Yet, one film stands out among the festive offerings—”Elf.” Directed by Jon Favreau, this 2003 classic delivers some of the most memorable comedic moments in holiday cinema. It stars Will Ferrell as Buddy, a human raised by elves in Santa’s North Pole workshop. Although Buddy is content with his life alongside his adoptive father, played by Bob Newhart, the revelation that he is not an elf prompts him to embark on a journey to New York City. There, he seeks out his biological father, embodied by James Caan, a grumpy character in dire need of some holiday spirit.

While Buddy the Elf is truly one-of-a-kind, it would be a mistake to overlook other films that share similarities with “Elf.” Whether it’s a heartwarming conclusion, a storyline featuring a character with Buddy’s charm, or simply the presence of Will Ferrell, these ten films capture a similar festive magic. Presented in no particular order, they are as delightful as Buddy’s favorite syrup-covered spaghetti.

Take “A Christmas Story,” for instance, a beloved holiday comedy that became so iconic it inspired a sequel nearly 40 years later, titled “A Christmas Story Christmas.” The 1983 film, narrated from the viewpoint of young Ralphie (played by Peter Billingsley), exudes the same sweetness and innocence as Buddy. Unlike Buddy, however, Ralphie is just nine years old and dreams of receiving a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas—despite his mother’s (Melinda Dillon) concern that he might shoot his eye out.

“A Christmas Story” is a holiday comedy classic — and has such nostalgia attached to it that it spawned a sequel nearly 40 years later, “A Christmas Story Christmas.” Told entirely from the perspective of young Ralphie (Peter Billingsley), 1983’s “A Christmas Story” is as sweet and innocent as Buddy the Elf himself. But unlike Buddy, Ralphie is just nine years old when the movie takes place. What Ralphie wants more than anything is a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, a present that more than one person, including his mother (Melinda Dillon), rejects because they’re worried that he’ll shoot his eye out.

This movie shows the ins and outs of life in the Indiana suburbs during the month of December in a series of vignettes. They include Ralphie’s father (Darren McGavin) winning an “award” in a newspaper contest; a lamp in the shape of a woman’s leg; Ralphie’s friend Flick (Scott Schwartz) getting his tongue stuck to a flagpole while trying to prove his other friend, Schwartz (R. D. Robb), wrong; Ralphie and his little brother Randy (Ian Petrella) standing in line to see Santa only for Ralphie to forget how to talk when meeting the man; and Ralphie being tormented by the neighborhood bully, Farkus (Zack Ward), whom Ralphie eventually unleashes his wrath on.

But the pièce de résistance is Ralphie finally receiving the present of his dreams from his father on Christmas morning. Despite his mother’s doubts — and Ralphie almost shooting his eye out with the BB gun and stepping on his glasses to boot — Ralphie declares it the best Christmas present he’s ever received.

“The Santa Clause,” which spawned an entire franchise of movies, revolves around Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) and his young son Charlie (Eric Lloyd). Although Scott could use some work on his skills as a dad, he still wants Charlie to believe in Santa Claus, thinking it’s too early for Charlie to give up on his belief — though, not surprisingly, Scott no longer believes himself. 

But then Scott finds a man dressed very much like Santa on his roof on Christmas Eve. Scott scares him, and Santa falls off the roof and dies. So Charlie encourages Scott to put on his suit and take over his job. Though Scott doesn’t know it yet, he has activated “The Santa Clause,” a legal clause that says by putting on the suit, he’s accepted all Santa’s responsibilities. At first Scott believes it’s just a really vivid dream and tries to go back to his normal life, but as the year goes on, with Charlie’s encouragement, he becomes more and more convinced that he’s the new Santa Claus.

“The Santa Clause” is like “Elf” in reverse. The 1994 movie takes a guy who doesn’t believe in anything related to Santa and puts him in a situation where he eventually becomes kind of like Buddy the Elf. And while Scott eventually moves to the North Pole to be among the elves, Buddy moves to New York to be among his fellow humans. Though Scott is a subpar father and not much for Christmas at first, he finds that he’s really good at being Santa, making this a heartwarming story about fathers, sons, and the holiday spirit.

“Spirited” is a musical retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol,” starring Ryan Reynolds and none other than Will Ferrell. Obviously people who love “Elf” can get on board with Ferrell being in a Christmas movie, and Reynolds can also capture that charming innocence that people adore, even as they’re both (at different times) total jerks in this 2022 film. Ferrell even gets to make fun of his “Elf” past — by telling a guy that his Buddy costume looks stupid. While this is certainly more serious than “Elf,” it’s softened by its great musical numbers, with songs by EGOT winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

In “Spirited,” the Ghost of Christmas Present (Ferrell) decides, against their leader Jacob Marley’s (Patrick Page) better judgment, that the next soul they redeem should be Clint Briggs (Reynolds), a media consultant with a jaded view of humanity who has been judged unredeemable by the Powers That Be. When Christmas Eve comes, Clint seems to be immune to Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Past, and is dismissive toward Present too, when Present shares that he was once Ebenezer Scrooge, the only other unredeemable soul whom the program successfully rescued.

Though Present and the other ghosts don’t entirely get the job done in this case, they have a great time trying, complete with rollicking songs and dances that show that even if Clint isn’t totally redeemed, he does have quite a singing voice.

“The Ref,” like “Elf,” stars a comedian, but in this case, Denis Leary, is a very different comic performer from Ferrell. Leary is far more cynical, having gotten his start as a ranter of the highest order. He swears, he says mean things, and people often love him for it. But this movie, while it has all that — including a rant to his partner at the end — is surprisingly sweet. It definitely isn’t safe for kids, like “Elf,” but for grownups it still gets at the warm and fuzzy heart of Christmas.

“The Ref” focuses on a squabbling couple, Lloyd (Kevin Spacey) and Caroline (Judy Davis) Chasseur, who are taken hostage by a burglar, Gus (Leary), on Christmas Eve. Gus’ partner takes off in their getaway car, and Gus has to navigate getting himself out of his current situation while not arousing the suspicion of the cops. This could all be easier if it were any other night of the year, when not only Lloyd and Caroline’s son, Jesse (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.), comes home, but they’re also joined by Lloyd’s half of the family, including his exacting mother Rose (Glynis Johns). Gus clearly has his work cut out for him if he’s going to get out of town safely.

The movie has hilarious bits like Gus punching a guy in a Santa suit (Bill Raymond) and Lloyd and Caroline’s niece and nephew, Mary (Ellie Raab) and John (Phillip Nicoll), gleefully tying up their grandmother, but despite its dark heart, there is still some Christmas light throughout.

Buddy the Elf is a lot like a cartoon character, so it makes sense to have animated films on the list. The first, 2011’s “Arthur Christmas,” is about Arthur (James McAvoy), the younger son of Santa (Jim Broadbent), who’s a lot like Buddy in that he’s enthusiastic to a fault, lauding his dad even when he doesn’t deserve it. This is especially true because he frequently gets short shrift from his family, including his father. But over the course of the film we find he still has something to offer, and it may be more special than any of them initially thought.

“Arthur Christmas” begins as Santa’s son Steve (Hugh Laurie) is leading the charge to deliver presents all over the world on Christmas Eve. His father, Malcolm, has been reduced to a figurehead, and Steve anticipates taking over the business of being Santa. When they get back to the North Pole, though, they discover that they forgot one gift for a little girl in England. Though Arthur wants to deliver it, Steve convinces their father that it’s acceptable if they don’t deliver one gift out of billions. Grandsanta (Bill Nighy), Arthur’s grandfather, hears Arthur’s plea and offers to take out his old sleigh to help Arthur deliver the gift. 

What follows is a series of mishaps that eventually get them to England and lead Malcolm and Steve to realize that Arthur is truly the next Santa. Produced by Aardman Animations, “Arthur Christmas” isn’t as zany as other Aardman productions, such as “Wallace and Gromit” or “Shaun the Sheep,” but is nevertheless a touching film. Plus, while there are things in “Arthur Christmas” that only adults will notice, this one is appropriate for kids too.

Just like “Elf,” “Noelle” revolves around someone from the North Pole, but instead of an elf, this time it’s Noelle (Anna Kendrick), the daughter of Santa Claus (Jay Brazeau). Santa has just died, and Noelle’s job is to get her brother, Nick (Bill Hader), ready to take over the job as the next Santa. The problem is that Nick is not really feeling it, so when Noelle suggests he take the weekend off from his training and relax, he does so — but the trouble is, he doesn’t come back. So Noelle takes the reindeer and goes after him, all the way to Phoenix, Arizona, accompanied by Polly (Shirley MacLaine), her nanny who just happens to be an elf.

Through a series of misadventures, Noelle eventually finds Nick teaching classes at a yoga studio. But Nick doesn’t want to be Santa, instead nominating Noelle in his place. It’s a surprisingly enlightened view of Santa Claus, and while this 2019 movie has a decidedly feminist bent, it’s also very reminiscent of “Elf” in that both Noelle and Buddy learn about the world by actually venturing into it. Will Ferrell and Anna Kendrick are great at playing people who know nothing about normal everyday life, making them uniquely qualified for wide-eyed, innocent roles like this.

“Home Alone” is another classic Christmas film, only this one’s quite violent. That’s because it turns out that eight-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) is very talented at springing all manner of booby traps that really hurt on the two burglars, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), who are targeting his house for a Christmas heist. Despite the fact that the criminals would have died multiple times if this had happened in real life, “Home Alone” has an offbeat charm, just like “Elf.” Similar to Will Ferrell’s character, Kevin is an innocent in extraordinary circumstances, and just like Ferrell’s character, lots of people doubt Kevin — but in the end, they both come through in their respective films in ways that only they can.

“Home Alone,” which spawned a whole series of “Home Alone” movies, opens with the McCallisters’ large extended family preparing to travel to Paris for Christmas. The house is chaos, so it’s not exactly surprising that in their rush to get to the airport they leave Kevin behind. Kevin sees this as a blessing at first: he’s sick of his family and wants to be left alone. But when Harry and Marv discover that Kevin is the only one home, they decide to break into the house that night, leading to an epic showdown between the little boy and the burglars. Though the action is absurd, this 1990 movie is still a sweet and satisfying ode to both the holiday spirit and the theme of appreciating one’s family.

Like “Spirited,” 1988’s “Scrooged” is another adaptation of “A Christmas Carol.” In this one, Frank Cross (Bill Murray), is the youngest president of IBC Networks, who got his job by being ruthless. After heartlessly firing an underling, Frank is then visited by four ghosts, starting with the ghost of Lew Hayward (John Forsythe), his mentor, who died unloved and unmourned. The movie unfolds predictably from there, except in its details. For example, Frank visits Claire (Karen Allen), the only woman he has ever loved, at the homeless shelter she runs, where he suggests she should prioritize herself over the many people she helps.

It’s these details that make this movie both hilarious, tragic, and ultimately, when it gets to the inevitable conclusion, uplifting. When Frank leads the crowd in a rendition of “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” it’s heartwarming, even if you suspect that Frank may go back to at least some of his old ways soon. But the reason this is most like “Elf” is because it also stars a former “Saturday Night Live” player — and in this case, Bill Murray is just as committed as Will Ferrell to providing a performance and movie filled with the Christmas spirit.

“Red One” is essentially an action movie: it features a buff Santa (J.K. Simmons), a cynical criminal, and a covert team of Santa’s bodyguards. On the surface it couldn’t be more different than “Elf.” But if you look a little deeper, you’ll notice some similarities. For example, there’s an emphasis on fantastical toys, like a matchbox car turning into a real car, in “Red One,” which gives it a bit of that “Elf” glow. Plus 2024’s “Red One” has a funny but subversive streak that also makes it reminiscent of “Elf,” just in action movie form.

In “Red One,” a Black Ops team breaks into the North Pole on Christmas Eve and kidnaps Santa mere hours before he’s scheduled to make his Christmas run around the world. Having few leads, Zoe Harlow (Lucy Liu), the director of the Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority (MORA), takes Jack (Chris Evans), a freelance hacker who found Santa’s location, in for questioning. While Jack knows nothing about how his information was used, he still attempts to help find Santa by teaming up with Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson), the head of Santa’s security detail. Throughout the movie, both Jack and Callum begin to regain their sense of Christmas wonder, even as they confront everything from evil snowmen to Santa’s not-so-nice brother, Krampus (Kristofer Hivju).

“Klaus” is a 2019 animated origin story for the myth of Santa Claus, revolving around a spoiled postman and the man he teams up with, a toymaker named Klaus. In Norway in the 1800s, Jesper Johnson has performed poorly in all his classes at the Royal Postman Academy. This is because he doesn’t want to be a postman; he wants to return to his entitled life of leisure. But his father, the Postmaster General, has other plans. He assigns Jesper to be the postman of the distant town of Smeerensburg and post 6000 letters within the year; if he doesn’t, he’ll be cut off from his family’s fortune.

Jesper reluctantly goes and finds the town is comprised of two feuding families who don’t need letters to get across their hatred of one another. Jesper doesn’t know what to do until he accidentally leaves a child’s drawing in the hands of the toymaker, who gets Jesper to deliver a toy to the child’s house for him. Soon news of the toy delivery spreads, and Jesper advises children to write letters to Klaus for toys of their own. At the same time, the people in the town become nicer, with people on opposite sides of the feud playing together.

“Klaus” is ultimately a testament to the power of Christmas, just like “Elf,” plus Smeerensburg is remarkably like the latter movie’s cynical and conflicted New York City. In “Elf,” Buddy manages to change New York for the better, if only for a night, but in “Klaus,” Jesper’s and Klaus’s gift operation manages to change Smeerensburg — and Jesper — for good.