Published: December 22, 2019, 9:30 PM
Updated: December 28, 2019, 4:13 AM
There’s no place like roads for the holidays
The Christmastime road movie differs from others in the road movie genre because they usually deal with getting to a place of comfort, rather than trying to discover something. The twist is that the “comfort” zone often turns out to be different than what was envisioned. Here are 19 examples.
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The Road to Christmas (2006)
Fashion photographer Claire Jameson (left) is trying to get to Aspen for her Christmas wedding, but a snowstorm shuts down flights and books up rental cars, so she ends up accepting a ride from widowed father Tom Pullman and his teenaged-daughter Hilly.
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Holiday Road Trip (2013)
Patrick and Maya are pet-shop employees who embark on a promotional tour in an RV, with the company’s mascot Scoots. Needless to say, they end up liking each other a lot, even though they initially can’t stand each other.
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Morvern Callar (2002)
Waking up Christmas morning to her boyfriend’s suicide, the titular character drains his bank account and desecrates his body before embarking on a road trip in the south of Spain with her best friend. Not your typical feel-good Christmastime road movie.
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A Merry Friggin’ Christmas (2014)
One of Robin Williams’s final films is the story of a man who embarks on an 4-hour drive with his son to retrieve the Christmas gifts his son left at home and then return before the child wakes up Christmas morning.
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Four Christmases (2008)
Kate and Brad avoid their dysfunctional families by vacationing abroad while pretending to do charity work over the holidays, but a complete airport shutdown and live news interview alerts each of their divorced parents who insist they come to visit.
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I'll Be Home for Christmas (1998)
California college student Jake is offered a vintage Porsche by his father, if he makes it home to New York for Christmas dinner, so Jake and his girlfriend set off on a cross-country drive that has Jake, dressed as Santa Claus, trying to make it home by the agreed deadline despite getting sidetracked at every mile.
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The Christmas Chronicles (2018)
Teen car thief Teddy and his pre-teen sister Kate surprise Santa delivering their gifts and stow away on his sleigh, revealing themselves and causing the reindeer to spook and Santa to crash, losing all the gifts and his magic hat. The trio then set off to reclaim everything, stealing a car along the way, and get Christmas back on track.
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The Sure Thing (1985)
College student Walter has a problem with girls and his California-college buddy invites him out for Christmas, promising a “sure thing.” Walter books a ride off his college’s ride-share board and ends up riding and bickering with his crush Alison (who is angry with him over a deceitful attempt at hooking up with her).
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Exit Speed (2008)
Corporal Meredith Cole is AWOL on Christmas Eve and riding a bus to El Paso when it comes across a gang of meth-addicted bikers, who start taunting the bus with dangerous stunts. When one of them crashes, the rest of the bikers want revenge and the diverse group of bus riders have to go on the offensive when the bus is forced off the road.
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Christmas Comes to Willow Creek (1987)
Truck drivers Ray and Pete (played by Dukes of Hazzard stars John Schneider and Tom Wopat, respectively) are hired to bring a truck-load of Christmas miracles from California to Alaska, while dealing with a blizzard and their animosity toward each other.
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Comfort and Joy (1984)
Scottish DJ Dicky Bird is distraught over the leaving of his girlfriend at Christmastime, and as he’s out driving around, he chances upon an ice-cream truck and attempts to buy a cone. However, the encounter triggers a turf war between rival Italian ice-cream vendors, and Dicky has to get involved to broker a treaty.
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The Custom Mary (2011)
Set in the LA lowrider culture, the film is the story of Mary, who falls in love with lowrider mechanic Joe while trying to reconcile her faith and her church’s belief that they can clone Jesus. As her Christmas due date approaches, Mary undertakes a journey of discovery into the desert.
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Good Luck Charlie, It’s Christmas! (2011)
A combination of Home Alone meets Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the Duncan family sets off from Colorado to spend Christmas with the grandparents in Palm Springs before becoming separated for different adventures, including hitchhiking and getting picked up by an elderly couple that is part of an alien-abduction network.
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A Holiday to Remember (1995)
Carolyn takes her daughter Jordy to relocate back in the village in which she grew up. She reconnects with the man she left at the altar before moving to the big city and also meets a boy she considers adopting, but has to reconcile with both her ex-fiance and her daughter.
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Love You Like Christmas (2016)
Maddie is a high-powered marketing executive who is on her way to a client’s wedding when car trouble lands her in Christmas Valley, a town enamoured with Christmas, leading her to re-evaluate what’s really important in her life.
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The National Tree (2009)
Rock wins a nationwide contest to supply the White House Christmas tree, but the tree was planted by his father Corey on the day Rock was born. Corey agrees, provided the two deliver the tree themselves. Rock posts their adventures online and the two attain national celebrityhood, which comes in handy when the contest sponsor decides to change the outcome.
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One Special Night (1999)
Strangers Robert and Catherine meet at a hospital — he is visiting his ailing wife; she’s a doctor. They discover they live close to each other and she offers him a ride home but her car slides off the road in deteriorating conditions. They find an abandoned cabin and strike up a friendship that develops over the years as his wife dies and she helps his daughter’s troubled labour.
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A Hobo's Christmas (1987)
25 years after he ran out on his family, Chance finds his way back home one Christmas but as his hobo friends predicted, he isn’t welcomed back by his son and family. Reluctantly, Chance’s son allows Chance to spend the evening with his grandchildren, on the condition that when he leaves, he never returns.
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Christmas in Wonderland (2007)
Just before Christmas, Wayne Saunders loses his job and moves his family from LA to Edmonton. The family goes shopping at the West Edmonton Mall, where one of the sons asks Santa for $1 million to make dad’s life easier. They come across a bag of counterfeit bills and proceed to go on a spending spree, all the while being chased by the crooks trying to retrieve the phony bills, including a chase on motorcycles.
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