Christmas is by far my favorite holiday. I love making candy and cookies, decorating, and frolicking outside in the snow. I also adore movies, and the Christmas season comes with a plethora to choose from. I’ve set out to list my top five Christmas movies and convince (or beg?) you to watch all of them.
- THE POLAR EXPRESS
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It’s a classic, really. The Polar Express is deliciously unique, and kind of creepy, since Tom Hanks plays most of the characters. In fact, he was supposed to play every character, but the work turned out to be too overwhelming.
I quote this movie frequently, and the “Hot Chocolate” song is constantly playing in my head. Overall, this is a great movie to get into the Christmas spirit, and for those who love theories and Internet rabbit-holes.
- THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS
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Another childhood classic, The Year Without A Santa Claus is a fever-dream stop-motion musical. It follows two elves trying to restore the Christmas spirit after Santa gets sick and cancels Christmas. This movie features the best sibling characters to ever come out of a Christmas movie: the heat miser and the snow miser.
Really, two opposing siblings who fight all the time, one fire, one ice, and who have Mother Earth for a mom is a phenomenal jumping point for conflict-resolution, and the film works off of this perfectly.
- HOME ALONE 2
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Usually, sequels are inferior to the first in the series, but not where Home Alone is concerned. The first Home Alone is amazing, but having Kevin (the protagonist) in New York for the sequel raises the stakes in the best way possible. Not only are all of his traps more thoughtful and hilarious than before, but the viewer gets to watch Kevin grow up. He is both very much still a kid (as seen by his hotel room debacles) and showing maturity through the way he treats the Pigeon Lady.
Along with this, Home Alone 2‘s rich setting makes me really want to visit NYC at Christmastime. All the city lights, the skyscrapers, and even the antagonists ice skating just makes me crave a New York City Christmas.
- THE HOLDOVERS
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The Holdovers is a newer film, but as soon as I saw it in 2023, it became not just one of my favorite Christmas movies, but one of my favorite movies of all time. The Holdovers is a beautiful Dead Poets Society-esque film that follows a history teacher, a teenager, and a grieving mom as they all stay at an East Coast boarding school over Christmas break. It’s delightful, with witty comedy and hard-hitting themes, with the protagonists dealing with death, classism, and depression. I won’t give any spoilers given that it came out not too long ago, but this movie is not one you should skip.
- A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
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The most classic Christmas movie of them all, A Charlie Brown Christmas, is hands-down my favorite. The animation? Perfect. The music? Flawless. The themes? Still relevant 60 years later. It reminds all of us that presents and shopping isn’t what Christmas is supposed to be about.
The theme of A Charlie Brown Christmas is my favorite part of the movie; Christmas means something different for everyone, and whether your “Christmas spirit” comes from family, friends, faith, love, or just gratitude, A Charlie Brown Christmas reminds us all to take a deep breath and be in the moment. As Linus says, “That’s what Christmas is all about.”
Though there are so many other incredible Christmas movies, if I had to just pick five, I would choose these. Christmas movies are so special because they’re intertwined with tradition, and the second Halloween ends, I’m always ready to sit down and watch my favorites. As we all get through finals and the end of the semester, our favorite movies (and for me, my favorite holiday) will be waiting for us!