Grab some popcorn, and let’s get into that Christmas spirit!

10) A Christmas Story

I never got into this movie as much as everyone else seemed to, but it was certainly a re-occurring theme in my holiday memories year after year, so it still makes the cut (just barely!). It does have some some great quotable lines though. A few of my favorite: “You’ll shoot your eye out kid!”, “Fra-gee-lee (Fragile)! It must be Italian”. And of course the kid getting his tongue stuck to the frozen pole because I distinctly remember doing that same stupid thing all the time as a kid, or daring other kids to do it. Anyways, it cracks the top 10, and now we take a darker turn…

9) The Nightmare Before Christmas

This is sort of a dark classic in my mind, with a goth sort of vibe, and of course all things Tim Burton, but still manages to have a sort of twisted love story play out, and I suppose has a sort of happy ending after all is said and done. This usually gets watched right after Halloween, so more of a pre-Christmas movie, or something to get you prepped for the upcoming holiday in the best possible way. <blows hair out of face>

8) Elf

What can I say, Will Farrell gets to come into your living room each year and usher in the holiday spirit in a very pure manner (not like that last one!). Elf is so genuine about his love for the holiday that it can’t help but get you into the Christmas spirit good and proper. A whole lot better than the stupid elf on a shelf creep-o.

7) How The Grinch Stole Christmas

A true classic! How can you not watch this cartoon every single year? The one movie (does this actually count as a movie?) I remember watching every single year as a kid. I just loved the Grinch to death and his cute little dog too. We’re talking the OG cartoon here, not the Jim Carey version (staying agnostic on that). Settle in for a roller coaster of emotions that you get to share with little Cindy Loo Who and her entire village of whack-os and their whack-o inventions and who-things. I mean I used to root for the Grinch when I was a kid, but that might be a better conversation for my therapist. Seriously, the Who’s are pretty !@#$ annoying, if I had to listen to that all damn year I’d probably be plotting against them too … wait …

6) Home Alone

Let’s kick off the holiday season by reminiscing about that one time some poor kids entire family just left him home alone for the holidays, and no one even noticed. This isn’t so much a classic for me as just something that really reminds me of Christmas, and must be watched every year sometime in December. Kevin is quite the little rapscallion (that’s what the kids are saying these days right?) and this is just a “feel good” movie to enjoy, all child abandonment aside. Spoiler: He gets reunited with his family and Joe Pesci doesn’t bury him out in the desert.

5) Scrooged

Bill !@#$ Murray. That’s really all that needs to be said. He’s an asshole, and this is basically a modern (80’s is modern right? RIGHT?) version of the classic Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol”. Also it has Bobcat Goldthwait and Carol Kane in it! The 80’s man, what a great time.

4) Bad Santa

Oh another dark twist here to the holiday season. I love me some Billy Bob Thorton, and this is such a great role for him. He’s a professional thief (with his own dwarf sidekick!), total asshole, drinks too much, ruins some poor kids house, hooks up with Lauren Graham who has a Santa Clause fetish, and is just really not a good person. This makes the list to keep all these other feel good movies in check. Suck it Elf.

3) Four Christmases

You had me at Vince Vaughn. Oh Reese Witherspoon is in it too? I mean, how can this not be a great movie. Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Robert Duvall, Jon Voight, Jon Favreau, Tim McGraw, Dwight Yoakam, and Kristin Chenoweth are in it too? Holy shit!

Seriously, this is an all star cast for a movie that seems like it flew under the radar. It’s worth watching just for Jon Favreau’s wrestling moves. Seriously, he is ripped AF in this movie.

2) Die Hard

Wait, this isn’t a Christmas movie! – exclaims your soon to be ex-friend. This is seriously one of the best Christmas movies that ever Christmas’ed or movie’ed. It takes place during a Christmas party, ergo Christmas movie. And not one of those feel good Christmas movies, this has John !@#$ McClain kicking some serious terrorist ass and not even by choice, he just wanted to hook up with his ex-wife one more time. It was named best Christmas action film of all time! Add this to your Christmas movie rotation.

1) Christmas Vacation

And here we are … at the epicenter of Christmas joy. Christmas Vacation. The holy grail of holiday movies. This movie is absolutely a master piece from the opening scene in the family truckster v2.0 (updated fancy Ford Taurus wagon!) to the plastic santa on fire sailing through the air after a sewage plant explosion (thanks Eddie), it has you self identifying with way too many of these things going wrong. And it bequeathed us with one of the greatest movie lines ever … “Shitter’s full!”. – Uncle Eddie

Well that’s my list, I hope a few of these made yours too.  Let me know what your favorite Christmas movies are!