Noelle

Starring Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader, Noelle is a magical tale of the Kringle family. This year, Noelle's brother Nick is meant to take the place of their father, Santa Claus, but Nick isn't quite ready to fill his dad's big shoes. Noelle, though, has been prepared for this moment for a long time, and her nervous brother needs her encouragement to make sure Christmas goes as planned. To calm his nerves, she suggests that her brother take some time off, but then he disappears. Noelle sets out to find her brother and hopefully save Christmas before there's a new Santa.

Once Upon a Snowman

Olaf, a joyful snowman, is one of the most beloved characters from Frozen. But, where did he come from? After all, Olaf is no ordinary snowman. He sings! He dances! Now it's time for him to tell his story. How did Olaf come to be, and can a snowman find his identity in the frozen wonderland of Arendelle? This is an animated short, so it's great to watch if you want to get in the holiday mood on your lunch break.

Mickey’s Christmas Carol

Released in 1983, “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” might seem like a marginal Christmas featurette (theatrically it was released with the Christmas 1983 re-release of “The Rescuers”), but it is a pretty stunning accomplishment (it was nominated for an Oscar), full of dazzling animation and completed by a murderer’s row of animation talent. To explain, this was one of the last Disney projects that featured the original generation of Disney animators as well as the rush of new animators who had just come to the studio. It was directed by the great Burny Mattinson, whose first movie was “Lady and the Tramp,” and included fresh work from young Turks like John Lasseter, Glen Keane, Mark Henn and Randy Cartwright, many of whom opted to work on the featurette instead of the studio’s troubled fantasy epic “The Black Cauldron.”.

A Christmas Carol

The last mo-cap movie Robert Zemeckis made in his ill-fated arrangement with Disney was “A Christmas Carol,” a whirligig adaptation of the Charles Dickens story that saw him pushing all of the technology (computer animation! 3D! motion capture! Actors playing multiple roles!) in service of attempting to make the definitive version of the tale. It didn’t work. It was a box office disappointment and Disney doesn’t even acknowledge it in a list of Christmas favorites on the service.

Home Alone

Disney+ will undoubtedly try to sway you into watching this year’s “Home Sweet Home Alone,” a tepid retread that only succeeds in reminding you just how wonderful the original “Home Alone” really is. And, truly, “Home Alone” is revered as a yuletide favorite for a reason – it’s that good. Everything from John Hughes’ airtight script to John Williams’ immortal score, to the way that future “Harry Potter” architect Chris Columbus was able to get such a natural, hilarious performance out of Macaulay Culkin and several of the other kids is still mind-boggling after all these years.

The Muppet Christmas Carol

The Muppet Christmas Carol is a 1992 Christmas musical comedy directed by Brian Henson (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Jerry Juhl. Adapted from the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, it stars Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge, alongside Muppet performers Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Jerry Nelson, and Frank Oz. Although artistic license is taken to suit the aesthetic of the Muppets, The Muppet Christmas Carol otherwise follows Dickens's original story closely.

The Santa Clause

The Santa Clause is a 1994 American Christmas comedy-drama film written by Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick, and directed by John Pasquin. The first film in the Santa Clause film series, it stars Tim Allen as Scott Calvin, an ordinary man who accidentally causes Santa Claus (played by Tim Allen's actual stunt double, Steve Lucescu) to fall from his roof on Christmas Eve. When he and his young son, Charlie, finish St. Nick's trip and deliveries, they go to the North Pole where Scott learns that he must become the new Santa and convince those he loves that he is indeed Santa Claus.