The top 10 Christmas/holiday movies

Here is my list of the best Christmas/holiday movies. This is just the opinion of one person who loves all movies. 

Okay, let’s get some stuff out of the way before we get started. 

1. I know my top two movies aren’t exactly family movies, but these movies make me think of Christmas more than any other movie.

2. I know these are all Christmas movies. The only Hanukkah movie I can think of is Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights, which is a steaming pile of dreck. And I am still waiting for Madea’s Krazy Kwanzaa.

3. Many people think It's a Wonderful Life is the greatest Christmas movie ever made. It’s not on this list because I didn’t see it. I am sure that if I did see it, it would make the list. Same goes for Miracle on 34th Street and a bunch of other movies that came out before I was born.

The Muppet Christmas Carol didn’t make the cut (too much Disney, not enough Muppet humor), nor did The Nightmare Before Christmas (Visuals are much better than the story). 

5. Yes, I really do like Love Actually more than Nightmare. Deal with it.

Here is the list:

10. Bad Santa: This black comedy wasn’t perfect, but had lots of laugh out loud moments. Billy Bob Thornton plays a crook who masquerades as a mall Santa, and is an alcoholic and a sex addict. It takes a naive boy who thinks Willie actually is Santa to get this Bad Santa feeling the Christmas spirit. 

Fun fact: The late, great John Ritter appears in his final film role as the straitlaced mall manager. See NSFW clip above with the also deceased Bernie Mac.

Trademark holiday moment: Hey Gilmore Girls fans... Lauren Graham’s character is a bartender with a Santa fetish. 

9. Love Actually: I usually despise romantic comedies. They all basically have the same plot, use the same cliches, and are neither funny nor romantic. This is on the list because it is the rare rom-com I was actually able to enjoy. Yes, this collection of stories can be more than a little bit syrupy at times, but there are many laugh-out-loud moments (hooray for British humour), and not all of the stories have a happy ending. I actually enjoy watching this once a year with my wife.

Fun Facts: There are 10 different stories in this movie. There were originally 14, but 4 of them were cut. Also, Rowan Atkinson’s character as a department store clerk was originally intended to be a Christmas angel.

Trademark holiday moment: Aging rock star Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) (above, clip NSFW), who almost steals this movie, and his manager Joe (Gregor Fisher) embrace their platonic love for each other by celebrating Christmas with booze and porn.

8. The Polar Express: My high school students just introduced me to this movie this year. It was much better than I thought it would be, and my children liked it too, especially my younger son who loves trains. This visually stunning film is based on the book about a mystical train ride to the North Pole. Although it can be a bit creepy at times, The motion capture technology still looks great 8 years later, and some of the visuals, like the Glacier Gulch scene, and the journey of a ticket that is blown off the train, look great. I would have loved to seen this in IMAX 3D. The dreamlike story with subtle religious overtones is creative and told well.

Fun facts: This was the first feature-length film to be filmed in IMAX 3D, and the first film to use digital motion capture.

Trademark holiday moment: When the hero boy hears Santa’s sleigh bell because he has rekindled his belief in Christmas. Awwww.

7. Scrooged: This dark retelling of “A Christmas Carol” was the version of Dickens’ classic I decided to put on my list. This modern retelling has Bill Murray as a TV network mogul who has alienated nearly everyone in his life through greed and coldheartedness. The story is a little rough around the edges (and was supposedly even darker until the studio insisted they lighten up the film), but Bill Murray’s comic timing and some memorable laughs, such as “Robert Goulet’s Cajun Christmas” hold the movie together.

Fun facts: Bill Murray’s character walks by a group of street musicians, who happen to be Paul Shaffer, David Sanborn, and the legendary Miles Davis.

Trademark holiday moment: Carol Kane as the Ghost of Christmas Present, literally smacks some sense into Bill Murray’s character by hitting him over and over again with her hands, toasters and whatever else she can find (above). 

6. Elf: I can’t say anything bad about this charming and funny movie. Will Ferrell is Buddy, a human who accidentally ends up at the North Pole as a baby and is adopted by elves. Now that Buddy is twice as tall as the other elves, he decides it’s time to travel to New York and find his biological father, who happens to be on the naughty list. Will Ferrell is perfect as Buddy, who doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. Ferrell expresses his character’s naivete perfectly, especially when he says a department store Santa smells like beef and cheese and “sits on a throne of lies.” (above) Also, the movie has some special effects, but they do not overpower the movie (that’s why the Santa Clause movies aren’t on this list.) Overall, a very pleasant and entertaining movie that the whole family can watch.

Trademark holiday moment: When people’s belief in Santa and the Christmas spirit allowed Santa’s sleigh to fly without an engine.

5. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation: Easily the funniest movie on this list. There are too many laugh-out-loud moments as Clark Griswold and his family have an old-fashioned family Christmas. Among the laughs are any scene with cousin Eddie, the squirrel in the tree, the cat eating the Christmas lights, and Clark’s egg-nog fueled rant against his boss, who gave him a one-year subscription to the Jelly of the Month club as a Christmas bonus (It’s the gift that keeps on giving the whole year!). Chevy Chase’s deadpan delivery is always helpful.

Fun fact: The cat electrocution (above) was almost cut, fearing it would offend people. During test screenings, viewers actually voted it as the best scene in the movie. They must have been dog owners.

Trademark holiday moment: In the fine Griswold tradition of going over the top with everything, the Christmas lights, when he finally got them working, literally cover the entire house. 

Lethal Weapon: This legendary action movie basically started the cop-buddy genre. I was basically raised on action movies from the 1980s, and this was one of the best. What made this movie stand out was the character development.  Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is a family man who is nearing retirement, and Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) is a suicidal loose cannon (above, clip NSFW), and a perfect counterpoint to Murtaugh. Oh, and this whole movie takes place around Christmas time. 

Fun fact: A key point of the plot is that Murtaugh is turning 50 and approaching retirement. Danny Glover was only 40 at the time of filming.

Trademark holiday moment: The end of the movie, when Riggs stops by Murtaugh’s house to give him the bullet that he had been saving to commit suicide, because he no longer needed it. As he went to leave, Murtaugh said “Riggs, if you think I'm gonna eat the world's lousiest Christmas turkey by myself, you're crazy.” Riggs joined the Murtaughs for Christmas dinner and from that point on, became part of their family.

A Christmas Story: As I write this, the 24 hour marathon of this movie is on the television. This classic look at author Jean Shepherd’s childhood in the 1940s and his quest for a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas is full of memorable scenes. Among them are the Old Man’s leg lamp, Flick getting his tongue stuck to the flagpole, the Bumpus hounds, and Christmas dinner in the Chinese restaurant (fa ra ra ra ra). Overall, the best thing about this movie is that Ralphie, the main character, his brother and other characters in the movie really acted like boys. They weren’t played off as cute, they did dumb things, were rough around the edges and even cussed at times. 

Fun fact: This movie was only a modest success when it was released in 1983. It became a classic after multiple showings on cable. There are still a few people who don’t like this movie for various reasons. One former co-worker of mine can’t watch it because the Old Man reminds her too much of her Old Man.

Trademark holiday moment: A short little joke, but this was something I did and pretty much every boy did when they were young. When Ralphie and his brother open a box and find clothing in it, they toss the box behind them and don’t even bother to look inside it.

Gremlins: This classic movie has director Joe Dante paying tribute to the campy B-movies of the 1950s, but uses state of the art (for 1984) puppeteering and stop-motion. It strikes a perfect balance between comedy and horror, and is a blast to watch from beginning to end. The “rules” have been permanently etched into pop culture lure. Oh, and this movie also takes place during Christmas. 

Fun fact: The iconic kitchen scene (see above) in which Gremlins are killed with a blender and a microwave (yuck!) is one of the scenes that inspired the PG-13 rating. (The other is when Mola Ram rips out a man’s beating heart in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.)

Trademark holiday moment: A Gremlin hiding inside a Christmas tree attacks the main character’s mother. Mom proves that she is not to be trifled with as she decapitates the Gremlin with a sword.

1. Die Hard: For my money, this is the greatest action movie ever made, and is one of the greatest movies ever. This 1988 film set the standard for every action movie that came after it. Explosions and chases, even though there are plenty of them, is not what makes this movie truly great, it’s the characters and how they are developed. In a decade when moviegoers were used to seeing Stallone and Schwarznegger seem invincible, Bruce Willis’ John McClane is a regular guy in the wrong place at the wrong time, as a Christmas party for his wife’s company is hijacked by what we assume are terrorists. He seems vulnerable, and is clearly in a lot of pain by the end of the movie. Also notable is Sgt. Powell (Reginald VelJohnson), who is an L.A. policeman who helps and encourages McClane from outside the building. And I can’t talk about this movie without mentioning Alan Rickman. Rickman, who was hired after the producers saw him in a London production of Dangerous Liasons, is one of the greatest movie villains ever, and was cheated out of a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. 

Fun fact: Since this was before the age of CGI special effects, most of the explosions in and around the building where the movie took place were real.

Trademark holiday moment: After McClane offs one of the bad guys, He sends the corpse down to the rest of the villains in the elevator. McClane, in the Christmas spirit, put a Santa hat on the stiff, and wrote in marker on his sweatshirt "Now I have a machine gun. Ho Ho Ho." Pure genius.