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.

Netflix : troll 1 and 2 I think it's Norwegian ? Or.scsndi...
Got a good atmosphere.
Smaltsy stunning sets the slipper and the rose /Amazon or the nutcracker Disney.

A.haunting in Venice ,Disney.

The old scrooge films old black and white or Albert finny.version .

.

Oh yes and the Dutch film trilogy the Klaus family ( not the cartoon )

Oh Gosford Park is so good, a PP already mentioned.

And TBH any reason not to watch the original knives out again?

If you like Agatha Christie the most recent Why didn’t they ask Evans is good (avoid towards zero 2025 your teens would be embarrassed by the cringy sex scenes). murder on the orient express is set in winter.

Xmas films we watch muppets Xmas carol, Home Alone, Arthur Christmas, Elf, Deck the Halls, Miracle on 34th street. Die Hard & Die Hard 2.

Lion Witch Wardrobe has a winter cosy vibe.

Spirited with Will Ferrell and Ryan Gosling. A snarky take on a Christmas Carol with the main character being uninterested in amending his ways no matter how hard the ghosts try. Some great musical numbers

Last Christmas
Muppets Christmas Carol
Last Train to Christmas
Its A Wonderful Life
Stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol with Nicholas Farrell and Mark Gatiss (on iPlayer, I think)
Mark Gatiss’ adaptations of MR James stories (iPlayer)

Click and Collect - on Iplayer. Really funny, written by and starring Stephen Merchant, 100% Christmassy.

Get Santa - 2014 comedy, more for teens than kids, cast includes Jim Broadbent, Rafe Spall, Ewen Bremner, Warwick Davis, Stephen Graham, Joanna Scanlan, Jodie Whittaker

Inside Number 9, the Christmassy one with Sheridan Smith

Not a Christmassy suggestiong but we recently watched True Lies with the teens and they loved it.

And Operation Mincemeat - that definitely has the Agatha Cristie vibe you're looking for.

I think all my suggestions have been mentioned, so seconding;
All the Christmassy Inside Number 9, including Love’s Great Adventure (not an official “Christmas” ep, but set at Christmas)
See How They Run
It’s A Wonderful Life is classic and healing
Maverick and What Women Want are great family films if you can stomach Mel Gibson.
Little Women
Babe
The Apartment with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine?
And a Ghosts binge, but especially the Pantomime episode.

The silent partner (1978)

trailer here -
https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/ldg3v1/heres_the_trailer_for_the_silent_partner_the_1978/

BFI - Curtis Hanson’s 1997 adaptation of James Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential would be an obvious contender for our list, but this little-seen Canadian picture from 1978, for which Hanson wrote the screenplay, is every bit as good. The tightly engineered plot sees bank teller and hobbying aquarist Elliott Gould clock that a mall Santa Claus is planning to hold up his branch. Sensing an opportunity, he stashes a wad of the day’s take, claiming it went to the stick-up artist he fobbed-off with small change.
He doesn’t reckon on this erstwhile Father Christmas – a sadistic psychopath chillingly played by a mascara’d Christopher Plummer – seeing news of the size of the take on TV and waging a campaign of revenge, aided by a duplicitous femme fatale (Céline Lomez). Director Daryl Duke ratchets tension from a simmer to a rolling boil en route to the violent one-two punch of a climax that foreshadows Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill (1980).

Die Hard is a classic. Die Hard 2 and 3 (can’t remember their actual names) are fun too. Kenneth Branagh Poirot films are good. Christmas films like Bad Santa or Scrooged are good fun (a bit more grown up than Home Alone though - depends what you all feel comfortable with).

Very ld films but what I enjoyed when in my teens.
Clue - some smutty humour but fast paced and a ‘cosy’ feel. Plus Tim Curry is great in it.
Amadeus - life of Mozart and the mystery surrounding how he died.
Dead Again - murder mystery with a supernatural element.
90s thrillers like ‘The hand that rocked the cradle’ ‘dead calm’ ‘cape fear’ ‘the river wild’
Jaws

There are great adaptations of Agatha Christie’s Ordeal by Innocence and The Sittaford Mystery. They should be on itvx. The latter is set to a snowy backdrop.

Sorry just reread your post and didn’t see there was a 14 year old. The Silent Partner is an excellent film but only suitable for adults.

I have such a soft spot for Click & Collect on Amazon Prime. It stars Stephen Merchant as a straight-laced grump who messes up his child’s Christmas present, and Asim Chaudhry as the bumbling overbearing neighbour who tried to help him put it right.

Very sweet, gentle, and has a lovely message without being too insipid.

I downloaded the Radio Times on Borrowbox today in anticipation of some Christmas recording on our Freesat box. There seems to be a fair bit of Die Hard/Pirates of Caribbean/Indiana Jones etc. Home Alone and Paddington too

My gosh, thank you for all these recommendations! And also for the well wishes for 2026. We will get there.

I have a shortlist that I will put to the kids:

Nativity
See How they Run
The Hogfather
Click and Collect

And I think I'll watch Die Hard with my son. The girls won't go for it.

Loads of the suggestions were brilliant, and we've already seen and loved them.

Another vote for click and collect!

Someone on another thread recommended Stuffed on iPlayer - think it's new this year? With the bloke from Man like Mobeen. MyvDD is a fan so we'll give it a go

I watched Dear Santa last night and it was entertaing.

Oh yes Click and Collect. Enjoyed that!

What have you ended up watching @Sighohbarn? Any hits/misses?

We always watch Home Alone either 1 or 2, at Christmas and have done since the kids were small...it's a tradition with us! Except now they watch it with beer instead of hot chocolate!