What is your favorite holiday movie? Christmas is around the corner, and holiday movies are airing 24/7. Chances are, you and your family will have some favorite holiday movie of some kind. My family likes all sorts of Christmas movies, both old and new. Here is a list of movies that each of my family members, including me, likes.
First, my brother Zachary likes watching the classic holiday cartoons. He enjoys watching them because he grew up on those cartoons with the family. He has so many that he cannot choose just a few top picks, to which I agree, because there are many classic cartoons to love and choose from. However, he does love watching Miracle on 34th Street, which he calls a Thanksgiving movie. We watch it on Thanksgiving night, and it kicks off our Christmas season of movies.
Next is my mom. She loves the old school classic holiday movies like It’s a Wonderful Life from 1947, A Christmas Story from 1984, The Year Without a Santa Claus from 1974, and Santa Claus Is Coming to Town from 1977. A more modern film is Love Actually from 2003. She enjoys these movies because they have great actors and good stories.
My dad also has several favorites, but he really likes watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from 1964 because he used to watch the movie every year with his grandmother when he was little. This was back when holiday shows would air only at Christmas time, and if you missed it, you had to wait until the next year to see it. His grandmother would come over every year to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with him.
My sister Ashley’s favorite movie is The Holiday from 2006. She has many reasons for liking it, but one of the reasons is because it is written where you are rooting for the main characters to find the respect and love that they deserve. She still thinks it is so cool to switch houses for two weeks as they do in the movie, and she says she married her favorite character from the movie in real life.
Lastly, there is my sister Megan. One of her favorite movies is The Nightmare Before Christmas from 1993. She likes this movie because the story is different from a normal narrative for a holiday movie. She also loves the stop motion animation and the overall aesthetic of the movie as well. Plus, the movie itself brings back her memories of her emo phase at the time. The other two favorites of Megan’s are Love Actually and The Holiday as well, mostly because the movies themselves are fun and touching at the same time.
Just like my sisters, I have many favorites and reasons to love my Christmas movies. One of my favorites is Home Alone from 1990. I like this film because of the clever ways of showing 8-year-old thoughts and ideas of being alone in the house. I also like the movie for its humor as well, such as the scene when Kevin is at a grocery store, and the cashier asks him why he is alone in the store. Another favorite moment in the film is when he orders a pizza for himself and scares the living daylights out of the delivery boy with gunshot sounds.
Another favorite Christmas movie of mine is The Toy That Saved Christmas from 1996. I love this film because of the nostalgia that I feel just watching it by myself. I used to watch it with my siblings a long time ago when we were all kids at the time. I still watch it to this day. Movies like this are classics for a reason.
Finally, the last movie that is my favorite is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe from 2005. This counts as a Christmas movie because of snow, Father Christmas, and the fact that it does mention Christmas. The main reason I love this movie is the biblical references throughout the movie. I also love the soundtrack because it sounds beautiful and magical at the same time.
It is clear that a good Christmas movie needs to have great actors and to stand the test of time, like the movies I mentioned. As you can see, my family has a wide range of movies that are our favorites. Maybe some of these you have not seen yet or have watched a million times. If you have not seen them, I highly recommend you watch them as they are great films that are classics to watch for the holiday season.
