There are people who live for the holidays, throwing up a tree the day after Thanksgiving. My mom’s house always looked like a department store; everything sang or moved on a sensor, an entire mini-village took up most of the living room, and old records played carols and festive songs. I do not follow in mother’s footsteps when it comes to being merry-on-steroids at this time of year; however, I do love holiday movies. Curling up under a cozy fleece blanket near the fireplace with some coffee and a snowy, feel-good movie after a long, cold day … yes.
If you love nostalgia like I do, some of my personal favorites are the original Claymation and stop-motion movies like Rudolph and Frosty. You don’t need to be a kid to enjoy these, and as an adult, you can appreciate all the work that went into them. Some other musts are the iconic and hilarious A Christmas Story and all-time favorites It’s a Wonderful Life, The Polar Express and ELF. There are adaptations of A Christmas Carol for every taste, my favorites being the musical version with Kelsey Grammar and Jason Alexander and, of course, Scrooged with Bill Murray for a funnier take on the story.
For total mush-balls, Love Actually is a romantic holiday chick-flick, and for something totally (and kind of literally) out there, search and click on Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. I swear it exists.
While there certainly aren’t as many Hanukkah movies as there are Christmas ones, they are out there. If you like Adam Sandler, his animated Eight Crazy Nights is pretty funny, though definitely not for everyone (like most of his movies). There is also a really funny parody called The Hebrew Hammer with Andy Dick that is worth watching. Other than that the selection is well … non-existent.
Sadly, the same rings true with Kwanzaa movies – there’s just not much out there. There is one called The Black Candle, which is a documentary narrated by Maya Angelou, but nothing else. Hello, Hollywood?
OK, so how about some movies that are just plain good to watch during winter? Though Home Alone is technically a Christmas movie, it’s really more about two robbers getting an arse-whoopin’, so that’s fun for everyone. Narnia could arguably be considered a winter movie. Eight Below and The Grey are a couple of movies that will remind you it’s better to be inside. Happy Feet is just happy – and it has penguins.
If you are totally against any type of holiday or winter-themed movie, I recommend binge-watching Hoarders episodes. It will make you start thinking about spring cleaning and warm you right up … or maybe that’s just the five cats on your lap.
By Jennifer Russo