The best food movies and TV episodes to curl up with over the holidays

If you’re like us – and you’re here, so we’re guessing you are – your obsession with food only increases over the holiday season.

From festive cocktails to home-baked cookies to seasonal specials at all the city’s best restaurants, the holidays are undoubtedly a time to indulge.

They’re also a time to loaf around with some cozy movies and TV shows, the best of which also prominently feature food – if not as a main character, then at least as an integral part of the plot.

From holiday classics like Home Alone 2 (that scene of Kevin eating an entire box of pizza in a limo is forever seared into our brains) to rom-com favourites like The Holiday, we love nothing more than curling up with a good flick, a platter of spiced cookies, and some mulled wine – because art imitates life and vice versa.

Here are our favourite picks for some very foodie, very festive movies and TV shows to check out over the holidays.

The Holiday (2006)

The Holiday (2006, Columbia Pictures)

The Holiday (2006, Columbia Pictures)

Food is by no means a central part of The Holiday, but when Amanda (Cameron Diaz) goes to the small English market to stock up on snacks and wine – which she opens and fully drinks straight from the bottle, in the store – we really felt that. A basket full of jars of olives, chocolate, mixed nuts, a wheel of brie, and what looks like small packaged cakes prompts the cashier to remark “someone’s having a party tonight!” No ma’am, we’re just really hungry.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992, Twentieth Century Fox)

The first Home Alone may be a Christmas classic, but we love the second Kevin McCallister saga for its depiction of NYC decadence. We’re talking, of course, about the scene where Kevin chows down on a whole box of pizza in a limo, complete with a champagne flute of Coca-Cola. If only every holiday could be so swank.

Little Women (2019)

Little Women (2019, Columbia Pictures)

In Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel, food is a central part of the holiday scenes. The March sisters and their mother, called Marmee (and played by an incredible Laura Dern) don’t have much, but what they do have they choose to give to a family with even less than them. There’s a Christmas morning breakfast scene in which the Marches take their modest breakfast foods to a poor family, only to return to find that Laurie (played by Timothée Chalamet) and his grandfather have brought over a lavish feast, complete with cakes, cream puffs, a spiral ham, and what looks to be a tower of pink meringues.

Elf (2003)

Elf (2003, New Line Cinema)

A holiday classic for many, Elf‘s most memorable food scene is also likely one of the least appetizing on this list. Buddy (Will Ferrell) has travelled from the North Pole to New York, where he still happens to have the sweet tooth tastes of an elf. Cue the scene where he chows down on spaghetti with chocolate sauce, marshmallows, and, of course, maple syrup.

Mad Men (2007-2015): (episodes S04 E02 “Christmas Comes but Once a Year”; S05 E10 “Christmas Waltz”; S06 E01-02 “The Doorway”)

Mad Men S04 E02 “Christmas Comes but Once a Year”

There’s something about Mad Men that feels perfect for binge-watching over the holidays, but we especially suggest tucking into the few Christmas episodes of the series. Whether it’s the perfectly strange feasts of the ’60s and ’70s (platters of ham and weird jellied foods), the abundance of strong cocktails, or the festive office platters (like this one from the season four episode titled “Christmas Comes but Once a Year”), this show definitely inspires a retro holiday party or two.

Gilmore Girls (2000-2007; 2016): (episodes S01 E10 “Forgiveness and Stuff”; S02 E10 “The Bracebridge Dinner”; S03 E10 “That’ll Do Pig”; S04 E11 “In the Clamour and Clangor”; S05 E11 “Women of Questionable Morals”; S07 E11 “Santa’s Secret Stuff”; A Year in the Life “Winter”)

Gilmore Girls (S02 E10 “The Bracebridge Dinner”)

The perennially cozy classic Gilmore Girls is good for a rewatch year-round, but especially in the fall and winter. There’s something about small town Stars Hollow that feels comforting to us, and part of it is all the time the Gilmores spend in Luke’s Diner. Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory (Alexis Bledel) are forever ordering burgers, fries, pancakes, and more, only to drink gallons upon gallons of black coffee. Whether they’re dining at the grandparents’ house, snacking on reheated pizza on the couch, or in the kitchen at the inn (where Sookie is invariably cooking up something good), food runs through the entire series, but especially so in these holiday episodes.