Part 3: 30-1
written by Mike
- December 21, 2025
Part 1 (100-66) | Part 2 (65-31) | Part 3 (30-1)
Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (1970)
Available on: DVD | VHS
Fred Astaire plays the postman in charge of delivering all our letters to Santa in this Rankin/Bass retelling of the Santa Claus story. This time around, Santa is left on the doorstep of the Kringles, an elfin family of toymakers. You'll never guess what they name him. As he grows up, he takes on the job of delivering the Kringles' toys to the children of a nearby town, much to the demise of the grumpy Burgermeister, who outlaws toys. After melting the heart of the magical Winter Warlock, Santa learns how to freeze time, and how to make reindeer fly using magic corn. Corn with fairy dust makes reindeer fly, friends.
Memorable moment: When Santa melts the Winter Warlock's cold heart ... by giving him a choo-choo train. The dude has lived centuries with a subzero organ, and it's suddenly back in operation thanks to a toy train. The last gift I got that could've melted my heart, had it been covered in internal organ ice, was a Super Nintendo.
The Simpsons Christmas Special (1989)
Available on: DVD
(Season 1 box set) | VHS
The vast majority of us didn't know the Simpsons by name when this special came out. They were just that funny cartoon family on the Tracy Ullman show. But when the commercials started airing, and we saw the rude yellow family we all made sure to stay up late for, we knew tuning into this special was a personal obligation. So we sat and watched "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," the story of Homer, who was secretly working as a mall Santa after his power plant job canceled its Christmas bonus, and after blowing all their money on a losing greyhound at the racetracks, they end up taking the neglected pooch home. Though technically not the first episode—the series had a planned release earlier that year, but fell behind—it's still the first one that aired, and the beginning of an era, and for those of us who were there at this beginning, we could already start to see it coming. Right from Bart's first "Who the hell are you?" and Homer's "D'oh!"
Memorable moment: Bart sneaks off to a tattoo parlor, convinces the inker that he's of 21, and gets a tattoo of a heart with MOTHER written on it. Well, actually, the tattoo guy doesn't finish, when Marge comes in and yanks Bart out of there. "But mom," Bart petitions. "I thought you'd like it!" "Who would like a tattoo that says MOTH?"
Mickey's Good Deed (1932)
Available on: DVD | VHS
One of Walt Disney's earliest cartoons, this featured a impoverished Mickey Mouse, who sells his dog, Pluto, in order to help out a poor family full of children. This is noteworthy in that the cartoon was made during the Great Depression, and it features a poor Mickey giving up his most prized possession in order to help out another poor family. The rich kid Pluto ends up with is the loudest, most obnoxious brat I've ever heard, and after Pluto finally makes a mess out of the house and gets kicked out again, you couldn't be happier when he is reunited with Mickey. That and the fact that he somehow got a whole roasted turkey tied to the end of his tail.
Memorable moment: After the kid's dad throws Pluto out of the house, the kid starts screaming "I WANT DOGGY I WANT DOGGY" again. It's really incredible voice acting in that it makes me actually want to reach into my TV and rip out the kid's throat. Great going, dad. We just got him to shut u—hey alright, way to spank that kid sore! After five minutes of listening to a cartoon pig child scream at the top of his lungs, I'm actually rooting for his dad's shoe.
The Night Before Christmas (1933)
Available on: DVD
(Easter egg in "The Santa Clause") | VHS
Another Disney short, this time in the form of the Silly Symphony. Santa is seen making a stop at an orphanage, because Walt Disney had to include dead parents in everything he made. He practically unloads his entire bag of toys under the tree, and hangs out for a while as he watches everything march out of the bag by itself. The wooden soldiers dance, the planes hang garland around the Christmas tree, and Santa even plays a number on a little tinker piano. This is enough to wake a long bed full of about 10 orphans wake up, but before they know it, Santa's up the chimney and on his way to the next house to kill about a half hour. Stopping time's a pretty awesome super power to have.
Memorable moment: Santa's laugh. It's not quite the "Ho-ho-ho," you're expecting, but more of a deep belly laugh, borderlining on somewhat of a guffaw. It's gotten to the point where I associate the laugh in this one, 7-minute long Christmas short with Santa Claus more so than I do with the one everybody else does. Someone even left the fireplace on, and Santa just shrugs it off with a belly laugh. After leaping in pain, of course. He's still human. Kind of.
Scrooged (1988)
Available on: DVD | VHS
As far as I'm concerned, Bill Murray is one of the funniest people alive, and his role as Scrooge-esque TV exec Frank Cross is among his best work. After canceling everyone's Christmas bonus, getting typical, crappy gifts for his family, and firing a random low-level employee on Christmas Eve, Cross is visited by his old boss. Not the ghost of his old boss ... the decaying zombie body of his old boss, who warns him that he'll share the same fate if he doesn't change his ways, like the three ghosts he's about to meet tell him to, including a cab-driving Ghost of Christmas Past who reminds him of the lighthearted man he once was and the woman he once loved, and a sadistic Ghost of Christmas Present who reminds him of the neglected people in his everyday life. Murray's redeeming monologue at the end, as he interrupts a live TV production of "A Christmas Carol," is a touching piece of Murray's classic wit.
Memorable moment: Carol Kane's role as the Ghost of Christmas Present steals the show, if only for a moment. All along their voyage, she casually beats the crap out of Cross. She'll do it mid-sentence, too. Like right in that last one I just wrote, she would have hit him in the head with her wand on the word "sentence."
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978)
Available on: DVD | VHS
For years, and long after I should have stopped, I was a rabid Sesame Street fan, so this special is on my absolute must-watch list every year. After Oscar gives Big Bird something to think about in the question of how a fatty like Santa Claus can fit down the tiny chimneys of New York City, our feathered friend goes nuts trying to find the answer, and gets his friends to help him find it. Meanwhile, Bert and Ernie pull a Gift of the Magi by each selling their most prized possessions in order to buy gifts for the other to use with his most prized possession. If you didn't quite catch that, Ernie sells Mr. Hooper (who is still alive in 1978 hooray!) his Rubber Duckie in exchange for a cigar box for Bert's paper clip collection ... which Bert later sells to buy a soap dish for Ernie to put Rubber Duckie in. Mr. Hooper eventually ends up giving those two things back to the boys, in exchange for nothing but to see everyone happy at Christmas. As for Big Bird, he camps out on the woods without telling anybody, to try and figure out the Santa Claus mystery. He never finds out, but as Gordon explains to him, that doesn't stop the miracle of Christmas from happening. Also, while all of this is going on, we randomly check in on Cookie Monster, who keeps trying to make his Christmas list for Santa, eating a pencil, typewriter, and telephone in the process.
Memorable moment: During an ice skating scene at the beginning, a bunch of the Muppet characters takes turns seeing who can jump over the most oil barrels. The winner, of course, is Fonzie, who jumps over however many barrels it takes to equal the length of a shark tank. Then Cookie Monster gets the brilliant idea of playing everyone's favorite ice skating game, Crack the Whip, which ends with Bert and his butter-colored fingers letting go of Oscar, sending him flying down several flights of stairs. And we see him pummel the entire way down about four or five flights of stairs in his trash can.
Elf (2003)
Available on: DVD | VHS
In recent years, Christmas movies have been a drag. Then last year, Will Ferrell came out with this, and while it's a pretty standard fish out of water story, Ferrell makes it fun to watch in his role as Buddy, a man raised by Santa Claus as an elf. When he's the only one growing up, Santa tells him the truth about his origins, and makes him defeat an evil, one-eyed spider queen thing in his belly. I mean tells him his real father is a human and lives in New York City. There, he finds that all is not cheerful during the holiday season, and his childhood innocence is annoying at first, but eventually spreads a little more joy to a city that could use it. Buddy has a rough time getting his dad (James Caan) to understand or accept his childlike disposition, and has a bit of an easier time getting mall Santa's elf Zooey Deschanel to at least crack a smile. Buddy represents the naive kid many of us wish we could get away with being, and Ferrell does a remarkable job of it.
Memorable moment:
mike fireball 0: Quick help me pick the best moment in Elf.
Destinys2ndKid: You should just post a bunch of pictures of Zooey Deschanel...
Destinys2ndKid: And then one of them could come to life and marry me.
Destinys2ndKid: It's a Christmas miracle!
A Chipmunk Christmas (1981)
Available on: DVD | VHS
Alvin, Simon, and Theodore's 1981 Christmas special marked the trio's return to television since the final new episode of the Alvin Show in 1965. In fact, you can thank this special for reviving the animated series and getting the '80s/'90s cartoon series commissioned. A Chipmunk Christmas was aired along with the release of a record of the same name, featuring Santa Claus narrating this story of the spirit of giving. And harmonicas ... a golden one of which belongs to Alvin, who gives it to a sick friend in hopes that it'll make him feel better. But in a case of awful timing, Dave books him for a show at Carnegie Hall, and Alvin scrambles to get another harmonica in time. He attempts to raise money as a sidewalk Santa, letting children sit on his lap and take pictures, among other schemes. When Dave notices Alvin's sudden desire to raise money, he mistakes it for greed. But in the end, Alvin's good deed is not gone unnoticed.
Memorable moment: Alvin's at the mall, a few bucks shy of the harmonica's running price, when he bumps into some strange old lady who needs a favor. The favor in question is that she needs Alvin to let her buy him the frigging harmonica. Alvin can't believe what he's hearing. She actually turns out to be Mrs. Claus, but that doesn't matter. The message here is that doing good deeds will get total strangers to give you anything you want.
Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992)
Available on: DVD | VHS
See below. Change "house in the Chicago suburbs" to "distant relatives' abandoned flat in New York City." Then change "every house on the block" to "the biggest toy store in aforementioned city." THEN change "mysterious salt-shoveling guy" to "scary bird lady in Central Park." Add a Talkboy™ tape recorder made especially for the film and evil hotel lobbyist Tim Curry with an eerily spot-on Grinch face, and you basically have the same movie. Yet somehow, this blatant rehash works. It's kind of like Home Alone: the 2nd Quest. It's harder to get through, but you don't really mind.
Memorable moment: Also, the movie within the movie. In the first Home Alone, Kevin watches a black and white mobster flick called "Angels With Filthy Souls." Don't bother looking it up on IMDB. It doesn't really exist. The footage was filmed especially for this movie. In Home Alone 2, Kevin watches the Christmas-themed sequel, "Angels With Even Filthier Souls," in which Johnny shoots up his dame for smoochin' around with all the guys. The way Kevin uses it to scare off the hotel workers is brilliant. Or at least it was to my 12-year-old self. This was the kind of thing I wish I could have gotten away with.
Home Alone (1990)
Available on: DVD | VHS
This film made Macaulay Culkin a household name, and people on the street will be asking him to do the scream until he's like 50. In this film, Kevin's family go on vacation and leave him alone in his house in the Chicago suburbs. Meanwhile, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are cat burglars who plan to hit every house on the block while their owners are on vacation. Kevin wards them off a few times, but when they figure out he's by himself in the house, they make their move. Unfortunately for them, Kevin's waiting for them. When you're 10 years old, anything in which a kid gets the best of the adults, especially if pain is distributed among them, is the funniest thing ever. Some Home Alone wins points for being a Christmas classic for a generation.
Memorable moment: Obviously, the final set of house traps that Kevin sets up. It's an insane battle plan, in which he thinks of absolutely everything. I don't even know where to begin describing its genius, so I'll just assume you know what I'm talking about.
That One McDonald's Commercial (1983)
Available for download at X-entertainment.com
Memorable moment:
Shut up it counts.
A Garfield Christmas Special (1987)
Available on: DVD | VHS
Garfield and Odie are taken to Jon's for the annual Christmas family gathering. Garfield, of course, isn't looking forward to dealing with relatives, and the special is one big parody of family togetherness during the holidays. Jon's mom makes too much food, and his grandmother is competing for control of the kitchen. Jon's dad is made to read a story about Binky the Clown, and his grown sons insist that he use the appropriate voices. In the midst of all this, Garfield finds a stack of letters that Grandma's husband wrote to her when they were dating, and Odie makes a makeshift backscratcher for Garfield, who sums it up best in the end: "Christmas ... it's not the giving, it's not the getting. It's the loving."
Memorable moment: Garfield is sent on a mission to put the star on the top of the Christmas tree, and after successfully doing so, he falls through, and all the decorations topple off with him. This is followed by what might be the funniest line in the entire special ... "Whoever invented Christmas trees should be drug out into the street and shot."
Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
Available on: DVD | VHS
This wasn't Scrooge McDuck's first animated appearance, but considering the other is a little known short, this one might as well have been. Naturally, he's cast as himself in yet another version of "A Christmas Carol." Again, you know the story, and the fun in this special is picking out the familiar faces. Mickey and Minnie as the Cratchits. Donald, appropriately, as Scrooge's nephew, Fred. Daisy, however, shows up as Belle. Even Mole and Badger from the Wind in the Willows show up as the charity workers, as well as Mr. Toad as Fezziwig. And the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future are portrayed, respectively and somewhat appropriately, by Jiminy Cricket, the Giant from Mickey and the Beanstalk, and the infamous Pete.
Memorable moment: Goofy as Jacob Marley. Despite being a ghost, he trips over Scrooge's cane left on the floor, and manages to fall down the entire flight of stairs on the way out. Goofy's sports documentaries were favorites of mine when they used to air, so this part, while not particularly funny, has a soft spot with me.
The Christmas Toy (1986)
Available on: VHS
This was a Muppet special about a stuffed Tiger named Rugby, who thinks he's the star of Christmas. Last year, he has fond memories of young Jessie opening his box and giving him an enormous hug. What he doesn't know is that before he showed up, Apple was Jessie's favorite toy, and this year, it's another toy's turn. Of course, he doesn't find that out until he's down the stairs and has opened one of the boxes, thus taking a HUGE risk in the "Don't let humans see you move or you'll die" rule of toys. A rescue team is sent out to bring him back, but Rugby has already opened a box to find Meteora, Queen of the Asteroids, already in there. It takes a lot of sucking up to get Meteora back in the box, but now that Rugby understands that all of Jessie's toys are loved equally, he's more than happy to pass the torch.
Memorable moment: Mew is the family cat's chew toy, whom Rugby never ceases to remind that he's nothing more than just a cat toy. But when Mew is found out of place and he freezes, the song Rugby sings to him in apology and appreciation is a touching one.
Miracle On 34th Street (1947)
Available on: DVD | VHS
A mall Santa is put on trial to determine his sanity when he starts introducing himself as Kris Kringle and claims to be the real Santa Claus. You'd think he'd be a little busy around this time of year, but hanging around in New York it is. Of course, having to be on trial doesn't help much. Kris's boss, Doris, is especially sour at his actions, because she's been trying to raise her daughter to not believe in Santa. Nevertheless, Doris's friend, Fred, agrees to represent Kris in court, and promises to prove to the jury that he is, in fact, sane, because he actually is Santa Claus. I'm sure you can figure out how it ends. The film is a bit of an examination of faith and trust, with an underlying message of "I don't see what's so bad about letting people believe in what they want to believe ... about Santa Claus or anything else that you think is childish."
Memorable moment: Right at the very beginning, when Kris reveals the Santa in the Macy's Day Parade to be a drunk, Kris is the one going on a fit of rage, raising his walking cane to the whacking position. Santa Claus beating a drunk with a cane is enough to make the '90s remake with Matilda look pale in comparison. Which is a stupid choice of adjective on my part, since this is the one in black and white.
Gremlins (1984)
Available on: DVD | VHS
Holiday horror flicks don't get better than this. Mixing comedy, explosions, little animated creatures, and Phoebe Cates, Gremlins has a little bit of everything. It's a generation's classic, and for many of us, an introduction into the horror film genre. After breaking the three cardinal rules of taking care of the mystical Mogwai, which I'm sure you can all recite, Zach Galligan's pet, Gizmo, has given birth to an entire colony of mischievous Gremlins, who start terrorizing the town. In an effort to warn the town, Galligan rescues Cates, who shares a haunting secret of why this Christmas is no worse than any others. Her chilling story of the death of her father, who dressed up like Santa Claus and attempted to slide down the chimney, only to have his neck snap and get stuck, dead halfway down, has probably saved hundreds of idiot lives. I know it saved mine.
Memorable moment: A swarm of hundreds of gremlins break into a movie theater and get a reel going of Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." Nothing says Christmas spirit like a theater full of evil reptilian monsters singing along to "Heigh-Ho." It's still one of my favorite movie scenes of all time.
He-Man/She-Ra: A Christmas Special (1985)
Available on: DVD | VHS
Christmas coming to Eternia might not sound like a big deal to someone who didn't watch He-Man or She-Ra, but this special, combining the two series into a our hour show, was huge for us fans. Just about every single character from both cartoons at least got their face on camera in this tale of, essentially, how Orko screwed up again. Playing around with Man-At-Arms's new dimension-hopping shift, and catching Skeletor's attention in the process, Orko finds himself on Earth, and rescues two children lost in the woods. They spend about an hour trying to explain why they're dragging a chopped down evergreen tree behind them, but think about it. How long do you think it would take to explain Christmas, in its entirety, to an alien? He-Man and She-Ra goes on a quest to find a crystal element that will bring Orko back to Eternia, getting some help from the small but tough Manchines on the way. Said Manchines basically look more like they should be fighting Mega Man in badly furnished boss rooms than helping He-Man bring his idiot friend back. both Skeletor AND Hordak are summoned by a power even higher than the two of them ... the new and mysteriously evil Horde Prime! He commands the two to stop this sudden outburst of joy that's coming from Christmas. So Skeletor nabs the kids, as well as a Manchine puppy that follows them. But soon enough, enough puppy licks in the face reduce the mighty Skeletor to mush, the spirit of Christmas consuming his evil essence for just long enough to turn on Horde Prime and save the day.
Memorable moment: In the midst of having to put up with the kids' complaining as they make the cold, snowy journey to Horde Prime's headquarters, Skeletor gets interested in what exactly it is that he's helping to stop. So he asks them about Christmas, and the resulting conversation is so ridiculous, that you have you hear it for yourself (play the clip).
Frosty The Snowman (1969)
Available on: DVD | VHS
Jimmy Durante ("Hot-cha-cha-cha-cha!") narrates this Rankin/Bass classic, in which Frosty comes to life when a group of children find a top hat and put it on his head. The odd part about this situation is that the apparently magic hat didn't seem to do a whole lot of magic for its previous owner, Professor Hinkle, so he throws it away. But when he sees what it does to the snowman, he wants it back. The kids are devastated. How could that mean old magician want his hat back? Look, kids. If I put my trash out to the curb, and you pick through it, and you find out that something of mine has magic powers, I'm going to want it back. It's still my property until the trash truck comes and takes it away. I don't care how much you miss your giant talking snowman that was your friend for a whole 2 minutes.
Memorable moment: Frosty's immortal first words: "Happy birthday!" To this day, I still have no idea what in the living crap that means. Maybe it's a subliminal reference to the miracle of life. Or maybe Frosty's only as intelligent as the kids that brought him to life. I mean, come on ... they almost named him Oatmeal.
The Year Without A Santa Claus (1974)
Available on: DVD | VHS
Of all people to catch a cold, Santa decides to take Christmas as a sick day. For as long as he feels like. So two of his elves, named Jingle Bells and Jangle Bells, pick a random reindeer ... Vixen gets the honors ... and tries to get the children of the world to beg for him to come back. The children of Southtown, USA, however, say they'll start believing in Santa again when it starts snowing. Enter Heat Miser and Snow Miser, the only reason anyone has ever watched this special a second time. It's a literal battle of elements for the fate of Southtown, and ultimately, Santa Claus. Luckily, the Mrs. knows the Misers' mama ...
Memorable moment: Basically any part with the two Miser brothers on the screen at the same time. The tops is when Mother Nature whip her boys into shape. They put aside their differences and go ahead and let it snow in Southtown. Also, Mother Nature looks and sounds like some sort of cross between Dr. Ruth and Florence Henderson. Half the time I watch this special, I almost expect her to tell her kids to make out.
Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas (1977)
Available on: DVD | VHS
You know that poor kid you're friends with regardless because he's kind of awesome? Emmet Otter is that kid, but he doesn't mind at all. He works odd jobs for the townsfolk to help him and his mom get by ... while Mom pretty much does the entire town's laundry. This is a bigger responsibility than you might think. The town laundress has access to a lot of secrets that she'd be best off keeping. Like who wets their bed. And who happened to have their mistress over sometime last week. And who doesn't change their underwear for a month because they think it's good luck. After finding out about a Christmas Eve talent show, Emmet and his mom get into another classic Gift of the Magi dilemma, where Ma hocks Emmet's tool chest to make herself a pretty little dress, and Emmet punches a hole in Ma's washtub to make a bass guitar for his jug band. With his BARE HANDS and also a hammer. Of course, he COULD just buy her a new washtub with the prize money, but how do you explain that? That's like driving your new car off a cliff the day before your warranty expires.
Memorable moment: RIVERBOTTOM NIGHTMARE BAND!!11
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Available on: DVD | VHS
The closer I get to the top of the list, the less I feel I have to explain the special to you. So I'll keep it brief here in the Top 10. The story of Jack, the king of a world in which every day is Halloween, and his discovery and fascination of the concept of Christmas has become a classic in its own right ... the way that parodying tributes often tend to do. Burton's stop-motion masterpiece not only gets points for covering two holidays in a three-month stretch, but also in blending the two together into a piece that's as sweet as it is cynical.
Memorable moment: There's a dozen, including the part where the mad scientist kisses his new creature on the brain, and then its head shuts on his lips. Also the part where the one boy, after Jack's Christmas run, in a very desensitized manner, shows him parents what he got for Christmas ... a human head. But I always had a soft spot for Jack's elaborate chalk board equation for calculating how to make Christmas, particularly the part where he writes "SANTY" followed by a drawing of lobster claws.
A Christmas Carol (1951)
Available on: DVD | VHS
The desert island Scrooge movie. Alastair Sim is downright scary when he's called to be, and downright adorable come the closing credits. Not the first time the story made it to the screen, this is still considered the classic version of the tale, and having watched many different variations of the story, I come back to this one, and it's easy to see why it does its job the best.
Memorable moment: Scrooge's transformation on Christmas Day. Playing the character by the book, Sim's Scrooge still struggles with the change of heart, right up to the moment he's outside of his nephew's house. Instantly jovial Scrooges are fun to watch and all, but Alastair Sim made the character believably human.
The Snowman (1982)
Available on: DVD | VHS
There was a span of a few years growing up where I absolutely LOVED this cartoon. I was two when it first aired on HBO, so I don't remember very much at all about the first time I watched it. But David Bowie had a little introduction, praising the illustration of Raymond Briggs, and the orchestra that brought the story to life musically. Told without words, this story of a boy whose snowman comes to life one night comes to a climax when the snowman grabs his hand, starts running, and takes to the sky. They fly above the countryside and the Arctic, until they reach snowman headquarters at the North Pole, where Santa has a special gift for him ... a scarf, complete with little snowmen on it. The next morning, the boy finds the snowman reduced to a puddle outside his house, and he is left alone with his tears ... and the snowman's hat. It's a lump-in-throat moment of growing up, but it works better here than it would in, say, Calvin and Hobbes.
Memorable moment: The boy brings the snowman into the house, where among other activities, it uses a bowl full of fruit to change his peach nose into others, including an apple and a banana. Later, they make faces in the Christmas ornaments, and try on some of Dad's pants ... all the while the snowman is neither quickly melting, nor tracking bits of himself through the house. That's some pretty powerful magic.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
Available on: DVD | VHS
After taking on summer road trips and European getaways, Chevy Chase, as old-fashioned everyman Clark W. Griswold, tries his damndest to have a decent family Christmas, but to little avail. Our hearts go out to Clark, whose plans for peace of mind quickly go awry with no sign of returning, even after you think it can't possibly get worse. Christmas Vacation reached unprecedented levels of I can't believe that just happened, and for that, it's one of the greatest, if not the funniest.
Memorable moment:
SQUIRREL!
A Muppet Family Christmas (1987)
Available on: DVD | VHS
This is as high as I could rank this one with good conscience. For myself and a few other friends, it's an absolute favorite that cannot be missed any year, ever. In an unprecedented Muppet event outside of the movie theater, the entire Muppet cast from Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock and the Muppet Show all end up at Fozzie Bear's mother's house for Christmas. Doc and Sprocket's plans of peace and quiet are ruined, but as they meet new and oddball friends, they don't seem to mind as much. Miss Piggy is stuck at a photo shoot, and Doc braves a violent snowstorm to bring her back to Kermit. And the Swedish Chef tries to cook Big Bird. The only message you're getting out of this one is "Happy holidays, from our family to yours." Ok, and maybe also, "It's great to have everyone together at Christmas." But most likely it's more like "Hey let's see how many of these things we can fit in a camera shot."
Memorable moment: There are a few, but my favorite is the part where the Muppets are watching an old film reel of Christmas when they little Muppet Babies. At the end of a rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," Baby Animal pops his head out of a wrapped present. Seconds later, grown-up Animal pops his head through the projection screen.
A Christmas Story (1983)
Available on: DVD | VHS
Ralphie Parker's story of the year he got his Red Rider B.B. gun is the X-Entertainment.com of my parents' generation, full of nothing but blissful, often cynical, and above all passionate nostalgia of the late 1940s. It's also similar to Matt's site in the fact that even kids born after the subject material in question can appreciate and thoroughly enjoy its presentation. And instead of a prized-filled giant peanut, there's a lamp shaped like a woman's leg. Now if only TNT would stop running marathons on it and ruining its greatness.
Memorable moment: Impossible
to narrow it down to one; the whole movie is a string of memorable moments, from
the triple dog dare, to the Chinese dinner. But the one that hit home for me
the most was when Ralphie's parents overhear him say fuck "the F-word."
Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1962)
Available on: DVD | VHS
It's one of Rankin/Bass's first, and yet it's still its greatest achievement. Which is pretty impressive, considering this is the same company that gave us Thundercats. This tale of misfits longing to fit in is often misunderstood by the more cynical crowd. "Santa gives the misfit toys to the poor kids? And the rich kids get all the good toys? That sux lol," they claim. Yeah. The poor kids get all the misfit toys. Because they want to be frigging loved and appreciated. Give a misfit toy to a rich kid, and they'll throw it against the wall and wait for you to come pick it up and put it in the trash can. Give a misfit toy to a poor kid, and you've given them a sense of friendship.
Memorable moment: Clarice calls Rudolph cute, and that's his happy thought, causing him to take off. Unfortunately, his nose cover-up comes off in the process, and everybody is face to face with his glowing red nose. Even his buddy Fireball is creeped out by it. That's kind of embarrassing. If it were Mike Fireball, and I was face to face with a dude with a glowing red nose, I'd probably find it cool looking and ask to touch it. I MEAN I WOULD SAY HI TED KENNEDY NICE TO MEET YOU LOL UR DRUNK.
Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
Available on: DVD | VHS
Not even an overacting Jim Carrey can put a damper on this original animated version of the Dr. Seuss classic. This is partially due to the fact that Seuss, himself, was very closely involved with the transfer to the screen. The other heavyweights involved, Chuck Jones's animation, Boris Karloff as the narrator and as the Grinch himself, and Thurl "Tony the Tiger" Ravenscroft as the singer of the Grinch's theme song, breathed more life into this tale of a rotten green monster whose heart grew three sizes, thanks to the fact that an entire town puts singing out in their town square as the #1 holiday priority, than Carrey could've hoped to. Don't get me wrong. Jim Carrey's a great actor. I just could not feel him as the Grinch. My theory is that the casting director originally was hard of hearing, and the role was originally recommended for Tim Curry and his spot-on Grinch face, but when the other guy pulled up in the studio lot, everyone just said "Forget it. We can make it work."
Memorable moment: Sure, there's Cindy Lou Who's line, done beautifully here by June Foray. There's the Grinch lifting the sleigh packed with toys over his head, and then, for me, there's also the initial sled down the hill. We take a break from the story, so that Jones can show off some visual comedy involving the Grinch, Max, and their makeshift sleigh.
It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
Available on: DVD | VHS
It's a shame that network television has felt the need in the past to run marathons of just this movie, over and over again, on Christmas Day. Because of that, people have grown some kind of unnecessary prejudice for a truly remarkable film about a down-on-his-luck man's realization of his own self-worth. Its level of inspiration over the years has been tremendous, and continues even in as recent as that story about the five people you meet in Heaven. And its message is pure and simple: Life sucks sometimes, but it sure would suck a whole lot more without you.
Memorable moment: "Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, emporium! Merry Christmas, you wonderful old building and loan!" It's a silly trio of sentences to inanimate objects, and yet it's one of the greatest movie quotes of all time. It marks the first point after which George Bailey realizes that his life is going to be ok after all, and it makes me clap inside every time I see it.
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
Available on: DVD | VHS
Even I tried to knock Charlie Brown off the top spot, but there's no denying that blockhead from the core of the Christmas season. Charles Schulz was a simple man who conveyed life lessons through the simple language of children like Charlie Brown, who is so bummed out about the commercialization of what's supposed to be a wonderful time of year, that it depresses him. So he goes and finds the most plain looking Christmas tree he could find. He understands it. It IS his Christmas ... fragile, but still hanging in there. Year after year, and pathetic little tree after pathetic little tree, it's still an inexplicably great moment when the two find each other, and we're reminded that Christmas is a fragile thing to take too seriously in a commercialized world. But that hasn't stopped it from coming. And that's why this is the quintessential Christmas special.
Memorable moment: "Lights, please." Through Linus, Schulz shares with us what Christmas means to him. CBS almost didn't include Linus's Nativity monologue, in fear of getting angry phone calls concerning religious bias. But Schulz insisted that it be kept in, not because he felt like being preachy, but because if his creation was going to hit the airwaves, it was going to contain his complete heart and soul. Linus reminds us in an innocent, non-threatening way that even crappy-looking trees and kids born in horse feeders can be destined for great things, and THAT is what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
Part 1 (100-66) | Part 2 (65-31) | Part 3 (30-1)
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