James Seay, left, and Edmund Gwenn in “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947). IMDb photo

Holiday movies aren’t all syrupy garbage. It just seems that way sometimes.

There’s something about the Christmas season that brings out the worst in our moviemaking and watching instincts. On the studios’ side, the lure of quick holiday cash from viewers looking for escape and movie stars looking for a guaranteed paycheck is a no-brainer. There’s a built-in, easy-to-please audience for disposable seasonal sentiment after all.

For us movie fans, the allure is more complicated. I have fond memories of watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” on broadcast TV like every aging sap, and there’s something undeniably comforting in a season fraught with family stress, emptying wallets, and end-of-year malaise in movies that take place in a world where goodwill and happy endings are not only inevitable but mandatory.

But captive audiences with middling expectations inspire laziness. For every “A Muppet Christmas Carol” or “A Christmas Story,” the holiday trash bin is stuffed with barely remembered detritus like “Jingle All the Way,” “Christmas With the Kranks,” “Surviving Christmas” and “A Celebrity Holiday Cash-Grab.”

OK, I made that last one up, but pity the poor actor whose foray into the holiday movie tinsel-mill was more miserable than poor Matthew Broderick, who was heard by multiple costars on the set of 2006’s “Deck the Halls” repeatedly muttering, “I’ve hit rock bottom” to himself.

But there are some surprisingly sturdy holiday movie ornaments on the otherwise lackluster Christmas viewing tree. And some of them have even more surprising messages in a genre where pre-packaged syrupy sentiment is the accepted norm. So kick back and take comfort in the fact that, yes Virginia, there really are some holiday movies that don’t stink.

“It’s a Wonderful Life”

James Stewart, Donna Reed, Carol Coombs, Jimmy Hawkins, Larry Simms and Karolyn Grimes in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Herbert Dorfman/Corbis photo via Getty Images

Sure, it’s a safe pick, but have you ever actually watched this 1946 Frank Capra classic? Apart from James Stewart’s George Bailey nearly leaping off a bridge, the entire film is a portrait of the misery that is predatory capitalism. Villainous Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) hates George’s generosity, decency and gentler form of money-lending (Potter’s also really racist), and George’s eventual triumph comes when the entire town defies Potter’s plot to destroy George’s immigrant-friendly building and loan by scraping together their pennies to help a good man.

Message: A never more timely grassroots “screw you” to heartless oligarchs everywhere. (Roku, Hoopla, Plex, and Amazon Prime)

“Scrooged”

“Now wait a candy cane-licking minute,” I hear loyal readers exclaim. And yes, I did once write a whole article ripping this 1988 Bill Murray “A Christmas Carol” update a new one. But it’s Murray’s final (admittedly rambling) improvised final speech as the ghost-redeemed Frank Cross that makes me tear up every year. (And I do watch it every year.) It’s in Murray’s delivery of the line, “Oh, by the way, here!” that does it. Rich jerk Cross’ epiphany is a startlingly simply realization that actually doing something to help those in need is so obvious he’s a little mad at himself (and by extension us) that we don’t do it more often.

Message: Use the manufactured goodwill of the season to actually do some good. (Apple TV and Amazon Prime)

“Miracle on 34th Street”

Another no-brainer with more bite than you remember. Edmund Gwenn won an Oscar for playing Santa Claus — or maybe he didn’t. The cheery old gent played by Gwenn takes a department store Santa job and claims to be the real deal, recommending a competing store’s prices and trying to help a little girl (an impossibly adorable Natalie Wood) achieve her Christmas wish. Naturally, he’s thrown into an insane asylum before an outpouring of public support springs him in time for a happy ending. Now nobody’s saying character actor Gwenn (in the role of any lifetime) was really Santa, but the film sets forth the idea that sticking up for something (or someone) so pure, helpful and kind is worth a little ridicule from those who think those concepts are silly.

Message: A little holiday hokum can make a difference if you stop being so cynical. (Disney and Apple TV)

“Joyeux Noel”

Based on a true story, this 2005 French drama depicts the WWI mini-truce conducted by opposing entrenched soldiers inspired by the sounds of mutual carols sung across the battlefield. The German, French and English soldiers warily allow their shared misery and loneliness on Christmas Eve to bring them together for a single night of no-man’s-land bonding over family photos, and even an impromptu soccer game. That the thudding, needless war shatters the soldiers’ rekindled love of their fellow man is as inevitable as it is doubly heart-crushing.

Message: Weaponized Christmas spirit can revive our brutalized shared humanity — if only for a little while. (Paramount+ and Apple TV)

“Tangerine”

There’s nobody making more humanistic and entertaining movies about finding glimmers of love and hope in the most forgotten places than writer-director Sean Baker (“The Florida Project,” “Anora.”) This 2015 shot-on-cellphone comedy-drama about transgender sex workers battling for their dignity (and their lives) during one eventful Christmas Eve, portrays people on the ultimate fringes of society with compassion, understanding and humor. Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, two trans women playing trans women, make their downtrodden friends’ struggles (and little triumphs) amidst a cold world’s gaudy trappings of peace and love feel like the only true, defiant spirit of Christmas anywhere.

Message: On a cold Christmas, the only family is the one you choose. (Apple TV and Hulu)

“The Holdovers”

From left, Dominic Sessa, Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph in a scene from “The Holdovers.” Seacia Pavao/Focus Features via AP

Alexander Payne reunites with his “Sideways” star Paul Giamatti for this 2023 tale of a crotchety 1970s private school teacher (guess who) saddled with caring for the lone teenager (Dominic Sessa) left to fend for himself over Christmas break. DaVine Joy Randolph is the school’s beleaguered cook, also stranded and alone, and the three most unlikely companions are forced to find warmth amidst the cavernous school’s halls while grudgingly sharing why they wound up alone in the first place. That sounds pretty standard for a holiday movie — no points if you predict that they bond — but Payne’s film is as prickly as a pine, its inevitable moments of tenderness and humor earned and satisfying as warm spiked eggnog.

Message: If you really see the people around you, you can make the season a lot less lonely. (Amazon Prime and Apple TV)

“Comfort and Joy”

Scottish director Bill Forsyth (director of “Local Hero,” my personal favorite film) is a master of surprisingly potent whimsy. Here, a heartbroken DJ (Dicky Bird Bill Patterson) gets over the holiday breakup with his girlfriend by unwittingly inserting himself into an unlikely turf war between rival Italian ice cream truck families. Gently rambunctious and slyly heartfelt, it’s just the sort of undiscovered treat to lift your Christmas spirits.

Message: Pockets of Christmastime weirdness provide opportunities to cheer yourself up with creative mischief. Not available streaming, sadly. (Try “Local Hero” on Amazon)

“Happiest Season”

Kristen Stewart, left, and Dan Levy in a scene from “Happiest Season.” Jojo Whilden/Hulu via AP

Clea DuVall’s family comedy sees a lesbian couple (Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis) head to the home of Davis’ conservative family for Christmas, only for her to spring the news that she’s been hiding her sexuality from them. Hijinks ensue, naturally, although DuVall (a great actress dramatizing her own fraught family history) mines the farce for finely observed character study. Everyone in the stacked cast (Victor Garber, Mary Steenburgen, Alison Brie, Dan Levy, Aubrey Plaza, Mary Holland) avoids stereotype, and the hard-won happy ending feels like the best version of this sort of holiday movie get-together.

Message: A hopeful promise that love will overcome prejudice — even among those who claim to love you. (Hulu)

Dennis Perkins is a freelance writer who lives in Auburn with his wife and cat.