Favorite Christmas Movies

For me, Christmas starts with Santa making his appearance in the Macy’s Day Parade on Thanksgiving morning and then it progresses through some of my favorite movies, like White Christmas which always seems to be on Netflix – even in July.  I have to see the Reginald Owen version of A Christmas Carol and Love Actually before Christmas is over.  I am always curious what you consider to be the best Christmas movies – and whether you think Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not.  I checked out the movie list on Rotten Tomatoes and I was surprised by some of the films on their list – but that’s why there is chocolate and vanilla ice cream!  Still, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or In Bruges?

Getting ready for the big family dinner on Christmas takes a lot of energy – and trying to keep small children out of the kitchen – and out of trouble – sometimes needs or justifies a bit of screen time with a good movie.  Here are a few suggestions!

A Charlie Brown Christmas

The first-ever Peanuts special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, turns seasonal depression into heartfelt comedy. As the Christmas season nears, Charlie Brown is worried that the holiday is getting too commercial, encouraging kids to think about nothing but presents, parties, and pink aluminum trees. He’s supposed to be the director of the school’s nativity pageant, but nobody pays him any attention, and the kids all laugh at the scrawny tree he picks out.  A seasonal staple (at least until it moved to Apple TV+) Linus’ showstopping speech about the true meaning of Christmas remains the gold standard for holiday special sincerity.

Where to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas: Apple TV+

 

Christmas Eve on Sesame Street

In the Sesame Street gang’s first Christmas special, Oscar the Grouch teases Big Bird by asking him how big ol’ Santa Claus can squeeze down the chimney to deliver everybody’s presents — and suggests that if the 8-foot canary can’t figure it out, then maybe Santa won’t come this year!

Meanwhile, Bert and Ernie both make a sacrifice to buy each other the perfect Christmas present in a “Gift of the Magi”-themed storyline, and Cookie Monster finds that it’s hard to write to Santa Claus when he eats his typewriter before he can finish the letter.

Where to watch Christmas Eve on Sesame Street: Max

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

This classic story from beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss is brought to life with hilarious animation by Warner Brothers director Chuck Jones. In this special, the Grinch, a holiday-hating supervillain with a heart two sizes too small, is determined to stamp out the cheery festivities in the nearby town of Whoville.

Disguising himself as a felonious Santa, the Grinch grabs presents, decorations, and the Christmas feast, leaving the Whos with nothing to celebrate but each other. Kids will love the catchy song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and the furious, infectious joy the scoundrel takes in spoiling everyone’s holiday season.

Where to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas!: Peacock

The Muppet Christmas Carol

It’s time to get Christmas started with a most sensational, inspirational, Muppet-filled adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. In this feature-length musical, Michael Caine takes the lead role of Ebenezer Scrooge, the grasping old miser who needs a night full of visiting spirits to help him develop a capacity for friendship and joy.

The familiar Muppet characters enliven the sometimes gloomy story — especially Gonzo and Rizzo, who act as squabbling narrators. Kermit and Miss Piggy are paired as Mr. and Mrs. Cratchit, with little Robin the Frog as Tiny Tim. The film is a perfect mix of jokes, scares, songs, and sentiment.

Where to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol: Disney+

The Polar Express

Confession:  This may be my favorite animated kid friendly Christmas movie!  Tom Hanks plays five roles in this wintry epic, which was made exclusively through motion-capture animation. A young boy who’s almost too old to believe in Santa Claus is awakened on Christmas Eve by the arrival of an enormous steam locomotive pulling up outside his house, ready to take him to the North Pole. He boards the train for a magical adventure with new friends through a treacherous snowbound landscape, all the way to Santa’s workshop.

The art style is hauntingly beautiful, and where else can you see a fleet of tap-dancing waiters performing a catchy musical number about hot chocolate?

Where to watch The Polar Express: Max

 

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Christmas Vacation is possibly the most madcap Christmas comedy ever. The title is a bit of a misnomer, though: in this instalment of the Vacation franchise, the Griswold clan opts to stay at home in suburban Chicago for the holidays. But that doesn’t mean Chevy Chase, as overly ambitious patriarch Clark Griswold, can’t find a way to snatch disaster from the jaws of tranquillity. Several ways, in fact.

During the filming of Christmas Vacation, Chevy Chase broke his pinky finger punching a Santa decoration.

A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story is a collection of vignettes about 9-year-old Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) and his family as they approach the holidays in the early 1940s, experiencing the dreams and disasters of the season.

All Ralphie wants for Christmas is a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle, but his mother (Melinda Dillon), his teacher (Tedde Moore), and even the department store Santa (Jeff Gillen) tell him, “You’ll shoot your eye out!” The film also includes a pink bunny pajama suit, a secret decoder ring, a triple-dog-dare to lick an icy cold flagpole, and the iconic “leg lamp.”

Where to watch A Christmas Story: Max

Elf

In this hilarious Christmas comedy, Will Ferrell plays Buddy, a misplaced boy who grew up at the North Pole as one of Santa’s elves. Buddy feels out of place in the workshop as a fully-grown adult who’s terrible at making toys — and when he learns that he’s actually human, he travels to New York City to find the father he never knew.

Buddy’s sugar-sweet demeanor clashes with the real world to great comic effect. Classic scenes include a wild snowball fight and a mad scramble when Buddy angrily unmasks a department store Santa Claus.

Where to watch Elf: Max

Home Alone

If your family has watched enough treacly sentimental Christmas movies, Home Alone provides slapstick destruction instead. Eight-year-old Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) is accidentally left behind when his family goes on a Christmas vacation to Paris, which seems like a wonderful opportunity to do whatever he wants — until his suburban home is besieged by a pair of bumbling housebreakers and he has to set a series of homespun booby traps to defeat them.

Watching a bad guy fall down the icy stairs or get smacked in the face with a paint can may not sound in line with the Christmas spirit, but seasonal joy comes in many flavors.

Where to watch Home Alone: Disney+

The Santa Clause

It’s the night before Christmas, and Santa’s annual trip is interrupted when he accidentally falls off an icy roof. Scott Calvin (Tim Allen), a divorced dad who owns the roof in question, finds himself stuck with the job of delivering the remaining presents.

Scott and his son, Charlie (Eric Lloyd), visit the North Pole, where he’s informed by the elves that he has a year to become the new Santa Claus. A reluctant Scott gradually takes on the appearance and powers of the legendary figure, but when his custody arrangement is threatened, he has to heal the rifts in his broken family as well.

Where to watch The Santa Clause: Disney+

 

It’s a Wonderful LIfe

This vintage Christmastime fable highlights how important each person can be to their family, friends, and community. George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) is stuck in a small town with a failing business wishing that he had never been born, and Clarence (Henry Travers), his guardian angel, is eager to earn his wings by helping George appreciate how many lives he’s touched.

This bittersweet movie digs deep into the joys of young love, the responsibilities of adulthood, and the effort it takes to remain honest in an unkind world. The triumphant finale, when George discovers his true worth, is a guaranteed heartwarmer.

Where to watch It’s a Wonderful Life: Amazon Prime Video

Miracle on 34th Street

The eternal question of Santa Claus’ existence is taken to court in this merry black-and-white chestnut. The man hired by Macy’s to be their department store Santa assures everyone that he really is the genuine Kris Kringle, and he wants to see if he can still spread “the Christmas frame of mind” in the middle of modern Manhattan. He ends up committed to a mental institution, but his friends are determined to set him free — if they can prove to a judge that he’s the real Santa.  I love this version of Miracle on 34th Street and think that this Santa, Edmund Gwenn, is the best Santa of all.

Where to watch Miracle on 34th Street: Disney+

White Christmas

Christmas always may have been white, but this time Irving Berlin’s musical was in Technicolor. Inspired by Holiday Inn, this follow-up could not be more Christmassy if it tried (and try it probably did). Snow, shows and romance all added up to a massive festive box office hit that would run and run on TV. When Clark Griswold famously promised the ‘hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny (expletive deleted) Kaye,’ he was talking about this gloriously old-fashioned musical.

According to Guinness, the original Bing Crosby-sung version of the song ‘White Christmas’ is the best-selling single of all-time, with 50 million physical copies sold worldwide.

Holiday Inn

This musical is the ultimate ’40s cheerer as Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby sing and dance their way into the ladies’ hearts. The set up is pure Broadway: they’re a musical troupe who only perform on holidays, from Easter to Christmas. The film scored an Oscar for the now iconic song ‘White Christmas’.

Marjorie Reynolds’ vocals in Holiday Inn were dubbed by Martha Mears, who also sang for Rita Hayworth, Lucille Ball, Hedy Lamarr and many other actresses in the mid-20th century.  (This was probably the impetus for Singin’ in the Rain!) 

Christmas in Connecticut

Loved for her columns about her wholesome husband and family in Connecticut, Elizabeth (Barbara Stanwyck) is actually a single New Yorker. When asked to host a Christmas dinner by her boss (Sidney Greenstreet,) she must head to Connecticut and keep up the pretense. Romantic complications follow – and include gender changing babies.   This is frequently available on TMC.

I know I said “5 Classic Christmas Movies” but I do want to give a nod to Meet Me in Saint Louis with Judy Garland – which topped the list of Rotten Tomatoes’ Christmas movies and The Little Shop Around the Corner, set in Budapest with Jimmy Stewart.

Amazingly, in a few days we are starting 2nd quarter of the 21st century!  Fortunately the first quarter has produced some great Christmas movies – that might not always be for the little ones in the family.

Love Actually

The film that single handedly turned Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas is You’ into a cultural juggernaut, Richard Curtis’s sprawling London ensemble piece is so sticky sweet that it’s easy to forget that each bit of holiday cheer is counterbalanced with characters destined for the naughty list. From Alan Rickman’s philandering editor to Hugh Grant’s assistant-seducing Prime Minister and Andrew Lincoln’s borderline stalker, most vignettes balance the sugar with some truly bitter spice. No matter. Like Bill Nighy’s ageing rocker says: Christmas is all around it. And it takes a bit of naughtiness to make the nice shine through anyway.

Interestingly, both Keira Knightley and Richard Curtis now admit the famous Andrew Lincoln cue card scene is kind of creepy.

The Holdovers

Paul Giamatti as a curmudgeonly history teacher at a New England boarding school circa 1970 is forced to watch over a student (newbie Dominic Sessa) left behind on Christmas break,  Oh yeah, that’s the good stuff. By the standards of director Alexander Payne, it’s an unusually heartwarming dramedy, even a bit sentimental. But it’s hard not to fall for the prickly bond formed between Giamatti, Sessa and Oscar-winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph, particularly as the group escapes campus and heads to Boston.

While not exactly a true story, several scenes and lines of dialogue are drawn directly from screenwriter David Hemingson’s life.

About a Boy

At a glance, this Nick Hornby adaptation sounds as saccharine as Love Actually, and even shares a plot point: Hugh Grant is a louche playboy living off the money his late songwriter father made off a novelty Christmas single who eventually he learns the value of love and family through his friendship with a young boy (Nicholas Hoult). This movie is sharp, spiky, funny and full of genuine heart.

Brad Pitt turned down the starring role in About in Boy, correctly reasoning that he’s simply too handsome.

Bridget Jone’s Diary

Hideous Christmas jumpers weren’t always considered cool like they are today. So we can’t blame our protagonist Bridget Jones’s (Renée Zellweger) less than pleasant reaction when she sees her potential love interest, Mark Darcy (a wonderfully stuffy Colin Firth), wearing a sweater with a giant reindeer face on it. It does, however, kick off this sharp romantic comedy-drama about navigating twenty-first-century dating and the pitfalls of having an affair with a caddish, dashing Hugh Grant.  A third sequel to Bridget Jones’s Diary is coming in 2025.

Bad Santa

If you are tired of fruitcake and smiling at your in-laws, Bad Santa may be just what you need.

 

I wish you a very happy holiday season – and I look forward to hearing from you in the New Year!  Remember, it’s the next quarter of the 21st century!