All sorts of cinematic treats are being shown on the small screen over the festive period.

By Patrick Cremona

Published: Friday, 15 December 2023 at 11:00 AM

Christmastime is the most wonderful time of the year for a multitude of reasons – and one of those is undoubtedly that there’s never a better time to watch a huge variety of great films in the comfort of your living room.

For many film fans, that will mean checking out the best that assorted streamers such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have to offer – but there’s also the more old-fashioned way of watching movies, brought to you by BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, all have which have blockbuster line-ups for the festive season.

Whether you want to watch Christmas classics like Die Hard or It’s A Wonderful Life, family films such as Paddington 2 or Toy Story 4, or perhaps just some all-time greats like North by Northwest or Raiders of the Lost Ark, there’s a huge selection of treats showing on the box over Christmas.

We’ve put together a list of some of the best movies to watch for free on TV this Christmas and New Year, separated by genre – take a look below to find out what’s on at no cost.

Best free kids’ films on TV this Christmas and New Year

How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Saturday 23rd December, ITV1, 5:25pm

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York 

Sequel to the hit comedy, starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. After becoming separated from his family en route to a Christmas holiday in Florida, Kevin McCallister finds himself alone in New York, where he’s destined to meet two old enemies.

Christmas Eve, ITV1 3pm

Miracle on 34th Street

Christmas fantasy starring Richard Attenborough and Elizabeth Perkins. Going against the wishes of her divorced mother, a sceptical young girl asks a mysterious department store Santa Claus for the family she has always wanted.

Christmas Eve, Channel 4, 5:45pm

Toy Story 4

Pixar comedy adventure featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. When Bonnie creates a new toy out of rubbish and calls it Forky, Woody finds himself chaperoning the confused creation. After Forky tries to throw himself away during a road trip, the pair end up trapped in an antique store with a creepy doll that wants Woody’s voice box for herself.

Christmas Day, BBC One, 3:10pm

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Musical fantasy starring Dick Van Dyke. An inventor restores a clapped-out racing car with the help of his eccentric father and two children. They christen it Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and, much to their surprise, the vehicle turns out to have magical powers.

Boxing Day, ITV1, 3:20pm

The Lion King 

Animated musical adventure featuring the voices of Donald Glover and James Earl Jones. In Africa, Mufasa is preparing his young heir, Simba, to become the next king of the jungle. However, Simba’s uncle Scar wants the throne for himself, and is determined to remove any obstacles to his ambition, permanently.

Boxing Day, BBC One, 5:05pm

Inside Out 

Animated comedy adventure from Pixar, featuring the voices of Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith and Mindy Kaling. Eleven-year-old Riley is having a tough time adjusting to moving from the Midwest to San Francisco. Maybe that has something to do with her inner emotions – Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness – who guide Riley in her everyday life. As her emotions literally begin to run wild, the effects on Riley have worrying consequences.

Thursday 28th December, BBC One, 11:30am

Paddington 2

Comedy starring Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw as the voice of Paddington. When a rare pop-up book is stolen before Paddington can buy it as a birthday present for his aunt Lucy, the little bear is arrested as the prime suspect in the theft. While Paddington is attempting to make the most of his incarceration, the true thief is using clues hidden in the book to locate the immense fortune of its late author.

Saturday 30th December, BBC One, 6pm

Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon 

When an alien crash-lands near the farm, Shaun has to help her return home before the Ministry of Alien Detection discovers her.

New Year’s Day, BBC One, 9:55am

Babe

Fantasy comedy starring James Cromwell. Babe, an orphaned pig, is raised on a farm by the sheepdog Fly. Although he is destined for the dinner table, Babe astonishes Farmer Hoggett and his fellow farmyard animals when he shows talent as a “sheep-pig”.

New Year’s Day, ITV1, 10:30am

Moana

SEAC

Animated musical adventure featuring the voices of Dwayne Johnson and Auli’i Cravalho. Ancient Polynesia: Moana, the future leader of her island community, sets sail on a perilous mission to rescue her home from encroaching darkness. Forming an uneasy alliance with the mischievous demigod Maui, she strives to return a mystical relic to its rightful place, while also discovering her true purpose.

New Year’s Day, BBC One, 2:20pm

Matilda

Comic fantasy based on the book by Roald Dahl, starring Mara Wilson and Danny DeVito. Matilda, the daughter of Harry and Zinnia Wormwood, has adored reading from a precociously early age, but her parents refuse to let her go to school. Until, that is, her father sends her to the unforgiving Miss Trunchbull’s Crunchem Hall, where she discovers that she has other more useful gifts.

New Year’s Eve, ITV1, 2:55pm

Best free action films on TV this Christmas and New Year

The Dirty Dozen

Second World War adventure starring Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine. Major Reisman’s mission to lead a covert operation behind enemy lines and destroy a specified target is a tough one; especially when his team is to be made up of 12 prisoners convicted for murder, robbery and other violent crimes.

Saturday 23rd December, Channel 5, 4:10pm

Die Hard

Action thriller starring Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman. New York cop John McClane gets caught up in a terrorist plot after arriving in Los Angeles to spend Christmas with his estranged wife Holly and his two children. When Holly is taken hostage in the offices of the Japanese corporation she works for, McClane launches a daring rescue attempt.

Saturday 23rd December, Channel 4, 9pm

Raiders of the Lost Ark

SEAC

Action adventure starring Harrison Ford and Karen Allen. Indiana Jones’s outrageous exploits take him around the world in search of the legendary Ark of the Covenant, a religious artefact of unspeakable power wanted by the Nazis. With the help of an old flame, Indy takes on his enemies in a terrifying and death-defying battle to the finish.

Boxing Day, Channel 4, 6:50pm

No Time to Die

Spy adventure starring Daniel Craig, Rami Malek and Léa Seydoux. After narrowly surviving an attempt on his life, James Bond believes his lover, Madeleine Swann, has betrayed him. Five years later, he is drawn out of retirement and back into her life when a new global threat – a deadly biological weapon – emerges. But with Bond’s nemesis, Blofeld, behind bars, who is the mysterious figure intent on using this terrifying new technology?

New Year’s Eve, ITV1, 8:30pm

The Magnificent Seven

Remake of the classic western starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke. When a ruthless land baron sets about persecuting the residents of a small town, a young widow turns to bounty hunter Sam Chisolm for aid. But he’s going to need a little help if he is to restore order.

New Year’s Day, BBC Two, 2:30pm

Gladiator 

SEAC

Period epic starring Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. Rome, the second century AD: dying emperor Marcus Aurelius chooses the city’s beloved general, Maximus Decimus Meridius, as his successor – a decision that results in a bitter power struggle with Aurelius’s son Commodus, who sentences Maximus and his family to death. The general escapes, but he and Commodus are destined to meet again.

New Year’s Day, ITV1, 10:15pm

Best free romcoms on TV this Christmas and New Year

Bridget Jones’s Baby 

Romantic comedy starring Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth and Patrick Dempsey. Forty-something Bridget is still viewing life through a glass of Chardonnay and getting on with being single, until life takes a twist when she discovers she’s pregnant. All she has to do now is find out who the father is.

Saturday 23rd December, Channel 5, 10:10pm

The Holiday

Columbia Pictures

Romantic comedy starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black. After breaking up with her boyfriend, Los Angeles workaholic Amanda is in need of a holiday. An online search persuades her to exchange her California home over Christmas for the remote Surrey cottage of journalist Iris, who has just found out her ex is getting married. But the transatlantic swap soon leads to more romantic entanglements for the two women.

Christmas Eve, Channel 5, 3:25pm

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Romantic comedy starring Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell. Together with a group of his friends, 30-something Charles is regularly invited to weddings, but he wonders if he will ever be ready to tie the knot himself. Then, at a country marriage, he meets the beautiful but elusive Carrie, who seduces him that night and leaves him utterly bemused when she returns to America the following day.

Saturday 30th December, Channel 4, 10pm

Best of the rest on TV this Christmas and New Year

Belfast

Period drama starring Jude Hill, Caitríona Balfe, Jamie Dornan and Judi Dench. Northern Ireland, 1969: nine-year-old Buddy starts a new school year, only vaguely aware of the political turmoil that surrounds him. When Buddy’s Protestant father is approached to join with dangerous local sectarians, the family is increasingly affected by the violence of the Troubles.

Wednesday 20th December, BBC Two, 9pm

House of Gucci

Biographical drama starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver. Patrizia Reggiani comes from humble origins, but in the late 1970s, she marries fashion scion Maurizio Gucci. Over the next decade, Patrizia and Maurizio grow ever more ambitious while their marriage begins to fray. With the Gucci company’s fortunes in the balance, events take a turn for the deadly.

Friday 22nd December, BBC Two, 9pm

The Big Sleep 

Howard Hawks’s classic detective drama based on the novel by Raymond Chandler, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Tough private eye Philip Marlowe becomes caught up in a complex blackmail and murder case when he takes on a case to safeguard Carmen, the youngest daughter of General Sternwood, a dying wealthy man who wants to know the reasons why she is being blackmailed. Marlowe soon becomes involved further with the Sternwood family’s affairs when he meets Carmen’s older sister, the sultry Vivian.

Saturday 23rd December, BBC Two, 1:05pm

Casablanca

Classic romantic drama starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid. Rick’s Café in wartime Casablanca is a watering hole for criminals, refugees, resistance fighters and Nazis. Its cynical owner, a mysterious expatriate American called Rick Blaine, sticks his neck out for no one. No one, that is, until the arrival of the beautiful Ilsa Lund and her husband Victor Lazlo, who are desperate to escape to America.

Saturday 23rd December, BBC Two, 2:55pm

It’s a Wonderful Life

Frank Capra’s classic fantasy drama, starring James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore. George Bailey is a small-town businessman who believes he has been a failure. Contemplating suicide, George meets his guardian angel and discovers what life in his home town of Bedford Falls would have been like had he never lived.

Saturday 23rd December, Channel 4, 4:30pm

The Sound of Music

SEAC

Classic family musical starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. When trainee nun Maria begins to have doubts about her vocation, she leaves her convent in Salzburg to become governess to the seven children of Captain Von Trapp, a widower and retired naval officer. The spirited Maria instils a love of music in the children, but the family’s happiness is threatened by the Nazi occupation of Austria.

Christmas Eve, BBC One, 2:50pm

The Wizard of Oz

Classic musical fantasy starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley. When a huge tornado hits Dorothy’s home in Kansas, she is whisked off far away into a strange and dazzling world. There, she must escape the clutches of the Wicked Witch of the West and find her way to the Emerald City.

Christmas Day, Channel 5, 3:10pm

Forrest Gump

Oscar-winning comedy drama starring Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise and Robin Wright. Forrest Gump wasn’t born with a lot of smarts, but he is encouraged by his mother to realise his full potential. He attends college on a sports scholarship, meeting President Kennedy in the process, joins the army and is sent to Vietnam. As the years pass and his life changes, he maintains contact with his childhood friend Jenny Curran.

Christmas Day, Channel 4, 10pm

Brief Encounter

Classic romantic drama starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. A chance meeting in a suburban railway station brings together Laura Jesson, a happily married woman, and Dr Alec Harvey, who is also married. They fall in love, but their secret happiness is marred by the furtive way they must carry on the affair and the realisation that eventually a choice must be made.

Boxing Day, BBC Two, 12:45pm

North by Northwest

Classic spy thriller starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. Advertising executive Roger Thornhill finds his life in deadly peril when he is mistaken for the mysterious “Mr Kaplan” by ruthless members of an enemy spy network. Failing to convince them of his identity, Thornhill tracks down the one man who can prove his story only to find himself accused of murder.

Boxing Day, BBC Two, 2:10pm

Stardust 

Fantasy adventure based on the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, starring Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro. In Victorian England, young Tristan Thorne goes in search of a fallen star to prove his love to the village beauty. His quest takes him to a magical parallel world, where he faces competition from cunning witch Lamia and an assortment of dastardly princes – some living, some dead.

Wednesday 27th December, Channel 4, 5:40pm

Catch Me If You Can

Comedy drama, based on the true story of conman Frank Abagnale Jr, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. Shattered by the news that his parents are divorcing, 16-year-old Frank runs away to New York. For six years, he lives a life of fraud, cashing over $2 million in bad cheques while impersonating an airline pilot, a paediatrician and a lawyer, and always staying one step ahead of tenacious FBI agent Carl Hanratty.

Wednesday 27th December, Channel 4, 10pm

Witness for the Prosecution 

Billy Wilder’s screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s courtroom drama, starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton. Against the advice of his doctors, ailing barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts starts to take an interest in the case of murder suspect Leonard Vole, who is pursued by the police after the death of a rich widow.

Thursday 28th December, BBC Two, 2:30pm

The Godfather

Oscar-winning adaptation of Mario Puzo’s epic best-seller. Vito Corleone heads a major Mafia ‘family’ in 1940s New York, an enterprise his youngest son, Michael, hopes to escape. However, violent rivalries arise over time, and as Vito ages, Michael is gradually dragged back to the heart of the business.

Thursday 28th December, Channel 4, 11:20pm

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

SEAC

Science-fiction drama starring Richard Dreyfuss. While investigating an extensive power failure in Indiana, Roy Neary encounters a UFO – a phenomenon also witnessed by Jillian Guiler and her young son. When he is unable to convince anyone of his sighting, Neary’s strange behaviour starts to worry his family.

Friday 29th December, Channel 4, 12:45pm

Funny Girl 

Biographical musical starring Barbra Streisand and Omar Sharif. The story of singing star Fanny Brice, who grew up on the Lower East Side of New York but went on to become the toast of Broadway and the star of the Ziegfeld Follies.

Friday 29th December, BBC Two, 4:05pm

Letter From an Unknown Woman

Romantic melodrama starring Joan Fontaine and Louis Jourdan. Lisa Berndle, a sensitive young girl of 15, falls madly in love with concert pianist Stefan Brand. When they finally meet three years later, her feelings have not changed.

New Year’s Day, BBC Two, 8:05am

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Oscar-winning western starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the eponymous outlaw heroes, who have a knack for robbing banks. Their most audacious plan yet is for a daring robbery of the Union Pacific railroad, but the authorities have a surprise in store for the lovable rogues.

New Year’s Day, BBC Two, 12:45pm