Our starting picks for black-and-white Christmas films are Scrooge (1951), It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Miracle on 34th Street (1947). All three are rated U, all three have held up, with romance, ghosts and Santa scepticism between them.
Why black and white still works at Christmas
Christmas on screen is mostly about light: a window lit at night, a fire, snow catching a streetlamp. Black and white is very good at exactly that. The monochrome photography gives these films a shared visual appeal, even though they offer very different evenings.
For children, pace and subject matter matter as much as the photography. Colourised versions of some of these circulate. We would watch the originals.
Scrooge (1951)
Scrooge · Film guide →Our pick for a live-action Dickens evening. Sim plays the change of heart as something close to derangement: a man frightened into joy rather than softened into it. Noel Langley's screenplay fills in far more of the early years than Dickens does, so you watch the hardening happen instead of taking it on trust. Eighty-six minutes and no padding anywhere. It went out in America as A Christmas Carol, which is worth knowing if you are hunting for a copy.
It carries 87/100 Festive Factor. The U certificate mentions very mild horror, and that undersells Marley for a small child: he is properly frightening for a couple of minutes. Sensitive children may find the ghost scenes frightening; the measured pace may also suit older viewers better.
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
It's a Wonderful Life · Film guide →Darker than its reputation, which is exactly why it still works. Most of its 131 minutes follow a small-town building-and-loan manager being ground down by obligation, and Frank Capra is unusually honest about how little his good choices pay him back. By Christmas Eve he is standing on a bridge. The last ten minutes land because of everything before them; on their own they would be unbearable.
It carries 72/100 Festive Factor. Rated U, but the story includes suicidal distress and a long stretch of adult despair. Save it for an evening when viewers are comfortable with that material; its comforting reputation does not make the journey gentle.
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Miracle on 34th Street · Film guide →The family pick of the three. A department store hires an old man to play Father Christmas at its parade, he quietly insists he is the real thing, and a young lawyer ends up having to prove it in a New York courtroom. What keeps it from going soft is the sceptic: the mother who has raised her daughter on facts is never played as a fool, so the film has to earn its way past her. Gwenn is unimprovable in the lead, and a Londoner, which pleases us more than it should.
It carries 90/100 Festive Factor. Rated U and about 96 minutes, with a quieter tone than the other two. The courtroom stretch is where younger children start talking over it, which does no harm at all.
Five more worth finding
These five broaden the choice, from letters-and-shop-counter romance to an angel visiting a distracted household.
- The Shop Around the Corner (1940). A witty romance about colleagues who unknowingly exchange love letters. It also includes an implied suicide attempt, as the BBFC content advice explains.
- Remember the Night (1940). Barely known in Britain and better than most of the films that are. It starts as a comedy and ends somewhere far more serious.
- Christmas in Connecticut (1945). Quick, and entirely unbothered about meaning anything. Good company on a slow afternoon.
- The Bishop's Wife (1947). Gentle to the point of drowsy, and lovely with it. The one to put on when everyone is past conversation.
- Holiday Inn (1942). The songs are the reason to watch. It contains a blackface musical number, discussed in the BFI’s guide to Christmas musicals, which is worth knowing before you choose it for the evening.
If you want the same era in colour
Two of the older films on our list are in full colour and belong on the same shelf.
Meet Me in St. Louis · Film guide → White Christmas · Film guide →Meet Me in St. Louis is classified Winter in our catalogue, but its winter section is one of the great sequences in the form, and the song in it has never stopped being sad. White Christmas is one of the cosiest films we have scored and has almost no plot, which turns out to be the point.
If you only watch one this year, make it Scrooge on Christmas Eve, after the washing up, with the big light off.
