Of course I like the classics. “It’s A Wonderful Life”, and Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” too! But my fave version is where George C. Scott plays Scrooge.
But I decided to give a modern guide on must-see Christmas movies. It should be noted that I’m a total snob about movies…so you can rest assured these are all FANTASTIC!
My family loves all these and we try to watch them every year if we can:
ELF
Will Farrel, Bob Newhart, James Caan, Ed Asner, Mary Steenburgen
Mom bought this the year before last, when it came out on DVD and we LOVE IT! Jon Favreau (director of Swingers, The Break Up) gives us a delightful tale of Will Farrel as Buddy, the perfect idiotic but fun-loving and childish giant of an elf, who technically isn’t a real elf, but rather a human boy whom Santa (played by Ed Asner) accidentally brought back home in his sleigh when Santa visted an orphanage and a baby boy crawled into his sack.
Buddy keeps growing and growing and growing and pretty soon it becomes apparent that he does not fit in with the elfish lifestyle, job, and surroundings (his head sticks out of windows, they had to make bigger chairs for him, etc.
Even though he is the fastest and best at the job, he just does not fit in and is frustrated in trying to figure out why. Bob Newhart’s Head Elf character breaks the news to his son (which he always considered him to be ever since they took him in) about his real beginnings, and when Buddy finds out he is not a true elf like the rest, he decides to run away and find his real human father.
Cut to New York city, where Buddy runs into all kinds of people, does weird things in public, although typical of elfs but not normal for humans, providing for lots of laughs and eventually find his father, a children’s book publisher played wonderfully by James Caan, for whom the role is a bit of a stretch, considering he’s usually typecast as the mob guy or the bad casino dude (Honeymoon in Vegas).
Bob Newhart, Will Farrel and Ed Asner all put in stellar performances for this modern day fun Christmas story about how family is important, and that believing in Santa Claus is what makes him real. Kids and grownups alike will love this story. My nephew’s fave part is where Buddy lets out an extremely long and loud, vibratning belch. Even if you don’t like Will Farrel, he plays this BRILLIANTLY and he is genuinely great as the misfit and lovable elf. He is not a jerk, which Will Farrel is usually good at playing (Old School, Anchorman, etc.).
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National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Beverly D’Angelo
Chevy Chase will forever be Clark Griswold, the self-assured, well-intended but always failing jackass family man. And Randy Quaid will always be his stinky, broke, half-witted cousin Eddie. “The shitter’s full!”. Add to that the in-laws, (played brilliantly by Diane Ladd, John Randolph, and Doris Roberts of “Everybody Loves Raymond”-fame), for a rollicking good time.
My family always laughs our asses off at this flick. If you loved National Lampoon’s Vacation, Animal House, etc., you will love this movie. In this chapter of the Griswold’s life, they don’t travel, like the other “Vacation” movies. They stay in their hometown somewhere in suburban Illinois, and host the Holidays by inviting all sorts of relatives from out of town to stay at their home.
The usual stresses and frustrations of family at Christmas, make for very funny stuff. The miserable in-laws who complain about their health, and incessantly nag “When I was your age, blah blah blah”, the 80 year old aunt who royally screws up saying grace at dinner, and who wraps up random crap from around her house and brings it as gifts (including her own pet cat), and of course the cherry on top, which is Cousin Eddie’s wackjob family from down South dropping in for a surprise appearance (in their chugging and wheezing, greasy, barely-held-together-wreck of an RV which takes up the whole driveway and is a huge eyesore), all make for a recipe for holiday disaster.
Clark decorating the outside of the house with so many lights that he shorts out the neighborhood, the two teenage kids bickering and the crazy sledding scene are all kinds of funny, laugh after laugh. I SWEAR this movie will have you rolling. Adults may like it better than the little ones, for some of the more grown up humor but it does have many of its moments for the whole family to enjoy.
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A Christmas Story
Peter Billingsley
Peter Billingsley is the star of this film (aka Messy Marvin from the 1970s’-80s Hershey’s commercials) LOVE LOVE LOVE this movie! It’s fast become a holiday family classic, and it’s a one laugh-after-another romp in the snow, taking place in the 1940s.
The movie’s screenplay is well done by Jean Sheppard and is voice-over narrated entirely by Daniel M. Pinkwater, and he does a fabulous job. Ralphie (played by Peter Billingsley) tries to convince everyone that he should get a Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas but instead gets a crazy bunny outfit from a long-distance Aunt who has never met him, and somehow thinks he is a girl. With Christmas still approaching, Ralphie is still determined with his sights on the BB gun, but his family and teachers all tell him that he shouldn’t have a gun because “You’ll shoot your eye out!”.
The whole movie centers around the little boy’s fantasies about how he will successfully get the gun for Christmas. All kinds of other hilarity ensues. A must-watch, and kid-friendly! The parts where Mom punishes Ralphie for saying a bad word and where Dad chases the neighor’s dogs are also almost-pee-your-pants funny.
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Hans Christian Andersen
Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye goes beyond his traditional comic roles to play Hans Christian Andersen. I love this movie because it is very old, very much a fantasy and musical and I love the whole musicals and ballets of “Thumbelina”, and “The Ugly Duckling” in it.
If you love movies from bygone eras, you will love this touching and also funny series of tales from 1952 (sort of long but worth it).
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Holiday Inn
Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Richards
Set at a farm in Connecticut, with singing and dancing numbers galore. This is the film that introduced America to the song “White Christmas”, which almost cut from the final scene.
I love this movie and even if my family won’t watch it (some of my family–sis’s hubby and kid–are restless and have short attention spans and so if it’s not IN YOUR FACE OBVIOUS movie stuff, they don’t always have the patience). My guilty pleasure every year. Some people think musical numbers and such are cheesy but it’s always good in my opinion. Old fashioned entertainment at its best
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Santa Claus: The Movie
Dudley Moore, John Lithgow, David Huddleston, Burgess Meredith
Created by Alexander Salkind of the Superman movies-fame, it’s set in the mid-80’s. A fabulous movie for kids and adults alike, where the legend of how Santa Claus came to be is shown. Dudley Moore plays head Elf at the North Pole, and is FABULOUS at it. The first part of the movie takes place hundreds of years ago where a jolly old man and his wife make toys for the children in their village each winter.
Then one dark and blustery night, while on a sleigh ride trip back home after visiting with the children to whom they gave toys, they get stuck and experience being magically transported by an old elf, to the North Pole to become Santa Claus, who never ages, and eats only sweets. Actual reindeer and hundreds and hundreds of people big and small are elves at the very large and fanciful toy empire in the North Pole, where Santa and his wife become accustomed to their new lives over the centuries.
Fast-forward to present day (1980’s) America, where John Lithgow plays a delightfully wicked toy company magnate, who cares little about quality, safety, or what kids want, and rather more about raking in the dough. The whole fantasy comes full circle when Santa comes to befriend a little boy living on the streets, and a little rich girl who knows there is more to Christmas than having wonderful things to eat and lots of presents.
Despite the fact that this was not a huge box office draw in its day, it was made well before the heavy commercialism and over-hyping of movies we experience today, and it’s one of the best Christmas movies I know about. The special effects (which are all done the old fashioned way) are amazing, and were considered the most elaborate ever seen on film up to that point, and possibly ever, and the lack of computer-animation as we are so used to today, is never missed. The costumes and elaborate sets are also a wonderful eye candy treat. If you rent or buy the DVD, make sure to get the widescreen edition because the sleigh flying and other magic scenes in the sky are not as fabulous in the regular panning of the screen on the fullscreen edition.