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We had a thread for Halloween movies so I figured why not have one for Christmas films.

Here's the Christmas movies I've watched so far this month:

Die Hard (1988) 5/5
Trading Places (1983) 5/5
Rocky 4 (1985) 3/5
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) bluray 5/5
Jingle All the Way (1996) 2/5
It's a Wonderful Life (1946) 5/5

We'll start on ours tonight, since we've got 6 movies and six days up to an including the 25th.

I guess I could sort of count these:

For Your Eyes Only (1981) - kind of Christmasy as a lot of it takes place at a ski resort.  I gave that a 4/5.
Saint Nick (2010) - Dutch Christmas horror, gave that a 4/5 as well.

I should also watch Heroes of Telemark and Where Eagles Dare I suppose.  Oh and I should finally get around to watching Død Snø on Netflix.  All the heartwarming family fare ya know  :smile:

Been watching them all month, either with the whole family or just with my daughter. She's at the age where I wanted to introduce her to some annual favourites.

We've watched:

Elf
Jingle All the Way
The Santa Clause
Home Alone
A Christmas Carol (1951)
It's a Wonderful Life
Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
Ernest Saves Christmas

And a few of the specials:
Rankin-Bass Rudolph
Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown
How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Hoping to enjoy a couple more versions of A Christmas Carol I've rounded up - Albert Finney, Bill Murray, Henry Winkler and possibly George C. Scott if I can find it.

And, of course, I must find time for Ralphie and the Griswolds. Probably Christmas Day.

So far, I have watched only A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938).  I will be overloaded with Christmas movie viewings over the next few days, as I traditionally dig out my DVDs of:

* A CHRISTMAS CAROL/SCROOGE (3 versions in addition to the one I mentioned above)
* RICH LITTLE'S CHRISTMAS CAROL
* A CHRISTMAS STORY
* THE BEST OF THE ANDY WILLIAMS CHRISTMAS SPECIALS
* A BING CROSBY CHRISTMAS
* HAPPY HOLIDAYS WITH BING AND FRANK

If I have time, I will watch a few others.  But the ones above are the ones I make sure I watch every year.

Cuz we've had 'em several times before...almost every year?   :question:

How is TRADING PLACES a Christmas movie?  Just because it happens to take place around Christmas/New Years?  Don't get me wrong, it's an EXCELLENT movie...one of my favorites, but it's not really a Christmas story (in my opinion, at least).

Our list includes all (well, most) of the Rankin-Bass claymation movies, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS and smattering of others as they crop up. 

I like a sweet, sentimental, sappy cutesy-poo Christmas movie as much as the next guy, and I always get misty-eyed when Linus delivers his speech about "What Christmas is all about" in "A Charlie Brown Christmas," but after a while I need to counteract all that sugar with some twisted stuff like "Bad Santa" or something from the "Silent Night, Deadly Night" series.  :teddyr:

That's exactly why I count it as one. The same goes for Eyes Wide Shut etc.

The Rankin-Bass Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty The Snowman. And what would it be without Jimmy Stewart reminding us that It's A Wonderful Life? And of course A Charlie Brown Christmas.

These are and always will be a staple of my Holiday viewing no matter what age I get to be. So many wonderful memories of being 5 and laying on the floor by the Christmas tree as the old TV brought ABC in with that little bit of fuzzy reception reminding me that TV was still in it's youth w\regard to reception.

And of course, what sort of ABC Christmas would it have been w\o Santa riding on his Norelco razor?  :smile:   I'm getting misty-eyed right about now...

So far, I've watched:
Home Alone
Elf
Die Hard
Gremlins
A Christmas Story
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Also:
Ghostbusters 2
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Santa's Slay

I used to love that ad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=718DpmQrPbg

Last night we watched Frosty The Snowman.  It always strikes me as somewhat horrific that the little girl was trapped in the greenhouse and actually had to watch Frosty melt until he was nothing but a puddle on the ground.   Bet she grew up to be a little bit disturbed.  But it's just a super fun little movie that I remember seeing waaaay back when, ever since I was a little kid.

I wonder if NL's Christmas Vacation is on TV, that was funny from what I recall. Did you like it HGilmore?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dImluYXmKJc

All I've watched this year is MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL and MST3K: SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS.  I'll probably pull DIE HARD out before Tuesday. 

I am really not in a festive mood this year. 

I'm going to try and get through Elf, MST3K Jack Frost, L.A. Confidential (it starts around Christmas time), Eastern Promises (takes place during Christmas), and MST3K Santa Claus Conquers the Martians before the month is over.

I knew there was one I forgot. We also watched Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Not the MST3K version though. My daughter's at an age when she can enjoy that stuff for what it is, so that's how we watched it. It's a silly movie, cheap, corny and all that, but it is entertaining.

One version of A Christmas Carol I'd forgotten about - the Muppet Christmas Carol. We watched it last night.

Andy!  HOW does this happen!   lol - this one and Alastair Simms' are the only versions I watch.  The Muppet "Ghost of Christmas Present" is one of my all-time favourite characters.  I just plain flat-out love him to bits.

Watched Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970) last night.  Charming as can be  :smile:  Except I really don't like that "Put One Foot In Front of the Other" song.  I kind of fell asleep just before the end - darned wine before dinner.  Oh well I've seen it several times before.  The Burgermeister Meisterburger is my fav'e character  :thumbup:

Just finished watching Elf for the first time.  :thumbup:

Sim was the first one we watched this year. I read Ro the book, then we watched that version together.

I'm not as fond of the Muppet version, just because of some of its departures from the book. Not the changes made to accommodate the various Muppets and their shticks, but where the meaning of the story is lost. They have Scrooge disliking Christmas and being a cheapskate from childhood, rather than it being a result of his whole life's experience, which is the whole point of visiting his past. Young Scrooge complains to Fozziwig about the cost of the party, when the point of the scene is that the party is a small expense. Scrooge is supposed to remember that it was the kindness that mattered. The Marleys, as ghosts, still seem to relish their past evil deeds, instead of regretting them. Again, that's supposed to be the reason all this is happening. It's lots of little things that seem like the writers were going through the scenes without really understanding them, or at least that they cared less about the story making sense than they did about a few gags.

I tried introducing my sons (ages 5 and 10) to "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" a couple of nights ago. They thought the guy in the polar bear suit and "Torg" the robot were hilarious, and they loved the "Hooray for Santy Claus" theme song (my ten year old said "Great song... awful movie"  :bouncegiggle: ), but they lost interest in it long before the film was over due to its snail-like pacing.

They did come up with a cool nickname for "Voldar," the evil mustachioe'd Martian who's the villain of the piece, though... "Mustache Guy," i.e. they were constantly  asking, "Where's Mustache Guy? What's Mustache Guy doing? Why does Mustache Guy hate Christmas so much?" .... I was dyin'.   :teddyr:

Watched Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer last night.  Probably my all-time favorite Christmas movie.  So many memories from when I was a little kid.  I especially loved Burl Ives as the snowman, and his songs are my favorites too.

Got about halfway through A Christmas Story yesterday, then stopped so we could drop over to the neighbours' for some wine and appetizers. Cheeses, smoked fish, assorted hors d'oeuvres. So much food, we skipped dinner. My daughter went through cocktail shrimp like a blue whale. Anyway, we have to finish that movie.

Also watched Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol for the first time in probably more than 30 years. Amazing how much of it actually stuck with me. I was also surprised at how much of the dialogue was taken directly from the book. There were a few changes to the story, most notably ordering the ghosts as present, past, future (not sure why they'd do that), but overall a more faithful adaptation than I'd expect from a short cartoon special.

I usually just refer to Voldar as Elliott Gould.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_NRPha6S86-M/Sw4XtfJhePI/AAAAAAAAAxs/Cv-utsQLANs/s1600/Voldar26.jpg)(http://images.wikia.com/mash/images/c/cb/640px-Elliot_Gould-Trapper-MASH.jpg)
There's even some similarity in the accent.

 :bouncegiggle: I never noticed the resemblance! It's uncanny!!!



The "Mr. Magoo" version was actually my introduction to the "A Christmas Carol" story as a kid.

I conquered Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. :thumbup:

Hooray for Santy Claus indeed.

We watched A Charlie Brown Christmas last night.  I have to admit I didn't like it all lol.  The jokes were lame, just the exact same stuff we've seen a thousand times before in the Peanuts cartoons.  There was a bare minimum of story, it was mostly just random skits strung together.  And Charlie Brown was such a whiny loser I didn't even like him.  The big "inspirational" ending was completely un-inspirational.  Oh and I loved the way they were criticizing the over-commercialization of Christmas - on this DVD I paid $13 for. 

Oh well, at least it was short.

It is very much structured like a series of comic strips strung together. Characters come together, set up the joke, deliver the punch line and we move on to the next three panels. My daughter gets a laugh out of the ending, because the kids somehow add a lot more tree to Charlie Brown's tree when they decorate it.

Me, I love it for nostalgia. A Charlie Brown Christmas was an annual ritual for my family when I was a kid.

Yup.  Worst-best Christmas movie EVER.
Im an atheist. My wife died on Christmas eve-2008-and I love that movie.
I HATE Christmas,though.f**k Christmas.

We saw It's a Wonderful Life in theaters.

P.S. Sorry for your loss RCMerchant.