Back a couple weeks ago I was talking about my December bucket list, and some of the holiday traditions that I love. One of the newer traditions that I have stated recently is really just an old tradition that has evolved over the years, and it’s one that I seem to look forward to the most. It has kind of formed its own bucket list of sorts. Mom and I have been compiling a list of Christmas themed movies over the past couple of years, and we select certain ones we want to watch; we literally take a vote each year and plan movie nights together. Please tell me other families are as neurotic as mine? So far we have watched the traditional movies everyone knows and remembers as well as some not-so traditional holiday movies. The debate is still up about some of them like Diehard and So I Married an Axe Murderer. In addition to those holiday movies, there has been a binge fest of Terminator, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. This year I am thinking Marvel is a good idea, as my mom hasn't even seen Aquaman yet!
This nonsense all started with those old Christmas movies that I grew up watching, like the stop motion The Year Without a Santa Claus or the animation Frosty the Snowman, both of which were produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. Anyone my age can recall watching these films growing up. They originally aired on TV, and still do if you keep an eye out for them. We even watched them in school countless times.
As I got older, I wanted to watch more and more of the holiday films and I discovered Hallmark one lazy afternoon. My best friend and I sat at her mom's house one day from morning till night watching back to back movies. The three of us snuggled up on the couch just lazing the day away, each dozing off into tiny naps. I have to have my snuggle days in the winter time, I guess the combination of the weather and warm drinks and food that just make me want to hibernate. What’s more enjoyable than cuddling up on the weekend and watching some cheesy holiday movies? Once I discovered the ridiculousness of Hallmark Christmas movies I was hooked!
I try to watch as many Christmas themed movies as humanly possible during the holiday season. It does take some planning if you need to include the kids or want to have a holiday watch party. If you are flying solo, Hallmark takes the guesswork out of it. There is basically a new movie every two hours all day every day. If you have a DVR you can record the ones you miss while at work. If you ditched cable or can’t seem to get in sync with the network channel and you need your movie fix ASAP, Netflix has been really pulling out the stops for their holiday movies. Last year, we enjoyed Klaus, Jingle Jangle and Christmas Chronicles 2 as a family. I also enjoyed watching all of the Princess Switch movies. If you have children in your watch party, I recommend spending about 10 minutes on Netflix adding all the holiday movies to the watch list on the kids profile. This will keep the movies streaming for hours. I especially like to have these on while I am doing my holiday baking, because I have seen them all a thousand times and don’t have to be 100 % engaged. I can sit down, watch a few minutes of Home Alone in between cookie batches while I rest my feet.
This year, I am also excited to bring out all of the old Christmas classics from the 70’s that my husband and I enjoyed growing up that I mentioned earlier. My mom recently cleaned out her movie collection and gave us all of the VHS tapes, and she had all those favorites. We plan on blowing the dust off of the VHS player soon and popping those babies in for some throwbacks! If you are interested in looking up the old animated films that we all loved to watch growing up, here is a great list of holiday themed movies; just scroll down to the 'Television Specials' graph and you will see all your favorites and more.
What is your favorite holiday movie? Do you think Die Hard is a Christmas movie? Let me know of any little gems that aren't as mainstream because I have the desire to watch them all and want to add them to my Ultimate Holiday Movie List – Coming soon!
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