Top Ten Christmas Movies

Just for fun -- and without really thinking too hard about it -- here are my top ten favorite Christmas movies ever, in order from "favorite" to "even more favorite" or something:

10. A Christmas Story
This is a great film that by all rights should rank higher on the list, but to be honest I'm so sick of it I almost left it off entirely. But I'll probably end up watching it again this year and still enjoying it. It really is sweet and very, very funny.

9. A Very Sunny Christmas
This isn't a movie, so much as an hour long holiday-themed episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It's irreverent and doesn't really capture the spirit of the holiday, but boy is it funny.

8. Christmas Vacation
Now this is a funny movie, and probably the last funny movie Chevy Chase ever did.

7. Gremlins / Die Hard / Lethal Weapon
These aren't really Christmas movies so much as moviea that takes place on Christmas, but I can't go a single December without at least watching one of them.

6. Holiday Inn / White Christmas
These are both basically the same movie, since White Christmas was basically a remake of Holiday Inn. Most people will tell you that the original is a classic and the remake sucks, but I enjoy both. It's all a matter of whether you prefer the team up of Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire or Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye... but, really, you have any combination of those guys and it'll be awesome.

5. Ernest Saves Christmas
For real! This movie is super funny and super sweet. I love it. It's my favorite Ernest movie too!

4. Joyeux Noel
A French film about the Christmas truce of 1914, where the opposing forces of the first world war came together in no man's land and celebrated the holiday together. Brilliant story, brilliant film.

3. A Miracle on 34th Street
I'm talking about the original film from 1947. Come to think of it, there was no remake. That never happened. Just go watch the original. It's brilliant and great fun.

2. Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas
Forget about that Muppet Christmas Carol movie. This was the best Muppet Christmas movie. Here's a video review I put together a couple years ago:



1. It's a Wonderful Life
This isn't just the best Christmas movie of all time, but a top contender for the best movie of all time ever. I've actually already reviewed this film on my blog, so I'm just gonna cut and paste that here:

I'm actually going to keep this one short and sweet, since there's nothing I can say about this movie that a million people haven't already said a million times already.

It's a Wonderful Life isn't just my favorite Christmas movie, but a strong contender for my all time favorite movie over all. It contains the absolute best performance by my absolute favorite actor Jimmy Stewart, and it tells a story so powerful and heartfelt that it makes me cry every time I watch, no matter what. I'd rank this movie right up there with Field of Dreams as the most likely to make even the most stone cold man break down in tears. George Bailey is too honorable and admirable to really be considered an "every man," but he's definitely the man that every man wishes he could be.

They later remade this movie and reversed the genders by having the main character be a woman played by Marlo Thomas. "It Happened One Christmas" was a fine film that used to play all the time when I was a kid, but if you haven't seen it by now, you probably never will. It happened to be made right as the original was being rediscovered by a new, perhaps more mature audience who could more related to the dark, honest story presented in the film, so the remake all but vanished. And that's fine, since the original is an absolutely perfect film that never should've been remade in the first place. It's just... special. Bailey's pain as he watches his hopes and dreams fade away is something any person who's ever been lonely or learned for more can relate to. And his joy at the end as he realizes how loved and alive he really is is something that anybody who's ever been loved or happy can relate to as well. It's the kind of film that makes you cry at one moment because you're sad, and the next moment because you're happy.

I have never seen a better moment in a film than the scene where George Bailey is on the bridge near the end of It's a Wonderful Life. I've never seen anything that was better written, better directed, or better acted. I have watched this movie dozens upon dozens of times over the course of my life and it never fails to bring me to tears. I have watched this film during moments of my life when I was happy, during times when I was sad, and even during some times when I was just as close to standing on my own bridge. If there has ever been a moment in film that has more honestly captured a moment in the life of every man who has ever been alive, I sure haven't seen it.

George Bailey isn't the greatest hero in movie history because he decided to save Clarence instead of taking his own life, and he certainly isn't a hero because he set aside his own hopes and dreams in order to serve the town of Bedford Falls. George Bailey is a hero because even though he never became the man that he wanted to be, he learned to embrace the fact that he became the man that the people he loved needed him to be. His wasn't a wonderful life because his dreams came true or because he was loved or even because he was happy, but because his life did matter, and because the people around him were all the better because of what he did.

And if you can watch this movie and not break down, well, you must be named Potter.