All this terrible economic news has lead me to one simple conclusion: This country needs a little Christmas spirit to brighten our days. One of the best ways to get into a Christmas mindset is by watching a great Christmas movie. As a result, I thought it would be fun to share my list of my favorite twenty Christmas movies.
To make this even more fun, I thought I would ask everyone to participate in this lists future makeup. Just leave a comment with your personal top 5, 10, or 20 and I will share a running tally of votes on this post. Your favorite movie will receive 20 points while your 5th favorite will receive 15 points and so on. You do not have to stick with the current movies on your list, you can add one that you think need be on here. I will update this list at least once a day. Let’s have some fun with this!!!
1. A Christmas Story 20 points
–”Deck the Ralls with Ralls of Rolly. . .”
2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas 19 points
–I am NOT talking about the Jim Carrey version!
3. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer 18 points
–The land of the misfit toys really made this movie
4. Miracle on 34th Street 17 points
–Obviously the original version
5. The Night They Saved Christmas 16 points
–Not that many people know about this one, about a family that saves an oil company from blowing up the North Pole
6. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 15 points
–Jelly of the Month Club anyone?
7. Twas the Night Before Christmas 14 points
–About a mouse that sends a nasty letter to Santa and almost ruins Christmas
8. Elf 13 points
–”What is your favorite color?”
9. A Christmas Carol 12 points
–The George C. Scott version
10. Love Actually 11 points
–”And at Christmas you tell the truth”
11. It’s A Wonderful Life 10 points
–Of course this had to be on the list
12. Gremlins 9 points
–Includes the worst Christmas story ever with Kate’s father dying by breaking his neck falling into the chimney.
13. Charlie Brown Christmas 8 points
–Great rendition of Hark the Herald Angels sing that will live forever!!
14. The Ref 7 points
–Dennis Leary invades a home on X-Mas eve
15. Bad Santa 6 points
–”I’m on my f**king lunch break!”
16. Scrooged 5 points
–Bill Murray is great in this version!
17. Home Alone 4 points
–Kevin was no match to the Wet Bandits
18. Frosty the Snowman 3 points
–”Happy New Year!!!”
19. A Very Brady Christmas 2 points
–So corny it was good
20. Die Hard 1 point
–A Christmas party no one will ever forget at the Nakatomi Corporation
This is my top 5
1. Miracle on 34th Street
2. Love Actually
3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
4. Elf
5. Home Alone
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I’m glad you went old school with the Grinch instead of the hollywood piece of crap by Jim Carey….very dissapointed…
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Home Alone should be in top 5.
Here’s my top 10
1. Elf
I have started a tradition by watching this movie every Christmas eve once my guests have gone home.
2. Jim Henson’s The christmas toy (Not sure about the title)
I have loved this movie since I was about 4.
3. How the Grinch stole christmas
Sorry everybody I like the Jim Carrey version, I’m from Sweden and have not seen any other version.
4. The Santa Clause
I think that this is a really funny movie to watch after a long day of decorating the house.
5. Love Actually
6. The Polarexpress
7. A Christmas Carol
8. Mickey’s A Cristmas Carol ???
9. Snowglobe
10. Tomten är far till alla barnen (Santa is the father of all the children)
Swedish movie about a christmas celebration going wrong.
My Top 10 Christmas Movies are:
1) A Christmas Carol (1938 version).
2) A Christmas Story
3) Road to Christmas
4) Prancer
5) The Night They Saved Christmas
6) Home Alone
7) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
8) The Homecoming: A Christmas Story
9) Scrooged
10) Christmas is Here Again
National Lampoons all the way! Dont throw me down Clarke
coooooooooooooooool
Any list that has “A Christmas Story” at the top is one that I respect and would heartily agree with. Hilarious, forever quotable, charming, a perfect period-piece, and did I mention hilarious ??? I can rewatch it every year and still laugh until my stomach hurts…..and that’s while knowing the movie line for line by now…..I don’t feel the ‘Christmas’ spirit until I’ve seen this….a winner in my book.
Sorry, if it wasn’t for TBS and its tactic of forcing “A Christmas Story” on the general public 13 years ago for 24 consecutive hours — which they appear willing to continue doing every Christmas for the rest of eternity — I’m convinced this lightweight, overrated, overexposed movie wouldn’t crack on the top 10 on 75% of the top 10 and 20 Christmas movie lists. NO movie deserves this many consecutive hours of showing!
What’s worse is one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time was snubbed from this top 20 list altogether. And, sadly, not one of the 15 who posted responses raised one favorable voice toward the 1951 version of “A Christmas Carol” with the great Alistair Sim!
It’s no mistake that film critic Leonard Maltin called the 1951 version the best of all the Christmas Carol’s…Though he ticked me off when he changed his rating of “A Christmas Story” from 3 1/2 stars to 4 stars somewhere between 2002 and 2005 (Check his yearly movie guides and you will see it for yourself) simply because its increased public appeal — and yet he wont acknowledge “The Shawshank Redemption for its greatness and being the most popular movie on the Internet Movie Database.
The screen play, plot, pace and performances in A Christmas Carol are superior to many of the movies that are on the list, with perhaps the exception of Miracle on 34th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life. Alistair Sim’s performance alone outshines many of the movies on this list COMBINED!
I could go on forever about this timeless movie and the impact that it has had on my life alone! But I will devote to rest to my top ten — and be assured, A Christmas Story is NOWHERE to be seen!
1) A Christmas Carol (1951)
2) A Miracle on 34th Street
3) It’s a Wonderful Life
4) A Charlie Brown Christmas
5) How the Grinch Stole Christmas
6) Frosty the Snowman
7) Rudolph The Red Nose Raindeer
8) Gremlins
9) Love Actually
10) A Very Brady Christmas
Frosty, The Grinch, Rudolph, Charlie Brown: Those aren’t movies, they are half-hour TV specials.
Black Christmas (1974)
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Silent Night, Bloody Night
Christmas Evil
Santas Slay
Gremlins
This list is not complete without the christmas-slasher movies..
I will add more when I can think of more..
Muppet’s Christmas Carol definitely deserves some mention…it’s my favorite Christmas movie at any rate, and Brian Henson considers it to be the best Muppet movie since his father passed away. I thought Michael Caine was amazing as Scrooge.
I might not be the most qualified person to judge Scrooge-worthiness, since the only other versions I saw were the 1938 version, part of the one with Patrick Stewart, and the 2004 musical version with Kelsey Grammer. The musical version ruined the point of Scrooge by putting in an Oliver Twist-like story of Scrooge’s childhood to rationalize his behavior. I may have been too young to appreciate the 1938 version when I saw it, but I just thought that Scrooge was too ecstatic at the end…he came off as almost creepy. Stewart was too violent in the beginning: in the book, Scrooge was heartless, but never vengeful or violent. (OK, Caine did throw around some Muppets, but they were Muppets. It was funny!)
Caine has the balance of the Scrooge personality that to me seems closest to the book: at the beginning severe in words and line delivery but never raucous or physically domineering(Scrooge didn’t have anything to prove: he just didn’t care about people); coming to a true sense of regret among the spirits but at the same time displaying wonder at the concept of Christmas joy, creating several moments of bittersweet tenderness; trepidation in the presence of the Spirit of the future without distracting from the situation by overacting; and in the last scene, a focus more on Scrooge’s generosity than on his elation, showing the depth of his happiness on the faces of the many friends he brings gifts to.
And, of course, the Muppet adaptation was truly inspired, especially when they made fun of lines lifted right out of the book: “More of gravy than of grave? Where do you get those horrible puns??” The Muppet casting was perfect, especially Robin as Tiny Tim and Fozzy as Fozziwig(originally Fezziwig). The costumes and scenery were incredibly well crafted. The music was perfect, with catchy, sentimental musical numbers chock full of thoughtful and witty lyrics, and with the background score of gorgeous brass choirs-nothing could have captured the Victorian Christmas sound better than that.
I don’t have time to go into how much I loved the interpretation of the three Spirits, or how much fun it was to have Rizzo and Gonzo tell the story.
The most important line was the last exchange between Rizzo and Gonzo(as Dickens), which propelled me towards a lifelong love of literature when I followed its advice:
“That was some story, Mr. Dickens!”
“Hey, if you liked that, you should read the book!”
1. Miracle on 34th Street – watched it every year on Christmas eve for as long as I could remember
2. The Night they Saved Christmas – My kids liked this a lot better than Miracle on 34th Street
3. Elf – its cute
4. It’s a Wonderful Life
5. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
Why do people keep counting “Gremlins” and “Die Hard” as Christmas movies?
I do agree “A Christmas Story” is number one, but what about “Ernest Saves Christmas”? Where is that?
#1. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
#2. A Christmas Story
#3. It’s a Wonderful Life
#4. Polar Express(Almost ranked this one higher, I think one of the best “stories” ever told. Simply put… It’ll warm your heart on a cold Winter’s night!)
#5. Miracle on 34th Street
#6. Scrooged (the Bill Murray Edition)
#7. A Christmas Carol (3D version with Jim Carey, visually stunning!)
#8 Elf
#9 Frosty The Snowman
#10 Fantasia
for the sake of being thorough, lets throw in planes, trains, and automobiles.