Best Christmas films

[CleverNickName]

Well right now, I'm on the Internet, so I guess we're still supposed to say Die Hard.

But in my living room, it's tradition to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas while trimming the tree. On Christmas Eve, we always watch A Christmas Carol (Muppets version please.) And on Christmas Day, we put on a yule log video while opening presents (I especially like the one with Nick Offerman.)

 

[trappedslider]

Well right now, I'm on the Internet, so I guess we're still supposed to say Die Hard.

But in my living room, it's tradition to watch A Nightmare Before Christmas while trimming the tree. On Christmas Eve, we always watch A Christmas Carol (Muppets version please.) And on Christmas Day, we put on a yule log video while opening presents (I especially like the one with Nick Offerman.)

when my mom was still with us, we'd do in the month of december : It happened on 5th avenue, miracle on 34th street(original). The Ref, The lion in Winter, die hard and then on christmas even, a muppet christmas carol.

Both The Ref and The lion in winter we classified as "at least our family isn't that screwed up"

 

[Mannahnin]

Well right now, I'm on the Internet, so I guess we're still supposed to say Die Hard.

But in my living room, it's tradition to watch A Nightmare Before Christmas while trimming the tree. On Christmas Eve, we always watch A Christmas Carol (Muppets version please.) And on Christmas Day, we put on a yule log video while opening presents (I especially like the one with Nick Offerman.)

*The Nightmare, surely?
[/internet pedant]

 

[jian]

Let’s do some TV classics:

• In the UK there was always a Bond film on, as @Paul Farquhar notes, along with Star Wars and Disney Time. But there’s also The Snowman (Raymond Briggs animation), and Bernard and the Genie (pretty much the first thing Alan Cumming was in). Not sure if The Gruffalo counts here.
• There are plenty of North American favourites I know about but haven’t seen, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Trans Reindeer and The Year Without a Santa Claus, and of course the Charlie Brown specials. And the Grinch, I have seen that one.

 

[Tonguez]

I understand the logic here, but... I said 1947.

Its also easier to create fake snow and a 'winter wonderland' in summertime. Making the film production easier

 

[jian]

Its also easier to create fake snow and a 'winter wonderland' in summertime. Making the film production easier

There’s a place near us (Martini Town in Langley) where they film pretty much every Hallmark Christmas film in the summer. We went there for the Christmas lights a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Mannahnin]

When I was a kid the big ones were definitely How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the Rankin-Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (complete with Isle of Misfit Toys, Hermey the elf who wants to be a dentist, and Yukon Cornelius and the Abominable Snowman), A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the 1969 animated Frosty the Snowman. Somehow I never fully watched or got into The Year Without a Santa Claus.

As a gaming side-note, a couple of years ago I played in the 2020 DCC holiday module The Doom That Came to Christmastown, which employs characters and creatures from nearly all of these. It's a fun one.

https://goodman-games.com/store/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/DCCRPG_TheDoomThatCameToChristmasTown_Preview.pdf

 

[jian]

when my mom was still with us, we'd do in the month of december : It happened on 5th avenue, miracle on 34th street(original). The Ref, The lion in Winter, die hard and then on christmas even, a muppet christmas carol.

Both The Ref and The lion in winter we classified as "at least our family isn't that screwed up"

Yup, The Lion in Winter is definitely a Christmas film, I’d say it’s a Type 3, much like The Family Stone. Both can be upgraded if you consider dysfunctional feuding to be part of the spirit of the season.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Die Hard is structurally almost identical to the avalanche of Hallmark Christmas movies, featuring an estranged couple crossing the country to reunite over the holidays and overcoming surprise complications that threaten to tear them apart forever.

If Die Hard isn't a Christmas movie, neither is the entire edifice of Hallmark (and now Netflix) holiday movies.

On another note, I showed my oldest kid the trailer to Scrooged and it did nothing for him. (I had been interested in showing the movie to my kids over the holidays.) "Evil network executive" just doesn't work as a hook for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, I suspect. It's like "evil buggy whip manufacturer" as far as dated archetypes go.

 

[payn]

Die Hard is structurally almost identical to the avalanche of Hallmark Christmas movies, featuring an estranged couple crossing the country to reunite over the holidays and overcoming surprise complications that threaten to tear them apart forever.

If Die Hard isn't a Christmas movie, neither is the entire edifice of Hallmark (and now Netflix) holiday movies.

On another note, I showed my oldest kid the trailer to Scrooged and it did nothing for him. (I had been interested in showing the movie to my kids over the holidays.) "Evil network executive" just doesn't work as a hook for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, I suspect. It's like "evil buggy whip manufacturer" as far as dated archetypes go.

TV Executive was the fill in for business owner Scrooge. What is today's equivalent? Tech mogul?