A Statement About the Best Christmas Movies (a much happier post)

'Tis the season for watching all of the movies that your mother banned for the past year, because watching Christmas movies all year round is the number one way to make them 'less special.' Since coming back from galavanting, I have been on a movie mission, not just watching Christmas films, but film series and oft-neglected films in my collection. Some of them are distinctly un-Christmas-like (Star Wars, anyone?) but some create nice background while doing things like working or baking. The moral of the story is that Christmas is a really good time for catching up on your film-watching: the kids are on vacation, finals are over, and there is only so much conversation one can have with visiting family before going completely insane.

'So,' you ask, 'What are the best films to watch at Christmastime?' Well, that is a very different question from 'What are the best Christmas films?' Obviously there are the classics, It's a Wonderful Life, White Christmas etc. But I submit that there are some less obvious ones that rarely get their due consideration-- Meet Me in St. Louis and The Muppet Family Christmas (not to mention A Muppet Christmas Carol) to name a few. Also, a good Christmas movie does not really need to carry strong Christmas themes; my feeling is that anything epic and fun and magical works very well. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Pirates of the Caribbean films, even Star Wars... in otherwords, anything that is universally loved that can be watched while the family is recovering from massive amounts of food and gift overload.

So happy watching, Happy Christmas, and all that jazz. I promise to come back happier in the New Year if you promise to write to the AMTP and tell them they are morons.