Gem's Top 5 Holiday Movies 🎥✨
Plus some honorable mentions you won't want to miss this holiday season!
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
This one tops most people’s favorite holiday movies. I know, I know: you can’t accuse me of being terminally unique with this one leading the way here. But I think most people forget just how dark this movie is and how frankly it dealt with issues like s*icide, substance abuse, disappointment and depression (all of which can be just as much a part of the Christmas seasons as merriment, joy and celebration can). It’s a movie that makes us all reflect on the ways we all touch the lives of others in ways we may never fully know or appreciate. Frank Capra never intended it to be a Christmas movie, never mind THE Christmas movie for almost 80 years. But that’s the great thing about art: sometimes it takes on a life of it’s own.
Fun (sorta) fact: despite it’s five Oscar nominations, It’s A Wonderful Life was considered a box office flop at the time of it’s release and almost disappeared completely from the public consciousness until it regained popularity in the late 70s.The copyright lapsed during this time and it became public domain, Thus, may TV stations were able to broadcast it during the holiday season for free. So this is the holiday classic that almost wasn’t one! Even more reason to celebrate it!
Home Alone (1990)
You really can’t be someone who grew up in the 90s and not include this movie. And you ESPECIALLY can’t be someone who grew up in the 90s in Chicago and not include this movie. That would practically be sacrilegious! The Pope may have had to make his way back to town just to admonish me for such an oversight (among other things, undoubtedly…)
Even setting aside Macaulay Culkin’s adorably iconic performance as the ingeniously crafty yet sweetly innocent Kevin McAllister, there’s so much to adore about this film. A young Catherine O’Hara (aka the very beginnings of who would eventually become Moira Rose). Joe Pesci in a kid’s movie. A delightful cameo from John Candy as the Polka King of the Midwest. Oh, and I still think of the airport scene every time I run through O’Hare to catch my flight (that may be more of a commentary on how my fair city needs to update it’s largest airport, but that’s a topic for another day)
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Unpopular opinion: This is one of the best adaptations of Dickens’ classic novella to grace the silver screen. Fight me. Yes, of course the original book did not include puppetry of any kind, but the spirit of the story remains true to it’s source material in this version, as does much of the dialogue and narration (as told to the audience by Gonzo the Great as Charles Dickens, which is a stroke of cinematic genius in my humble opinion).
One thing that really makes this movie so amazing to me is Sir Michael Caine’s Scrooge here. He said that he approached taking this role as he would performing for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He acts alongside his Muppet costars with complete earnestness; His transformation from the crotchety, mean spirited miser to the kind, generous soul who keeps Christmas in his heart all year is emotional, raw, poignant and above all, very believable. But be forewarned: the portrayal of The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is genuinely terrifying. Gonzo and Rizzo don’t even stick around for it!
Elf (2003)
Do you ever see a movie that makes you think “that actor was born to play that role”? That’s how I feel every time I watch Elf. Admittedly, I missed a lot of Will Ferrell’s early 2000s dude/gross out comedies. They just never appealed to me and never seemed like they were made for me. It’s not that I disliked Ferrell; I loved him as a cheerleader on SNL alongside Cheri O’Teri! But movie wise, nothing he did really spoke to me. That is, until Elf.
If you don’t fall in love with Buddy the Elf, you are simply a cotton headed ninny muggins. Will Ferrell just makes Buddy so earnest and sweet in everything he does (except when he calls out the fake Santa of course. But he was in fact sitting on a throne of lies, so we can overlook that). And the supporting cast? Brilliant. Ed Asner. Amy Sedaris. James Caan. Mary Steinbergen. And of course, Bob Newhart as Papa Elf is just the cherry on top of this syrup covered sundae.
Bad Santa (2003)
This one is definitely not family friendly so I’d say watch this well after the little ones have been tucked into bed. But hey, grownups are allowed to have Christmas movies just for themselves! It’s raunchy, it’s inappropriate, it’s offensive. And sometimes, we need to shed the overly saccharine view of the holidays while still getting in touch with the Christmas spirit…even if that involves a few sips on some Christmas spirits (thank you folks, be sure to tip your wait staff!)
Of course, watching for the hilarious performances by the three late greats John Ritter, Bernie Mac and Cloris Leechman are reasons enough to watch this. But in the end, it is a sincerely sweet story of redemption. Billy Bob Thorton’s transformation from a drunken misanthrope who can’t even pretend to muster any semblance of holiday cheer as he plays a mall Santa to somebody who risks his life and freedom to bring Thurman Murman, the perpetually bullied underdog, his pink stuffed elephant for Christmas is genuinely heartwarming.
Honorable Mentions
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
There’s a few movies that people debate whether or not they are indeed Christmas movies and this is one of them. Christmas is more of a backdrop to this movie, so I say it deserves partial credit and an honorable mention. It’s a divisive movie, to be sure. Some people love it, some people hate it. I fall more on the love it than hate it side. And what makes it Christmasy (besides the backdrop) is the line between fantasy and reality becoming blurry and at times, even indistinguishable. Christmas used to be a time of telling ghost stories and it was said that on December 24th, the veil between the earth realm and the spirit realm was lifted. In a sense, that’s what happens in this movie. There’s something ultimately dreamlike about this erotically charged movie that, while I wouldn’t argue is perfect, does make it a pleasurable if eerie watch this time of year.
The Golden Girls, Season 2, Episode 11: “Twas The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1986)
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my four lovely ladies from Miami! Since this isn’t a movie it can’t officially be a part of my top five Christmas movie list. But if you haven’t seen this episode of The Golden Girls, it’s a must! It’s one of my favorite episodes in the entire series. Blanche really takes center stage here: between her making a very thoughtful gift for the girls this Christmas, to her telling an adventurous Christmas Eve story, to her sharing the ins and outs of the origins of her Santa Claus fetish…let’s just say she is full of Christmas spirit in this episode! I don’t want to give too much away, but be on the lookout for one of my favorite Dorothy lines: “Blanche, I could get herpes listening to this story!”
Happy watching!
All My Best,
Gem DeMilo
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Eyes Wide Shut. OK, I understand your rationale for adding it to the list, but it surprised me, at first. But I get it. It does use the setting of Christmas as sort of a disguise for liminality, of which I am a fanatic. Check out my recent image gallery/song/narrative if that is also one of your interests: https://jjjanes.substack.com/p/the-liminal-week.
So, I have a suggestion, since you go meta with your criteria, a good thing. First, I have to ask if you are a writer since you’re on Substack, or is it just marketing for work? Brilliant, if the latter, but I’d love to read your work if the former.
As for my recommendation, outside the gift box and figurative AF in the process, have you seen “In Bruges (2008)?” It is NOT your traditional Noel narrative, but I would call it Christmas-adjacent. Lots of themes of purgatory, use of bells, crippling guilt, and jet-black dark humor, all set in a medieval locale. It does not have a happy ending, but I love stories like that, so I watch it every Christmas.
I won’t to risk any spoilers, so if you have a couple hours to kill during this “Liminal Week” as I labeled it with my project, do yourself a solid and screen it. If you’d like, let me know if it gets a thumbs-up or down.
And Happy Holidays...