‘Tis the season for apple cider, cups of cocoa, twinkle lights, and – yes – the Christmas movies I pull out every year. Here, in no particular order except for #1, are my very favorite Christmas films:
1. A Charlie Brown Christmas. I get chills when Linus walks onstage, and I’m sniffling by the end of his little speech every.single.time. And oh, how I love Snoopy – the ice-skating scene and the dance scenes crack me up – and the end where they all sing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and well, just the whole thing.
2. White Christmas. I wrote last year about how much I LOVE this movie, though it’s a recent discovery for me. Love, love, love it – the music, the colors, the lights, the dancing, and the love and respect shown the General by his whole division of soldiers. And Danny Kaye’s jokes. And, well, just everything about it.
3. The Muppet Christmas Carol. I’ve always loved the Muppets, and Kermit is my favorite – so what’s not to love about this one? Rizzo and Gonzo crack me up with their narration; the songs are so clever; Kermit makes such a fabulous Bob Cratchit; and Michael Caine is brilliant. And when Scrooge donates an untold amount of money and Beaker gives him his red scarf, I always get teary-eyed.
4. The Holiday. Oh, how I love this little film – it makes me cry and laugh and feel all starry-eyed inside.
5. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original one, dang it). Such fun, colorful animation and a truly heartwarming story – and I love Max, the little dog/reindeer, so much.
6. Miracle on 34th Street – the original, with Natalie Wood and Maureen O’Hara. Such a classic, and I love watching the cynicism melt away as everyone comes to believe that there just might be a Santa Claus.
7. Rudolph, the Claymation version – with Hermey the Elf and Yukon Cornelius. So fun. (“Fog as thick as peanut butter!” “You mean pea soup!” “You eat what you like and I’ll eat what I like!”)
8. Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, mostly for the nostalgic value. We still have the old taped-off-TV VHS – now, most years, we just fast-forward to the scenes of Cookie Monster trying to write to Santa, but eating the pencil, the typewriter and the telephone, and Grover pretending to be Santa and trying to figure out how to get down the chimney. Hilarious and heartwarming, in true Muppet fashion.
What are your favorite Christmas movies?
cakes, tea and dreams 
Charlie Brown Christmas is the BEST! My little boy loves and listening to him laugh at Snoopy when he dances on the piano is worth watching it 10-15 times the last two Christmas seasons! I’m sure I used to do the same thing. White Christmas and Miracle are also great but I still think “Its a Wonderful Life” ranks right up there with them.
Enjoy the holidays!
Michael
LOVE LOVE LOVE White Christmas!!! I don’t know how I started with this tradition, but I won’t watch it before the first snowfall, and I LOVE waking up to the first snow and popping that movie in. If that meant I were watching it in September, I wouldn’t care. First snow = make hot cocoa, watching White Christmas (while singing along, of course) and start getting excited for the holidays Let’s not talk about how this year’s first snow is behind schedule and so I’m getting rather impatient!
Love Actually is on my Christmas Movie list – could watch it over and over and over again!
Love all the ones you’ve listed also, but one of my absolute favorites that is not on your list is “A Christmas Story”. Everything about that movie makes me feel like I’m eight years old again…love it! And now that I’m a parent I can totally relate to the parents in the movie as well.
Even though I’m a child of the eighties, something about the time period of this movie feels like a Christmas memory for me. If you haven’t seen it, give it a try, I think you’ll enjoy it. Merry Christmas!
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LOVE The Muppet Christmas Carol!!! Not only is Michael Cane one of my favorite actors ever, but somehow he and Kermit band together to make heartwarming Christmas magic.
The one I would add to your list (and I can’t believe it’s not there – too cliche maybe?) is It’s a Wonderful Life. The first Christmas we were married, I was shocked that my new husband had never seen this iconic movie. We settled in to watch on Christmas Eve with a bottle of champagne and popcorn, and I suddenly realized that while I’d watched this movie on and off growing up, I’d never actually seen it all the way through. My tough-man husband was incredibly touched by the simple truth of the story, and a tradition was born.
Now our Christmas Eve’s always go something like this: attend our church’s Christmas Eve worship service, pick up the Chinese take out we ordered ahead of time, take it back to our house and enjoy it with friends and family, kick them all out and put presents under the tree, light a fire and read the story of Jesus’ birth from Luke, pop popcorn and a bottle of champagne, settle in to watch It’s a Wonderful Life with the crackle of the fire and glow of the Christmas tree for company. Just thinking about it makes me grateful for the season, how our Savior came to Earth, and my husband. It truly is a wonderful life.
Christy, what a great story! I do love It’s a Wonderful Life – just haven’t seen it in a couple of years, and like you, didn’t see it all the way through till I was grown up. But yes, it’s fabulous – Clarence makes me laugh and Zuzu’s petals make me cry. My dad loves it too…though Charlie Brown is the Christmas Eve tradition at our house. (And Luke 2, of course!)
I love all of the ones you mentioned, but my hands-down favorite is The Muppet Christmas Carol. However, I’d also throw in The Santa Clause (the first one – not the sequels) and Christmas in Connecticut, which is an old b&w film starring Barbara Stanwyck.
Christine, I JUST saw Christmas in Connecticut yesterday!! Such a fun, old-timey film, and I loved Uncle Felix. Definitely a classic. (And I do like The Santa Clause.)
Hmmm…my favorite has to be National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I love it. Chevy Chase trying desperately to have the idyllic Christmas, and everything goes wrong. Absolutely hilarious. Also love Home Alone!
Otherwise, White Christmas (of course), and Miracle on 34th Street.
[…] season – from decorations at home and around town to buying and making gifts, to the books, movies and music I revisit every year. I love the glittery-warm-fuzzy anticipation and the quiet reverence […]