Great Christmas movies

So, in a few hours my sister an me will do our annual watch of "Der Kleine Lord" (I guess "Little Lord Fauntleroy" in English, the adaptation with Ricky Schröder and Sir Alec Guinness). This has become a tradition for us, lighting the candles, eating self-backed Christmas cookies and watching this movie is a little bit the moment for us at which we say "ok, work is done, now we can focus on the last preparations (you know, wrapping presents, decorating the tree aso) and really enjoy the Christmas spirit. Everything else can wait until after the holidays".

Anyway, it's by far not the only Christmas classic we watch, but I am aware that for American it tends to be "It's a wonderful life". So, I am wondering, what are the typical Christmas movies of your country, which movies have become part of your ritual and are there any newer Christmas movies you really enjoy?

Brazil really likes to rerun The Grinch.

I'd personally throw in Edward Scissorhands as the Christmas film for the outcasts.

Which version?

You know, the first time I even learned that something like The Grinch existed was when I saw Home Alone 2. I mean, I guess it turned up in the first one, too, but in is more memorable in the sequel.

The live-action film with Jim Carrey.

Noel also shows up every now and again. It's my brother's favorite Christmas movie and he rewatches it every year.

The best Christmas movie is easily Die Hard.

I heard about Noel the first time today...in a video titled "Five Netflix Christmas movies worse than The Christmas Prince". The reviewer said that it is a "Love Actually" rip-off but with really weird stories.

I really love the original Miracle On 34th Street with Maureen O’Hara. Our family always watched it as a kid; our other standards are White Christmas , A Christmas Story, and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation . My mom loves Love Actually, but I’ve soured on it.

edited 22nd Dec '17 10:11:24 AM by wisewillow

I second Die Hard. For me, it's not Christmas until Hans Gruber falls from Nakatomi Plaza.

My family likes Elf and A Muppet Christmas Carol. Personally I like the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Christmas episodes, wherein they watch the classics Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Santa Claus (the crazy Mexican version from the 60s), and The Christmas That Almost Wasn't.

Absolutely love The Muppet Christmas Carol, lots of fond memories from watching my VHS copy back in the day. Still mad there's no DVD or Blu-ray version, as far as I know, that keeps one of the songs they readded to the VHS version ("When Love Is Gone"). Brilliant performance by Caine as Scrooge, and it manages the tricky balance of keeping to the spirit of the themes of the book while still feeling relatively unique. It's one of the more accurate retellings of A Christmas Carol, but it never felt to me as soulless or as obviously by-the-numbers as other films that took that track.

edited 22nd Dec '17 11:54:58 AM by Lavaeolus

I prefer the Scott version and Mickey's Christmas Carol. They have more heart. But then, I didn't exactly grew up on the Muppets.

Don't worry, I'll come bursting through your door and endlessly sing "It Feels Like Christmas" until you truly feel the Muppet Christmas cheer.

tonight Swanpride will be visited by ghosts of Marley And Marley and then three spirits

No time...still a lot to do tomorrow. Like rearranging the whole living room to create space for the tree.

For Christmas movies, and I would assume this doesn't count specials:

Someone above mentioned the MST 3 K Christmas episodes; I watch those (though I prefer the Mexican Santa film over Santa Claus Conquers The Martians) and the Riff Trax stuff (Santa And The Ice Cream Bunny, Santa's Village of Madness, and this year I watched I Believe in Santa Claus and that's probably gonna be another perennial). Plus some of the more popular Christmas movie staples, like A Christmas Story, though that's usually the only one that's a regular each year.

(I'm gonna have to admit it, most Christmas movies suck.)

Well....I would say most American Christmas movies which focus on the holiday and the celebration suck. I know that this will most likely come off as condescending but those movie directors have really, really forgotten what Christmas is actually about. It's not about wishes which come true but about true feeling.

Here a number of great Christmas movies released fairly recently (with fairly recently I mean that they aren't older as the 1990s) which are all actually really good:

The Brits bring to us:

Arthur Christmas

What is it about? Well, it is about family, about letting go and allowing the next generation to step in, and about embracing progression while also not forgetting the tradition and the core of what your work is actually about in the process.

Love Actually

What is it about? Do I really have to explain? It's about relationship, human interaction, the good and the bad.

Japan presents:

Tokio Godfathers

What is it about: A group of homeless people find a baby at Christmas. Otherwise it is about fate, about shame, and about the lies we tell ourselves.

And the US actually has something to offer, too with:

Rise of the Guardians

What is it about: About believe and the meaning of various holidays...honestly, technically it is more an eastern than a Christmas movie, but that is another of the Nightmare before Christmas cases, in which a movie covers two things at once. And speaking of which...

A Nightmare before Christmas The Halloween movie which can be watched until the 24 of December without it being weird.

Then there are naturally the outlier line Long Kiss Goodnight, Die Hard 1 and 2 as well as Ironman 3. But those are more movies which happen to be set at Christmas.

Though Henry Selick says The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween film, I've always thought it works best when you're watching it on or near Halloween night as a lead-in to the Christmas season.

I assume foreign Christmas stuff is often better than ours. Probably more interesting.

My mom actually likes Christmas Prince, to the point we've been watching it multiple times a week, sometimes close to every day.

It's not the worst movie I've seen. There was another she thought I'd like better than Christmas Prince, but it was one of those stupid, "she can't remember who she is and a family helps her find herself" movies that pretty much doesn't know how amnesia even works. She turned it off right quick when I began riffing hard on it.

For ones I actually like . . . on Youtube they've got those four old claymation movies like Rudolph and Santa Clause is Coming to Town. We're going to watch those soon. And of course the Patrick Stewart version of Christmas Carol is definitely a favorite for me.

You know, the strange thing about German Christmas programming is that a large part of it (the part not adopted from the US) is only tangible related to Christmas. "Der Kleine Lord" for example just happens to have its last scenes set during Christmas. "Drei Nüsse für Aschenbrödel", which is THE Christmas movie (in that it is shown at least 20 times on different channels during the holidays) isn't even related to Christmas it all, it just happens to be a version of Cinderella with a lot of snow in it. Fairy tales in general are shown a lot.

Like, a typical German style Christmas story is something along the line of "Das fliegende Klassenzimmer" (the flying Classroom), which is mostly about the adventures of a group of school boys and their relationship to a particular caring teacher and only becomes Christmassy at the very end, when the last story is about one of the boys not able to drive home this Christmas (because his parents can't afford it). Honestly, the whole story about him trying to deal with the situation and not making a big deal of it, and his parents sitting together at home, sad that he isn't with them and trying to assure each other, until it rings at the door and he turns up because said teacher gave him the money for the train ticket...it really gets to me every time.

Meaning it is more about people struggling with the live or just with everyday drama, and then something really good happens to them around Christmas, or they just have a particularly peaceful Christmas celebration.

Meanwhile us Americans get all these gimmicky Christmas stories about the holiday itself bringing something about. It's like it's about presents of some sort, rather than just being with those you love. I mean, fuck, Christmas Prince is about NOT being around the ones you love, and instead having the holiday create more bonds in itself.

There is a whole raft of great American Christmas movies, and all one has to do to find them is look somewhere other than the Hallmark Channel.

I have to recommend that James Stewart Christmas movie. The one where he's not satisfied with his lot in life, the one where he falls in love, the one where tragedy is only narrowly averted.

I speak of course of The Shop Around the Corner, which is one of the all-time classics.

And that's half the problem. Everyone knows the old classics, the new ones mostly suck, and not too many people are going to want to go to the effort of finding underrated old Christmas films.

I never did see The Shop Around The Corner but I did see the musical remake, In the Good Old Summertime, with Judy Garland. Nice songs, Buster Keaton is fine in it... but it was kinda meh.

edited 24th Dec '17 8:34:27 AM by Aldo930

Well, if people don't want to seek out good movies, that's their own fault. The Shop Around the Corner isn't hard to find.

Elf is pretty darn great.

See, I can’t stand Elf. Not a Will Ferrell fan, and the jokes and romance creeped me out (adult man acting like a child? Gross).