Five Christmas Movies That Should Be Part of Your Holiday Tradition
Dane Jackson
To some, the Christmas season is all about family, celebration, fun, presents, and the birth of Christ. Those are all important things, to be sure, but to me it just isn’t a proper Christmas unless I get to a specific batch of Christmas movies. Call it obsessive if you will, but tradition feels a bit more polite. My “traditional” Christmas flick picks are a tad on the eclectic side, ranging from wholesome classics to vulgar and violent. No matter what though, watching all five of them each December brings me immense joy. If they’re not part of your holiday viewing regimen, it might be time for you to start new Christmas traditions with these five movies.
1. Elf (2003)
Each year, director Jon Favreau’s holiday classic kicks off the Christmas season for my family. We always watch it the weekend after Thanksgiving as we decorate the inside of our house. Sometimes, like this year, it spreads throughout the whole weekend, which means we got to watch it more than once! For the uninitiated, Elf tells the story of Buddy the Elf (Will Ferrell), a human raised by Santa’s elves, as he passes through the seven levels of the candy cane forest, the sea of twirly swirly gumdrops, and through the Lincoln Tunnel in an effort to find his biological father Walter (James Caan). Of course, since he was raised by elves, hilarity ensues as Buddy experiences New York for the first time. This is a great lighthearted movie to kick the season off right!
2. Home Alone (1990)
I still remember seeing Home Alone for the first time in the theaters when I was ten years old. Twenty five years later, I still love it just as much as I did way back when. It’s one of those movies that I’ve seen so many times that I can recite it verbatim right along with Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) as he takes on the Wet Bandits (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) on Christmas Eve. This year, my Christmas season movie traditions expanded because my daughter got to see it for the first time. Hearing her giggle throughout the whole movie and then ask to watch it again the following day just solidifies Home Alone‘s spot in the holiday rotation for at least another twenty five years I suspect.
3. Bad Santa (2003)
To me, a movie like Bad Santa falls in line with other Christmas movies like Scrooged and The Ref where the protagonist is a vile human being that’s in line for an epiphany. What’s worse than someone dressing up like a mall Santa just to rob the mall he’s stationed at? Not much. And, with the character of Willie, Billy Bob Thornton turns up the sleaze factor to almost unbearable levels. The good news is, he’s a thief with a heart of gold that ends up changing his ways because of “The Kid.” Bad Santa is a movie that I can watch after my kid goes to bed and use as a cathartic release of any potential holiday stress. Plus, it has another thing going for it. Every time I watch it, I get to see John Ritter’s final performance on film.
4. Die Hard (1988)
If I’m ever at a Christmas party that gets taken over by German terrorists, I want someone like John McClane (Bruce Willis) to be a guest. While I admit calling this a Christmas movie is a stretch, the fact that it takes place in December during a Christmas party allows it. There doesn’t really need to a reason to watch Die Hard, but because it takes place at Christmastime, I try to only watch it in December. Aside from the emergence of Bruce Willis as a legitimate action star, Die Hard also boasts a flawless performance as head bad guy Hans Gruber by Alan Rickman. I usually watch Die Hard once or twice in December, most notably on Christmas Eve after Santa pays our house a visit. Fitting, right?
5. A Christmas Story (1983)
It takes a certain level of skill to avoid A Christmas Story this time of year. Between the 24-hour cable marathons and how many times it was shown in class before Christmas break started as a kid, it almost feels like A Christmas Story is required viewing at Christmas. I don’t ever catch it from start to finish, but I always see it all at least twice because of the marathon. It’s filled with so many memorable scenes – triple-dog dares, pink bunny pajamas, Italian table lamps, bars of soap, and the Bumpus’s dogs to name a few. A Christmas Story hearkens back to a simpler time in America. With how things have been lately, what’s wrong with a bit of innocent nostalgia around the holidays?
So there you have it, my list of the five Christmas movies I need to watch each December. There’s a little something for everyone there. If these haven’t made it into your regular holiday viewing routines, give them a chance. Think my list is missing something? What Christmas movie traditions do you have that I should look into?
Dane Jackson has been writing about movies since high school when he had a monthly column in the school paper about cult movies. His cinematic tastes have matured (slightly) since then.
