During the Christmas season every family loves to snuggle up next to the fire with some hot chocolate and watch their favorite Christmas movies. There are of course the classic Christmas movies, The Grinch, A Christmas Story, Elf, Miracle on 34^th Street, which everyone uses as their go to holiday film. However, I am here to talk about what I think is an underrated Christmas movie, and that is the 1996 movie Jingle All the Way.

This movie stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jake Lloyd (that kid that everyone hate in Star Wars Episode 1). Schwarzenegger plays Howard, a father who often lets work come before his family, who gets himself into big trouble by not buying his son the most popular toy of the season for his son ahead of time. Howard has no choice but to search the entire city of New York to find the doll on Christmas Eve. While this movie has many drawbacks and things that many movie buffs would consider fatal flaws of this movie, including Schwarzenegger’s thick Austrian accent while he tries to portray the essence of the American dad, I think this movies holds up to be a perfect holiday film.

On his journey to find the infamous Turbo Man Doll, Howard is tested by his lack of responsibility and has to find a way to make amends with his family and come to terms with himself that he needs to be there for his son. Jaime loses respect for his father when he does not show up for important events, yet he still sees him as his hero.

At the end of the film Howard saves the day as Turbo Man in the Christmas Eve parade and finds that he has always been his son’s hero and that while he was searching for Turbo Man, a materialistic doll to win his sons love back, he (in a sense) was searching for the Turbo Man inside himself the entire time. The movie is a combination of comedy, a farcical take on the capitalist tradition of buying gifts during the holiday season, and family values above all else.

Rotten Tomatoes may rate this film as a 16%, but I will continue to come back to this movie every holiday season for it’s wonderful message, and because its just a funny film. If you are looking for a fun Christmas movie to watch with your family this holiday season my suggestion would be Jingle All the Way.