Thursday, December 25, 2008

Favorite Christmas Movies



Merry Christmas, my Loves!
Well. I was feeling MUCH better and then got too ahead of myself by doing a mini baking marathon yesterday. DUMB. Today I feel pretty crappy and spent the majority of Christmas Day napping on the couch. Good Times!

But I'm back to finish my list .... and talk about all the things I wished I'd had time to watch this Holiday season.

Before I get to my list, let me mention one of my favorite Christmas past times.....
Scared of Santa photos.
I love SOS photos because, I too, was totally scared of the big jolly guy.
Here's a couple places to check them out.
Grab a drink and enjoy:
SOS- Sun Sentinel
SOS-Chicago Tribune


So since I'm feeling pretty lousy, I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about my favorite Christmas movies. But I really wanted to do this, and would have done it much sooner if the NCLEX, painting, and illness hadn't gotten in my way.
None of these except for the last one are in any particular order.

Elf
I heart the crap out of Will Ferrell. Love this movie.

Miracle on 34th Street
Want to see me cry? Put in this movie, you big meanie.

Love, Actually
Not really a true Christmas movie but a lot of it takes place around Christmas and it has so many British men in it that I love....Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman, and the fabulous Bill Nighy as a recording star forced to sell a horrible Christmas record.

Scrooged
Probably my favorite Bill Murray movie. Never get tired of his performance in this. Favorite part: When Bill ends up at the homeless shelter his ex girlfriend works at and a homeless Michael J. Pollard, and Anne and Logan Ramsey are convinced that Bill is Richard Burton. The three beg 'Dick' to perform, and Bill finally just goes with it and does his best Burton. The three swoon. Classic.

Rankin Bass
I have to watch Rudolph, Frosty, and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town every year. I'll even watch Rudolph's Shiny New Year if I have time. But the one I absolutely can't do without is The Year Without a Santa Claus. It's just not Christmas without the Heat Miser and the Cold Miser.

South Park- I already mentioned Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics, but I love all the South Park Christmas episodes, including the original Mr. Hankey, and the one with Mr. Hankey's drunken abusive wife. But the one that I probably love the most is Woodland Critter Christmas.
It starts innocently enough, with Stan coming across a bunch of woodland critters who want him to help decorate for Christmas. Then the critters come to wake Stan up to tell him that Porcupiney the Porcupine (who is a virgin) is going to give birth to the Savior and they need Stan to build them a manger. Then we find out that the Mountain Lion always kills the virgin critter who is pregnant with the savior. Of course Stan has to kill the mean old Mountain Lion.....and of course, in classic South Park fashion, the critters celebrate with a blood sacrifice and orgy.....to celebrate the coming birth of ....SATAN!
I won't ruin the rest, and besides, you have to see it to believe it.......trust me, you won't regret taking 20 minutes of your day to check this episode out.
Go to this link, click on season 8 and select 'Woodland Critter Christmas'
South Park Studios

Nightmare Before Christmas
Thank God for Tim Burton bringing stop motion back. Plus great songs.

The Grinch
The cartoon, not the remake with those creepy looking Who people.

A Christmas Story
What else can you say about this one? The only thing I can add is that this movie was directed by Bob Clark, the same person who directed my favorite Christmas movie.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (Mystery Science Theater 3000)
If you're really brave, you can get drunk and watch this without the MST gang....but I don't recommend it.

Gremlins
I finally bought this movie last year and I hadn't seen it in years. It was as great as I remember and a great Christmas movie. Plus it has Hoyt Axton!

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
I don't usually enjoy movies like this....physical comedy is not my favorite thing. But I like this movie regardless....and I live for when the elderly relatives bring their cat wrapped up as a Christmas gift.

The Santa Clause
Not a big Tim Allen fan either....hated his TV show, but I love this movie.

The Bishop's Wife
Cary Grant. Enough said.

Black Christmas
My number one favorite Christmas movie.....also directed by Bob Clark of A Christmas Story. It's also one of the scariest movies that I've ever seen, and it still creeps me out. I don't know why it doesn't get the attention as other movies from that same time period, like Halloween and Friday the 13th.....and it was made before those as well. It's about a killer who sneaks into a sorority house at Christmas time and also makes creepy prank phone calls.....it's the classic 'the phone calls are coming from inside the house' scenario....but done in the scariest, most effective way possible. It also has great characters, acting, and humor. And we never really know who the killer is or why he's doing what he's doing. And THAT is perhaps scariest of all.
If you don't believe me that less is sometimes more.....witness the godawful remake made a couple of years ago that tried to explain who the killer was and his motivation......it's terrible, boring, and NOT scary.

That's my list......and now I'm off to consume mass quantites of OJ while I enjoy my Chrismas present to myself, Dawn of the Dead on Blu-Ray.

Merry Christmas.....I hope you had a terrific one.....
Love
Mother Firefly

4 comments:

Mandy Ann said...

For the last week, I have been answering the phone, "Buddy the elf, whats your favorite color?". It is very apparent who knows the movie, and who doesn't. And my children...every time we see a Santa at the mall, they go into all out "SANTA!! I KNOW HIM!" mode.

Ahhh, yes. Elf, I heart you.

A Christmas Story is good.. but.. to play it for a whole 24 hours is a tad bit ridiculous.

Merry Christmas, woman!! I got your card at my new crib!

Viking Wolf Woman said...

haha, I love your phone answering technique. And your kids are too funny. That movie never gets old.
I agree 24 hr marathons of any movie are a bit much. One showing per Holiday season is plenty.

I thought I was better....then it got worse again.....now I seem to be back on the mend.

Hope your Christmas was fantastic!

Jumbo's Lezis said...

A Christmas Story is a classic and I have to (dis)agree that its probably the only movie that can get away with 24hrs straight.

I am going to turn a little homo/nostalgic for a minute and talk about Christmas Vacation. I like all the earlier "Vacation" movies and I really enjoyed this one. The one weird thing for me is it makes me think how Xmas should be, I know there are more family oriented movies that should have this affect, but this is the one for me. Just gives me this crazy feeling of happy family times and everyone getting together, even though the entire film shits on the idea anyways. I will be the first to admit I miss the family Christmas gatherings and I hate even more that my kids will probably never experience that.

Viking Wolf Woman said...

I agree about Christmas Vacation. It is full of things I normally don't like, like Chevy Chase and falling off ladders. but yet I still own this movie and I have to watch it every year. I love Christmas Story, but there's been more than one year when I watched Vacation and never got to Story. They kind of crap on family, but underneath it, there's some nice messages....like buying his deadbeat brother in law's kids presents so they can have a Christmas.
And as far as the rest, I think sometime we (us kids) will have to do SOMETHING at least once so all the kids can experience that.
Hopefully once I'm working I'll be able to afford to fly home some Christmas (since I positively will not drive it then)