“National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” tops this writer’s list of favorite holiday movies. PHOTO CREDIT: hbomax.com
It’s the holiday season, which means it’s time to cozy up with some hot chocolate and put on some of the films that only feel appropriate to watch around this time.
I don’t know about all of you, but I love watching holiday movies and I will watch them over and over through the month of December, because it just feels wrong to watch “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” in July, even though it’s so good! So, here are some of my favorite, must-watch movies during the winter months and my favorite places to find new ones.
I’m going to start off with my personal all time favorite, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” I’ve got to admit, I probably watch this movie once a week in December. This is a classic and it never gets old for me. Even though I can recite most of the movie at this point, it still makes me laugh uncontrollably every time I watch it. This is one of those movies that I have to watch every time it’s on television, and I also watch it on HBO Max a lot and still have it on DVD.
If you aren’t familiar with this movie, it follows a family, The Griswolds, who decide to host for Christmas. Having that many family members in the house leads to lots of drama, craziness and surprises. This movie has so many quotable lines that you will be saying all season long. To give you a sneak peak into what happens during this movie, I’ll share a quote from one of the main characters, Ellen Griswold, who says, “I don’t know what to say, but it’s Christmas and we’re all in misery.”
Next, we’re on to some more classics that are always on my list, “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Elf.” Again, these are ones that I can watch multiple times during the holiday season. “The, the, the…The Grinch,” is of course just a fun, feel good movie and “Elf” is just so comical to watch. Buddy the Elf in New York City is guaranteed to make you smile.
Now, I have to talk about a holiday guilty pleasure movie that I watch way too much and get so excited for when December rolls around, which is “Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh.” Hear me out here. A lot of us grew up watching “Drake & Josh,” but it obviously isn’t on very much anymore. I get so excited when Nickelodeon plays this movie because, of course, you can pretty much only watch it during the holidays and it is so funny. I loved it when I was younger and I still love it now.
The plot of this movie is basically that Drake promises a little girl in foster care that he’s going to give her and her family the best Christmas ever, and things end up getting pretty messy. It kind of reminds me of “National Lampoon’s” in that way, so it makes sense that I like it so much. If you haven’t seen this one yet, it plays on Nickelodeon all the time during December and if you are a “Drake & Josh” fan, this movie will be a great throwback for you to watch.
If you are tired of all the classics and want to watch something new, a great option for you is “Daddy’s Home 2.” If you have seen the first “Daddy’s Home,” it has the same characters, but this time, it brings in the fathers of both of the main characters from the first movie and shows the families trying to have a fun-filled Christmas with their blended families. This is another really funny one and shows the craziness that can come with the holidays.
Another thing that you can do if you are looking for some new holiday movies to watch is check out the good old Hallmark Channel. I know sometimes it’s easy to make fun of these movies, and don’t get me wrong, some of them are really bad. And yes, a lot of them have a similar plot, but there are some gems that are really good. The Hallmark Channel is a good channel to just throw on in the background and you might even catch a good movie.
Lastly, there are always episodes of television shows that are based around the holiday season which are always fun to watch. Some series that have memorable holiday episodes are “Friends,” “Glee” and “The Office.” If you’re not in a movie mood, you can always go back to some of your favorite TV shows and watch their holiday episodes.
There are so many holiday movies and television shows there, and they really do get you in the spirit.