Christmas is here once more. Letters to Santa, disgruntled shoppers and people freaking out over Starbucks cups are all Hallmarks of my favourite time of year. Another time honoured holiday tradition is the onslaught of Christmas movies, both old and new, good and bad, bombarding TVs from coast to coast to coast. Hundreds of movies and specials flood the air and cable waves this time of year and even Netflix gets in on the seasonal action.
As someone with one toe always dipped in the Hollywood pool, I’m often asked what my favourite Christmas movie is. It’s a tough question, but I’ve managed to narrow it down to my top twelve (you know, Twelve Days of Christmas and all that). So without further ado, here are my twelve favourite Christmas movies and why they have a special place in my Yuletide heart.
- Miracle on 34th Street (1947): You know how people are always going on and on (and freaking on) about how things were so much better in “their day?” People were nicer, the air was cleaner, the food tasted better and everyone was happy to walk uphill through blizzards and war zones to get to school? For the most part it’s nostalgic nonsense, but watching the original black and white Miracle on 34th Street (and not that abomination of a remake with the kid from Matilda), you kind of believe it about Christmas. The infamous trial to prove that Chris Kringle is the actual Santa Claus is really just the backdrop to the story of a little girl struggling to discover the same magic her mother is trying to rediscover. It somehow manages to be charming without being too sappy and has one of the best endings of any Christmas movie ever.
- Elf (2003): This movie works for one reason and one reason only-Will Ferrell. As Buddy the man-elf, Ferrell is the Christmas loving kid hiding in every adult unleashed and on steroids. His performance as a grown man raised by Santa’s elves is as fearless as it is hilarious. He’s in a state of constant, hyperkinetic joy, even when he’s falling off tress, falling down stairs and passing out from running around in circles. If the scenes where he accosts a fake mall Santa or receives a smack down for the ages from a diminutive child’s author (a pre-GoT Peter Dinklage) don’t have you rolling on the floor, you need to check for a pulse.
- Fred Claus (2007): When Santa Claus was made a saint, his entire family was granted immortality, including his oft overlooked older brother Fred. Played with pitch perfection by Vince Vaughn, Fred grows into a snarky, wisecracking slacker and con man moving from one get-rich-quick scheme to the next. When Fred agrees to work for Santa one pivotal Christmas in return for being bailed out, hilarious fireworks eventually ensue. The scene where Fred teaches girl-shy head elf Willie to dance will remind everyone what it was like to be an awkward teenager while keeping a smile on your face. And the scene where all of the elves rush to the giant snow globe to watch children across the entire world open their presents Christmas morning will bring a genuine Holiday tear to your eye.
- Rise of the Guardians (2012): Virtually ignored in theatres, this animated masterpiece is an anomaly on this list. It actually takes place during Easter and good old St. Nick is part of an ensemble cast. Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Sandman and the Tooth Fairy must come together to protect the children of the world from the Boogey Man, who has escaped from the prison the Guardians put him in at the end of the Dark Ages. While the movie primarily focuses on the rise of Jack Frost as one of the Guardians, Santa remains the coolest of the entire lot. The imaginative twists on both him and his legend (he’s a larger than life, sword wielding Russian with the Naughty and Nice lists tattooed on his arms, he has an army of Yetis building toys in his workshop instead of elves and he’s able to travel the entire globe because of the wormholes his magic Christmas globes create) are by far the best part of the movie and the film’s message of childish wonder and hope are a perfect fit for the season.
- A Christmas Carol (1951): One of many versions (and the first of two on this list), the 1951 version of Charles Dickens Christmas masterpiece is by far the best rendition. Alastair Sim is the perfect Ebenezer Scrooge, a miser with wealth beyond belief who measures the value of life with spreadsheets and profit and loss statements. Everyone knows the story of how the sprits of Christmas Past, Present and Future terrify him into removing the selfish blinders from his eyes, but this version of the story legitimately scared me as a kid. The images of Want and Hunger hiding beneath the Spirit of Christmas Present’s robes and Sim’s terrified screams during his visit with the Spirit of Christmas Future will be burned into my holiday memory for the rest of my life.
- The Santa Claus (1994): Be honest, when you were a kid your favourite part of Christmas was the presents (and probably still is). And the idea of Santa Claus, a jolly father figure who reads letters from every kid in the world and delivers their heart’s desires to the good ones every Christmas Eve was your favourite Christmas legend. But to me, it was the idea of Santa Claus that held me in a sort of holiday thrall. The idea that there was someone with the resources to equal their unrivaled generosity of spirit who rewarded the good kids (hey, when you’re constantly in the crosshairs of the school bullies, it’s an appealing idea) was the definition of Christmas. To this day I do everything I can to spoil as many people as much as I can. The Santa Clause was the first movie I remember that really used the idea that anyone could be Santa and that the title of Santa Claus was really a mantle passed from one worthy person to another. Even smart asses like Scott Calvin, who denies his new reality until the idea brings out the best in him. It’s a delightful little heart warmer with laughs and some quirky ideas (like the task force of elves whose sole purpose is to get Santa out of jams). But the notion that anyone with the right potential could be the spirit of kindness and generosity for an entire world is what makes this one of my all time Christmas faves.
- Arthur Christmas (2011): The second animated movie on my list is pure, fantastic imagination. The job of being Santa Claus is a generational one, with the title handed down from father to son. And this isn’t your father’s Santa. He crisscrosses the globe on a massive starship, deploying an army of ninja like elves that execute their mission with unrivaled military efficiency. The stockings of entire cities are filled in les than a minute before Santa One is racing for the next metropolis at Mach speed. But when a child is missed, the three current generations of Santa reveal why none of them have the “Santa stuff.” The retired Santa only wants to prove that his ways were the best, the current Santa wants to expend as little effort as possible while basking in the glory of the title while his eldest son (and the presumed future Santa) writes the missed child off as an acceptable failure within his mission parameters. It takes the clumsy and awkward Arthur (Santa’s youngest son) to step up and save the day. Everything Arthur does is for purely unselfish reasons and his undying faith in the idea of Christmas is what the season should truly be about. But the giant spaceship and elves carrying gift guns don’t hurt either.
- Home Alone (1990): “You don’t mess with kids on Christmas.” That became a battle cry for an entire generation of kids who adopted Kevin McAllister as their Yuletide hero. Weaponizing everything from paint cans to Hot Wheels to a tarantula, Kevin fends off a pair of moronic cat burglars one Christmas Eve after being abandoned by his family. The sight gags in this movie still hold up over a quarter of a century later as Kevin proves that, at Christmas at least, kids are the superior holiday warriors. But beneath the hilarious slapstick and one-liners, Kevin undergoes a touching journey of discovery, realizing that Christmas isn’t Christmas without family, no matter how much they drive you nuts (see movie number three on this list). The sequel, which followed the exact same formula, was also pretty stellar, but the original remains in a class of its own.
- It’s A Wonderful Life (1946): The oldest movie on this list, It’s A Wonderful Life is also probably the most emotionally touching one. George Bailey is the anti-Scrooge; a man with virtually nothing to his name who works tirelessly for others while defying the uber-wealthy Mr. Potter, an oligarch who would have the entire town of Bedford Falls living under his miserly thumb if it weren’t for the Bailey family. Forced to abandon his life long dreams and settle for mediocrity, George reaches the end of his emotional rope and considers the unthinkable until his guardian angel Clarence reveals how many lives he’s touched and how bleak the world would be without him. And in the end, all the friends he’s helped along the course of his life come through in his darkest hour. This movie gets a lot of hate from the Christmas cynics, but this is a genuine tearjerker that should be watched every holiday season.
- National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989): While Kevin McAllister was adopted by an entire generation of kids as their Christmas Champion, Clark Griswold became the standard bearer for parents everywhere. While thee are plenty of other movies on this list that depict Christmas as we wish it was, Christmas Vacation shows it as it usually turns out (with a few comedic liberties of course). It shows how everything is pretty much doomed the second you take a bunch of cranky relatives and cram them under one roof at the holidays. Because no matter how hard you try, there will always be one or two who simply refuse to get on board because they genuinely suck as human beings.
- A Christmas Story (1983): Every kid can relate to Ralphie’s obsessive quest for his Red Rider Beebe gun. We’ve all had that one thing we had our sights set on and Christmas was the perfect way to get it. Whether it was relying on jolly old St. Nick or trying to bribe our parents, we exhausted no option to acquire the one thing that would make our lives absolutely perfect. A Christmas Story not only sums up the absurd lengths we went to get it, but the adventures that usually went part and parcel with being a kid at Christmas. Battles with bullies, schoolyard dares, the first time you let loose with obscenity in full parental view, this move has it all. Including the fact that when we did get that coveted toy, it either failed to live up to our lofty childhood expectations or fell apart as soon as t came out of the box. When Ralphie eventually shoots his eye out (just as every adult in his orbit warned he would), it’s a powerful metaphor for the disappointment that broke all of our childhoods.
- Scrooged (1988): Bill Murray is at his wisecracking best in this modern version of A Christmas Carol. He plays Frank Cross, the youngest television executive in history who is also a grade A jerk and just about the worst boss on the planet. Murray’s understated, subtle comedic genius makes this movie as he struggles through his supernatural visitations (as good as Murray is, Carol Kane steals the show as the Ghost of Christmas Present, who despite her innocent and sweet appearance gets her message across with right hooks, uppercuts and toasters to the face). According to movie lore, Murray’s uplifting, emotional speech to wrap the movie up at the end was completely improvised. Scrooged will tickle your funny bone while it pulls at a few heart strings along the way and is the perfect movie to wrap up this list.
