# What's your favorite Christmas movie/movies?



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Which ones are part of your Christmas?


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## Mesa (Mar 2, 2012)

It's a Wonderful Life (obviously a given in the US, but hardly anyone i've met in the UK has actually seen it. It really needs to become a tradition here, too.)
Die Hard
Love Actually (Has enough hamminess to recreate the entire Albert Hall to a 1:1 scale in meat, but Curtis is just so damn good at making you not bothered by it. My constant feeling throughout the five or so times i've seen it is "Heavens to Betsy, i'm enjoying my head off!)
Bad Santa
Black Christmas (My Mum recalls it was the only film she'd ever seen in the cinema that genuinely scared her. We went to see the 2009 remake and cracked up enormously at several scenes, along with the five or so other ticket holders.)
Forrest Gump (not overtly Santastic, but it's excellent and always on.
The Nightmare Before Christmas

Though the biggest tradition in recent years specific to my family is the Bottom christmas special.





So much so that we try and refrain from quoting it before we actually put it on.


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

I know what you did last summer


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

jani said:


> I know what you did last summer


So what, you want me to do the same with you? Better watch out.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Christmas Carol and Grinch*

Alister Sim version of _Christmas Carol_.

Would the Boris Karloff _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_ count?


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Mesa said:


> Love Actually


NO actually.............


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Sort of captures the spirit of the season, in my opinion.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

I love "Home Alone", George C. Scott in "A Christmas Carol", and National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation"


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

"Home alone" comes into my mind…too. As for Die Hard, I remember it quite well, so the miracle is gone.


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

Jean Shepherd's *A Christmas Story,* from the early Eighties.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Bad Santa (2003)

View attachment 30133


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

arpeggio said:


> Alister Sim version of _Christmas Carol_.


I prefer the Kermit the Frog version.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

The only film I associate with the holiday is Kapra's _Its a wonderful Life_, which is anything but all good cheer, with its dark underbelly, and so well engineered it still works on me whenever I do watch it.

The rest, well, my family was not video oriented: nothing else in this medium is strongly linked with any occasion.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Seconded - Alastair Sim's Scrooge is nonpareil (George Cole was also good as the younger Scrooge). 

I have watched other versions of A Christmas Carol but none are quite as satisfying mainly because of the appearance of the lead character - i.e. despite their respective acting abilities, George C. Scott looked far too healthy and well-fed to be a miser (Frank Finlay, who played Marley's ghost, surely would have been a more appropriate choice) and Patrick Stewart just didn't strike me as sufficiently 'Dickensian' - more a gentleman thug than a shifty-eyed misanthrope, and looked too young anyway. However, the 'Silent Night' sequence from the Stewart version was beautifully done - one of my absolute favourite ACC moments. 

Apart from that, I liked the Muppets version!


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

In Russia Christmas is celebrated at New Year's Eve and every year this classic love story is being repeated:

Ironya Sudby - The Irony of Fate

Warning Warning Warning !!! Watching this movie (complete version available on the internet) will make you a life-long addict !!! Warning Warning Warning


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## Gizmo (Mar 28, 2013)

Mixed Nuts with Madeline Kahn and Steve Martin. Very funny movie. I also like Die Hard both 1 and 2, which takes place at Christmas.


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## AClockworkOrange (May 24, 2012)

Home Alone was always my favourite growing up.

Now, I am more likely to watch TV specials - such as Porridge (Ronnie Barker is superb, he disappears into the character).

It depends what is out that year. More recently, I have started re-watching the Harry Potter series or The Lord of the Rings. Since I still haven't watched Series 2 of Game of Thrones yet, I may re-watch series 1 and watch series 2 this year - and yes, I know I am behind the times :lol:

I am proud to say though that I have N-E-V-E-R seen The Great Escape. Avoiding it is my Christmas tradition. :lol:


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

elgars ghost said:


> Seconded - Alastair Sim's Scrooge is nonpareil (George Cole was also good as the younger Scrooge).


Thirded! Alastair Sim _is_ Scrooge.

In addition to the obvious choice of _It's a Wonderful Life_, I also enjoy _Miracle on 34th Street_ (with Maureen O'Hara), _White Christmas_, and _The Nightmare before Christmas_.

A couple years ago, I watched _A Christmas Story_ and have never wanted to see it again. 
Maybe it was the leg lamp.


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

I don't like any of them. The one I dislike least has long become indistinguishable from the others.


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

Cheyenne said:


> I don't like any of them. The one I dislike least has long become indistinguishable from the others.


OUCH! :scold: .....


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

A little unfortunate, but 'tis so :lol:


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

To me the 1951 Alastair Sim "Scrooge" is best.


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

Celloman said:


> Thirded! Alastair Sim _is_ Scrooge.
> 
> In addition to the obvious choice of _It's a Wonderful Life_, I also enjoy _Miracle on 34th Street_ (with Maureen O'Hara), _White Christmas_, and _The Nightmare before Christmas_.
> 
> ...


And to think,that's what hooked me! :devil:


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

moody said:


> To me the 1951 Alastair Sim "Scrooge" is best.


I hate to be redundant, but like these guys said . . .l


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

This one, getting no love?

View attachment 30221


Or this one? Bah humbug to one and all!

View attachment 30222


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Cheyenne said:


> A little unfortunate, but 'tis so :lol:


I'm with you in that to me almost the whole kit and kaboodle around the holiday made after it became a big commercial deal, I suppose that includes Dicken's Scrooge, just smacks one way or t'other _of selling more stuff_, which of course is exactly the original deep meaning of all the winter solstice holidays, regardless of which religion's mid-winter celebration it is. I would include almost all of the music written around it since that Dickens story was written as well.

ADD: the holiday begins on 25 December and lasts for twelve days, after which it is over: any parts of November or December prior the 25 December are just parts of November or December!

I am not making this stuff up, people 

The longer it has been extended prior 25 December, the more desensitized to it we all become.

It wasn't broke, and "they" fixed it... :-/


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

As a parent, and a hostage to nostalgia, my collection is rather large. The Christmas movies from my youth have melded with the contemporary movies, creating a wide and eclectic collection. A weekly schedule can go...

A Christmas Story
Holiday Inn
Home Alone 
Home Alone II
White Christmas
Elf
Christmas Vacation

Christmas Vacation is my favorite, although it's not exactly family friendly. 

As for worst: The Polar Express. They could have done so much with the animation technique, and Tom Hanks on board. It's one of the most unwatchable, unlikable movies I've ever seen and I refuse to watch it again. Every year I think, "Maybe it wasn't that bad." Every year I'm wrong. If my sons want to watch it I have to be at least 3 rooms away (Or 3 counties away).


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Cheyenne said:


> I don't like any of them. The one I dislike least has long become indistinguishable from the others.


Bah Humbug ! that's what I say !!


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## Piwikiwi (Apr 1, 2011)

Muppet christmas carol of course


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## Ebab (Mar 9, 2013)

"Fanny och Alexander"


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Within this thread is a somewhat interesting log of what becomes attached to the season by 1/3rd generational increments (ca. 10 years.) Younger folk, now older, are sentimental about some flicker more current with their childhood, as well as what for them must be near-archaic 'oldies but goodies.'


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## Ebab (Mar 9, 2013)

I can only speak for myself, but I don’t think the word “sentimental” covers it entirely, what I’m trying to rediscover at this time of year.

It’s about going back to one’s roots, which of course includes childhood, family, memories – pleasantly “sentimental”, but very real, too. Old songs, customs, and yes why not, movies, which are either memory from one’s own past, from our, even older, collective past, or deal with the very process of remembering one’s past.

Where have we come from? — Sense our roots. Find the strength to move forward again, our aims re-adjusted, with a refreshed sense for the truly essential.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Ebab said:


> I can only speak for myself, but I don't think the word "sentimental" covers it entirely, what I'm trying to rediscover at this time of year.
> 
> It's about going back to one's roots, which of course includes childhood, family, memories - pleasantly "sentimental", but very real, too. Old songs, customs, and yes why not, movies, which are either memory from one's own past, from our, even older, collective past, or deal with the very process of remembering one's past.
> 
> Where have we come from? - Sense our roots. Find the strength to move forward again, our aims re-adjusted, with a refreshed sense for the truly essential.


Sentiment = "distilled emotion"
That's pretty neutral until you put some qualifying spin on it. A trip down one's personal memory lane is bound to be sentimental, then, including that 'going to ones roots,' though "roots" in that usage always makes me think people conceive of themselves as plants, bound to / stuck in the soil in which they took "root," -- sorta kaboshes the fact we've got feet with which to roam the earth 

I've never felt either strong attachment or aversion to 'home base,' so pretty much do not get the sentimental attachment to "roots." Good or ill, I think they're pretty impossible to forget, and if in memory, don't require any other actions, visits, or monuments. Visiting family or friends, wherever they are and at any time, is always good.


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## Wandering (Feb 27, 2012)

Bill Murray in Scrooged, as well as Lampoon's Christmas Vacation especially due to Randy Quaid over the top character. Both stream on Netflix.



















I absolutely love the music from Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. I bought it this year to watch during the holidays.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Ebab said:


> I can only speak for myself, but I don't think the word "sentimental" covers it entirely, what I'm trying to rediscover at this time of year.
> 
> It's about going back to one's roots, which of course includes childhood, family, memories - pleasantly "sentimental", but very real, too. Old songs, customs, and yes why not, movies, which are either memory from one's own past, from our, even older, collective past, or deal with the very process of remembering one's past.
> 
> Where have we come from? - Sense our roots. Find the strength to move forward again, our aims re-adjusted, with a refreshed sense for the truly essential.


At the risk of being offtopic, I think this is a great attitude. Sometimes I wish I had more of it, more attachment to my own cultural roots.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

My favorites:

_A Christmas Carol_ (1951, Alastair Sim)
_Miracle on 34th Street 
The Shop around the Corner
The Bishop's Wife_

My least favorites:
_It's a Wonderful Life
The Christmas Story_


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## georgedelorean (Aug 18, 2017)

Christmas Story (1980s), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Though not technically Christmas movies per se, however take place around it: Die Hard, and Gremlins.


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

The "And All Through the House" segment with Joan Collins in Tales from the Crypt (1972). Krampus (2015) is a sardonic and unnerving twist on the holiday.


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## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

*Anna Karenina 2017 - 8-part serial (Russian) Great Stuff for X-mas!!*

The only minus is the fact that everything is only available on YouTube in Russian. But don't let yourself be defeated: just jump into it and move the slider to the gorgeous balls & love at first sight looks. The actress who plays Anna is actually married to the actor who plays Vronsky. Merry Christmas!






The rest of the 8 part serial can easily be found on YouTube


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

_The Shop Around the Corner_ (which ends on Christmas Eve)
I also like the stage musical adaptation _She Loves Me_.


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## chesapeake bay (Aug 3, 2015)

Still like to watch a few classics, Christmas in Connecticut and Bell, Book and Candle.


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

One that works for us is the 1994 version of _Little Women_, with Winona Ryder.

And though not a movie, _A Charlie Brown Christmas_ is _de rigueur_ (as is the Vince Guaraldi soundtrack).


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## DennisRoss (Dec 19, 2017)

It's A Wonderful Life. It's always my favorite Christmas movie. It's featured in my list of the top Christmas movies to watch in 2017.


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