CLASH OF THE CHRISTMAS MOVIES

Scrooged is likely my favorite live action movie that is centered around Christmas. Carol Kane is just amazing.

Nightmare before Christmas as a Halloween/Christmas hybrid is my favorite in the stop-motion category.

Grinch is the best cartoon by far.

Trading Places edges out other non Christmas centered movies.

RobertB wrote: Michael Barnes wrote:

And so on. Rudolph the Red Nosed-Reindeer is the single greatest piece of Christmas entertainment ever created so it has already won, but Let's Talk about how wrong you are if you disagree.

'Rudolph the Red Nosed-Reindeer' would have been a lot better if Rudolph had told Santa to take his sleigh and jam it straight up his ass. The flying reindeer squad was straight-up bigoted (Rudolph's father included, against his own son no less!), and Santa didn't give two shits about it until his ass got in a jam with that snowstorm. I don't recall anyone in the North Pole organization that straightened up their act because it was the right thing to do.

It is a terrifying, amoral film. I love it but as an almost anti-christmas hate movie.

My favorite Christmas-related entertainment:

1. Charlie Brown Christmas
2. It's A Wonderful Life
3. Die Hard
4. Elf
5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Emmett Otter was on Hulu a year or two ago, not sure if that's the case this year or not.

I liked Jeff White's answer of Lord of the Rings. I've been rewatching the Harry Potter movies with my wife, and I've always associated those with the holiday season as well.

Also not much into Frosty The Snow-man. I watched it this year for the first time in a while, and it really didn't work well for me.

I notice a few people here have mentioned Charlie Brown Christmas, which is one of the few Christmas entertainments that I watch literally every year. I find it oddly renewing. I've always identified strongly with the religious elements, so I'm curious how it plays for people who aren't religious. Or maybe that's why you don't like it, I don't know. I can see it being comforting in an increasingly stressful time of the year, even if the specific Luke account Linus quotes isn't particularly meaningful to you. Is that the case? (Not trying to start a religious discussion, just trying to see how that particular piece of culture plays for people whose perspective is different from mine.)

Rudolph has the charming art direction and animation, but yeah there's a lot of discrimination going on there.

Elf is pretty good, it's grown on me over the years after I initially ignored it as another Will Ferrel movie. But it's sweet and unique. Also my nephew is currently on tour with the Elf: The Musical broadway tour thing playing Michael, so that's cool.

Scrooged is one of my favorites, I'm not sure the humor has aged all that well, but the Ghost of Christmas Present constantly hitting Murray was hilarious as a kid, especially with the toaster.

A Christmas Story used to be a favorite of mine, but TBS/TNT totally killed that as it's so. over. played. every year. Also there's too much pop culture references and merchandise about the leg lamp and Red Ryder BB Guns, etc. ugh. It's just overload.

Muppets Christmas Carol is just the most perfect adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Michael Caine is magnificent. It's also probably the best Muppets movie. The Ghost of Christmas Future is still absolutely terrifying, even as an adult. That costume creeps me out. It's basically a Nazghul.

Arthur Christmas is my favorite of any xmas movie released in the past decade. Aardman Animation rarely has a dud, but Arthur Christmas knocks it out of the park. When my son was 2-3 years old Arthur Christmas was pretty much in the DVD player year round. Grandpa Santa is hilarious.

There are no Christmas movies but Bad Santa. Full stop.

(You can make mild exceptions for almost-Christmas movies like Trading Places and A Nghtmare Before Christmas. Exception would also be made for A Christmas Story if it hadn't been beaten into the ground by TNT. Other than Nightmare, the only animated movie that's worthwhile is The Year Without a Santa Claus, because of Snow Miser and Heat Miser.)

But, seriously, Bad Santa. It's the only movie that truly captures the Xmas spirit of self-interest, copious alcohol, kicking other people in the balls, and fucking 'til you can't walk right.

Not a fan of xmas movies but I did enjoy Elf. For xmas-related stuff I'll toss out Long Kiss Goodnight and The Ref as movies that haven't been mentioned yet that I like too.

Scrooged is my favorite Christmas movie by a long shot.

"The bitch hit me with a toaster!"
"I never liked a girl well enough to give her twelve sharp knives."

I still use the phrase "Niagra falls, Frankie angel".

Grinch - cartoon, not movie.

There's a couple of versions of A Christmas Carol that I like. The Alastair Slim one and the George C. Scott ones both work for me. I haven't seen Scrooged in a long time, so I guess I should hunt it up.

Our artificial Christmas tree is getting to look like Charlie Brown's tree, so that show hits a little too close to home.

My favorite Christmas movies are:

Love Actually - it makes me smile every time despite its unevenness and obvious tugging on the heartstrings
Muppet Christmas Carol - great songs, acting, desing
Nightmare Before Christmas - amazing songs and just beautful, I love Selnick's stop-motion direction
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale - it's dark but still feels like a Christmas film
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (Rankin/Bass) - because obviously
Santa Claus (the 1959 Mexican film) - my mom was the queen of selecting random oddities that she knew nothing about and just giving it to us to watch. I watched this several times each Christmas and it just such an odd film. I've never seen the MST3K version of it, but I'm curious if it adds anything to the insanity on display.

I like Die Hard and Gremlins, but despite taking place at Christmas, they do not feel Christmas-focused enough to count for me.

All this talk of Muppet Christmas Carol (which is great) but not much about the Muppet Family Christmas. It plays even more like a family reunion now than it did when it came out. When Jim Henson himself appears at the end, it's hard to not feel a pang of grief. Pretty magical, that one.

Also, is there a consensus here on the Santa Clause movies? I revisited them a year or two ago and was pleasantly surprised, though I think I like it even better as they went on. The third one is as close as we'll get to a live-action Rankin-Bass Christmas movie, and I sort of love the weird pseudo-Santa in the second one.

The second one is better than the first, IMHO, San. The evil robot Santa works. And I must admit the needing a wife and the otherwise successful woman agreeing to it at the end to save Christmas is so socially regressive as to almost unreal and enjoyable. Never seen the 3rd one.

The reindeer are so fucking creepy.

We just took our 4 and 2 year old to see Rudolph the Red Now Reindeer the Musical*, and it was very faithful to the cartoon. They loved it. Our daughter got the 8 piece figurine set -- she refers to Cornelius as a dwarf -- and had many questions regarding the way that everyone treated Rudolph. Our son got a big stuffed Bumble at Intermission and would hold it up, like an emblem of loyalty, when the snow monster made an appearance.

*This actually set off a crazy eight days of Christmas ridiculousness that has led to exhaustion:

1) Rudolph the Musical
2) Nutcracker Ballet
3) Living Windows
4) Monster Jam -- I never thought I would attend a Monster Truck rally, but our son loved it and I admit that the machiner and driving is impressive. Seeing him so damn giddy made it worthwhile
5) Polar Express Train Ride.

Mix in dance recitals and the like and now I need a vacation.

We recently saw Christmas in Connecticut for the first time (original version) which was OK but it also had this 20 minute short on the DVD which we really liked:

GREMLINS

wadenels wrote: GREMLINS

Cause nothing says Christmas like dead rotting daddy dressed as Santa in the Chimney.