Eight sexy Christmas must-see movies!

The lights are twinkling, the Christmas bells are tinkling, and it feels like Mariah Carey has been crooning in our ears for ages. But as wonderful as this festive season is, it can also bring a fair bit of stress. Are you feeling more like the Grinch or Scrooge this season? Then a good dose of cinematic romance is just what you need to soften the sharp edges. Get ready for some naughty Christmas films and nostalgic classics!

Bittersweet Christmas movies

Baby, it’s cold outside. And what do we do when the icy wind is howling and the snow begins to blanket the land? We crawl under our red and green Christmas blankets and reach for some romantic escapism. We don’t have to look long, however, since the TV channels and streaming sites are bombarding us with sweet and sometimes downright cheesy Christmas movies, each even more cliché than the last.

More than roast turkey

Are you fed up with all the predictable stuff? We get it. It’s beyond cringey to see yet another vague prince starts playing Carol of the Bells on a piano, after which the leading lady dramatically falls into his arms. Or when some American pulp writer thaws the heart of the gruff, angry lord of a Scottish castle on Christmas Eve.

Christmas movies are more than roast turkey, glittering baubles and Dickensesque scenes. They’re also more than predictable and clichéd love affairs, like you’ll find in most quickly cobbled together Christmas movies. Believe it or not, Christmas movies can also be very sexy. And sometimes even pretty naughty.

Humbugging on the sofa

Sexy Christmas movies usually fall into two genres: romantic and R-rated comedy. Why does Christmas seem to be such an attractive setting for both bittersweet romance and vulgar humour? We’ve got no idea, but every year, filmmakers hurl their Yuletide concoctions onto the movie screen with varying degrees of success.

And although most of these Christmas films won’t survive the test of time, there are some that do manage to strike the right chord between Christmas charm and spicy action in the snow. Other films distinguish themselves by their crude jokes and sexually tinged innuendos, which certainly helps if you’re tired of nostalgic meltdowns. And then there are the true classics which, although perhaps a little too sweet, will be linked to Christmas for all time. Save those gems for that special moment under the mistletoe!

Eight sexy Christmas movies

Whether you’re drifting off to the melancholy Christmas songs of the Rat Pack or you’re humbugging on the couch, these eight films will get you through the festive season. Are they naughty or nice? We’ll leave that up to you to decide!

1. Love Actually

Love it or hate it, it can go either way. But a list without Love Actually is incomplete. This mosaic film is rightfully a modern classic and switches effortlessly between drama, humour, and touching hope.

The film follows ten interwoven storylines in the five weeks leading up to Christmas Eve. Just about every British actor of note was in it and it’s an unparalleled demonstration of how their characters fall in love, sleep with each other and play dangerous love games. Whether you fall for Liam Neeson’s heart-warming struggles as a single dad, a deluded Colin Firth who falls in love with a Portuguese housekeeper, or poor Emma Thompson whose husband falls for his sexy secretary, you’ll be spoilt for choice in this much-loved classic. Oh, and let’s not forget Hugh Grant’s groovy dance moment.

At times, the film is a bit wry, but in the end, all the Christmas lights are lit in a sparkling finale at a children’s Christmas show. Just try not to get too annoyed by the hysterical screeching in a rendition of All I Want for Christmas more awful that you ever could have imagined

2. Bad Santa

Santa Claus is sexy? Perhaps if you’ve got a thing for grandpas  or something. But things can change, especially when bad boy Billy Bob Thornton takes on the role of the old boss. In Bad Santa, he played a pimping, sex-addicted thug who, dressed as Santa, seduces women with a Santa Claus fetish and naughty ladies from charities.

Expect a film with vulgar jokes, quickies in parking lots and even an anal sex scene in a changing room. Although Billy Bob plays a burping, filthy and hungover pervert, you can see why Angelina Jolie went for it at the time. Can’t get there? Then you still can’t ignore the sizzling sex appeal of Lauren Graham and Christina Hendricks in Parts 1 and 2, respectively.

3. Bridget Jones’s Diary

It’s an unforgettable opening scene where Bridget is singing along loudly to All by myself and finishes an enormous bottle of wine as she sobs. It’s Christmas and Bridget is all alone. Fortunately, masculine energy soon arrives in the form of the deliciously wrong, sexy and slightly sardonic Hugh Grant, who turns out to be full of naughty and hilarious innuendo.

When he mumbles about “silly little boots” and “silly little dress” before he undresses Bridget, for example. Or when he commands Bridget to tell the story of a French kiss with the girls at school. Or the legendary “I bet you did, you dirty little bitch”, when Bridget tells him that she used to run around naked in his paddling pool.

And Colin Firth? Oh, of course the actor was already hot stuff after his dip in the pond on Pride and Prejudice, but, as the slightly melancholic Mark Darcy, he’s even more irresistible. Especially in that final scene, when Bridget and Mark share one of the best film kisses ever filmed in the London snow. A reindeer sweater has never looked so sexy.

4. The Night Before

Christmas movies and Seth Rogen don’t seem like the best combination ever. And this film is also full of weed, sex and inappropriate jokes. However, at the same time, the balance between emotion and vulgarity never tips over to the wrong side, making it a pretty entertaining film in the end, with sharp jokes and many references to all the clichés that belong in a typical Christmas film.

The story? At the age of 19, Ethan loses his parents in an accident. Since then, every Christmas Eve, his friends Isaac and Chris have taken him out for a night of Christmas sweaters, karaoke, booze and mischief. As they get older, the tradition slowly ebbs, but they want to make it a legendary night one last time. Ethan steals three tickets to the Nutcrackers Ball, a secret party they’ve been trying to get tickets to for years, and from then on, everything goes wrong. Combine a bad pot trip, a lost phone full of dick pics and the Jewish Isaac who panics at midnight mass because of Jesus on the cross and pukes all over the aisle, and you get the idea.

Yep, the film is pretty vulgar at times, with ambiguous jokes and crude one-liners, but it’s also quite sweet and touching. In addition, the director has gone all out with a winter soundtrack, a rhyming narrator and a drug dealer who plays the role of the three ghosts from A Christmas Carol. There’s also a Grinch in the form of a weed stealing hipster girl and several Christmas bandits like the Sticky Bandits from Home Alone 2. Oh, and don’t forget Miley Cyrus, sexy as ever. We highly recommend what is secretly quite a hilarious comedy!

5. Die Hard

Okay, Die Hard is definitely not a traditional Christmas movie. But it does have all the classic elements: a villain who could use some Christmas spirit, a father stuck in a snowstorm on Christmas Eve and a sweaty, muscular Bruce Willis in a tight tank top. Okay, that last one might not be very Christmassy. But it is sexy. And Alan Rickman was not half-bad in his younger years, as we can see here. Throw in some sex in the backseat of a limo and yep, we’re sold.

The film is also full of Christmas songs, takes place at a Christmas party at the office and we even see Bruce in full regalia, wearing a Santa hat and a shirt with the message ‘I have a machine gun, ho ho ho!’. Sure he goes on to kill someone and dump them in a lift, but hey: that Santa hat did the trick! The most bizarre thing? In the United States, more people watch Die Hard on Christmas Eve than Home Alone. Really!

6. A Bad Moms Christmas

This guilty pleasure brings Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn together once again for more bad mom behaviour. In the film, we follow three overburdened mothers who are getting ready for Christmas. And not just any Christmas. For the ladies, Christmas is a status symbol and a holiday that shows how successful they are as mothers and as women. To make matters worse, their own mothers unexpectedly show up at the door, which means that stress levels get astronomical.

Just when they desperately want to start screaming, they decide: screw it. And from that moment on, all brakes are off. Expect erotic dancers, sexy Santa Clauses and three rebellious mothers who blow off steam by robbing supermarkets and picking up male strippers again in slow-motion. Yep, we’ve seen it all before (and better), but it’s still entertaining to see some humour à la Seth Rogen from a trio of women for a change. Kathryn Hahn is particularly good as the loud-mouthed Carla, who finally finds true love with a stripper who has his butt waxed in her beauty parlour.

7. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Well, is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang a Christmas movie? You’ll need some imagination, as the movie takes place in a sweltering hot Los Angeles. Even in December, people are still diving into swimming pools, so there are no snowflakes in sight. At the same time, we discover Christmas decorations everywhere, holiday movies on television, a naked woman painted as a reindeer and even some Santa lingerie. So, yes, LA doesn’t have the temperatures we expect, but otherwise it’s unmistakably Christmas in this film!

And then there’s the sexiness… like the moment Michelle Monaghan tries to peel off her tight Santa dress while Robert Downey Jr. slyly watches through a mirror. A naked Michelle slips into bed, where she tipsily mumbles that Robert can sleep with her “but it’s only gonna be sleeping”.

Robert hesitates for a second, and then confidently says “Let’s see” and dives between the sheets with her. The wonderful half-drunk atmosphere seeps through the screen and is recognisable to anyone who has ever been in such a situation. Finally in bed with the one you desire, doubting whether you can still get something done, but at the same time trembling with pure excitement and lust.

8. It’s a Wonderful Life

This classic among Christmas movies is secretly quite sexy. Especially if you like that typical post-war tension between the traditional man and the traditional woman. James Stewart plays a disillusioned man who has given up on his dreams and wants to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. A guardian angel takes him in to show him how much impact he has had on the lives of others.

The romantic tension between Stewart and co-star Donna Reed is expertly built with flirtatious and playful glances during moonlit walks and comes to a head in the famous phone scene. Stewart has not seen Reed in several years at this point and he seeks her out because he still yearns for her. Reed meanwhile has a boyfriend and the reunion is awkward and bursting with unspoken expectations.

In the midst of all this tension, her new boyfriend calls her and the flame gets intense as the attraction between Reed and Stewart grows. While her new boyfriend talks about ‘a chance of a lifetime,’ Reed and Stewart stare into each other’s eyes, smell each other’s hair and finally fall into each other’s arms for a passionate kiss. A huge release and rightfully one of the sultriest scenes in a film. A chance of a lifetime, indeed.

 The Sound of Music

Admittedly, there’s no Christmas moment in all of The Sound of Music. No sleigh, no presents under the tree, and no snow-covered mountain peaks in this Oscar-nominated musical. Still, the film is undeniably part of Christmas, if only because it’s been consistently programmed during the festive season for decades.

And that’s not surprising, because if there’s one film that successfully evokes an overly sweet and nostalgic family feeling, it’s The Sound of Music. But between all the jubilant children, landscapes, and songs with wise nuns, we’d almost forget that there’s also something sexy lurking in this great classic. Yes, Captain von Trapp himself, of course!

Who didn’t feel butterflies when the militant Von Trapp finally embraced his Maria and let her float along on an elegant waltz? And who didn’t tear up when he softly sang ‘Edelweiss’ and looked deeply at her while she stood swooning in the doorway? The Sound of Music shows how little you need to shoot some of the most titillating scenes ever. A few sultry glances are more than enough.