Miracle on 34th Street

Of course, I'm talking about the original. I have a lot of thoughts on the remake, but they are far too scathing and long-winded to put in here. So let's talk about the Christmas movie. Let's face it, it may not be everyone's favourite, but it is without a doubt the best one out there. It has influenced every single Christmas movie to come after, with its message about commercialism, faith, the magic of childhood. Hell, even Bad Santa took from here (the drunk Santa at the beginning, lol).

My favourite scene is when Kris starts speaking Dutch to the little girl.

Community: Regional Holiday Music

This. Is. The. Best. Thing. Ever.

EVER.

Bad(der) Santa

An instant classic in my books. When I saw this in theatres I knew I hadn't seen the last of it. In fact, this movie has worked its way into my family's vocabulary; it isn't uncommon for someone to get a present from Bad Santa come Christmas. It's a hard sell for a Christmas movie: alcoholic man poses as Santa in hopes of robbing a mall, and takes advantage of a child by moving into his house and allowing him to believe that he's the real Santa. He's just the worse kind of asshole and the best kind of anti-hero and the fact that it has one of the most heart-warming endings is a true sign of talented filmmakers.

The Simpsons: Holidays of Future Passed

This years Simpsons' Christmas special was surprisingly good. I say this mostly because I haven't really watched this show in years and last time I did it wasn't that funny, but this particular episode reminded me of the good ol' days, when there was a lot of humour and heart mixed together. Also, I've always been fond of the future episodes. There's not a whole lot to say about this one, other than I ended up watching it twice and it got funnier the second time because there were a lot of jokes in this episode and you won't catch them the first time around, so there's a lot of re-watch value for future holidays.

Joyeux Noel

This is not a feel-good holiday movie, this will probably do little more than depress the hell out of you, but I can't recommend it enough. It's such a moving story, and it's true. I mean, not completely true, but there was a cease-fire called during Christmas in WWI and I can imagine that what went down was probably pretty close to this movie's version. What I really love about this movie is that it's about humanity, it's about the bonds we chose to build and destroy between each other and why we do it and to what end. It's just fantastic. Also, it's pronounced "jwhy-uh no-elle." I never realized people couldn't pronounce this until I heard the Nostalgia Critic attempt to say it.

Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer

This might be the one Christmas special that everyon is familiar with. It's based on the song, of course, which was based on a add-campaign (which you might not know). It's imagery has been co copied and parodied over the years that it's hard for me to know if I've ever actually seen this before. It doesn't really hold up all that well though. I mean, I can't really stand any of the songs, but I guess the charm of this is more the look of it, the silly puns, and the wacky characters - and of course it has a nice moral. It's a classic, but it's not my favourite.

Some of the parodies on the other hand though...

While You Were Sleeping

I'm not that big on romantic comedies, but I unabashedly love this movie. I saw it a few times as a kid and it always stuck with me. It's just a really sweet movie that never feels forced, with Sandra Bullock at the height of her adorable awkwardness - and best of all it does NOT follow the romantic comedy plot (hating each other at first, predictably falling in love, only to have some sort of fight/misunderstanding and make up in the end). The focus isn't just on the boy and girl falling in love, but also on the family. I'd call this one more of a holiday film than a Christmas one though, because it starts at Christmas, has a New Years party and ends in January, but who really cares? To me that just makes it the kind of movie one can enjoy all year round. I absolutely recommend this film, especially if you're a silly girl like me.

Aw, someone made a music video for this movie <3 (Actually there are, surprisingly, a few fan videos for this film. I just happened to like this song the best.)