Asklemmy

Late 90s Macedonian flick "Goodbye, 20th Century".

Santa scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBWqVaI_gfk

Ever notice how Arnold is always punching random animals, from deer to the camels in Conan the barbarian's tribe to I think a horse in one of the other movies? Wondering if that's a thing he asks for, like in every movie he asks "can I punch an animal in a part of the movie".

But anyways, I know Die Hard sounds cliché and like a dead meme at this point to choose, but aside from Elf, all the Christmas movies are so gimmicky in none of the good ways. In Die Hard, it's not trying too hard, which is exactly why I choose it even though it also makes it exempt from Christmas movie status to a lot of people.

scrooged

For some reason this made for TV movie called The Night They Saved Christmas with Jaclyn Smith and Art Carney.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_They_Saved_Christmas

idk why. It’s got one of the most annoying kids in it, and it’s the first thing I think of watching every time around.

edit: I just read the plot summary and it sounds fairly insane.

Violent Night

White Christmas. Nothing special about it, but it’s the movie my family watched every year when I was growing up. I can probably quote more of it than is healthy.

“When what’s left of you gets around to getting what’s left to be gotten, what’s left to be gotten won’t be worth getting, whatever it is you’ve got left.”

an old favorite for me is Prancer from 1989 with Sam Elliott. We taped it off the TV, so the old commercials and tracking lines and distorted audio all play into it. Man I miss that tape.

Has to be Krampus, and Anna and the Apocalypse.

Krampus really scratches that nostalgic itch every year and I don't know why. The broken family dynamics, the environment, the sound and set designs are amazing. And it has a lesson like every good Christmas movie should.

And Anna and the Apocalypse is similar. It is funny, musical, and ultimately an allegory about growing up and leaving everyone behind to forge your own path. A good reminder that you never know when it will be your last Christmas with someone. Or maybe I'm looking into it too much and I just like zombie musicals.

Happiest Season felt surprisingly new as a family, love tragedy christmas movie and I really like it. It isn't an older movie but since it came out, it is a must watch every christmas season.

Before this, it definitely was The Long Kiss Goodnight (and funny thing, the german title translates to "deadly christmas")

Home for the Holidays.

The Mistle-Tones. It's so bad, and I love it so much! It's a family tradition now to get high and watch it every year, and it's my favorite tradition.

It’s the “Christmas in the Car” episode of Bob’s Burgers. Yeah, sure it’s not a movie but it’s the most Christmassy feeling thing I’ve watched since I left home and it inspired my new favorite Christmas morning dish (a Dutch Baby) and I just love the scene when they’re cowering in their car in the forest and the car’s off and it starts to snow because it really captures how it feels to be out in the dark that’s not really dark because there’s snow everywhere.

If you haven’t made a dutch baby, it’s incredibly easy and extremely delicious and a good reason to buy a cast iron skillet if you haven’t already.

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985 film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_and_Adventures_of_Santa_Claus_(1985_film)

• Classic Rankin/Bass's stop motion like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
• Santa
• Elves
• Toys
• Flying reindeer

also

• Immortals
• Wood Nymph's
• Evil invisible creatures called the Awgwas

We swap between two movies each year.

Even years it is A LION IN WINTER, an amazing film with insanely quotable dialogue. (EDIT: Why? On "star power" alone, this movie is outrageously cast.)

Odd years it is A CHRISTMAS STORY, which is equally quotable (perhaps more so). (EDIT: Why? Because so many things in this film ring true to my own childhood - having to have last-minute dinner at a Chinese restaurant because of a disaster, for example, or begging for a b-b-gun...)

Noelle (2019)

Black Christmas is one of my favorites I haven't seen mentioned yet. I am a big fan of horror movies and it's a bit of a classic a surprising amount of people haven't seen.