Your top 10 Christmas movies

Since it's now Christmas season, what are your top 10 Christmas movies?
My list (in no order)
Elf
A Christmas Story
Miracle on 34th Street
It's a Wonderful Life
White Christmas
Christmas Vacation
The Polar Express
Home Alone
A Charlie Brown Christmas
The Santa Clause

1. Home Alone 2
2. Home Alone
3. Die Hard
4. Die Hard 2
5. Black Christmas (1974)

Die Hard..

This with it's a wonderful life too.

A Christmas Story
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Grinch (cartoon & movie)

It's not the movie as much as a scene in the movie The Bells of St. Mary's with Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. It's the scene where the little kids are acting in the Christmas pageant. It is one of the most prescious scenes in film. I show it to my fall semester classes.

CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS is a full blown classic

I concur. There had to be an element of luck in filming that scene to achieve the result.

My favorite Christmas movie has to be A Christmas Story. As far as the tv specials go, I haven't seen a Christmas show better than Charlie Brown.

Hmm, it's a tough choice to rank these two. I thought I liked the first one more because of it being set in their house, but then I started thinking of that beautiful Christmas tree reunion scene in New York, and the sweet old Duncan, and that bird lady... and now I just want to watch both of them again!

My top ones are probably "A Christmas Story" and The Grinch cartoon...

Both were really good, but I liked home alone 1 more.
Surprised no one has said elf

A Christmas Story!!!

No one mentioned "29th Street" with Danny Aiello and Anthony LaPaglia?

Okay, it's a mob comedy, not a Christmas film. But the denouement takes place on Christmas Eve and it's unforgettable. I figured someone would have mentioned it here of all places. It's Danny Aiello's best role. Hands down.

My actual Christmas favorites include those listed above, along with "Going My Way," and its sequel, "The Bells of Saint Mary's."

Der Bingle could really move you with his Christmas songs. You know, before tying one on and beating the shit out of his kids and all.

Absolutely love that movie! It's a cross between "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Goodfellas". If you've never seen it I would HIGHLY recommend it!!!

Actually, the entire film is available in ten minute installments on Youtube. But here's the trailer.

Every year on christmas eve i always watch "It's a Wonderful Life." I've been doing it since i was 16.

It's interesting how that tradition started. A girl i had been dating had broken up with me a few months earlier (there were other more personal family tragedies as well), so i was in a lousy mood. Watched TV all night. It's a Wonderful Life came on and depressed me! HAHAHA But i felt compelled to watch it every year since. I guess it reminds me that no matter how bad life is, it still is not rock bottom.

It's a Wonderful Life used to blanket the airwaves around Christmas. Back in the 90s, NBC acquired the rights to it and shows it just once annually.

My favorite characters in "It's A Wonderful Life" are Bert and Ernie, for whom the muppet characters were named.

For great Christmas movies --- and this is sick ---- I like "Elf," but I LOVE "Bad Santa."

Elf is a great movie, Will Ferrell was perfect for that role..

Now what about the WORST Christmas movie you have seen
mine would be 4 Christmases. What a horrible movie

Perhaps others will come to mind, but for me the immediate answer is Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.




Signor V.

Come on, SV!!

Pia Zadora deserved an Oscar for that movie amd you know it .

When I was a kid, my mom took me to see a movie called "The Christmas Tree". It was about a rich man whose son is dying from radiation poisoning. He goes through all sorts of stuff to make his son's last months happy, including stealing some wolves from the local zoo for pets. I was only 7 or 8 at the time and was horrified beyond belief. Worst Christmas movie ever!

I'm a sucker for the classic 1930's "Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol". We enjoy Ralphie in "A Christmas Story"... gotta love those Italian packages marked; "Fragile"!

Excellent. I believe that Scrooge was played by Alister Sims, the best Scrooge ever.

As for the worst Christmas movie, I never liked the Tim Allen movies.

When speaking about versions of A Christmas Carol, I'm forced to admit I have a little more than the usual knowledge on the subject. For one thing, I played the part of Scrooge on two different occasions a number of years ago (directed one of the productions), I wrote my own stage adaptation of it, and I've also collected as many different versions as I could find (film, TV, radio) - though in recent years I will admit that I've eased up on the collection.

Anyway, the version with Alastair Sim was made in England in 1951. Called Scrooge in the UK, it was known as A Christmas Carol here in the US, where it became a holiday tradition on television - at least here in the NYC area. When I was quite young, the scene with Marley's Ghost used to scare the bejeezus out of me! It's been released on tape and DVD under the original title, I believe. One the very best versions, and one of my all-time favorites.

Alastair Sim also voiced Scrooge in an animated cartoon version made in the early 1970's. Michael Hordern again was Marley, as he had been in the 1951 film. Beautifully drawn, with everything resembling the old engravings that originally illustrated the story. My only complaint - it was too short!

The 1938 film version was made in the US by MGM, and starred Reginald Owen. Lionel Barrymore, who performed the role annually on radio, had been set to star in the movie adaptation, but illness forced him to step aside and Owen got the part, I believe, on Barrymore's recommendation.


Signor V.

In case noone has, I'll mention Miracle on 34th Street.

Bad Santa is a good film to watch at Christmas..

Bad Santa is funny

Thank you, SV. It was the 1951 version that I liked, which I mistakenly referred to as the 1930s version. I never knew thewe was a cartoon version with Sim.

What were the creative features or challenges you had with the adaptation you produced? My late brother was particularly fond of "A Christmas Carol," and owned various recordings of radio and album productions.

Is this a movie?

I'm with you on this, Billy Bob rocked in Bad Santa!

snow miser > heat miser

PB, that's from The Year Without a Santa Claus! A few years back, my friend and I dressed up as Snow Miser and Heat Miser for Halloween.

I think one of those clips of the song uses the version performed by the very awesome Big Bad Voodoo Daddy band. Here it is: VIDEO

SB, thanks for the warning to never watch "The Christmas Tree"! How depressing.

Two tv movies from the 70s that I like and don't see anymore are "The Homecoming," which was the pilot to The Waltons, and "The house Without a Christmas Tree," which took place in the 40s, I think. It starred Jason Robards as a depressed widower, living with his daughter and mother. He's still grieving and won't allow a tree in his house since his wife died, much to the dismay of his young daughter.

The Godfather. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

Yes, the Santa claus in Macy's window; the lights around the front door of the hospital; Kay telling Michael what gifts she bought for everybody; and, of course, the flashback scene in GFII. They're all my favorite reminders of the festive holiday ... despite the murder and mayhem all around. Yes indeed, a Corleone Christmas!