Favorite Christmas Movies & Television Specials?

[Mitch Henessey]

Because it's that time of year, and I honestly can't think of any other thread ideas.

Black Christmas (the remake)

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When I first watched the Black Christmas remake a few years ago, I hated it. But over time, Black Christmas 2006 grew on me, and it's become one of my favorite Christmas films.

I watched the remake before the original, but when I finally saw the 1974 original, I wasn't impressed. I don't hate the original, but it's very boring most of the time, and the "we're not going to reveal the real killer" twist at the end is so lame. The pacing for Black Christmas 1974 is horribly slow, and 1h. and 33 min. feels like an eternity. Yes, I know. Black Christmas 1974 is praised as an innovator for the slasher genre, but it's horribly overrated amongst the horror community.

Anyway, back to the remake. Why do I love it so much? Black Christmas 2006 is a mindless and brutal slasher film, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. Hot, clueless women, unreal gross-out scenes (the flesh Christmas cookies), and some of the most bloody and gruesome deaths you'll ever see. The remake gives slasher fans everything they could ask for, but don't let the R-Rated and unrated versions fool you, because I've never noticed a big difference between both versions.

Home Alone 2: Lost In New York

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Haven't seen the original in years, and I haven't put forth a real effort to find it.

Pesci and Daniel Stern are still hilarious as a duo, and Kevin's traps are more elaborate and diabolical. New York gives the sequel a more extravagant setting, and it's predictable, but the heartwarming, feel-good ending still works. It's a fun, family film, and anyone can enjoy Lost In New York.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas

How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a timeless classic. It's a beloved and renowned Christmas special, and who could forgot this song?

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On a side note, I only watched Jim Carrey's live action movie once, so I don't remember it too well.

Miracle On 34th Street (1947)

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The original spawned a handful remakes, but I only remember the 1994 film.

Miracle On 34th Street is simple, but this film does a wonderful job of capturing the Christmas spirit. Edmund Gwenn is the perfect Santa Claus, possibly the best portrayal of Jolly Old St.Nick in the history cinema, and I can watch Miracle On 34th Street over and over again without getting tired of it.

 

[Skairipa Matrix]

Some good choices there but you forgot possibly the most hilarious Christmas movie ever....ELF! I LOVE that movie the first time I watched it my whole family could not stop laughing throughout and it really is still hilarious every year as long as you don't watch it each of the million times its on USA network. Will Ferrell did great with his work as Buddy The Elf here.

Also as a kid I loved A Year Without A Santa Claus. I'll watch it if nothing else is on and I have nothing better to do but mainly cause I enjoy Snow Miser and Heat Miser in it.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

No Die Hard yet!? The fuck!?

It is not in anyway a quintessential family film about the magic of Christmas, or about kindness to your fellow man, but I would hazard a guess that everyone has had a Christmas where shit has gone awry and drastic steps were required to get it back on track.

But seriously, the decision to set Die Hard at Christmas was quite an original one as I cannot think of another action film (no, Home Alone does not count) set at that time of year. The film would have still worked even if it had not been set at Christmas but it did allow for more humour to be injected* and the juxtaposition of one man fighting terrorists at the time of "goodwill to all men" is pretty good.

*

Spoiler

Personally, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is my definitive Christmas film. Every year my family and I go to mass on Christmas Eve then go to my parents' and settle down with a couple of drinks and watch Chevy Chase fumble his way through dealing with his extended family and all their eccentricities. The physical comedy and visual jokes remain funny, but I find myself laughing more as my dad fails to contain his hysterics and stamps his foot on the ground.

Sometimes we'd also watch the Father Ted Christmas special afterwards which I think is quite a common sight up and down the country on Christmas Eve. If you haven't seen this then it's well worth tracking down as the scene where 10 or so priests all get lost in Ireland's largest lingerie section is brilliant in both its inception and execution.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Nothing can come close to "It's a Wonderful Life" as a holiday movie. Yes, it was inspiring and touching, but as the family-oriented movie it claimed to be, I offer this photo of James Stewart, looking every bit the demented slasher as in films like "Black Christmas." Every time I see George Bailey, I think he's gone stark raving mad and worry he's going to kill his whole family (Zuzu's petals!)

A shame he never got to kick Mr. Potter's raggedy ass for what he did. As far as we knew, he got away scot-free.

 

[Dagger Dias]

My Christmas each year is not complete without watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It's by far my favorite Christmas movie. An annual tradition to watch it on Christmas Eve has been in place since around 1994 or so. I pretty much have it memorized at this point from watching it so many times. One year I even watched it in Spanish and another in French, the DVD offered those options. That was during my college years, and by then I already knew what was going to happen in the movie anyhow. It gets funnier every time I watch it.

Nostalgia and tradition would be the main reason it's my favorite Christmas film. The other part of the reason is knowing that no matter how bad Christmas might get that year, there's no way that it could get as crazy as what goes on in this film. Not a chance. In a couple of weeks I'll be watching it again. Christmas of 2 years ago was the first time I spent Christmas away from my family as well as any of my friends. We went to California to spend the holiday with my wife's side of the family. When I turned on National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation to watch with my wife and her brothers that night it felt like nothing was different.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is my favorite annual Christmas movie and nothing will ever change that. Nearly 20 years worth of memories and tradition is just too much for any other film to overcome now. Second place is Elf. My wife watches it every year on Christmas herself so every year since I got married we have watched Elf first earlier in the day and then National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation later in the evening. Elf has grown on me quite a bit, becoming my second favorite Christmas movie. I now look forward to that each year too.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

The Night Before Christmas. I watch it a couple times every year and despite my increasing age I still enjoy as much as I did when I was a kid. It's one of the best animated movies of all-time and it takes both sides of the reality you get around Christmas; those who love Christmas and everything with it, and those of us who aren't too fond of the festive season. Depressing but Christmas just isn't for some.

I also enjoy The Grinch, as already mentioned Elf, if Black Christmas is on I catch it considering I'm a fan of Mary Elizabeth Winstead and of course Die Hard is a must. It's the most un-Christmasy Christmas film there is. And if I'm bored A Wonderful Life might get a bit of my time.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Francis Xavier Cross is my favorite Christmas character but he could just as easily be named Dr. Peter Venkman or Phil Connors because he is the epitome of the stereotypical Bill Murray character that we all love. "Scrooged" is a great Christmas flick in the mold of "A Christmas Carol" (obviously) or "It's A Wonderful Life" with it's redemption theme but it ticks that extra box for me in that it has the sardonic wit of the aforementioned characters.

Murray is ably assisted by several great supporting characters:

• His love interest, played by Karen Allen, manages to play a potentially saccharin character without being twee or grating.
• Who can ask for more from his two bosses than John ('Blake Carrington' from "Dynasty" & 'Charlie' from "Charlie's Angels") Forsythe as his former boss/ mentor (and 'Jacob Marley' substitute) and then we have Hollywood Great, Robert Mitchum as his current boss who is obviously slightly mad.
• The ghosts are great from former NY Cabbie David Johansen, as the Ghost of Christmas Past, who goes out of his way to antagonize Frank; to the mentally unhinged Carol Kane, as the Ghost of Christmas Present, who introduces herself with a kick to the nuts and continues in that vein.
• Unlike other versions of "ACC" we even have a villain, in the form of John Glover who is brought in as a rival to Cross's position and takes greater and greater delight at the apparent mental breakdown going on.
• The 'Bob Cratchet' character is kind of split between Bobcat ('Zed' from the "Police Academy" franchise) Goldthwait who provides the laughs as luckless Eliot Loudermilk and Alfre Woodard who has the penniless family and seemingly mute son.

I love "Scrooged" because it manages to balance the sarcastic and occasionally dark theme of the opening 80% to the risky feelgood final fifth of the movie. That it carries it out with aplomb is testament to how truly great Murray is as an actor.

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I'll throw this in for good measure; singalong folks - even you, who was talking through the entire film!

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[Danger Burger]

If this aint on your list you are doing christmas wrong.

The perfect blend of family drama and action. One suspiciously large man find himslef in a bind after continuiosly letting his son down. Its Liar Liar all over again. He missed Karate practice, I'm sure. Arnie has but one chance to secure his sons love. Consumerism is the fairy god mothe in this one, kids. The hottest toy this christmas is the only thing the boy wants. No, not a furby, but a Turbo Man action figure.

And the action? Villiany comes in the form of another father, a mailman. No match for an extremely large matress salesman. Arnie becomes turbo man himself to take on the evil mailman Dementor! It all comes together at the wintertainment parade, hero's prove victorious as Arnie wins and probly gets to hug his son in the cool turbo man costume.

Theres a message in there somewhere, I just dont remember what it is. But i'll definately watch it again this year!

 

[LoudClearVoice]

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is my favorite all-time Christmas movie. There's nothing like it. I try to watch it at least twice during the holiday season. A close second is the original Home Alone. That's a classic Christmas movie.

These are the two I immediately think of when I think of Christmas.

 

[i'm a cm punk girl]

Nightmare Before Christmas, Bad Santa, how the Grinch Stole Christmas and I was watching the charlie brown christmas the other night too. almost forgot the Garfield one And the Simpsons Christmas episode is awesome, even though not a movie. I like that Married... With Children when Santa lands in the back yard too.

 

[HBsam31]

A Christmas Story is a staple in my house. I pretty much leave TBS on the whole 24 hours of it. I don't think I ever watch it all in sequence, but in the 24 hours I see it all about 4 times starting from various points. It is just such a great great Xmas movie. National Lampoon's Christmas vacation is another one that I have to see at least once or twice each Christmas. I now have a 1 year old girl so this year we revisited Rudolph, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. I had forgotten how much I loved those ones. I have to be honest sometimes these movies are my favorite part of Christmas.

 

[Wolf Pac]

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. Seen this recently, this was the first actual Christmas themed movie that I had watched in a long time. It brought back all those memories and that feel good Christmas joy feeling that I would get back in the day whenever I would get up early in the morning and watch Christmas movies like The Santa Claus, Jingle All The Way, both of which are also my favourite Christmas movies, and other movies that were shown around Christmas time. I wasn't gonna bother watching this at first but then I found out that Cole Sprouse, the kid who played Ross' son, Ben, on Friends which I'm a huge fan of, was in it so I decided to give it a shot and it was a really fun film that I think all families would enjoy watching. The story is about Cole's character, Justin Carver, terrorizing some random Santa Claus on the streets after seeing Santa, really his father in a Santa suit, kiss his mom thinking that the real Santa is trying to steal his mom away from his dad. The film is like Home Alone, it's not as good as it but it does raise a few good laughs, and the film also tackles difficult subjects like divorce, so there are some emotional scenes in it too. For parents that are seeking to find a way to introduce their kids to the concept that the parents are the Santa's, will find this movie helpful in setting the scene for their own kids.

Speaking of Cole Sprouse and Friends, I love that Christmas episode of Friends, The One With The Holiday Armadillo. Ross dressed up as the Holiday Armadillo, Chandler dressed as Santa, and Joey dressed as Superman are hilarious together. And Phoebe trying to drive Rachel out of Joey's apartment so she could move back in with her is a nice sub-plot in the episode.

Die Hard is my #1 favourite Christmas movie of all time. I never get tired of watching it, it comes on TV about 5 or 6 times a year and not once have I missed it nor gotten sick of it since I first watched the movie.

Does Rocky 4 count? I assume it does since Die Hard was mentioned and it's set around Christmas time, with the Drago-Rocky fight taking place on Christmas day. If it does then I also pick this for it's killer soundtrack, inspirational training montages, fantastic fight scene between Drago & Rocky, the emotional moments like Apollo Creed dying, and everything else that made this movie so great. After Die Hard, this would be #2 favourite Christmas movie, if it counts of course.

I also like Elf.

 

[Coco]

Since Jingle All The Way, Die Hard, and It's A Wonderful Life have all been mentioned, I guess I'll go ahead and mention Christmas In Connecticut. Partly because it's hilarious. Partly because Sydney Greenstreet is very convincing as a man who loves food.

A shame most people my age haven't heard of it. Well, not really. I take derive no shortage of joy from knowing about something awesome that other people don't.

 

[Piss Bucket]

The original Gremlins was a classic IMO, I know it wasn't technically a Christmas movie, but Billy did get Gizmo for Christmas in it.

 

[Enlightenment]

Bad Santa is definitely my favorite Christmas movie billy bob Thornton is hilarious in that movie and so is the little kid I don't known his name though. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is also up there in all time great Christmas movies Chevy chase is a legend.

 

[Piss Bucket]

I used to love it when the Flintstones did Christmas specials, purely cos I'm in love with Betty Rubble and Wilma Flintstone (in that order of preference).