By Ayse Hunt
The Holiday season is the perfect time to curl up with a mug of cocoa, grab a couple friends or some family, and watch a movie. But with a plethora of holiday themed movies, deciding which to watch can be difficult, so here’s a handy guide to help you decide!
Elf: A great comedy for any age group, Will Farrell stars as the title character that was raised believing he was an elf by Santa Clause. He discovers that he isn’t actually an elf, prompting him to visit New York City to look for his real family. Zooey Deschanel is featured as his sassy love interest, Jovie. There is great scene where Will Farrell tries to figure out how to use an escalator for the first time.
The Holiday: More of a chick flick/rom com, The Holiday stars Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet. Strangers to one another at the beginning of the movie, we learn that both of them are having man troubles and each decides she needs a vacation. Through a home swap website, they find each other and spend Christmas at the other woman’s home, in Los Angeles and London respectively. Jack Black has a funny cameo as Kate Winslet’s love interest.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000): Starring Jim Carrey as The Grinch, this movie is based on the classic Dr. Seuss story. A good one to watch with kids, this movie is really cute!
Home Alone: This one is sort of polarizing—you either love it or you hate it. Or like me, you go back and forth on how you feel about it. Macaulay Culkin plays Kevin, a little boy who is forgotten at home when his family goes on vacation. While staying at the family home on his lonesome, two burglars try to break in and Kevin utilizes a series of booby-traps to fight back. Realistic? No. Funny in a really juvenile kind of way? Definitely.
The Nightmare Before Christmas: A super cool stop motion film, Nightmare is about Jack Skellington, ruler of Halloweenland who happens upon Christmastown, loves it and tries to emulate it, but he doesn’t quite understand the concept of Christmas. Danny Elfman did the score for this movie and it is AWESOME. Highly recommend.
Gremlins: The bad special-effects with this ‘80s flick are next level, but in a so-cheesy-it’s-good kind of way. Basically, a mother gives her teenage son a mysterious creature she found in a small shop in Chinatown as a Christmas gift. The shopkeeper only gives the following instructions for caring for the creature: “Don’t expose him to bright light. Don’t ever get him wet. And don’t ever, ever feed him after midnight.” We’re all in high school; we know how terrible teenagers can be at following directions sometimes, and Billy, the boy who receives the creature, is no exception. As a result, there is a gremlin invasion. This movie is a bit of a cult classic and worth seeing at least once.
While You Were Sleeping: This movie stars Sandra Bullock in a crazy situation that isn’t very plausible but makes from a great holiday movie. She plays a subway teller who falls in love with one of her regular customers, who just happens to fall onto the subway tracks, and so she of course, she jumps onto the tracks and saves him. Her love interest sustains significant injuries, and at the hospital the doctors tell her she can only stay with him if she’s family. So she does what any reasonable person would do—she lies and says she is the man’s fiancée. The man is in a comma, his real family is called, and Sandra Bullock’s character keeps up the charade and is welcomed with open arms into his family. It’s cheesy, it’s funny, and what’s not to love about Sandra Bullock?
The Santa Clause (1, 2 and 3): Tim Allen must is forced to become the new Santa Clause after wearing a Santa suit and accepting Santa’s business card. But he is also fighting for custody of his son with his ex-wife, so he must convince the court that he really is Santa. The next two movies might be viewed as gratuitous by some, but the trio are great for a holiday movie marathon.
White Christmas (1954): A romantic musical-comedy starring Bing Crosby, about two friends who had just been discharged from the army who fall in love with a two sisters at a Vermont Inn. The twist: the two former soldier and the sisters each have their own singing-and-dancing act. So naturally, there is a lot of singing and dancing. It is a cheerful classic that will surely get you in the Christmas spirit.
