Classic Christmas Movies Fans Loved That Critics Hated

The Christmas movie is a fascinating subgenre for a number of reasons, one of which is the built-in staying power these movies have. If you make an instant holiday classic, you can count on it being around for years, but even mediocre Christmas films seem to pick up rabid fanbases. And thanks to the needs of dozens of basic cable networks and streaming services, even critically hated Christmas movies can count on being picked up for repeat airtime every December. In other words, if you make a Christmas movie, even a not-so-great one, it can be the gift that keeps on giving. 

This sense of annual obligation to seasonal programming means that Christmas films get more second chances than most pieces of cinema. Many movies that are critically panned and bomb at the box office are simply forgotten years later, but disappointing Christmas films get trotted back out again every December for reappraisal. That means that over time, many people grow to love them, even the ones critics just can't stand. So in celebration of this very particular kind of Christmas miracle, here are some films that critics hated, but that Christmas movie fans just can't seem to let go of.

If you're going to make a Christmas blockbuster, calling your flick Santa Claus: The Movie certainly seems like a pretty good starting point. If you like Christmas, there's a good chance you'll always like the man in the big red suit, and this 1985 film was hoping to provide a definitive story to cater to that fandom. Much of Santa Claus: The Movie is an origin story, explaining how Santa became an immortal avatar of Christmas cheer and how all of his particular magical gifts came to be. The rest of the film involves one of Santa's elves naively trying to use all the skills he's learned from Father Christmas to partner with a morally bankrupt businessmen. 

Perhaps because Santa Claus is sort of oddly split into two movies, critics almost universally panned the film upon its release. Santa Claus has a 20 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, but that doesn't mean it never found an audience. Thanks to home video, the film has developed a cult following of sorts. Its Rotten Tomatoes audience score is a respectable 66 percent, and in recent years, some critics have confessed to being a bit puzzled as to why the film was so lambasted when it came out. Watching it now, the film retains a certain warmth and sense of nostalgic charm. Yes, the back half's "true meaning of Christmas vs. commercialism" narrative is a bit stale, but David Huddleston still makes a really solid Santa.

The 2000 version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas was a gamble for a number of reasons. For one thing, there was already a beloved, decades-old cartoon version of the story that was both an unimpeachable classic and the perfect length for a TV special. For another, the idea of translating the story to live-action seemed rather precarious, particularly when it came to covering Jim Carrey in head-to-toe green fur. Director Ron Howard and company went ahead with it, though, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas arrived to ... well, middling reviews. 

While it's not as reviled as other holiday films on our list, The Grinch did get its share of bad reviews with a 50 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences have been kinder, though. The film took in $345 million worldwide on release, and it remains a holiday staple that gets constant cable airplay in December, particularly during Freeform's 25 Days of Christmas. Even now, nearly 20 years after its release, The Grinch dazzles audiences with its live-action re-imagining of a Dr. Seuss world, and that's a key reason why fans keep coming back. It simply doesn't look quite like any other Christmas film. Plus, pounds of prosthetics and hair aside, Jim Carrey remains a powerhouse throughout the film. He makes it work, even if you're skeptical. 

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians isn't a great movie by traditional standards, but it has long ranked among the best "bad" movies ever made. The film, made on a low budget and released in 1964, tells the story of a Martian plot to kidnap Santa so that Martian children will have their own Christmas figure to enjoy. But upon its initial release, critics weren't exactly full of cheer. The film still has a 22 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, but as with so many strange, low-budget films, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians has spent the last several decades building its audience. 

Similar to other "so bad, it's good" films, the resurgence of this movie in the public imagination really picked up in the 1990s, when Mystery Science Theater 3000 devoted an episode to the Christmas flick. The episode proved so popular that two different MST3K successors, Cinematic Titanic and RiffTrax, devoted new episodes to riffing on the film. That, plus the movie's public domain status, means that people are still seeing Santa Claus Conquers the Martians for the first time every day holiday season and falling in love with its weird, handmade charm. At first glance, it might look like just another low-budget curiosity, which is perhaps enough to keep you watching through the green Martian face paint and the stock footage. But if you stick around long enough, you'll find the film's enthusiasm is infectious, from the opening song to the final joyful scene.

In the 1990s, after Home Alone proved that the right family Christmas comedy formula could translate to box office gold, a slew of films came out attempting to ride that wave. Some of them, like The Santa Clause, were incredibly successful and spawned franchises. Others were not. Jingle All the Way, at least in terms of its critical response, falls into the latter category. 

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a dad who's hoping to redeem himself in his family's eyes by securing the hottest seasonal toy of the year for his son, the film has a zany comedic style while also attempting a real sense of heart. Critics weren't buying it, though. Jingle All the Way's Rotten Tomatoes score remains at just 15 percent. But that hasn't stopped audiences from going back to the film season after season, though. Like so many holiday films at varying levels of quality, Jingle All the Way continues to receive regular December airplay on cable, and that means it's picked up some defenders in the years since its release. Looking at it now, the movie plays like a slapstick-laden satire of Christmas commercialism in ways that it didn't even in the '90s, thanks to the superhero media boom that we live in now. It's holiday mayhem writ large, but in the end, it's all about the lengths we'll go to to make the people we love happy, and how hard it sometimes is to find what's really important.