I’m with you there, only in my case I think I was visiting one of my sisters.
Here’s our Christmas lineup:
Nightmare Before Christmas
The various Blackadder Christmas shows
The Mr. Bean Christmas episode
A Muppet Family Christmas
A Muppet Christmas Carol, because I love Michael Caine
We enjoy The Shop Around the Corner. Every single cast member is nothing less than delightful, especially Frank Morgan.
I second Chefguy’s A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott, especially the great Frank Finlay as Marley’s ghost.
Nightmare Before Christmas is my fave, though, like others, I also have a soft spot for A Christmas Story. I also love, though I haven’t seen it in years, Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas. How can you not like a Christmas movie about weasels and jugbands?
Ah! Thank you! I always forget the name.
Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas is available on DVD/VHS from Amazon, if you’re feeling nostalgic.
die hard, of course…
weeeelll, the weather outside is frightful…
you can buy your own “leg lamp” desk top and standing version. i saw them at suncoast.
I love a Christmas cartoon, someone please tell me the name of it. It’s an old man going by an orphanage early Christmas Day, he breaks in & fashions toys for all the orphans out of things in the kitchen. I’m sure someone can supply/correct more details. The last time I saw it was years ago, after a showing of It’s a Wonderful Life on tv, kind of as a filler.
Black Adder’s Christmas Carol (‘We’ve never been so insulted in all our lives’ – ‘Well, all I can say is, you’ve been damned lucky!’)
Bernard and the Genie (‘Please use the words “I wish” with the same care as you would say, “Please castrate me.”’)
George C Scott in A Christmas Carol – I grew up adoring David Warner, even though he always seemed to play lunatics, although he is so sweet as Bob Crachit…every year, though, I always wonder if he will turn to Mrs Crachit, and say, ‘Dear, I’ve solved our Tiny Tim problem and what to have for Christmas dinner in one go!’
:eek:
Odd yuletide associations: Absolutely Fabulous, because the first time I saw it was one year at Christmas, and I remember staying up late to watch it whilst lying under the lit xmas tree (nothing says kindness, good cheers, and selfless generosity like Patsy and Edina)…and also A Clockwork Orange! Cos again I saw it one snowy Christmas, late at night…
Santa Clause Conquers the Martians, & Santa Clause MST3k and/or unMST3k versions
Star Wars Holiday Special
A Christmas Story is the only movie that will truly get me in the mood for the holidays.
Yay Randy! I need to find a copy of it on DVD this year.
Other movies include:
It’s a Wonderful Life
Nightmare Before Christmas
Miracle on 34th Street
White Christmas
The Mr. Bean Christmas special
And of course, The Grinch.
I’ll have to add the Thin Man too now that it was pointed out it takes place at Christmas!
Am I the only one who loves The Homecoming? That’s the Christmas special that introduced us to the Waltons, but this wasn’t syrupy-sweet. It was actually kind of dark.
Patricia Neal wandered around the house as if in an alcoholic fog, talking crazily in her three-pack-a-day rasp. Elizabeth won a Bible contest and got a dead doll as her prize. The family’s best friend was arrested. The father is feared dead but shows up at the last minute looking like Peter Boyle’s stand-in for Young Frankenstein.
In all seriousness, it’s a moody story that, I think, actually captures a rural, Depression-era Christmas, with the mix of tradition and uncertainty that involves.
I love seeing it, along with A Christmas Story, Rudolph, The Grinch and other classics.
I always try to watch the Christmas movies that involve criminals and murderers:
Trapped In Paradise: In which three brothers try to rob a bank. The brothers are played by Nicolas Cage, Jon Lovitz, and Dana Carvey. Very believable.
We’re No Angels: Your typical sentimental story about violent murderers escaping from prison. Featuring Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, and Joan Bennett.
Batman Returns: What’s Christmas without a costumed vigilante and Christopher Walken?
Now that I know The Thin Man is set at Christmas, I have one more for my Christmas Crime collection.
One Christmas movie I never get tired of watching every holiday season is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation . The squirrel in the Christmas tree, the sledding incident, Uncle Louis and his stogies, Aunt Bethany “saying grace”–these never fail to crack me up.
I also love the original Miracle on 34th Street.
We have some friends of the family whose favorite Christmas movie is Gremlins. Odd, odd people.
My vote has to go to A Christmas Story as well, having come from a family whose patriarch has also woven a tapestry of obscenity that is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan. 
I read the book. Somehow it didn’t capture my interest like A Christmas Story did.
It’s never Christmas for me without that movie and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the original that is.
There’s also a website.
Best. Marley. Ever. And Scott’s portrayal of Scrooge is nothing short of genius.
Nobody has mentioned Home Alone! Nothing says Christmas like Joe Pesci getting his hair burned off!
My personal faves are It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, Scrooge (the musical), and Scrooged with Bill Murray. I also love Die Hard, but they play that all the time.
Hee! Me too! “Will you please, for the love of god, and your own body, HOLD THE GODDAMNED HAMMERING!” I use it for everything, not just hammering.
Other wonderful lines:
“You can’t buy publicity like this!”
“Come and get me you…pussy.”
My other favorite Christmas move is Santa Clause. That’s what it’s called right? The brilliant movie with John Lithgow and Dudley Moore and flying candy canes?