Sixteen Black Christmas films to add to your rotation this winter • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

Much like Black life, there isn’t necessarily a set formula for what’s crucial for a Black Christmas movie: they can be tragedies, musicals, comedies and message pictures. Many are made-for-television movies—owing to the fact that these films are often undervalued compared with their white counterparts—while others are big-budget miracles.

What is consistent about them is their ensembles. Every movie on this list offers a murderers’ row of Black actors that stretches across generations, providing a snapshot of Black Hollywood coming together to spread some holiday cheer. You’ll also find several actors whose careers span from the 1990s to now, such as Morris Chestnut, Loretta Devine, Terrence Howard, Queen Latifah, Charlie Murphy, Gabrielle Union, Vanessa Williams and Katt Williams, making multiple appearances in genres ranging from sweet rom-coms to chaotic family comedies.

There’s also a deep, rich history of Black Christmas movies. While many of the films on this list are from the past 25 years, the earliest entry, which mashes together elements of Blaxploitation with social realism, is from 1973. Such an enduring lineage shows that these holiday movies, which are distinctly Black in their cultural interests, are as much about resilience as they are about celebration.    

But most importantly, like many Christmas movies, just about all of these pictures espouse the importance of family, music (secular or non-secular) and dance. No matter the situation, there is joy to be found in one’s community. So sit back with a cup of eggnog, spiked or not, and enjoy these sixteen Black Christmas movies.