Die Hard 2 is my traditional Xmas fare
The Mexican-made SANTA CLAUS in which Santa, who employs an international array of children on his space-station workshop, fights a devil who is assigned to ruin Christmas- also given the MST3K treatment but AFAIK, that version is not yet released on VHS/DVD.
JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN has one Christmas scene in it.
ONE TRAGIC …um, that’s ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS- a Disney film with Harry Dean Stanton as the most sad-sack guardian angel ever.
And of course, the obligatory mention of MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE
Merry Christmas! I am the boss, and this is champagne.
Bad Santa, and another vote for The Ref.
Would he counterpoint the films by attempting to draw Santa Claus conquering the Martians as he did Popeye?
The best critical response they found to put on the DVD Box was “Don’t attempt to watch sober.”
Yay! I’m not the lone voice anymore advocating this film. Another, which you will probably have to buy, is Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory.
Oh, and of course I must mention Silent Night, Deadly Night.
A good recent Christmas movie is “Joyeux Noel” (2005);
An old and obscure one is “The Cheaters” (1945);
If you’re in the mood for something quieter but very offbeat, I recommend the Scottish film, Comfort and Joy. You’ll never look at ice cream men in quite the same way.
The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t but Then Was.
DONOVAN’S REEF with John Wayne and Lee Marvin…
Bush Christmas: a very dated, post-war effort set in Australia.
Someone once forced me to watch “A Midnight Clear” and I’ve never forgiven him. It is a really powerful, horrible, miserable experience. Good (maybe great) filmmaking, gave me nightmares for weeks.
My yearly Christmas movie is “The Lion in Winter.” It’s a much happier film.
Bad Santa, and not just because of the sex and my car. There is bad words and violence, too.
Die Hard 1 for me! “Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho!”
I vote for the MST3K version of the Mexican Santa Claus, as ref’d above.
The Man Who Came to Dinner
Black Christmas
You beat me to it. Two musicians in the lead roles (David Bowie and Sakamoto Ryuuichi), but no music. Also features “Beat” Takeshi Kitano before he was really famous.
Gremlins isn’t exactly obscure, but it’s not standard Christmas fare and nobody seems to have mentioned it yet. Deserves mention for the “why I hate Christmas” speech.
Well, I’ve got to chime in with my usual note of Rankin-Bass’ The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus—from the story by L. Frank Baum.
Contrary to popular belief, this is not a stop-motion Christmas movie on crack…this is a stop-motion Christmas movie on peyote.
And since Die Hard has been brought up…technically Disney’s The Black Hole takes place around christmas (According to elements of the script that didn’t actually make it to filming).
If it’s at all available, try and get a copy of The Angel, the Bicycle and the Chinaman’s Finger - about a small town in South Africa putting on a Nativity play as an exercise in post-apartheid reconciliation.
It’s funnier than it sounds.