What movie to watch with my teens on Christmas eve?

[Sighohbarn]

In an ideal world, we would watch a brilliant new BBCish adaptation of an Agatha Christie set in a Christmassy mansion... that would be perfect.

We have had a terrible year and tbh I have no idea what's come out this year or what we've missed. I would appreciate a suggestion for a movie to watch with my kids on Christmas eve. They are teens ages 14 - 19.

• Doesn't have to be new.
• We like murder mysteries, as long as they're the cosy sort.
• We like action movies but not too violent. Nothing too grim.
• Funny is okay.
• We liked the new Knives Out.
• We liked the Jumanji movies.
• We sometimes watch Marvel stuff.
• A few years ago we enjoyed Christmas Chronicles.
• We hated Red Dead last year.

Planes, trains and automobiles

We're saving the new Knives Out for Christmas Eve family film.

Previous years we've loved some of the more stylish Agatha Christie remakes, some of the Daniel Craig James Bond movies, and Paddington. Even though they are teens/grown up, they still adore Paddington.

Also Die Hard, Love Hard, Home Alone.

Totally agree about The Holdovers. Not cosy, and quite sad, but absolutely beautiful and set at Christmastime. It will make them deeply appreciative of Christmas at home with you!

Red one

I watched Violent Night last week and really enjoyed it but may be a bit too violent/gory.

If you might be wanting something rather different, I like Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman). It's quirky and very long but very Christmassy and beautifully shot.

Otherwise Nightmare before Christmas? (Burton)

Thanks to @MyChristmasCheerHasBuggeredOff for the Stephen Fry heads-up. Will take a look...

I like Klaus too. it's a bit above the standard cartoon fare.

Just a warning about Fanny and Alexander, it has a rather distressing child-beating scene in it.

Die hard all of them.
Long kiss goodnight.

We too watch Krampus as a tradition but it might not fit your brief.

It is actually a bit bizarrely disturbing in several ways, but most people don't make it past the first section - which is the Christmassy bit and apart from an Uncle blowing out candles with a fart it is more just very visually beautiful in a Christmassy way!

Hot Fuzz (or anything else with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) is our Christmas movie
In Bruges also usually comes out of the DVD cupboard too (but that is probably a bit too dark).

DD and DH usually get some of the old Star Wars movies out, or one of the Pirates of the Caribbeans and we’d happily sit through one of the Paddington movies again.

The Bourne series/Die Hards/Bond/Mission Impossibles are plentiful (and we never remember which is which)

I’m sorry you’ve all had a tough year, so wishing you a better Christmas and 2026!

Not useful this year but a film called the sheep detectives is coming out soon and sounds right up your street if it's anything like the book.

Of the list so far, Klaus has been my favourite. Maybe the old BBC version of the lion the witch and the wardrobe?

keeping Mum

I think we're going to watch The Mummy this year, the Brendan Fraser one. Not Christmassy at all but the kind of fun I think my young adult kids will enjoy.

Last year was the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which totally unexpectedly entranced 19yo daughter and had her rushing to buy the books. Not sure I can top that!

if you are. It averse to going out Christmas Karma is on at the cinema. It has the guy who plays Raj from the Big Bang Theory in it … we are big fans of him. Don’t know what the film is lke but it looked good. A retelling of the Christmas carol.

It’s not a movie but have you watched the residence. It sounds like it could be your style.

let it snow
Christmas with the kranks
national lampoons
spirited
Scrooged
red one
all popular with our teens

non Christmassy
Enola Holmes
murder mystery
Thursday murder club
how to train your dragon

Baby's Day Out

Shocked you've never seen die hard, it's great. Pretty violent though, depending on how old your teens are. DH and I watched it last night. It has drugs, a few flashes of boobs, quite violent and some big swears

But obvious but have you seen the first knives out? It’s very good. 2nd was not as good

This might seem odd, but we watched the Stephen King film Misery with Kathy Bates over Halloween with our teens, I hadn't seen it in years and we were all completely gripped! Proper old school film making, not a single wasted shot, so engrossing. We laughed out loud and all screamed at the tv many times with the building tension, it was a really good film to experience together. It was on iplayer. No one picked up their phone or double screened at any point, we were all too engrossed which is rare these days!

Argylle is really good. It's more espionage action than murder mystery. I saw it at the cinema last year, looks like it is on Apple TV, or to buy/rent on Prime.

The new Marvel with Florence Pugh (Thunderbolts) was really good. It's on Disney. Saw with my 20yo and 17yos but friends with younger teens also really enjoyed it. It's quite a deep film.

Ooh yes, the Residence is brilliant, can start on Xmas eve, maybe watch 2 episodes. It's really cliff hangery and v well acted.

Violent night
Christmas vacation

Spirited. We saw it in the cinema when it came out a couple of years ago. It's a daft modern American musical take on A Christmas Carol. Will Ferrell is in it.