What are your Christmas movies?
We are halfway to Christmas, so I want to hear about peoples movie related Christmas traditions and favorites. I know many people have a certain movie or movies they have to watch every Christmas, or maybe just a favorite Christmas themed movie that means something special. Perhaps something completely non-Christmasy but just something you happen to enjoy rewatching every December.
Do you like the classics such as It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street?
Do you laugh at the burglars in Home Alone every Christmas?
Action movies with a Christmas element like Lethal Weapon and Die Hard?
Or perhaps completely new favorites like The Holdovers?
Perhaps just whatever is being rerun for the 100th time on tv? Which apparently is Love Actually here...
The Nightmare Before Christmas. Bonus: it also doubles as a Halloween Movie! I don't always watch it, but whenever my wife asks me which movie I want to watch for Halloween or Xmas that's pretty much always my go-to.
Also, a couple years ago I saw Klaus and it was pretty good too! Definitely recommend it for anyone who hasn't seen it.
Hard to believe Christmas is just around the corner! My folks divorced when I was young so we developed two sets of traditions between them. Dad's must-have movies are the two Peanuts Christmas specials. At Mom's we always watched the original animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas! She had recorded it on VHS off the TV so at one point there was a hard cut and about 2 seconds of a commerical jingle before it jumped back into the movie. I'm so used to her version that the "whole" copy I watch these days always feels a bit off. We all try watch them every year even if we can't watch together. I've also added The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Muppets Christmas Carol to my personal holiday watch list because both films bring me joy
At the risk of sounding like every Reddit post for the last 12 years, my favorite is absolutely Die Hard.
A close second is Gremlins, though for now the Harry Potter movies (most, if not all, of which have some scenes around Christmastime) are a lot more friendly for the kids.
I also tend to like movies that just happen to be at Christmastime, without particularly having a "Christmas theme," like Iron Man 3 (or a lot of Shane Black's work, frankly).
That said, there are definitely a few "Christmas-brand Christmas" movies that I really enjoy: Home Alone, Ernest Saves Christmas, and, hovering in the space between "a Christmas movie" and "a movie that takes place at Christmas," Love, Actually.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
It was a family tradition growing up. And that scene where they ask the grandmother to say the blessing makes me laugh unreasonably hard, even though I know what's coming every time.
This is my family's go to movie also and the one we start off the season watching every time, also the on in the background while wrapping. I feel like it so perfectly captures my childhood in so many scenes is probably why it grabs me. When the in laws arrive, 'Folks! Folks!", this was walking into my grandmother's house every year, just an overwhelming amount of adults pinching and grabbing at me and being loud the same way.
But just so many funny little scenes and lines are so iconic, "I DON'T KNOW, MARGO", 'shitters full', "The BLESSING!", "My tree!", "SQUIRRRRLLLL!!!". My wife and I (and now our kids) quote it all the time. There are also a bunch of visual gags and things that I missed out on, it took me like 20 years to notice when they are shopping for eddie's gifts and clark puts some lightbulbs on the cart and then eddie immediately throws a giant thing of dog chow on top of it, stuff like that.
I wonder if though as our kids get older they will settle on another movie as the life it parodies is much different from the one in that movie. I feel like a lot of parents that are older go for the older movies like christmas story and the like because it's more reflective of life back when they were children.
There's a lot of favorites that I try to watch every Christmas: Scrooged, Charlie Brown, Grinch, the Rudolph claymation...
But among all of them, the one that is the "most Christmas" for me is A Christmas Story. It's just such a great story on so many levels: every character has their own struggles and their own arc.
I don't really like "Christmas stuff" (music, movies, whatever), but if you make me pick one, A Christmas Story will be it. So many good scenes.
Dead Snow
Rare Exports
Bad Santa
Gremlins
Better Off Dead
Hogfather
Rifftrax Live - Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
The Muppet Christmas Carol
City of Lost Children
Babette's Feast
I have a complicated relationship with the holiday.
How did I not know there was a Hogfather movie?!?
I was surprised at the amount of Terry Pratchett's material that's become made-for-TV productions. Hogfather is among the best realizations.
I enjoyed all three double-episode miniseries (Sky I think?) and wish they'd made more. They were a bit goofy but in a good way. For those who don't want to look this up, these are Hogfather, The Colour of Magic and Going Postal.
Good Omens was also great. We don't talk about The Watch though.
Oh man, you'd fit right in at our house! So many good shouts here, Rare Exports and City of Lost Children being my personal favorites (and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is my partner's). Definitely gonna check out the few I haven't seen yet, so thanks!
these are excellent
The year before last, my wife and I decided that each evening, when we settled down and everything was done, we would scroll through and watch random Christmas movies on whatever streaming platform we were using.
I'd just like to inform everyone that there are a LOT of horrendous daytime Christmas drivel that is hard to watch due to poor acting, script and camera work. As my young teenager used to say, they're "cringe".
However, it's become a fun new Christmas thing to do. We've smashed through about 8 Netflix Christmas movies from 2018+, including the two new ones starring Lindsay Lohan. I must say, drinking JD Fire by the glass helps get through them.
Personally I'd rather be watching good ol' Die Hard or Violent Night, but the Christmas RomComs are a nice Christmas tradition that's being put in place.
I have to say, that movie was much better than I expected it to be and I think it will become a regular with my family.
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is a Christmas movie I've watched every year without fail for as long as I can remember. It's short and easy to fit in during the season, though I like to watch it on Christmas day if I can.
My wife enjoys Barney's Night Before Christmas which she watched as a kid on VHS. Her parents taped or had friends tape/buy on sale a number of kids shows that weren't easily available in their country, and her Dad would pick them up during his business trips. We'll watch this one usually in the week leading up to Christmas, which I'm realizing is coming soon!
How the animated Grinch, and even the live action on some years, is also usually watched as well. I think I used to watch more holiday specials, and probably will when my kids are a bit older and can sit down for longer than a few minutes.
Klaus 2019 (streaming on netflix) trailer
I'm a 52 yo male who grew up under stereotypical masculine expectations and it makes me cry. every. time.
So. Good.
My favourite, and one I haven't seen mentioned yet, is Arthur Christmas. Its an animated film from Aardman (the studio that made chicken run and Wallace and from it. This one is not stop motion though) It's a take on how Santa Claus and Christmas works, and one family members mission to get a missed christmas present delivered before sunrise. It's so incredibly charming and funny. I'm surprised how some of the jokes can make me laugh even after seeing it so many times. Its crazy to me how underated it can be, but I highly recommend!
It's basic, but I watch the og A Charlie Brown Christmas religiously every year. I think I've got a memory of the perfect Christmastime in my head, when I was a child, with the lights dimmed, trimming a tree with my family - and the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas was playing in the background. I remember feeling a very genuine, full warmth back then, even if I didn't understand how vital that kind of security and love was.
The soundtrack and special fill me with that feeling now. While I'm cold as can be about December stressing me out over presents, my exploding hands, and my escalating SAD flare-ups, A Charlie Brown Christmas makes me recognize some people still hold some magic for the season. It pushes me to inject that energy back in the world one way or another.
A few years ago, browsing RYM, I checked out the page for the album out of curiosity. I was expecting some sneery jabs at how overplayed it is, or how the special is dated or too religious - but no, others seem to feel the same sentiment. There's one review I return to frequently that really nails what's special about it and its soundtrack:
By jshopa on rateyourmusic
>As I have said many times in the past, I have a bad relationship with religion. So why is A Charlie Brown Christmas, one of the most overtly, traditionally religious Christmas specials, my easy favourite? Part of it has to do with the nature of Charles Schulz's Peanuts strip and the tone of the various cartoons produced in this period. Schulz understood that one of the primary moods of childhood is of disappointment and frustration, something that is generally missed in the nostalgic, idyllic looks back by most adults. It can be a myopic disenchantment with a fair situation, but it is genuine. In childhood, things are just so much more desperately important all the time. A Charlie Brown Christmas is an unusually downbeat but breezy Christmas special, capturing the heartfelt social aspect of the season that Charlie Brown is largely missing in his stress over the commercialization of the season. When it comes to delivering a message of 'what the meaning of Christmas is' as practically all of these type of things do, it plainly states it in Bible verse and moves on without comment. It does not sentimentalize or make things too cute, and doesn't need to spell out that however we may celebrate, finding happiness in our social interactions is what really fulfills us. > >A large part of what makes all of this work is Vince Guaraldi's great, whimsical, jazzy score. In addition to possessing exceptional facial hair, Gauraldi was ineffably cool, a property he lent to the Peanuts series through his music. It is this music that really defined the tone of the series. It was not cheery, but it was lighthearted. Its hipness was not forced, and it is unpretentious. It projects a sense of indomitable, easygoing charm, with the light, cool touch of falling snow. The standards like "O Tannenbaum" and "What Child Is This" are given the air of slightly dejected late night piano jazz in the solo sections, then a wry groove when the drums and bass join in. The vocal tracks are by children, and have the unfussy ease of genuine Christmas caroling. > >Of course, after all these years of it being a constant at Christmastime, Vince Guaraldi's music is not only definitively an essential part of the season but it seems to be the rare music that genuinely evokes the season, that raises the feeling of it in me. It radiates calm warmth, and is the only Christmas album you might find me listening to in any month of the year.Sometimes I wonder why I write reviews on websites like backloggd, but that one reminds me how nice it is to find a particular sentiment resonates so strongly to me in the vast sea of the internet. The quip about childhood is something I try to keep in my head as a parent, and I always hope I can write something that reaches someone like this dude did...
The last few Decembers I've sought out Christmas adjacent films to watch. Anything with a plot that goes through December, references Christmas in the background, or just has a good winter vibe.
Christmas, Again (2014) is my absolute favorite. A story of crushing depression and the light that seeps in during small moments.
Not to be confused with the 2021 Disney film of the same title.
How can no one say Die Hard???
@Arlen did about... 87 minutes before you give or take.
Die hard is a fine Christmas movie, it's when it is accompanied by a "Fight me on it" attitude that it's annoying.
True. I like Brooklyn 99's take on it.
Jingle All The Way has got to be one of my favorites. I like plenty of the other films listed here but Jingle All The Way, Home Alone, and The Muppets Christmas Carol are the ones I can sit down and watch. A lot of the 'classics' are better to be ambiance than everyone sitting down and watching, ya know?
My favs of the last few years have been Happiest Season and Love Hard. Both are hokey, full of drama, and little more than romantic comedies with a Christmas sprinkle on top. 100% in my milieu.
Last year I watched The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus for the first time, that's a ride of a Christmas movie. It's a rather pagan story based off a book by the same author as The Wizard of Oz. It's from the folks that did the stop motion Frosty and Rudolph, it's in that same style. It's a short watch, I'd recommend it if you're able to find it.
Edit: according to just watch, it looks like apple TV might be your best bet, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was also on YouTube or Internet archive.
My family has watched The Apartment (1960) a few times around Christmas. Like Die Hard it’s only vaguely related to the holiday. Watching it recently I was struck by how modern it is in pacing, structure, and humor. There were a few bits that date it, but that’s part of the charm for me. It’s no wonder how it won Best Picture (edit: it won 5 Oscars!).
Every year between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day we watch the entire Harry Potter series. Sometimes we actually are sitting down and watching but most of the time now they are background to things like us playing with new gifts like legos and new video games and we only pay close attention to favorite scenes.
Great responses everyone! Just to answer my own question as well, I don't have any specific must see movies, though I do enjoy Home Alone quite a bit now as the kids are old enough to have fun with it as well. I love Die Hard but I honestly think the whole meme on "iT is ACtuALly a ChrIStmaS mOVIe" a bit dumb.
However, what I most correlate with Christmas is the so called julekalender (Christmas calendar) which is basically 24 TV episodes with a Christmas theme, usually aimed at kids. I think it is mostly a Scandinavian phenomena and it has been a thing since the 60s on national TV. There are dozens of them and each year the big tv stations either does one or more reruns or a new one. I think most generation of Danes have nostalgic memories of whatever julekalender they watched as a kid. They also made them aimed at adults, with the most popular one being The Julekalender which is getting a rerun practically every year.
We do something similar to that, where around Thanksgiving and Christmas we will go and watch the appropriate holiday episodes of some of our favorite shows. Friends did a Thanksgiving episode pretty much every season (and so does Bob's Burgers), and The Office's Christmas party episodes are always a hoot. And of course, WKRP in Cincinnati's turkey drop episode.
Oh yes, holiday specials in tv shows deserves its own topic as well.
Santa vs the Snowman is my tradition, it's a half hour special from the early days of 3D animation and it shows but it's so much fun.
Its basically the plot of Nightmare Before Christmas but with a sentient snowman taking over Xmas so he can be loved by everyone.
It culminates in this massive battle between mini snowmen and elves. There's a Nutcracker battlemech Pacific Rim style that fights a Kaiju Yeti, snowball guns, Igloo AT-STs, reindeer snow speeders (takes a lot of inspiration from Star Wars), and more.
Its a fun and heartwarming story with fantastic Christmas jokes throughout. I watch it basically every year. If you can get past the animation it's so worth it.
I was about 20 when they came out but The Grinch and Elf are my Christmas"classics" that I like to try and watch every year. My family always had A Christmas Story on, back when they used to run an all day marathon, so I grew tired of it way back then. As a kid I think I enjoyed the Disney Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street and Earnest saves Christmas.
One of my Christmas traditions is watching a Christmas movie with my husband while we sit around and unfurl the branches of our fake tree! (Then a stupid Hallmark christmas movie in the background while we put up ornaments)
My favorites of all time are probably Jingle All They Way, and Jingle Jangle, but really I love all Christmas movies. I love good ones, bad ones, Christmas horror, Christmas romcoms, Christmas musicals, everything.
I posted a topic last year to ask for favorite absurd/campy Christmas movies and people had a ton of fun submissions.
I don't even have to think about it...
What great timing to come across this thread—I was just telling my wife we ought to find a new Christmas movie to watch! These are the ones we tend to watch every Christmas:
Not a classic by any definition of the word, but I just watched Carry-On on Netflix and thought that it was a perfectly adequate riff on the Die Hard type Christmas film. Then again, I'm also down with the flu and 39C fever, so that may have contributed to the experience.
Little Women, The Green Knight, and Baby Boom
Some good ones I haven't seen mentioned yet in any other comments:
The Long Kiss Goodnight
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
I do not enjoy the 'full-on Christmas experience,' so maintain a collection of acceptable compromise films.
I'm also surprised by the low mention count of Elf!