How Healthy is your Favourite Christmas Film?

Christmas is almost here…and it is almost time for all your well-loved Christmas films to appear again. From heart-warming classics to fun-filled children’s films, there is a film to suit your every need at Christmas. If you are already watching some of your favourite films, my Christmas blog for 2025 is for you! Here are my top tips for enjoying all the Christmas foods featured in some of the most famous and most-loved Christmas films! Along with some special recipes to make Christmas healthier AND even more delicious.

Family-Favourites

Family films based on Christmas include Home Alone, The Polar Express and The Grinch. There is a lot of fun and laughter, but sadly a lot of junk-food

Home Alone (1992) – Young Kevin, who has been behind by accident when his family go on holiday. He finds himself having many adventures in New York and getting the better of two burglars. There is an iconic scene showing him eating cheese pizza with coco-cola in a champagne flute while having a private taxi-tour of New York! How to make it healthy? Choose pizza with a sourdough base for a bit of extra fermented goodness to the dough and add a few more healthy ingredients along with the cheese. Also make sure there are no inflammatory seed oils – all natural ingredients and olive oil if possible. And enjoy a glass of (real) champagne in moderation!

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1998) – Tomato soup is featured. Inspired by Rudolph, it is as red as his nose! How to make it healthy?  Use organic tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, onions, garlic, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Add fresh basil leaves at the end and top with grated parmesan cheese! This is one of my go-to recipes for healthy tomato soup that is so warming at this time of year, but I make sure to use xylitol instead of sugar!

Elf (2003) – Moving from the North Pole, Buddy the elf quickly became addicted to chocolate chips, marshmallows, and sweets of all and every sort for breakfast, lunch and dinner…including maple syrup on spaghetti! He famously said “We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup.” How to make it healthy? Do not do this! If you are trying to kick the sugar, you could try using xylitol as a replacement in some of your favourite Christmas recipes. You might like to try this great recipe for healthy brownies, though I recommend having them once a day after a main meal.

The Polar Express (2004) – Hot chocolate is the drink to have when taking a magical train ride to the North Pole! How to make it healthy? You can use a milk of your choice and add raw cacao powder, coconut oil, and raw honey or maple syrup (or xylitol) to taste for a healthy hot chocolate with minimal sugar.

The Christmas Candle (2013) tells the story of a candlemaker and his wife who are visited by a mysterious angel who performs miracles. The film evokes a Dickensian Christmas in the heart of the Cotswolds imagined by Max Lucado to include roast turkey, wassail and puddings. How to make it healthy? This is a wonderful film that reminds us of the greater meaning of Christmas. It also reminds me that we need spiritual food as much as we need physical food. We need hope, joy and peace to live as much as we need healthy food!

The Grinch (2018) The Grinch famously ate a hearty roast beast  with lots of creamy horseradish sauce. How to make it healthy? Roast beef is very healthy if eaten in moderation and with lots of vegetables. You might like to cut back on the creamy horseradish sauce and make sure it is from a brand that doesn’t include lots of inflammatory seed oils.

Golden Oldies

There are many old-fashioned films if you want a nostalgic Christmas film in black and white, and many of them feature healthy, wholesome meals with roasted meats and vegetables. A good old-fashioned Christmas meal is far healthier than all the processed foods that feature in the previous films. You can read why at my previous Christmas blog here.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) –  On their honeymoon, George and Mary are roasting chickens on a spit over a fireplace while rain leaks into the house. Later, he sits with Clarence in the pub while he orders ‘Mulled wine, heavy on the cinnamon, and light on the cloves’. How to make it healthy? Chicken is healthy, especially when served with a range of organic vegetables! Homemade mulled wine is much healthier because you are in charge of how much sugar goes into it. You can use fresh oranges and add spices with anti-inflammatory properties such as cinnamon and cloves, which also help with digestion and gut motility.

A Christmas Carol  Although he is from a very poor family, Tiny Tim experiences all the delight of Christmas as he watches the blue flames that dance around the Christmas pudding. Doused with brandy and set alight, it became a spectacular treat for the poor family who count their blessings at Christmas. Dicken’s original Christmas Carol includes references to Christmas foods that include mulled wine, beer, sausages, roast turkey, roast pork, game meat, a “great piece of cold roast”, roast chestnuts, fruits, and plum pudding. The Muppet Christmas Carol  (1992) with Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge features a wonderful feast at the end with a massive roast turkey dinner with Christmas punch. How to make it healthy? Roast meats and vegetables are wholesome and healthy foods but we can all enjoy treats at Christmas, but remember to eat a small portion of the desserts that you really enjoy and leave the others off your plate. You can also try my gluten-free Christmas pudding and see if anyone notices! I also love this Fruitea Loaf and it is a good alternative to Christmas pudding. You can use the code EMC010 and get a 10% discount.

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)  This is an old-fashioned romantic comedy about a food writer who pretends to be a farm wife in rural New England and gives culinary advice to millions of readers. However, the reality is that she actually lives in Manhattan, isn’t married and can’t cook. Her ruse begins to unravel when her boss wants to feature her perfect family Christmas hosting a returned war hero for a Christmas edition. Her food includes pancakes, crinkly endive salads with blue cheese dressing and roast goose with giblet gravy and there are references to steak with Bordelaise Sauce, kidney and onions, Irish stew with paprika, Potatoes Au Gratin, artichoke hearts, mushroom omelette, sardines, fresh fruit and mixed nuts! How to make it healthy? You can enjoy the wholesome stews and roast meats though I would cut back a bit on the blue cheese dressing! For the pancakes, you might like try these Paleo Pancakes instead.

Miracle on 34th Street (1947) is one of the most iconic Christmas movies of all time includes a roasted leg of lamb and treats such as rum balls, gingerbread and shortbread. It also includes Coca-Cola in a vintage bottle. How to make it healthy? The roasted leg of lamb is healthy meal full of protein and nutrients. The sweet treats can be eaten in moderation, especially if made with whole butter, natural spices and reduced sugar (which can also be replaced with honey or maple syrup). The Coca-Cola should be avoided, along with all other sugary drinks which ruin your teeth and flood your body with liquid sugar. I have heard Coca-Cola is excellent for cleaning your toilet because of the other harsh chemicals found in it.

My previous Christmas blogs have lots of tips for eating nutritious meals, keeping hydrated, moving every day and sleeping well. You can read the past blogs for more ideas here. And if you want some new recipes you can read Julia Rutland’s The Christmas Movie Cookbook, published in 2022…but make sure to eliminate excess sugars and seed oils!

With every blessing,

Emma

Emma Maitland-Carew – Registered Nutritional Therapist

Dip.ION, mBANT, CHNC Registered Practitioner, ILM Accredited Wellbeing Coach

Certified Live and Dried Blood Analysis, Metabolic Balance® Coach, HeartMath Coach, Accredited Wellbeing Coach