Seeing that Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday and just about every channel on television has a marathon of their top seasonal movies, I figured that I might take a whack at it and create a list of all of my go-to Christmas cinemas.
1. "White Christmas" (1954)
If you go around to any of my friends or family and ask them the infamous question, "What is Taylor's favorite Christmas movie?" They will all overwhelmingly and unanimously say White Christmas. And although most of my friends and my boyfriend will say that they hate it either because it's too old for them to appreciate or too long for them to focus their short attention spans, I still have the biggest place in my heart for it.
My love for this movie could be because of a slight nostalgia factor since my mom and I watch it every year while we make Christmas cookies, but I have a feeling that I would fall in love with the iconic duo that is Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye even if it wasn't an intricate part of my childhood holiday memories. Them performing side by side AND my favorite time period for movies was a killer combo that I didn't stand a chance against.
2. "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" (2000)
Now I am very partial to the original cartoon version and the book that started this franchise, but my family and I have an extreme love for the actor that is Jim Carey. And by extreme love, we are 100% serious and have even managed to perfect imitations of him from every single movie that he has appeared in, and I do have to admit that my brother is the king of the Carey impersonation.
And honestly, if one of you can sit through the entire Grinch movie and not even mutter a chuckle, we do not have the same sense of humor and I am not sure why we are even friends.
3. "The Santa Clause" (1994)
I do not know one single person who does not completely and utterly enjoy the entirety of this film. I mean how could you not with the iconic Tim Allen acting as an accidental Santa Claus? And not to mention Eric Lloyd who played the adorable Charlie sneaking into America's heart with that classic bowl cut and those chubby cheeks.
4. "Elf" (2003)
My love for this movie is, to be quite blunt, shocking because I absolutely loathe Will Ferrell. I don't like him as an actor, and I don't like his comedy, so the fact that this movie is a staple in the month of December for me, came as a surprise to me. But I think what sealed the deal for me was our mutual agreement of the four food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup.
5. "Home Alone" (1990)
To me, it is not Christmas-time without this sassy staple. Now we all know Macaulay Culkin has not being doing super well lately, but he was thriving as a child movie-star, and this film is no exception. When I was a kid, seeing all of the different complex designs of Kevin's traps/attacks was mind-blowing to me. And it was my slight dream to one day, be able to carry out all of these different contraptions with my own personal spin on it.
And let's face it, we live for the faces and reactions of Harry and Marv who were the masters at playing to our comedic side.
6. "The Polar Express" (2004)
I remember when this movie first came out and I was the ripe age of 7. And that is about the age that you start to question if Santa Claus is real or if it's your parents playing the cruelest trick of their lives on you. So I give kudos to the creators of this movie because they convinced me to believe in Santa again so that I would never be one of those gross, mature adults that was not able to hear the beautiful ring of the reindeer's bell.
And not only did I fall in love with the overall plot line of the movie, but I was also determined to develop my career as a train conductor so that I could obtain the very important skill of hole-punching cryptic words into children's golden tickets.
7. "The Holiday" (2006)
It took me quite some time to actually sit down and watch this movie from start to finish since I had always seen just little bits and pieces. But as I watched the movie, I could not help but add it to my list of romantic comedies that I save for cuddly nights in as well as my list of Christmas movies to start on the first of December (in reality it's more like the first of October).
8. "Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas" (1999)
You all cannot judge me for putting this on the list because there is one reason/word why I added it to this list and it is nostalgia. I used to play this movie on repeat when I was a child and ever since then, whenever I pop this sucker in, it takes me all the way back.
And let's be honest, there will always be our inner child, somewhere within us, wanting to watch something Disney.
9. "Love Actually" (2003)
I will give you a fair warning when I say that I had the highest expectations for this movie because I have heard so many people sing their praises about it. And I have to admit that it didn't surpass or even meet my expectations. But I do have to relent and say that it is a good holiday movie and if you haven't seen it then you should definitely add it to your list because it at least deserves to be seen.
Now clearly there are so many other movies that I absolutely adore that include the common themes of Saint Nick and towering evergreen trees, but there are only so many words that my little fingers can handle typing and so many lines that your little eyes can handle reading. But I will say that in addition to this list, I also have my gaze glued to the Hallmark and Lifetime channels for their own original Christmas movies.
So to all of you I say happy holidays and happy hunting; your perfect feel-good films aren't easy to find!