25 Classic Christmas Movies to Watch Now

Ingmar Bergman’s 1982 film—first conceived as a five-part television miniseries, released later—was inspired, in part, by his childhood with his sister, Margareta, and father, Erik Bergman, a strict Lutheran minister. But before the marital strife unfolds and the ghosts appear, the film lingers on a Nativity play and sprawling Christmas feast in 1907, comprising some of the most colorful and joyful moments in Bergman’s oeuvre.

Do you remember that one coveted Christmas gift from your childhood? In my zillennial world, it was all about the Nintendo DS, but for nine-year-old Ralphie Parker (played by Peter Billingsley), it was the “official Red Ryder carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time.” A uniquely unhinged Gen X relic that’s absolutely worth a revisit.