TIS’ THE SEASON! – TOP 5 CHRISTMAS MOVIES

I have always loved Christmas, the joy of decorating my house with lights and ornaments and giving presents to people, but one of my favourite things to do to get into the Christmas spirit is to sit down and watch some Christmas movies.

Now I will say this before we go on, Die Hard and Gremlins didn’t make the cut. While I consider them Christmas Movies per se (as they are set in the Christmas holiday season) they aren’t necessarily the most heart warming Christmas flicks I’m trying to go for here.

5. ELF

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Will Ferrell is Buddy, a human sized Elf. He wasn’t always an Elf though, he was a orphan and crawled into Santa’s toy sack when he was making his yearly rounds. When Buddy reaches his adult years he starts to notice that he isn’t like any of the other elves (it could be the fact that he is 5 foot taller then all of them) so he questions where he is from and goes on a search to New York to meet his biological father Walter (James Cann).
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Jon Faravou directs this festive comedy and he seems to know his audience. He not only makes it great for the kids but puts enough adult humour to keep the parents happy. Jon based all the Elves costumes and Santa’s workshop sets on the 60’s Rankin/Bass Christmas Specials which makes for some great visuals and nostalgia.

This is for everyone, and I believe this is where my love for Zooey Deschanel began. Once she begins to sing she grabs you in and sucker punches you in the gut. Never could tell if she looked better as a blonde or a brunette.

 

4. Jingle All The Way 

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Now this movie kinda came out of nowhere. I was channel flicking while watching cable, and saw the name come up and I saw it had UK Office star Martin Freeman. He usually makes me laugh so I watched some.

Nativity is one of those movies that unsuccessfully hit the cinema, then got lost in the vast array family DVD movies offered at Christmas. It’s not that Nativity! is bad, in fact it’s quite the opposite, it’s probably down to the lack of marketing.

Nativity is like if “School of Rock” and “Bring It On” had a child. Its about a reluctant high school teacher that puts on a Nativity Play for his school, however he tells a rival school that they will be having a Hollywood film crew to shoot a documentary on the school. This little lie turns catastrophic when the entire town finds out about it.
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Nativity is really kind of silly in a way but I think that’s why I like it. it really does capture what I was like being in one of those crazy school plays. The final 25 mins of the movie is dedicated to the play and you’ll get to hear all the musical numbers which stand out because not only are the kinda great but the songs are pretty darn catchy.

 

3. The Santa Clause

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I might be one of the only people out there that still like Tim Allen. Though he has done some terrible movies in more recent years, he was in one of the best sitcoms ever made and it was based on his comedy so you cant fault him for that. Let’s be honest, if you didn’t have Home Improvement you probably wouldn’t have Pamela Anderson…then were would you be…huh.. yeah, that’s what I thought.

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This movie is about Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) killing Santa Claus then taking over for him…sounds pretty gruesome I know…but it’s not. He didn’t mean to kill him, it was an accident…I hope. But either way, The Santa Clause is fun for the whole family, with or without the premise.

 

2. National Lampoon’s: Christmas Vacation

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How can you go past this festive classic, the Griswold’s at it again, this time they’re staying home and inviting the family over for Christmas dinner. Clark (Chevy Chase) plans on surprising the entire family by putting in a pool but when he doesn’t get the bonus he expected, he tries his best to put it past him and move on but when Christmas turns to chaos it only reminds him of what he should have had.

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This movie really captures everything that you want in a Christmas Movie, its funny, slapstick humour surrounded by the greatest time of the year! It reminds me of my family at Christmas which is what I’m sure the writer John Hughes was trying to achieve. It really pulls you in and reminds you that other people have the same problems that you have a Christmas. Crazy uncles, deaf grandmothers and your parents trying to do the best they can to keep everything together before it falls apart.

This is always in my pile of must watch before I hang my decorations

1. Home Alone

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If you haven’t seen this movie (you must have been living under a rock for the last 20 years), it’s about a 8 year old Kevin McAllister (Macaulay Culkin) being accidently left at home by his parents when they go on holiday. While they’re gone two burglars Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern) try to rob the house and Kevin decides that he needs to protect it by setting up crazy booby traps.

Home Alone is an instant classic; just like Star Wars I think this would be one of my most watched movies as a kid, and even now. I have picked it up on several editions on VHS, DVD and BluRay, It’s almost flawless. I was surprised that this idea of kid becomes the man of the house routine  hadn’t been done before, it’s just so simple!

Culkin plays Kevin so well, he reminds me of what Ferris Bueller would have been like when he was a kid. He has all the same mannerisms,very quick and witty responses, coming up with crazy ideas that you would never expect anyone one to fall for, but the criminals in this movie are so dumb that everything works on them.

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Even though I know what’s going to happen I still laugh like it’s my first viewing. The slapstick humour works on every level, it just does! I’ll even find myself quoting it weeks after my last viewing…’Look what you did you little jerk!’

I love this movie all year round but just like the other movies in this list, Home Alone is set at Christmas time and is one of the best festive movies out there! It will make you smile, laugh and the final scenes might even make you cry but it will definitely leave you ‘thirsty for more’.

So jump down to the local video store because we all know they need the business and pick any of these movies. You wont be disappointed.

On a final note I have to say…were you one of the millions that never saw Kevin’s passport fall into the bin in the big old kitchen fight?… shame on you, it was right there, they stayed on the bin for so long…. oh whatever.

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