Christmas is, for many and most, the best time of the year. The winter holidays generally have something special in them and that is why people love them so much. The entertainment industry and the cinematic arts are no exception, as we all know too well based on the number of holiday-themed movies that appear each year.
In this article, though, we are going to give you a list of the best Christmas anime of all time. Our list is going to include a total of 25 titles. We have tried to be as diverse as possible, including all genres, subgenres, and dates, meaning that you’ll find both old and new anime series on this list.
Best Christmas Anime
The list is going to contain a total of 25 titles, ranked in random order, i.e. the ranking does reflect the quality of the show. We have tried to pick the best shows that reflect the Christmas spirit (anime-style) so that you might enjoy them like you’re supposed to.
1. Toradora!
Original Run: October 2, 2008 – March 26, 2009
Number of Episodes: 25
Episode 19: At the Christmas party of the school Ryūji and Taiga are very elegant: Taiga has given a dress of his father to Ryūji so that he can impress Minori. During the party, Taiga and Ami amaze everyone with a surprise singing performance.
Taiga tries to get Minori to go to the party, while Ryūji arranges a surprise for Taiga. The “tiger”, happy for Ryūji’s gesture, pushes the boy to go to school to wait for Minori: left alone, she realizes that she is fond of him and bursts into a desperate cry.
Minori sees her and immediately afterward she meets Ryūji: she has understood that he likes him, but she does not want romantic bonds and she prefers to be alone (even if she is interested in him).
2. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
Release Date: February 6, 2010
Running Time: 162 minutes
It is about mid-December and the head of the SOS Brigade Haruhi Suzumiya announces to his comrades that the brigade is hosting a Christmas party in the classroom of their club. Club members Kyon, Yuki Nagato, Mikuru Asahina, and Itsuki Koizumi take care of the party preparations, such as decorations and costumes.
But just a couple of days later, Kyon discovers that Haruhi is missing. Lei Haruhi has not only disappeared: she is as if she had never existed. Also, Mikuru does not seem to recognize Kyon and claims he has never seen him before, Koizumi is as if he has never moved into their school and Yuki is the only member of the literature club, which is obviously housed in the classroom where he would have us.
It had to be the SOS Brigade. And no one in the whole school has ever heard of Haruhi Suzumiya. Kyon is the only one who can understand what happened.
3. Lucky☆Star
Original Run: April 8, 2007 – September 16, 2007
Number of Episodes: 24
Episode 11: The end of the year is drawing close, and that means Christmas is right around the corner. They get on the topic of how sometimes when they get sleepy on a bus, they sometimes tend to lean on the person next to them. Whenever Konata gets on her bus, she gets sleepy and falls asleep a few times on the shoulder of the person next to her.
4. Winter Garden
Original run: December 23, 2006 – December 24, 2006
Number of episodes: 2
A little romantic story during winter on Earth. Dejiko is 20 and Puchiko is 15 and they no longer use neither -nyo nor -nyu at the end of sentences and no longer has eye rays. Dejiko is no longer lazy, selfish, aggressive, and glory-seeking, which is typical of her personality (the only other series in which she acts against her character is the prequel to all series, Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat).
Rabi en Rose only has one cameo and Gema doesn’t appear at all. Dejiko works hard in a pastry shop. One day, she falls in love with a guy named Takurou Senba who gives her an umbrella in a park. Can he feel the same for her?
5. Tokyo Godfathers
Release Date: August 30, 2003
Running Time: 92 minutes
Three homeless people accidentally find a little girl on Christmas Eve, abandoned in the garbage. While Hana, an impoverished trans woman after quitting her drag job, wants to keep her as she deems it a divine gift, Gin, a wandering alcoholic, and Miyuki, a runaway girl, want to take the baby to the police right away.
Eventually, they convince Hana to keep her only for that night, but when she awakens the next day, they discover that she has left their makeshift refuge. After finding her, together they try to bring the child directly to her parents, following tracks that often lead them astray.
During the week between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, the three will have various adventures, coming into contact with the variegated humanity of the Tokyo metropolis on the trail of their past and their respective personal stories.
6. Digimon Adventure 02
Original Run: April 2, 2000 – March 25, 2001
Number of Episodes: 50
Episode 38: To celebrate Christmas Eve, Ken decides to invite friends to a party at his house, but is reluctant because he fears they may refuse. However, everyone, including Cody, accepts with joy and the six decide to surprise the other Digipelts with their Digimon, to be able to spend these festive days together.
7. White Album 2
Original Run: October 6, 2013 – December 29, 2013
Number of Episodes: 13
The action takes place 10 years after the events of the White Album game in the second half of October, and the game finale ends 3 months later. According to the plot, almost all musicians leave the musical school group and the group is on the verge of collapse.
Haruki invites two girls: Setsuna Ogiso and Kazusu Tomo. Together they train and play at a concert during the school fair. They perform songs by Yuki Morikawa from the “White Album” album. By the end of the day, Setsuna confesses his love to Haruki and the two begin dating. Sometime later, Setsuna decides to throw a birthday party at her home.
On the way there, Haruki remembers that Setsuna would love to see Kazusa too. The boy decides to go to Kazusa and instead meets her mother. She explains that Kazusa is leaving with her after a month and since the plane leaves an hour after the party starts, Kazusa will not be able to visit her. Haruki tries to convince Kazusa to attend the party and an argument ensues.
Kazusa flees from Haruka. Later, Kazusa comes to school and declares that he is leaving for Vienna and will never return. After that, Kazusa did not show up at the school until her graduation, she comes to secretly leave a letter to Setsune.
She later informs Haruki that Kazusa was at school. The guy searches for her all over the city, but to no avail. But later Kazusa calls him to come to her house. They reconcile, but Kazusa flies away anyway. In the end, Setsuna and Haruki arrive at the airport together to say goodbye to Kazusa.
8. Itsudatte My Santa!
Original Run: December 8, 2005
Number of Episodes: 2
The story tells of a girl called Mai who appears to save a boy who hates Christmas with all his might, having been born on December 24th. The girl even if she is hindered, has the task of being able to make the boy understand the importance of Christmas.
9. K-On!
Original Run: April 3, 2009 – September 28, 2010
Number of Episodes: 39 + 2 OVA
Episode 7: Yui’s sister Ui Hirasawa remembers how Yui once attempted to give her a white Christmas when they were little, by putting pillow-stuffing on the tree outside. Ritsu decides to hold a Christmas party for the club, and while her initial plans of holding it at Tsumugi’s house fail, they eventually decide to have it at Yui’s house while Yui’s parents are on vacation.
10. Ichigo Mashimaro
Original Run: July 14, 2005 – October 13, 2005
Number of Episodes: 12
Episode 12: Matsuri’s faith in Santa Claus makes the rest of the gang guarantee her a happy Christmas.
11. Hachimitsu to Clover
Original Run: April 14, 2005 – September 14, 2006
Number of Episodes: 36
Episode 4: Mayama meets Riku at college. Hagu gets sick from stress. Takemoto, walking with Hagu before the Christmas party, remembers why he doesn’t like Christmas.
12. 5 Centimeters per Second
Release Date: March 3, 2007
Running Time: 65 minutes
The feature film, sentimental and with intense tones, is divided into three episodes centered on three different moments in the life of the two main characters. In general, their story of friendship is then dealt with and the evolution of this into a stronger feeling that is defeated by the distance that separates the two characters until adulthood.
Episode 1: Japan, early nineties. After finishing elementary school, two close friends Takaki Tōno and Akari Shinohara are forced to separate. Akari in fact moves to the Tochigi prefecture and Takaki goes to a school in Tokyo.
The two continue to write letters, but when Takaki learns he has to move again, this time to distant Kagoshima, he realizes that he has one last chance to see Akari before leaving. He then makes an appointment with her and decides to reach her by train, despite the fact that the journey is complex and he has to change lines and carriages several times.
Because of the snow, however, he delays his arrival for several hours: when exhausted and heartbroken he arrives at his destination, by now late at night, he imagines that Akari is now gone, but just when he gives in to despair he finds the girl waiting for him. The two, after a kiss full of love, spend a night together, after which their paths the next morning return to divide.
Episode 2: Takaki Tōno, who moved to the warm prefecture of Kagoshima, is in his third year of high school. Her partner Kanae Sumita is particularly interested in him and, although she is very shy, she goes out of her way to be close to him, trying in vain to confess her love to him.
One evening, just when he finally feels he can express his feelings to the boy, observing a rocket for space departed from the nearby military base, Kanae realizes that Takaki is actually in love with another girl and that is why he always seems lost to observe the infinite.
The young woman then represses her feelings and renounces her declaration of love.
Episode 3: The final episode, set in Tokyo in 2008, sees Takaki, now an adult turned computer programmer, still missing Akari and unable to build a love life or feel emotions. One day, out of the house he sees Akari on the other side of a level crossing, but the passage of two trains prevents him from drawing his attention to him.
A brief flashback shows that Akari has forgotten Takaki (one day, finding by chance a letter that she would have liked to deliver to him in their last meeting in middle school, she only feels a pleasant feeling for the beautiful memory of a love that no longer exists), in fact, she has rebuilt a life with another man and is about to get married.
Back in the present, following the passage of the two trains, Akari has already left, so Takaki finally understands that his relationship with her belongs to the past and that he must start thinking about his future, so he continues his journey with a bitter smile, but it is also liberation for a love that distance and time have now canceled.
13. Chocotto Sister
Original Run: July 12, 2006 – December 20, 2006
Number of Episodes: 24
The story revolves around the Christmas wish expressed by little Haruma Kawagoe after the abortion suffered by her mother, as a result of which the woman could no longer have children.
Years pass and when Haruma is now a university student, a woman on a flying motorcycle suddenly knocks on his window and tells him she is Santa Claus, who has come to bring him the fulfillment of that wish expressed years ago: a little sister.
The boy is quite confused and says he made that wish many years ago, but he is told that it takes much longer to create a little sister than to create a simple robot. Santa Claus gets the receipt for the delivery of the package signed and sets off again.
Haruma thus has a new little sister, whom he does not know much about the world and who often seeks an answer to this lacuna in a little book that he always carries with him. When the little girl asks her brother for her name, Haruma decides to call her Choco.
14. Hetalia: Axis Powers
Original Run: January 24, 2009 – March 5, 2010
Number of Episodes: 52
Episode 31: In a universe similar yet different from this one, three students at the World Academy W decide to survey the others on how they spend their winter holiday.
15. Log Horizon
Original Run: October 5, 2013 – March 31, 2021
Number of Episodes: 62
Episode 30: Enheart Nelreth continues to wreak havoc in Akihabara and throws the city into a state of disquiet. This prompts the remaining Round Table members to impose an evacuation of the lower-leveled players to Zantleaf for their protection.
16. Whisper of the Heart
Release Date: July 15, 1995
Running Time: 111 minutes
The plot follows Shizuku Tsukishima, a middle school student who loves to spend her free time reading a book. However, no matter what volume she picked up in the library, his form always had the name of Seiji Amasawa.
After meeting an unusual boy, Shizuku realizes that he is her first love. Communication with him opens her inner world for the girl, she learns a lot about others and about herself. One of the main topics covered in the plot is the period of growing up and first love, transitional age in all its manifestations.
The evolution of the girl’s feelings is examined in many details – from dissatisfaction with an annoying boy to affection for him. However, the most important theme is finding yourself and overcoming difficulties on the way to your dream.
17. Usagi Drop
Original Run: July 7, 2011 – September 15, 2011
Number of Episodes: 11
Episode 3.5: Daikichi and Rin prepare for Christmas.
18. Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?
Original Run: April 10, 2014 – December 26, 2020
Number of Episodes: 36
Episode 11: The girls are shopping for Christmas decorations for Rabbit House and Ama Usa An, then they start making plans to have a Christmas party after they have all finished working on Christmas Eve. When the guests arrive at the party, Rabbit House still has customers because the special Christmas pancakes they prepared attracted a lot of people, so they decide to help.
19. Kanon
Original Run: January 31, 2002 – March 28, 2002 / October 5, 2006 – March 15, 2007
Number of Episodes: 13 / 24
Kanon‘s storyline is based on a group of five girls whose lives are tied to the same boy. Yuichi Aizawa is a second-year high school student who visited the town where the story takes place seven years before the game starts.
The story begins on Wednesday, January 6, 1999, when Yuichi arrives in town, very indifferent to the town and its people. . He must live with his aunt Akiko, with his cousin Nayuki Minase. After his long absence, Yuichi remembers virtually nothing, except details, of his previous visit to the city.
Nayuki tries to refresh her memory several times but fails. Throughout the story, learning about the supernatural aspects of the city, Yuichi remembers the events that took place seven years earlier.
20. Wolf Children
Release Date: June 25, 2012
Running Time: 117 minutes
Hana, a 19-year-old student, meets a wolf boy. The fruits of their love are the girl Yuki and her younger brother Ame. After the death of her beloved, Hana has to raise her children herself. Due to the need to hide their origin, the girl does not risk taking the kids to the doctors, which raises suspicions among social services.
And the regular howl of children leads neighbors to suspect that Hana got a dog, thereby violating the agreement on renting an apartment. In such a critical situation, she decides to move to the village soon, away from prying eyes.
21. Your Lie in April
Original Run: October 9, 2014 – March 19, 2015
Number of Episodes: 22
Arima Kōsei is a renowned young pianist. A little prodigy from an early age, commonly known as a “human metronome”, he excels in all the competitions in which he participates by giving a performance that accurately reproduces a score.
However, his mother, who is both a pianist and his teacher, suddenly dies from a serious illness whose causes are unknown and Kōsei misses a competition that could have led him to play the piano internationally. He, therefore, abandons the piano and all his past.
Two years later, Kōsei enters his last year of middle school and meets Kaōri Miyazono, a violinist of the same age as him and who is in the same class as his neighbor and loving sister, Tsubaki, with whom he will immediately fall in love.
22. Winter Sonata
Original Run: October 17, 2009 – May 1, 2010
Number of Episodes: 26
Joon-sang, the teenage son of an eminent musician, moves to the rural town of Chuncheon, where he is well received by schoolmates and teachers thanks to his extraordinary talent as a student, despite his introverted and quiet character.
Joon-sang is looking for his father, who his mother claims is dead and that the boy has never met, which led him to believe that no one really loves him, especially his mother. Joon-sang soon falls in love with one of his classmates, Yoo-jin, who reciprocates, but a car accident causes brain damage that makes him forget everything that happened before he woke up.
His mother, who has always been eager to obtain love and respect from him, has him altered by a psychologist so that he can cancel his painful childhood as an illegitimate child and take him with her to the United States. As the boy begins a new life under the name of Lee Min-hyeong, friends and teachers are told of his death.
23. Sailor Moon S: The Movie
Release Date: December 4, 1994
Running Time: 61 minutes
A mysterious alien entity is heading towards Earth, intending to freeze it completely. But a crystal useful for this is lost and detaches from the main comet. The crystal is found by Kakeru Ozora, a young astronomer in poor health, who became friends with the cat Luna, after saving her life from a car accident.
The proximity to the crystal further precipitates the conditions of the young man, and Luna decides to help him with the help of the Sailor Warriors who in the meantime are having their business with the terrible Snow Dancers, who have the task of freezing the earth.
This entity is precisely the comet observed by Kakeru, the Snow Princess Kaguya, already rejected once at the time of the Silver Millennium by the power of the Silver Crystal.
24. Clannad: After Story
Original Run: October 4, 2007 – March 26, 2009
Number of Episodes: 42 + 2 OVA
Episode 13: Tomoya wants to ask Akio to be able to take care of Nagisa, but the father, before listening to him, wants to be beaten in baseball.
25. Love Hina Christmas Special – Silent Eve
Original Run: April 19, 2000 – September 27, 2000
Number of Episodes: 24 + OVA
There are a few days to Christmas and Keitaro, Naru and Mutsumi are studying for the exam they will have to face on the morning of the eve.
Keitaro, taking advantage of the Christmas atmosphere, thinks of declaring himself to Naru even though she is rather cold towards him. Kaolla and Sarah find a package with a letter in Naru’s room in which they read the words “I love you” and believe it is for Keitaro.