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2024 discussion threads
This is probably not as unpopular opinion as I think it is, but I can’t stand Christmas movies. I do enjoy and celebrate Christmas, but the commercial aspect of it is too shoved down our throats like some kind of Foie Gras nightmare.
Anyway, instead I watch through James Bond movies substituting misogyny and violence for hokey sentimental commercialism.
I think it just makes for an easy sell to say that it's full of good will and a kind story because it's about Christmas but then you watch any of those Hallmark movies and it's about calling men dumb and women who work terrible women who should be mothers...
Like as if the good fun of the holiday will even put whatever else they want to do or say in making a terrible piece of media to a more palatable state.
It's like smothering a bad meal in gravy and saying well at least all you can taste is salt but here it's Santa Claus. Definitely mostly not worth consumption.
I feel like this could be said of any movie or any form of entertainment. We're selling stories, ideas, and norms. The Christmas flavor definitely isn't my favorite though.
Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas has been a favourite of mine since it came out. Another Jim Henson classic.
We stumbled upon this, more or less by accident, maybe a decade ago. It immediately entered the annual holiday movie cycle. I think it’s one of Henson’s best works. 10/10!
Better Off Dead
Rare Exports
Christmas Vacation is on repeat in my house this time of year.
If I'm depressed, A Charlie Brown Christmas. If not, the 1966 special How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. Mr. Robot S04 is a favorite as well.
I haven't seen many classic Christmas films though so I plan on broadening my horizons. My mom plans on showing my Diehard this year, I plan on watching FX/BBC's rendition of A Christmas Carol, and I likely will see the 2000 Grinch movie with a friend.
Well, first of all, Michael Caine is best Scrooge.
(Muppet Christmas Carol)
And of course Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
The usual family classics like the Charlie Brown & Garfield Christmas specials, all the Rankin/Bass specials, the first two Home Alones (shame they never made any more), newer classics like The Santa Clause and Elf…
But also a few that are a bit esoteric.
Santa’s Magic Toy Bag - From the creators of Alf, a cute and short morality tale about an elf that can’t find his place in Santa’s workshop.
The Snowman - A sad and wonderful story about a boy who builds a snowman that comes to (an all too short) life.
The Christmas Toy - A Jim Henson production, two toys risk being seen moving on their own to stop new Christmas toys from replacing them. Sounds a bit like Toy Story, right?
Others that I still remember fondly but haven’t seen in a long time are The Berenstain Bears Christmas Tree, A Muppet Family Christmas, Ziggy’s Christmas Wish, and The Chipmunk’s Christmas.
Die Hard, obviously.
There's on improv puppet troupe that does Die Hard as a musical and combines it with A Christmas Carol. It's great.
My December viewing of Buckaroo Banzai.
Does the Lord Of The Ring extended trilogy count?
Sure, they were winter releases if I remember right?
I don't think it was winter they were just on top of a mountain.
We usualy do marathon around Christmas as well, so I'd personally count it.
I hadn't seen them before, so for a few Christmases, my partner and I watched The Lord of the Rings movies because any movie with an elf counts as a Christmas movie.
You know what's almost guaranteed to be a bad movie? Any movies specifically written to be a Christmas movie.
Seriously it's like wading through waist high sewage till something good drifts along.
So in likelihood of me to watch them:
You cannot comment on this without bringing up the Star Wars Christmas Special. Die hard fan since '77 and I can't even start it.
Yup. But like every tie in Christmas special hasn't been much better.
I think the only one tied to a pre-existing IP that was good was Pee-wee and that is easy cause he mocks everything the whole time.
It's tradition to skip Christmas specials when rewatching pretty much any IP.
Klaus for me. Great animation, and cool story and characters
A christmas carol with Patrick Stewart as Scrooge. And, of course, Die hard. Edit: I forgot - Home alone.
Bad Santa
Office Christmas Party
The Night Before
"Bad Santa" was hilarious. And even today it's just as funny
Die Hard and A Christmas Story as always, but I've also added another one (not a movie), the Hawkeye series.
Hawkeye is unironically a new Christmas classic.
Also the What If…? Episode that riffs on Die Hard counts as a Christmas special.
What’s the one with Arnold and Sinbad?
Jingle all the way?
Yes that’s the one. Somehow they get Arnold yelling about bombs and choppers into a xmas movie. Classic.
Nightmare Before Christmas. I just have a soft spot for Jack Skellington, possibly my first ever crush.
No, no, that’s a Thanksgiving movie. Watching it for Halloween is too soon, watching it for Christmas is too late. So watching it in November is perfect.
The classic A Christmas Carol with Alstare Sim
Die hard and home alone are my top two
It's a wonderful life
It's gotten increasingly sad for me to watch.
I conflate it with all the lessons modern society chose to forget with the promise of moar.
Potter won, and all the George Baileys are long dead.
It's definitely Klaus or Arthur Christmas. Klaus is just beautiful and amazing, and Arthur Christmas is hilarious. I always laugh at the "worry me" scene.
Not a movie, but I'd like to throw the Zanta Claws episodes from Eddsworld into the ring.
Finally we can talk about Christmas without forcing Santa to execute an elf.
Classic Line from the Alstair Sim version, "Are there no prisons....are there no work houses?"