Few aspects of the holiday season make Christmas feel like Christmas quite like our choice pieces of entertainment do. From festive and thoughtful, to witty and outrageous, the film industry has no shortage of holiday specials sure to get you in the mood for the “most wonderful time of the year.”
But, like many other genres of entertainment, it can be difficult to navigate, from picking which specials to watch and at what points in the season, to sifting through new releases heralded by people you know but whose movie tastes of which you are wary. You pick up the phone, you call your local newspaper with this exact question, to which they eagerly (and festively) reply:
Messenger Papers, “what’s your favorite color?”
There’s still time to right the ship if you haven’t already. If you sort out your watching list this year, then you can say:
“I know what I’m gonna do tomorrow, the next day, and next year, and the year after that.”
That, of course, is watch Christmas movies correctly. I often have three categories of Christmas films that fill the roster, and I’ve only organized it fairly recently. First, you have the classics. These are the “must watches” of each year.
Then, you have the new releases that you’ve been hearing about but never actually got around to. These come in handy when you just need something to watch with your dinner, and since there’s no short supply of everyone trying to pull of their best holiday spin, you won’t be starved for content. It’s best to be wary of these new releases, because, as I always say: “They’re the only people I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem.”
But, an hour and a half isn’t a long time, and who knows? Maybe you get a yearly “must watch” out of the deal.
The third category is the most fluid. This is the rotational category. They’re not the best of the best, maybe you watched them to death as a kid, or maybe they’re like a really spicy dish you can only have once in a while. They’re films that have a special place in our holiday hearts, but we just don’t pop the DVD in every year. This is more subjective and up to personal taste.
The Movies: Let’s Get into It
I always start the holiday season the same every year. Laurel and Hardy’s 1934 classic March of the Wooden Soldiers gift wraps the Thanksgiving season along with Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. The Christmas season immediately begins following those two films, and I next like to kick things off with Love Actually, a semi-cheesy but cute vignette of several people involved in love stories of various complexities that all eventually intertwine with one another.
It builds some serious profiles in a remarkably short amount of time and features an excellent cast of British actors and actresses. The movie starts out five weeks to Christmas and captures all the hype and urgency the season can bring, hence why I start with it, even if my “five weeks to Christmas” is more about speeding to work when my windshield hasn’t defrosted than it is about transcontinental romance.
Then, begins the sampling stage. All the movies I’ve neglected to watch or relatively new releases that have flown under the radar get their chances to impress me or fade into obscurity until someone begs me to rewatch.
Due to the sheer supply of these types of films, this category is usually filled with the comedies that score some cheap laughs but can also bring a different angle to the season. I found a couple of new champions this year. Office Christmas Party is great for the off-the-wall styles of Jason Bateman and T.J. Miller, while Vince Vaughn’s Fred Claus takes a look at the title character as Santa’s older, less successful brother.
The sampling stage is often the fun Christmas movie stage. Jingle All the Way, Bad Santa, Just Friends, Christmas Vacation, and yes, Die Hard all find their way into the midsection of the season. Even if they’re not yearly watches, this is the stage when we get to haul in these features.
Then, of course, there are some that are downright awful, and if I happen to catch a glance of one of these films, I make sure my brain cells – or what’s left of them – are dearly compensated. You might ask, are these “Worse than the agony of being in love?”
Ho-ho-holy cow, yes, they are.
For every second I accidentally witness of titles like Deck the Halls, Christmas with the Kranks, and The Nutcracker (2010), I take a shot of eggnog and watch a Christmas episode of any of my favorite sitcoms just to dull the pain.
The third and final act of my Christmas movie lineup is the one that leads up to the actual holiday and the week beyond. I call the week between Christmas and New Year’s the “Demilitarized Zone” of the year.
I like the wind down of the season’s streamings to be more sentimental, pensive, and reverent of the reason for the season overall. These are all “must watches,” and omitting them from the lineup is nothing short of holiday heresy. A Charlie Brown Christmas is the perfect way to set the mood calmly and innocently, especially with Linus’ archetypal monologue being a salient reminder of why we’re all reading this.
The Rankin & Bass classics are always a good way to channel your inner child and go back in time, featuring such standards as Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, The Year Without a Santa Claus, Rudolph’s Shiny New Year, and company.
A Christmas Story is a fantastic film that perennially overshadows the pomp and circumstance of some recent blockbusters. A little town, with regular people, with little problems, there’s a reason it’s consistently played year after year.
A brief return to comedic films with some more inspiring streaks running through them is appropriate leading up to Christmas Day. Home Alone is another quotable classic, brilliantly scored by the legendary John Williams. Elf is a seasonal standard with lines you can use year-round, even if people don’t get the references (but let’s be honest, they probably do).
But the chef-d’oeuvre of the holiday season is, undoubtedly, Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Humor, family, romance, tension, and an undying sense of purpose masterfully packaged into a 2-hour feature. It’s hard for us to not feel like George Bailey sometimes and this film sort of tells you that it’s all kind of worth it.
So, put “one foot in front of the other” and capitalize on what little time you have left to organize your collection and enjoy all the entertainment this season has to offer.
“Welcome to the party, pal!
