Favorite Christmas Movies

The Santa Clause.............

to me, this means movies where Christmas or the holiday season is an essential element of the movie.

I'll break the ones in my "collection" into categories:

Traditional:

A Christmas Carol. I've seen two versions of this, 1938 and 1951. Both are good.

Lighter:

The Lemon Drop Kid (1951) - Bob Hope plays a con-man who accidentally swindles a mob boss's girl, and has to come up with $10K by Xmas to avoid... Not bad.

Mixed Nuts (1994) - Steve Martin and Madeline Kahn run a suicide hotline service that encounters a variety of characters right around Xmas. Very funny if you enjoy warped humor.

I probably have some more in this category that I can't think of at the moment.

Darker:

Black Christmas (1974) - A sorority deals with a "creepy caller" during Xmas break. Nothing particularly memorable about this one, except Dullea's part being particularly lame.

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) - A small child's parents get murdered by someone in a Santa suit, ... low budget, tacky, but entertaining if you like this sort of thing.

Silent Night (1992) - same basic theme as above. Malcolm McDowell is pretty good in this one.

My dad knew Chris Vanallsburg growing up, I don't think knew him well or was friends with or anything, but knew him. Then my dad ended up being an elementary school teacher and always had quotes by like Dr Suese or Mr Roger's everywhere. He would say things like "There's nothing like seeing a young childs face light up with joy as you spark their imagination." But I think his very favorite book was Polar Express. I remember first least one, and possibly multiple christmases getting a dumb little bell "that fell off Santa's sleigh." I just wanted my teenage mutant ninja turtles back then. Because kids are assholes. (Apple fell a long way from that tree.) But as I get older I wish I could go back and give my dad the memory of me really caring about that bell.

So no matter how forgettable the movie was, The Polar Express will always be my favorite Christmas movie. It just feels like Christmas.

But Bad Santa makes me laugh despite a grown man calling a child a retard (my mom was a special ed teacher, and you would get in less trouble from her by calling the Pope a fucking C word, than you would by just saying that R word.)

Elf is hilarious, and that's despite me never really liking Will Ferrell.

Christmas Vacation is the gold standard against which all others should be judged. I make sure to watch it every year.

My kids seem to think all the Harry Potter movies are Christmas movies. I mean sure they each have like 1 scene in them that is Christmas, but to them that's enough. And that's why my house has multiple TV's because I'm not watching Harry Potter marathon every year.

Love Actually

Die hard

Home Alone 1&2
A Christmas Vacation

1. The Grinch - Jim Carey
2. A Christmas Story
3. Christmas Vacation
4. Santa Clause 1
5. Elf

Polar Express- didn’t really like it , but like a previous post - it really does make it feel like Christmas

I don’t like any Christmas movies. My favorite Christmas special tv epsisode was South Park’s Merry Christmas Charlie Manson.

DonMan said:

Mixed Nuts (1994) - Steve Martin and Madeline Kahn run a suicide hotline service that encounters a variety of characters right around Xmas. Very funny if you enjoy warped humor.

Click to expand...

Seen that...my wife is a huge Steve Martin fan. Also some really good cameo's in that movie like Jon Stewart, though this was obviously way before he made it big.

I hate the holidays as an adult, but I love those old shows like Charlie Brown Christmas and the original Grinch, because they at least bring me back to when I still thought Christmas was some kind of magical time.

bump

ernest and elf at the top my list right now

Office Party would have made the list if Olivia Munn would have gotten naked.
I mean what better way to get into the Christmas Spirit. (spirit of giving)



DieHard is on TV right now!

Miracle on 34th Street
It's a Wonderful Life

Wasn't there a Twilight Zone where Art Carney discovers he's actually Santa Claus?

Lethal Weapon 1