30 Feminist Christmas Movies, Ranked

Scrooged, Screencap via Paramount Pictures

Scrooged

Based on A Christmas Carol, Scrooged follows Frank Cross, a curmudgeonly TV executive, who is forcing his staff to work on Christmas in order to put on a live holiday production of A Christmas Carol. Soon before the show begins, Frank is visited by the ghost of his mentor, who tells him that three other ghosts will visit him that night. The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, and The Ghost of Christmas Future come to call in succession, and show Frank the errors of his ways. The ghostly visits inspire Frank to turn over a new leaf, and he begins to value love and kindness more than money.

The Good

• In a surprising turn, this movie added a woman! In its source material, A Christmas Carol, almost everyone is male (because obviously that’s the default human state…). In this version, the Bob Cratchit character is Grace, Frank’s assistant and a woman of color. It’s pretty rare to see a gender-swap from an original text, so that’s awesome.
• Additionally, the Ghost of Christmas Present, which is traditionally played by a man, is portrayed as a woman! Score.

The Bad

• Frank mansplaining acting like a good person to all of America live on television, literal minutes after he stopped being the worst.

The Ugly

• Frank, by the end of the movie, is supposed to be a changed man who is infused with kindness and Christmas spirit. But then, he and Eliot find Brice, the guy who took over his job while Frank was losing his mind via Christmas ghosts, and hold him at gunpoint to get control of the show back? Talk about your toxic masculinity; even when you’ve been transformed into a good, compassionate person, your solution to your problems ends with firearms.