Ann Arbor Holiday Movies

There are a number of Ann Arbor Holiday Movie Showings throughout the holiday season. What is your favorite Holiday Movie? My favorite is Miracle on 34th Street. My husband’s favorite is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. My daughter really enjoys Home Alone. Maybe your favorite is Elf or A Christmas Story.

New Release Holiday Movies in Theaters

With theaters closed, there are not many new movie releases planned for 2020. Hopefully things will be under control in 2021 and we will have new Christmas movies in the theater.

Classic Holiday Movies in Theaters

With movie theaters in Michigan closed from November 18-December 8, there will be less time for holiday movies in 2020. With the possibility of a surge post-Thanksgiving, it is possible that the cinema closure will be extended through the holiday season. Even if they reopen, my family is not ready to return to a movie theater – even one that offers social distancing. Fortunately, we already have a good selection of holiday movies and even more are available via streaming.

Michigan Theater

Michigan Theater had previously announced their Holiday Movie Series which started November 15 and was scheduled through Thanksgiving weekend.. They were able to hold the first movie, but subsequent movies have been cancelled since the theater is closed.

Michigan Theater typically kicks off the Holiday season with a Sing Along White Christmas on Friday of Thanksgiving weekend. If you’re missing that, White Christmas is available on Netflix.

Quality 16, Emagine & Cinemark

The Local theater chains have their theaters closed. With limited new releases, theaters in other markets are playing classic and more recent movies that include some holiday films. If theaters reopen as currently scheduled, I expect to see some holiday movie showings available.

All Holiday Movie Showings

Watch at Home

Our preferred way to watch Christmas movies has always been at home.

Streaming Holiday Movies

We started our holiday movie viewing last week with the premiere of the LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special on Disney+.

Speaking of Disney+, they have the Happy Holidays Collection which gathers all of their holiday movies. Disney+ include classics like Miracle on 34th Street, the Home Alone series and the Santa Clause series. Their animated movies include The Nightmare Before Christmas, A Christmas Carol, and more.

If you’re missing Michigan Theater’s annual White Christmas Sing Along, you acn stream the movie on Netflix (not in a singalong version).

Likewise, if you’re missing attendign a live nutcracker, Netflix is the streaming home of Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. Grinch also has the Jim Carrey version of Dr Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the recent animated The Grinch.

AppleTV+ will have the Charlie Brown Christmas.

Your DVD Collection

We are a bit old school – we own several of our favorite Christmas movies on DVD or BluRay. And now that we have a teen, we are branching out to more mature films.

No season is complete without at least one watching of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It was traditionally the movie my husband and I watched while we wrapped our daughter’s presents. But now she loves it, so it was upgraded to a general wrapping movie. But, this year we’re direct shipping most gifts so we’ll just have to watch it on any day.

Last year we introduced our teen to the debate of whether Die Hard is a Christmas Movie. I say yes – she and dad are more on the fence. My husband insists if Die Hard is a Christmas Movie, so is Lethal Weapon, so that’s what we’ll be watching this year.

TV Airings

Since I am old enough to remember not just a time before DVRs, but before VCRs, the best way to watch a Christmas classic was on TV. Now with a DVR, it is even easier to watch your Christmas favorite from a TV broadcast. Get your DVR ready to record Christmas movies.

A few upcoming Christmas classics I found are:

• AMC Movies
  • National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
  • The Polar Express
  • Scrooged
  • Gremlins
  • Planes, Trains, & Automobiles
  • Four Christmases
  • Fred Claus
  • Elf
• Freeform’s 25 Days of Christmas Schedule is also a great source for Christmas movies
  • Disney’s A Christmas Carol
  • Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
  • Home Alone Series
  • Dr Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
  • Muppet Christmas
  • Deck the Halls
  • The Santa Clause Series
  • Jingle All the Way
  • Christmas with the Kranks

Ann Arbor Christmas Guide

Don’t miss our Ann Arbor Christmas Guide for all the ChristmasFun in the Ann Arbor Area.