from her parents and a jealous Jack Frost. Martin Short plays Frost, who tricks Scott into using the Escape Clause to give up the job and then takes over the North Pole. Directed by Michael Lembeck, who also made the second film, it holds 17 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 64 reviews, far below the 1994 original. It earned four Razzie nominations, including Worst Supporting Actor for Short, Worst Prequel or Sequel and Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment. Even so, it was a hit, grossing about $84.5 million in North America and $110.8 million worldwide. The story picked up again years later in the Disney+ series The Santa Clauses.

16. Mixed Nuts (1994)

Nora Ephron followed Sleepless in Seattle with this dark farce, set on Christmas Eve at a struggling suicide prevention hotline in Venice, California. Steve Martin plays Philip, the hotline’s manager, who is about to be evicted, and the cast includes Madeline Kahn, Rita Wilson, Juliette Lewis, Adam Sandler, Anthony LaPaglia, Garry Shandling, Liev Schreiber and Rob Reiner. Ephron and her sister Delia based the script on the 1982 French comedy Le Père Noël est une ordure, a cult hit in France. The jokes did not survive the trip. Critics found it frantic and unfunny, and it holds 17 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 29 reviews. Released on December 21, 1994, it opened in 12th place with about $2.3 million and finished with roughly $6.8 million, far short of its reported $20 million budget.

17. The Perfect Holiday (2007)

Morris Chestnut plays Benjamin, a struggling songwriter who works as a mall Santa and falls for Nancy, a divorced mother of three played by Gabrielle Union, after her young daughter asks him to give her mom a compliment for Christmas. The catch is that Nancy’s ex-husband is J-Jizzy, a rapper played by Charlie Murphy, the very star Benjamin hopes to write songs for. Queen Latifah narrates and appears as Mrs. Christmas, alongside Terrence Howard as a grumpy spirit called Bah Humbug, and Faizon Love plays Benjamin’s friend. Critics found the story thin and the angel framing awkward, and the film holds 19 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 58 reviews. Released in December 2007, it opened with about $2.3 million and finished with roughly $5.8 million in North America, against a reported budget of around $20 million.

18. Daddy’s Home 2 (2017)

The sequel to the 2015 hit brings back Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as Brad and Dusty, the stepdad and dad who learned to share parenting duties, and adds their own fathers for a joint family Christmas at a rented cabin. John Lithgow plays Brad’s chatty, affectionate dad, and Mel Gibson plays Dusty’s macho, womanizing father, whose casting in a family comedy was questioned in many reviews. John Cena also returns as the ex-husband of Dusty’s new wife. Directed by Sean Anders, the film leans on slapstick with snowblowers and tangled Christmas lights. Critics were unimpressed, and it holds 20 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 127 reviews. Audiences still showed up. It opened in second place behind Thor: Ragnarok with about $30 million and earned roughly $104 million in North America and $180 million worldwide, against a budget of about $70 million.

19. A Madea Christmas (2013)

Tyler Perry once again puts on the wig and dress of Mabel “Madea” Simmons, this time traveling to rural Alabama with her niece Eileen to surprise Eileen’s daughter Lacey, a schoolteacher, for Christmas. Lacey is hiding a secret: she has married a white farmer’s son, whose parents are played by Larry the Cable Guy and Kathy Najimy. Perry also wrote and directed the film, which he adapted from his own stage play. Critics found it long, repetitive and preachy, and it holds 21 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 33 reviews. At the 2014 Razzies it was nominated for Worst Picture, and Perry won Worst Actress for playing Madea. As usual for the series, fans turned out anyway. Made for a reported $25 million, it opened with about $16 million and grossed roughly $52.5 million in North America.

20. Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)

Alexander and Ilya Salkind, the producers behind the Christopher Reeve Superman films, spent a reported $50 million on this origin story, one of the biggest budgets of its time. David Huddleston plays a woodcutter who becomes Santa, Dudley Moore plays an ambitious elf named Patch, and John Lithgow plays B.Z., a greedy New York toy company boss who lures Patch into making magic candy that lets children float in the air. Directed by Jeannot Szwarc, who had made Supergirl for the Salkinds, the film was planned as the start of a series. Critics liked the North Pole sets but found the second half, with its corporate villain, clumsy and overlong. It holds 22 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 23 reviews. Released by TriStar in November 1985, it brought in only about $23.7 million, and no sequel followed.

21. The Christmas Candle (2013)

Based on Max Lucado’s novel, this British period drama is set in a small English village where an angel is said to visit the local candlemaker every 25 years and bless one candle with a miracle. A new minister, played by Hans Matheson, arrives doubting the legend just as the angel’s year comes around, and the village is torn between faith in the candle and his more practical ideas about helping people. The cast includes Samantha Barks, Lesley Manville and Sylvester McCoy, and the film marked the acting debut of singer Susan Boyle, who also recorded the song “Miracle Hymn” for it. Critics found it slow, stiff and heavy-handed, and it holds 22 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 23 reviews. Released in the U.S. by EchoLight Studios, it earned only about $2 million at the box office.

22. I’ll Be Home for Christmas (1998)

Jonathan Taylor Thomas, then a big star from Home Improvement, plays Jake Wilkinson, a selfish college student in California whose father promises him a classic Porsche if he makes it home to New York by Christmas Eve dinner. After a prank, Jake wakes up stranded in the desert in a Santa suit with a fake beard glued to his face, and he has to cross the country in costume. Jessica Biel plays his girlfriend Allie, and Gary Cole plays his father. Directed by Arlene Sanford for Disney, the film was aimed at the teen audience that followed Thomas, but critics found it bland and forgettable. It holds 22 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 37 reviews. Made for a reported $30 million, it grossed only about $12.2 million in North America, one of the weaker Disney holiday releases of the decade.

23. Bad Santa 2 (2016)

Thirteen years after Bad Santa became a cult favorite, Billy Bob Thornton returned as Willie Soke, the drunk, crude safecracker in a Santa suit. This time Willie and his old partner Marcus, played by Tony Cox, plan to rob a Chicago charity on Christmas Eve, and the scheme is run by Willie’s even worse mother, Sunny, played by Kathy Bates. Brett Kelly returns as the sweet, clueless Thurman Merman, and Christina Hendricks plays the charity’s director. Directed by Mark Waters, the sequel kept the R-rated jokes but, critics said, lost the original’s bite and its odd heart. It holds 23 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 134 reviews. Released by Broad Green Pictures over Thanksgiving weekend, it opened with about $6.2 million and grossed roughly $17.8 million in North America against a $26 million budget.

24. Four Christmases (2008)

Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon play Brad and Kate, a happily unmarried San Francisco couple whose plan to skip family and fly to Fiji falls apart when fog grounds their flight and a TV news crew catches them at the airport. Trapped, they have to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas Day. The parents are played by four Oscar winners: Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight and Mary Steenburgen, with Jon Favreau and Kristin Chenoweth also in the cast. Directed by Seth Gordon, the film holds 25 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 142 reviews, with critics calling it mean and frantic. It was still a big hit. It opened at number one with about $31 million and grossed about $120 million in North America and more than $160 million worldwide, against a reported budget of $80 million.

25. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)

In this low-budget science fiction comedy, Martian leaders notice their children have grown listless and decide the fix is to kidnap Santa Claus from Earth. Santa, played by John Call, ends up running a toy factory on Mars while a grumpy Martian named Voldar plots against him. A ten-year-old Pia Zadora made her film debut as the Martian girl Girmar. Directed by Nicholas Webster and made for an estimated $200,000, the film features flimsy sets, a man in a polar bear suit and a boxy robot named Torg, and it ends with the novelty song “Hooray for Santy Claus.” It holds 27 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and regularly appears on lists of the worst films ever made. Its fame grew after it was mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1991, and it later fell into the public domain.

26. Unaccompanied Minors (2006)

Directed by Paul Feig, years before Bridesmaids, this comedy follows a group of kids stuck at a snowed-in Midwest airport on Christmas Eve. When the airline herds them into a dreary holding room, five of them break out and run wild through the terminal, chased by a grumpy airline manager played by Lewis Black. Wilmer Valderrama plays a put-upon employee, and Tyler James Williams, Dyllan Christopher and Gina Mantegna are among the kids. The idea grew out of a real story told on the public radio show This American Life. Critics found the slapstick shrill and the characters thin, and it holds 29 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 85 reviews. Released by Warner Bros. in December 2006, it opened with about $5.8 million and grossed roughly $21.9 million worldwide against a budget of about $25 million.

27. Red One (2024)

Amazon MGM Studios spent a reported $200 million to $250 million on this action comedy, making it one of the most expensive Christmas movies ever made. Dwayne Johnson plays Callum Drift, head of security at the North Pole, who must team up with a hacker and tracker played by Chris Evans after Santa, played by J.K. Simmons, is kidnapped just before Christmas. Lucy Liu and Kiernan Shipka co-star, and Jake Kasdan directed. Critics found it noisy, effects-heavy and joyless, and it holds 29 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 186 reviews, though audiences rated it far higher. It opened in first place with about $34.1 million and earned roughly $186 million worldwide, a disappointing total for a film of that size. It arrived on Prime Video on December 12, 2024, less than a month after it opened in theaters.

28. Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)

The first Silent Night, Deadly Night drew protests in 1984 over its killer Santa ads. Its sequel is remembered for something else: around half an hour of its running time is flashback footage from the first film. Eric Freeman plays Ricky Caldwell, the younger brother of the original killer, who tells his story to a psychiatrist before escaping to go after the Mother Superior who raised them. Directed by Lee Harry, it was shot on a tiny budget and earned only about $154,000 in a limited release. Critics dismissed it, and its 30 percent Rotten Tomatoes score comes from just 10 reviews. Then the internet found it. A clip of Freeman shooting a neighbor taking out his trash while shouting “Garbage day!” became a famous meme, viewed millions of times on YouTube.

29. Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)

Jim Varney’s Ernest P. Worrell, the rubber-faced know-it-all from a long run of TV commercials, got his second feature film in this Touchstone comedy. Santa Claus, played by Douglas Seale, comes to Orlando looking for a successor, a kindly children’s TV host named Joe Carruthers, and needs cab driver Ernest’s help to find him before Christmas Eve. Along the way Ernest picks up a teenage runaway and puts on a string of disguises, one of Varney’s trademarks. Critics found it silly and thin, though some admitted Varney was likable, and the film holds 40 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 15 reviews. Kids loved it. Made for about $6.5 million and released in November 1988, it opened in second place and grossed about $28.2 million, making it the most successful Ernest movie at the box office.

30. Office Christmas Party (2016)

To save their struggling Chicago tech branch from being closed by the company’s tough interim CEO, played by Jennifer Aniston, branch manager Clay, played by T.J. Miller, and his chief technology officer, played by Jason Bateman, throw a huge holiday party to win over a big client. Things quickly spin out of control. Olivia Munn, Kate McKinnon, Courtney B. Vance and Jillian Bell round out the cast, and Josh Gordon and Will Speck directed. It is the best-reviewed film on this list, but that is faint praise: it holds 41 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 185 reviews, with critics saying a talented cast was stuck with thin jokes. Released by Paramount, it was a solid hit, grossing about $54.8 million in North America and $114.5 million worldwide against a budget of about $45 million.