Like everyone with a heart and soul, I'm a huge fan of Christmas, to the point where knowing Christmas is coming is enough to make finals week nearly bearable. And any fan of Christmas knows that one of the best parts of the holiday season are all the movies that we only break out in December. Since we're at a point in our lives where we're busy with too many things to be bothered with watching sub-par Christmas movies, here's a list of the best (and only the best) wintertime movies to watch to prep for the best day of the year.
"Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer" (1964).
I'm pretty sure that everyone in Western civilization knows the story of Rudolph, and if you haven't seen the movie, you owe it to yourself to do it now. It's broadcast on TV every December, meaning you have no excuse not to watch it at least once. There's so much completely off-the-wall stuff in this TV special that it's almost impossible not to like; there's an abominable snowman, a down-on-his-luck prospector who gets around on a sleigh driven by poodles, a flying lion, an island full of depressed talking toys and a snowman who narrates the whole thing with a crazy amount of swag. And best of all -- Santa Claus is a total a-hole in this movie. He blows off elves and writes off reindeer with weird body parts and basically hates his wife -- it's too funny not to appreciate. But best of all, it's an insanely entertaining way to watch a reindeer who didn't fit in become a Christmas legend.
"Jingle All the Way" (1996).
Any movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger is a win -- considering his best acting gig was as a robot with no understanding of human emotions, watching him actually try is pretty great. But as a movie, "Jingle All the Way" still stands on its own -- goofy Austrians notwithstanding. Most Christmas movies deal with things that people can't relate to, like elves or flying reindeer. But "Jingle All the Way" is about something that's all too real during Christmas time -- crazy people going shopping. If you don't feel for Arnold as he makes his way through masses of insane people in a shopping mall, you don't do Christmas right.
"Home Alone" (1990).
"Home Alone" is great because you don't have to buy into Christmas to enjoy the movie. It's a story about a kid getting left home alone for a few days and having to defend himself against robbers is a pretty generic story for any season. But the music, the colors and the wintery Chicago setting make it a holiday tradition. Christmas spirit aside, how could you not like a movie about a little kid doing grown-up things all by himself? His clever methods of warding off the bandits (along with the fact that his family inexplicably owns a ton of mannequins) gives us all hope that we can protect ourselves against home invasions too. The fact that so many movies have taken cues from the climax of Home Alone (most recently, the finale of "Skyfall" where James Bond rigs his house to kill incoming bad guys) just goes to show how great it is. Also, "keep the change you filthy animal"... enough said.
"A Christmas Story" (1983).
Let's be honest, it's a miracle that this movie works. At it's core, it's about nothing -- just a string of kinda, sorta Christmas-themed vignettes strung together by a common theme of a kid wanting a BB-gun for Christmas. But it pulls it off because of how funny it is watching the main character's life suck for an hour and a half. He gets beat up on a daily basis, gets yelled at and told to shut up by his parents and he even says the f-word! Tell me there's something funnier in this world than elementary-aged kids saying the f-word! But then at the end, when his Christmas wish finally comes true, all of the crap thrown at this kid is made up for. It's one of the most immensely satisfying experiences in the history of movies. And it gives us hope that even when our lives are in a rut, Christmas is the day to turn things around.
"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946).
I never wanted to watch this movie and never had any intentions of liking it. It's old, it's in black and white, it's long and all people can say about it is that it makes them cry. But when I finally got around to watching it, I was amazed at how great it was. Usually, I can't sit through a whole movie without checking my phone or getting up to do something in the middle of it, but I sat through the entire duration of "It's a Wonderful Life" without so much as looking away from the screen.
The movie takes you through the life of one man who, despite being the most likable human being of all time, can't quite seem to find satisfaction with his life. He never gets to travel or get rich like he always planned on, due to extenuating circumstances that keep popping up, along with his undying loyalty to his family and hometown. It's a theme that we can all relate to, because rarely do things in life go perfectly as planned. But that doesn't matter so long as you have values and prove loyalty, and that's exactly what the movie proves. This is one of my favorite movies ever made and I don't care how corny and lame that makes me. If seeing all of the main character's hard work and strict sense of ethics pays off in the end doesn't make you want to re-evaluate your life, you must be dead on the inside. While it's only a Christmas movie due to its climax being set on Christmas eve, it's still a movie that lines up perfectly with the feel-good spirit of the holidays.
