Favorite Christmas Movie

[RobDeer 45]

Tis the season to be merry.....well that's my name.

 

Let's hear your must watch Christmas movies for the holiday season and favorite lines.

 

Christmas Vacation - multiple times x5 "Is your house on fire Clark?"

 

Four Christmases - really continues to grow on me. "It's not a satellite genius it's a satellite dish!"

 

Trading Places

Elf

Gremlins

It's a Wonderful Life

Christmas Story - "a crummy commercial....son of a…"

Home Alone

[patrickgpe]

favorite chirstmas special as a kid - year without a santa claus

favorite chirstmas special - elf

[TracyThom]

If Die Hard counts, then that is my favorite. If not, Christmas Vacation all the way. Aunt Bethany is so quotable. "Is Rusty still in the Navy?"

[rwa12]

Christmas Vacation is the only mandatory in my household. Others that are highly encouraged include...

Scrooged

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Frosty the Snowman

Elf

Home Alone

It's a Wonderful Life

 

I used to include Christmas Story, but watched it so much that it is now unwatchable to me...

[jerichoholicninja]

Do not like watching Christmas movies. Christmas vacation is funny but I have no desire to watch it.

 

Also, I would be happy if I never see any part of A Christmas Story again. Ba humbug!

[DuWayne Steurer]

There's Christmas Vacation, and then there's everything else.

 

But......there's those that I enjoy.

 

Elf was when Will Ferrell was still really funny. He brought a youthful, boyish exuberance to the screen in that movie that he's never really matched before or since.

 

Enjoy (still) all the Rankin/Bass Christmas shows from the 60's, despite the overt racism and sexism.

[fondybrewfan]

Polar Express is our new family favorite. Christmas Vacation is my personal favorite. Its a Wonderful Life and a Christmas Story are the old standby's you watch every year just because you are supposed to.

[thebruce44]

If Die Hard counts, then that is my favorite. If not, Christmas Vacation all the way. Aunt Bethany is so quotable. "Is Rusty still in the Navy?"

 

This. And yes, Die Hard counts.

[Patrick425]

favorite Christmas special as a kid - year without a Santa Claus

favorite chirstmas special - elf

 

This is kind of the way I break out Christmas shows as well. Some of the one that I always watched as a kid, I'll still watch, not necessarily because of quality but more for melancholy reasons. "Year without a Santa Claus" is a classic to me mainly because of Heat miser and Snow Miser. Other classics from my childhood that I enjoy that were not mentioned yet in this thread:

 

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Merry Christmas Charlie Brown

Rudolph

Frosty

..and whats the one with Burger Mister Mister Burger??

 

I will always watch and enjoy all the Charlie Brown holiday shows (Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc). My 15 year old son loves all of those also.

[TheEndless7]

Die Hard all the way.

[Baldkin]

Die Hard all the way.

 

I agree.

 

Although, I've watched Frosty for 30 consecutive years.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

[Nottso]

A Charlie Brown Christmas.

[logan82]

A Christmas Story

[chadomac]

Rocky IV

[hawing]

I grew up with the Rankin Bass kid shows - as an example, I remember when Year Without A Santa Claus (featuring the Heat and Snow Misers) was the new kid on the TV block, in 1974 - and also consider A Charlie Brown Christmas the gold standard of non-stopaction Christmas animation.

 

These shows are more my "can't miss" Christmas viewing than movies. However, I enjoy It's a Wonderful Life and selected scenes from A Christmas Story (which I rarely get to see all the way through, despite its omnipresence from the 24th-25th).

 

Because I'm dorky, I also try to watch The Homecoming every December. It's an early-1970s Christmas movie that served as kind of the pilot for The Waltons.

 

I don't know if TV Land still does its weekend Merrython, when they show Christmas episodes of the classic TV shows in their arsenal. Those are fun too; they're shows I remember being around when I was a kid, but not necessarily shows I watched as a kid.

[adamb100]

How Tim Allen's Santa Claus isnt here is beyond me, that and Elf are my favorite christmas movies. Oh and a charlie brown Christmas but that isn't really much of a movie.

[BrewCrewForever]

1. Christmas Vacation

2. A Christmas Story

3. Elf

4. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer (puppet one)

5. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (cartoon)

[Baldkin]

Rocky IV

 

You forgot the full title.

 

Rocky IV: Rocky Ends the Cold War

[TURBO]

"The House Without a Christmas Tree" was a staple when I was a kid...

 

Bought it on DVD last year for nostalgia sake since I haven't seen it make an appearance on tv in over 20 years...

 

"Prancer" was a family favorite when my kids were little.

 

Other than that, all my favorites have been mentioned except Fred Klaus. An Elf rip-off, but I'm a Vince Vaughn fan.

[pitchleague]

"Christmas Vacation" is by far #1. I can quote the movie. The entire movie. Yes, I'm a dork.

 

"A Christmas Story" grows on me every year. I still remember my aunt and other family members (read as: baby boomers) taking all us kids to see it in the theater back in '83 (or whenever it came out.) We enjoyed it but I think we mostly enjoyed the food. The adults enjoyed it for their own nostalgia. Now I make sure I watch it at least once during the 24-hour marathon on TBS.

 

The wife loves the Rankin-Bass version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." About 10 years ago, some toy company came out with tons of Rudolph toys and playsets. She bought them all (or I bought some as gifts.) I still remember the year she was given the Santa's Castle playset and she got all the toys out and played along with the show when it aired on CBS. And she did it with the both her folks and my folks in the room. She didn't care. Gosh, I love her!

 

Back when I was a teenager, there was a special called "A Wish For Wings." It was with all the characters from Bloom County/Outland like Opus the Penguin and Bill the Cat. It was hilarious back then. But I saw it again a couple of years ago and I didn't find it funny at all. Interesting how our tastes change over the years.

 

And just a few years ago, a new special called "Yes, Virginia" came out. I found it really heartwarming. Of course, it helped that my elementary school chorus performed it for our concert the same year that the show came out and it was just beautiful. I told the students to not be surprised to see me crying while I was directing them. Sure enough, it happened just about every time.

[hawing]

The wife loves the Rankin-Bass version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." About 10 years ago, some toy company came out with tons of Rudolph toys and playsets. She bought them all (or I bought some as gifts.) I still remember the year she was given the Santa's Castle playset and she got all the toys out and played along with the show when it aired on CBS. And she did it with the both her folks and my folks in the room. She didn't care. Gosh, I love her!

That is AWESOME. Merry Christmas to you and hammytime!

[sdcheezhd]

The Natalie Wood Miracle on 34th St.

[brewers4eric]

"It's a Wonderful Life" was on last night and I've now made it through 46 years of my life without watching it. My wife was watching it with my daughter and she made a comment about our eight year old having seen more of the movie than I have, which is true. I've just never attempted to sit down and watch that one. While they were watching "... Wonderful Life" I pulled out my "Deadwood" dvd set and went upstairs.

 

Last year I was shopping for "Christmas Vacation" type cereal varnishes to spray on my sled at Wal Mart and stumbled across a copy of "Gremlins" in the $5 dvd bin. The kids thought it was great. There has also been allot of discussion on the merits of "Love Actually" this year, which is probably more discussion that the movie deserves. Being a "Walking Dead" fan, I was hoping that a zombified Andrew Lincoln would dump the cue cards and rip a vein out of Keira Knightley's neck. But, that girl really belted out "I don't want allot for Christmas" at the end, if that was really her singing. My wife has the soundtrack in her car.

 

While she was questioning my lack of "Wonderful Life" fandom last night, my wife asked me what my favorite Christmas movie was and I replied "Old School". So, there's my contribution to the forum.

[foamboy1]

Olive, the Other Reindeer.

 

Hilarious. I'm pretty sure it was written by the guys that write "The Simpson's."

[1992casey]

It turns out that the Christmas program to score highest in the ratings this year was two colorized [cite]I Love Lucy[/cite] episodes combined into a one-hour special.

 

One episode was a Christmas show that isn't seen very often as it's never been part of the syndication package. I think that show might have been colorized for a while. The other episode was [cite]Lucy's Italian Movie[/cite], which includes the classic catfight in the grape vat.