Classic Old Hollywood Christmas Movies to Watch on Max

Once December hits, it’s officially time to watch some lovely classic Old Hollywood Christmas movies — and streaming service Max has quite a lot of wonderful options to choose from! If you’re looking to get into the holiday spirit, check out these amazing classic Christmas movies, all that you can watch on HBO Max this month! Enjoy — and happy holidays everybody!

6 Classic Old Hollywood Christmas Movies to Watch on Max

A Christmas Carol (1938)

• Genre: Drama / Fantasy
• Starring: Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart
• Directed by: Edwin L. Marin

A classic Charles Dickens story. A classic Old Hollywood Christmas movie. Thank goodness we can watch this one on HBO Max this year! A Christmas Carol, based on the Dickens story, follows grouchy Ebenezer Scrooge who hates everything and everyone, making the life of his employee Bob Cratchit miserable. However, when ghosts and Christmas spirits visit the old man, he begins to learn the errors of his ways!

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

• Genre: Comedy / Romance / Drama
• Starring: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan
• Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch

Listen, The Shop Around the Corner is my personal favorite classic Old Hollywood Christmas movie. I absolutely ADORE it. It’s so cute, so romantic, so funny. I will never get enough of it. So, if you watch any movie on this list, please watch this one! This film follows that fun classic romance trope of two enemies who do not realize they are each other’s secret romantic pen pals. The whole story takes place at a lovely little shop in Budapest!

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

• Genre: Drama / Comedy / Romance / Musical
• Starring: Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer
• Directed by: Vincente Minnelli

While Meet Me in St. Louis only has about twenty-something minutes dedicated to Christmas and the winter holidays, so many people still consider this film to be a classic Old Hollywood Christmas movie. And I do too! After all, we get the beautiful “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” sung by Judy Garland in this film! Meet Me in St. Louis is a marvelous film that follows a family at the turn of the century, their lives revolving around the St. Louis World’s Fair.

Related: 20 Popular Mary Astor Movies Today

It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)

• Genre: Comedy / Romance / Music
• Starring: Don Defore, Ann Harding, Charles Ruggles, Victor Moore, Gale Storm
• Directed by: Roy Del Ruth

Another certified Christmas classic! With a stellar cast, It Happened on Fifth Avenue follows a homeless man who is squatting in a rich businessman’s home in New York City. This drifter invites another homeless man, an unemployed veteran, to live with him in the home. However, when the businessman’s daughter shows up, chaos ensues — and romance blooms between her and the veteran! Really a wonderful, romantic Christmas movie to watch.

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

• Genre: Comedy / Drama
• Starring: Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Gene Lockhart, Natalie Wood, William Frawley
• Directed by: George Seaton

Ah, what’s not to love about Miracle on 34th Street? One of the best Christmas movies ever made, I adore this film — and you will too! The film follows a man named Kris Kringle who fills in for an intoxicated Santa during Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. He’s a huge hit, and everybody quickly adores him. When Kris Kringle begins to say that he is the real Santa Claus, he is taken to court and his sanity is questioned. A wonderful Old Hollywood classic Christmas movie to watch!

Holiday Affair (1949)

• Genre: Drama / Comedy / Romance
• Starring: Robert Mitchum, Janet Leigh, Wendell Corey
• Directed by: Don Hartman

We’ve got a real all-star cast here! If you’re looking for a fun classic Old Hollywood romance Christmas movie to watch this year, may we point you in the direction of Holiday Affair? This film follows a seasonal clerk who catches a young woman in a fraudulent shopping scheme, but upon learning she’s a war widow and single mother, he decides to let her slide — and gets fired on the spot when this is uncovered. The two become friends… and, as you may have seen coming, things get a bit romantic. Of course, there’s another man — a boring man, at that. Who will she choose?