As I sit here writing this, one of my favorite childhood
Christmas movies is playing in the background. The Night They Saved
Christmas is a made for TV movie from 1984. I’m old enough to remember the
days when “home entertainment center” meant that your floor model console
television included a stereo system. This was long before streaming services,
before DVDs, VHS tapes, even before most people had cable television and the
dozens, not hundreds, of channels that came with it. With most people having
access to fewer than a dozen channels, made for TV movies and holiday specials
were considered an EVENT.
It's a given that any movie that includes “Christmas” in the
title would automatically be considered a Christmas movie. The same can be said
for keywords like “Santa”, “elves”, “reindeer”, “sleigh”, or “North Pole”. For
some people, any movie where that is set during the Christmas season is
considered a Christmas movie. That’s
where the argument for movies like Gremlins, Die Hard, and Trading Places
being considered Christmas movies comes from.
Every household has their “must see” list of Christmas
movies. For our household, the top four “must see” movies are White
Christmas, Trading Places, Die Hard, and A Christmas Story. Over the years,
other movies have been added, like the Christmas Chronicles, some
version of A Christmas Carol, and Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas.
That’s not to discount the Christmas Specials like all the Rankin and Bass
Holiday Specials, Muppet Specials, and Peanuts specials.
Over the years, some movies cycle in as others cycle out of rotation.
A Christmas Story will always play on loop on Christmas Day until we switch to
the sequel.
This year we’ve already watched White Christmas, and Trading
Places from our “must see” list. We added a couple of violent movies with
Violent Night and Santa’s Slay.
It ultimately comes down to what sort of movies make it feel
like Christmas for you. Are you a Hallmark movie lover? Do you prefer comedies
like Elf or Home Alone? Do you go for classics, new movies, just movies from a
certain point in your life? What’s your favorite Christmas movie?
