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Junk Drawer - 12/4/09 - Holiday Movie Edition



One of my favorite parts of this holiday season is watching Christmas movies.  Over the years I've worked up a Christmas movie rotation.  These are movies I try to watch all of or at least most of (if I catch them on TV) at least once during the Christmas season.  Christmas movies generally revolve around the same themes:  family togetherness, the magic of imagination, warm fuzzies.  Sure, they can be corny, but that's part of the fun sometimes.

My rotation consists of classics and modern day movies alike.  A couple of them are getting harder and harder to catch on TV and some are pretty ubiquitous around this time.  Without further ado, my rotation:

First, of course, is what I consider the greatest Christmas movie, A Christmas Story.  It's not even so much about Christmas as it is about the time of year.  And to me, it captures what it's like to be 8-10 years old right around Christmas time:  the anticipation, the excitement, the spector of disappointment.  Here's a clip that capture the general hilarity of the movie as well as the idea that the excitement doesn't just stop with the children at Christmas time.

Second, is Home Alone.  I've watched this pretty much every year since I can remember.  Hilarious.  Some of the finest slapstick work you'll see.  Plus, like George Costanza, that old man gets to me.

Next, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  Maybe the best "Vacation" movie.  HIjinks ensue.  Chevy Chase does moronic, but good hearted, well intentioned stuff as well as creating the most tremendous exterior illumination display this side of Tim Taylor.  And Cousin Eddy commits a traditional holiday kidnapping.

The other big one for me is a fairly recent Christmas classic, Elf.  Will Ferrell knocks this out of the park. Here's the scene that slays me every single time and also kind of captures the spirit of the movie.

A quick rundown of a few others:  the original Miracle on 34th Street, the version of A Christmas Carol starring Alastair Sim, Love Actually, the cartoon version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and A Peanuts Christmas.

Lastly, my Dad had a video camera.  So we have pretty much every christmas recorded on home video from 1988 until the late 90s.  My siblings and I all loved watching these together every year.  Now, it doesn't happen so much as we're all busier, it's harder to plan a time, and no one has a VCR.  One year, my brother attempted to transfer the tapes to DVD, but with little success.  Still, these are probably my favorite Christmas movies to watch.  I don't have a clip.  But suffice it to say the first home video featurs me running around the living room in a circle at the age of six in my pj's singing Jingle Bells.

I'm not doing a poll because there is no way I will be able to fit every Christmas movie people would want to vote for so let everyone know in the comments.    I encourage everyone  to enjoy at least one Christmas movie this year if you're needing an extra boost of holiday spirit.