12 Films That Don’t Rely on the Winter Holidays to Tell Wonderful Family Stories
We all love a good family-centric movie, but using the holidays as a centerpiece can get tiring, and the holidays aren’t even here yet! Here are some great films to share with your family that don’t revolve around Thanksgiving, Christmas or any other winter holiday!
Soul Food
This star-studded late-90s family drama (that was adapted into a five-season TV series) feels like a holiday movie at times, but that’s only because of the wonderful Sunday dinners they have to work hardest at preserving, especially when everything else is going wrong.
Away We Go
Verona and Burt are six months into their first pregnancy when they learn Burt’s parents are moving to Belgium. They use this as an opportunity to visit other family members and find the perfect place to raise their child, but amidst the arguments, family weirdos and all-around comedic relatability, they come to realize their child will be at home as long they’re together, no matter where they are.
Johnson Family Vacation
The Johnson family takes their newly revamped SUV from California to Missouri for a family reunion. Along the way, they find themselves crossing paths with weirdo hitchhikers, hijinks and crazy situations that may just be the key to keeping them all together.
Encanto
If you haven’t yet seen the hit animated film of 2021, sit your family down immediately and watch it. Though it’s animated and musical, the film touches on some heavy themes threaded together with generational trauma, familial expectations and self-acceptance.
This is Where I Leave You
A family reunites to sit shiva (a Jewish tradition of mourning) for the father’s passing. The jaded and world-weary adult children must find ways to reconnect and resituate their own lives so they can continue to be part of each other’s.
Real Women Have Curves
This multi-generational tale explores Ana’s journey as a young, modern Mexican-American woman with desires and dreams, but those very qualities that push her forward could tear apart her family as she acts against her parents’ more traditional wishes.
Cheaper by the Dozen (2022)
A non-traditional, mixed race family attempts to assimilate to one another and navigate their new lives and siblings as their newlywed parents attempt to get their breakfast restaurant up and running.
The Farewell
Billi's family plans a false wedding in order to bring the family together to visit with their ailing grandmother matriarch, who is the only one who doesn’t know she only has a few weeks to live. Based on one family’s true story of their beloved grandmother.
Little Miss Sunshine
Olive Hoover wants nothing more than to win the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. When the chance comes knocking, her family piles into an old VW bus and risks each of their own sanities and well-beings to help make her dreams come true.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Toula is a 30-year-old Greek woman who is unmarried and underemployed (at her Greek family’s Greek restaurant), and her family is worried. When she finds a better job, she meets and falls for a tall, handsome and kind man who is 100% not Greek. Now Toula is worried about her Greek family instead.
Meet the Browns
A single mother of two is summoned to Georgia for the will reading of the father she never met. Her sudden and unexpected presence upheaves the family’s hilariously greedy antics while she may just have found a new home to start over with a new family.
Emily Cunningham is a freelance magazine writer with a passion for wildlife conservation, civil and societal issues, and artistic pursuits including dance, creative writing, film studies, and handmade art.
