Once upon a time, A Christmas Story was a little-seen cult classic. Now, as noted in this thread, it’s part of a Christmas tradition, shown for 24 hours in a row on TBS every year.
It’s a Wonderful Life? It’s a wonderful movie, but even with NBC having somehow reacquired exclusive broadcast rights, almost everyone has seen this dozens of times. Same with Miracle on 34th Street, the Grinch, and other holiday mainstays.
In the Christmas Story thread, JThunder mentions Die Hard, which doesn’t necessarily spring to mind as a Christmas movie, but is a decent alternative to the familiar titles that roll around every year.
Other great Christmas movies that don’t have their own 24-hour cable marathons:
Miracle at Morgan’s Creek. Preston Sturges’ masterpiece is wildly funny and ends with a lump-in-the-throat Christmas miracle…that’s still wildly funny. You don’t have to watch it a Christmas, but it’s perfectly appropriate.
Quai des Orfèvres. A French film noir that gradually blancens up as the action progresses on Christmas Eve. Again, everything wraps up with a kind of Christmas miracle. Roast some chestnuts and enjoy the scrumptious Suzy Delair.
What other movies would make great Christmas traditions, but don’t get nearly the attention they deserve?
The first two Home Alone movies, Gremlins, The Night They Saved Christmas (starring Art Carney as Santa and Paul “Milner” Le Mat as the dad), Christmas Comes to Willow Creek (John Schneider and Tom Wopat are comfortable as Duke-like trucking brothers who’d rather not have anything to do with each other), and An American Christmas Carol (Henry Winkler as Depression-era skinflint Benedict Slade).
Oooh, good one. [heretic alert]This is way better than the first Batman, and still one of my favorite Burton films.[/heretic alert]. Gremlines is another excellent nomination, and I’m surprised I hadn’t remembered it for the OP.
I’m not terribly fond of White Christmas, I must admit. I prefer Holiday Inn, despite the the blackface Lincoln’s Birthday musical number.
Off Season is a surprisingly good Christmas movie that nobody seems to have heard of.
It features one of the Culkin kids, but don’t be too quick to judge. You might also glance at the synopsis and think “Miracle on 34th Street retread.” Don’t!
I liked this movie a lot – not too sweet, not too cynical – and Sherilyn Fenn is as watchable as ever.
The art direction is impressive, too: Everything is a beautiful deep red and green – but not in a “Christmas Village” way – the mundane world just happens to have this palette – the carpet in a flea-bag motel, old man pants from Army & Navy, etc.
One of my favorite movies this time of year is Desk Set with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. It’s not a Christmas movie in the strictest sense, but there is a big office Christmas party toward the end.
With one, you have a pissed off serial snowman that has hillarious lines and hillarious ways of killing people. In the other, a man who is enchanted by Christmas becomes pissed off when he finds out santa isn’t real and then snaps due to peoples cynicism, resulting in a great comedic Christmas style massacre.
Both are heartily recommended, for you and yours to enjoy on this most festive holiday of the year.
My kids were little when Home Alone and Home Alone 2 came out.
They really cracked up while watching them back then, which was always just the cutest. Even though they are now bratty teenagers, we usually end up watching both of them around Christmas time.
Meet Me in St. Louis is one that I enjoy watching at Christmas. starrring Judy Garland, and directed by Vincente Minelli, it has songs that can be sung along to…“zing, zing, zing went my heartstrings” and “meet me in St. Louis, Louis, meet me at the fair”, but especially it has “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. Also in the movie are Mary Astor, Margaret O’Brien and Marjorie Main (aka Ma Kettle).
I saw this movie for the first time on the Sunday after Thanksgiving (it was playing on TCM that morning). It’s definitely going on my list of Christmas movies.
The Ref with Dennis Leary and Kevin Spacey is a great Christmas movie. Really funny, but in a dark way with some sentiment as well. I look forward to watching it every year at Christmas.
I’ve been hoping that with the P.S. Hoffmann movie and another one planned that the powers that be would release a couple of outstanding Capote related Christmas themed pieces:
Tru- a fantastic one-man show starring Robert Morse and set at Christmas in the late 70s when Truman has lost most of his jet-set friends for writing about them. He recounts his life and incredibly transforms into Capote in the final scene. Not on video.
A Christmas Memory, part of the Trilogy starring Geraldine Page as Sook. 40 years old but TV at its best. Not on video. (A remake starring Patty Duke is, but it’s not 1/10th of the original.)
The Thin Man. Not actually filled with Christmas cheer (well, Nick and Nora are), but it takes place during the Christmas season. Quite an entertaining little mystery. The second movie in the series, After the Thin Man, takes place on New Year’s.
The best Christmas movie since A Christmas Story is Love Actually.
