So what's your favorite Christmas movie?

[crawfishgirl]

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is my favorite, because I enjoy the dysfunctional family scenes (they hit close to home). Otherwise, I am sentimental, and enjoy White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Christmas Story, and Elf. I actually watch many of the Christmas movies on the Lifetime channel as well, even though they aren't always the best, because they are fun.

[JeanneD]

The Muppet Christmas Carol. Hard to believe it's now 20 years old! Man, where does the time go?

And when I'm getting a toothache from the overly sugary sweetness of the usual Christmas stuff, I throw on The Ref, with Dennis Leary.

I forgot about this one - I love, love, love Muppet Christmas Carol.

[PennySycamore]

I forgot a couple I like: 3. Godfathers and this short I forgot the name of but it's basically the nativity story set in the desert Southwest. The Holy Family is Latino. I love it even though I am not religious.

Three Godfathers has been made several times. The one I'm referring to stars John Wayne and was directed by John Ford. Sounds like a weird Xmas movie, but check it out

How could I forget The Bishop's Wife?

[PennySycamore]

I forgot a couple I like: 3. Godfathers and this short I forgot the name of but it's basically the nativity story set in the desert Southwest. The Holy Family is Latino. I love it even though I am not religious.

Three Godfathers has been made several times. The one I'm referring to stars John Wayne and was directed by John Ford. Sounds like a weird Xmas movie, but check it out

How could I forget The Bishop's Wife?

[Kaylee]

Gremlins (yes, it's a Christmas movie), I've watched it ever year that I was able to, to the pint that when I was home last year for Christmas my mom made a point to let me know when it cam on TV, even though I had the DVD with me as well.

I haven't seen most of the Christmas movies mentioned and probably should check out the ones that are on Netflix, but the onther Christmas movie I loved as a kid was Prancer, about a girl who finds a reindeer and it convinced it's one of Santa's.

[kthomp38+]

I love "Prancer" it came out when I was in kindergarten and I was obsessed with it. I also love "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever", "Miracle on 34th street" both but I like the remake better because I grew up wth it and I like the remake better and "Ernest Saves Christmas" Also all of the old animated/claymation specials like "The Grinch", "Rudolph" and "Charlie Brown Christmas"

[Maggie Mae]

Penny Serenade

It's a Wonderful Life

Miracle on 34th Street

Ernest Saves Christmas

Elf

Home Alone

Christmas Vacation

Muppet Christmas Carol

All I Want for Christmas

Die Hard

Gremlins

All of the Doctor Who Christmas Specials.

I noticed no one has mentioned A Christmas Story, and I won't either because I hate that stupid movie and I hate whatever channel feels the need to play it continuously for 24 hours several times every year. (I used to like it, too :( )

[terranova]

I hate most Christmas movies with a fiery passion (I'm a real Scrooge about Christmas). But I do love Love Actually. It's the Hugh Grant/Colin Firth/Liam Neeson/Alan Rickman combo of LUST.

[Conuly]

I noticed no one has mentioned A Christmas Story, and I won't either because I hate that stupid movie and I hate whatever channel feels the need to play it continuously for 24 hours several times every year. (I used to like it, too )

Other than the OP, you mean? :P

As far as it playing incessantly, apparently Ted Turner is a big fan, and when he bought the rights cheap he decided to spam his channels with it during the holiday season, and that's why other people like it now, because it wasn't popular until he did so. Or so I've heard.

[Naga Viper]

Oh, duh—I do have favorite Christmas movies, they're just really horrible and are best known for being repackaged by Mystery Science Theater. Bad MSTie!

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[keeperrox]

White Christmas and Santa Claus: The Movie

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[Ramona]

The original Miracle on 34th Street, uncolorized. Second place is the colorized version, but NEVER the remake

This! Exactly the same. :)

[Megan]

It's a Wonderful Life

Muppet Family Christmas

(MFC is one of the rarer Muppet movies. They don't have the distribution rights to all the songs, so DVDs in the US don't have everything. It is FANTASTIC, though. It has all of the major Jim Henson characters - Muppets, Sesame Street, Fraggles, Muppet Babies, etc. - and includes Henson's last cameo.

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Elf

Love Actually

[Arete]

Where is the Rudolph love on this thread? :(

[Sweetpea1]

I hate Love Actually with every fibre of my being.

Sigh, I thought I was the only one. And I love Liam Neeson.

[ADoyle90815]

Miracle on 34th St, the original uncolorized version

The Bishop's Wife

How the Grinch Stole Christmas-animated version

Muppet Christmas Carol

Christmas Vacation

A Christmas Story

I know I might be a Scrooge, but It's A Wonderful Life has been shown so often that I don't like to watch it now.

[Conuly]

Where is the Rudolph love on this thread? :(

I've never seen that. I hate the song so much on moral grounds that I always assume that if the movie is like the song I'm better off without it.

(To sum up my hatred of the song, although the moral is supposed to be "don't bully people, we all have our special skills", it really comes across to me more like "it's okay to pick on people, but be careful because you might need to use them someday. But that's all right, they'll be so desperate for your approval that they'll still help you, no matter how awful you were! And the adults will never, ever stop you." Seriously, where was Santa during most of that song?)

[PennySycamore]

Gremlins is my son-in-law's favorite Christmas movie.

[Maggie Mae]

I've never seen that. I hate the song so much on moral grounds that I always assume that if the movie is like the song I'm better off without it.

(To sum up my hatred of the song, although the moral is supposed to be "don't bully people, we all have our special skills", it really comes across to me more like "it's okay to pick on people, but be careful because you might need to use them someday. But that's all right, they'll be so desperate for your approval that they'll still help you, no matter how awful you were! And the adults will never, ever stop you." Seriously, where was Santa during most of that song?)

In the movie, being a jerk.

I like Rudolph, he's cute. But the movie seems kind of racist and Santa is a really big jerk. There are no women, except for Rudolph's girlfriend and mom, and one misfit toy who doesn't even have a defined flaw. I want to like the movie, but it's hard.

[Arete]

In the movie, being a jerk.

I like Rudolph, he's cute. But the movie seems kind of racist and Santa is a really big jerk. There are no women, except for Rudolph's girlfriend and mom, and one misfit toy who doesn't even have a defined flaw. I want to like the movie, but it's hard.

You have to remember that Rudolph was made in the early 70s. Bullying at that time was considered just a part of growing up, no one realized what a pernicious problem it was. So Rudolph getting shamed on the reindeer team and by the coach and Clarice's father was not something kids or adults back then would have given a second thought. In Santa's defense, he did not have day to day control of the goings on of the reindeer community. He spent most of the year harried and skinny hoping the elf workshop would be able to meet demand. :P

As to the girl doll in the Land of Misfit Toys, you could wind up there simply because your child had lost interest in you. It was not merely for broken toys. I was a weird misfit little kid, so Rudolph and Herbie were kind of heros to me. :oops:

[jaynie]

We always watch the movie version of A Child's Christmas In Wales, which may be a bit ridiculously nichey of me but there you go. It's just so nice and gentle and cozy, and I was always struck by how little Christmases change over the years. Also, Dylan Thomas. This is the non-film version:

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[Gizmola]

A Christmas Story

Bad Santa

It's a Wonderful Life

Charlie Brown Christmas

Love, Actually

The Blues Brothers (years ago my brothers and I started a tradition of wrapping our presents on Xmas Eve and watching this and 15 years later we still watch it every Xmas)

[rhododactylos]

I really love Joyeaux Noel (2005), about the Christmas Armistice during WWI. In terms of the more traditional Christmas-y movies, you can't beat the original Miracle on 34th Street and Meet Me in St. Louis. I agree about Elf and A Muppet Christmas Carol being great, and I think that The Year Without a Santa Claus is the best of the Rankin/Bass claymations, with Santa Claus is Coming To Town in second-- not a fan of Rudolph.

As someone who appreciates the mythical/legendary qualities of the Nativity story, I also like Small One, a short animated movie about a cute little donkey who carries Mary to Bethlehem. The Nativity Story has beautiful cinematography, and I give them kudos for actually casting a pregnant teenager as Mary--would definitely not be fundie approved!

[graciebeth]

The original Frosty the Snowman cartoon (with Bing Crosby I believe,) The Santa Clause, Elf, and Its A Wonderful Life are my tops. For whatever reason A Christmas Story has never interested me.

[Loveday]

My list:

White Christmas

Holiday Inn

Meet Me In St Louis

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Love, Actually

The Homecoming (the Waltons)

And a TV movie I've loved since I was in high school in the 70s, called The House Without a Christmas Tree. Does anyone else here remember it? It starred Jason Robards and Mildred Natwick, and was set in a small Nebraska town in 1946. I hadn't seen it since high school, and then a few years ago I came across it on DVD. It's about a young girl who wants a Christmas tree, but her father never lets her have one because it always reminds him of his wife, who died when her daughter was a baby. It's a beautifully written story, and it's performed almost like a stage play. Love love love this one. :)