Top 10 Holiday Movie Favorites

For this list, instead of listing the holiday movies that I think are the best I thought about the Christmas movies that play in our home almost every year. Sure, I love It's A Wonderful Life and Holiday Inn and a whole slew of other classic Hollywood yuletide flicks but this here are the ones that I can watch year after year!

1) ERNEST SAVES CHRISTMAS (1988) I love this movie so much! I often site it as my favorite Christmas movie and then a few years ago when I realized it's just one of my all-time favorite movies. I love this movie so much I tracked down several of the filming locations in Orlando, Florida. I saw Ernest's house, guys!  This movie is the second of nine Ernest films and it certainly has the most heart, I think it's the funniest and has the best story which actually places Ernest as a secondary character to the main story of Santa Claus arriving in Florida to find his replacement. Just an absolutely delightful film from beginning to end.

2) NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION (1989) I was already a huge fan of the first two Vacation films when this classic was first released. I actually won tickets to the local premiere of Christmas Vacation on the radio so I'm actually among the first people to ever see this hilarious masterpiece. It's been amazing watching this film morph from being just a silly comedy to a bona fide Holiday classic of the first degree. I love that you can buy Christmas Vacation merchandise of every variety now and when people decorate their house with motifs from the movie - that's just the best. This is one film that the entire household watches every single year Christmas week, and it's been the first PG-13 movie for all of my kids.

3) THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992) When the Muppets take on the classic Dickens tale was first released, I was a bit disappointed that the movie wasn't wackier. As time has marched on, I've come to appreciate that the further apart the jokes occur makes each crazy Muppet moment all the more fantastic. This too has become a pretty widely loved Christmas movie as it is not only a fun time with Kermit the Frog and friends, but it is also a pretty faithful adaption of the original story.

4) A VERY BRADY CHRISTMAS (1988)  From Wikipedia: "When A Very Brady Christmas first aired, it was the highest rated television film of the season with a 25.1 rating and a 39 share but ultimately finished as the second highest rated television film of the season." I didn't even watch this when it first aired but I remember everybody talking about the film at school the next day and I eventually caught it in a rerun. It wasn't until a few years later when I had a job where there was a TV on all the time that I started to watch the Brady's Christmas movie repeatedly. It would air several times over multiple weekends each holiday season and I saw it so many times that it started to become a tradition with me. It was easy to find the film on TV for many years after I left that job, but eventually I had to resort to watching it on YouTube. Then I plunked down the $70 for the deluxe Brady Bunch box set which was the only was to get a DVD of the film. The following year Paramount released a stand alone disc for $10.

5) JINGLE BELL ROCKS! (2013) I love a good documentary and this independent film about off-beat Christmas music and Christmas music collectors just seems to scratch every itch I have for a good deep dive into Christmas music. Funny, fascinating and filled with good music...I've been able to track down most of this music on Spotify and the songs, too, have become part of my holiday traditions. 

6) GRUMPY CAT'S WORST CHRISTMAS EVER (2014) Easily the most bizarre Lifetime Christmas movie, I believe this film is also credited as being the first movie based off an internet meme. What shouldn't be any good, turns out to be a rollicking Christmas caper when a young girl befriends the sourpuss cat and the two end up trapped in a mall overnight and involved in a burglary. Grumpy Cat's inner thoughts are voiced by Aubrey Plaza a la' Garfield and there are a few mildly familiar faces among the human cast. Yes, this movie is kinda dumb but my kids and I love it and we've watched it 5 out of the last seven years. They've already asked when we are going to watch it again this year.

7) GOOD LUCK CHARLIE, IT'S CHRISTMAS! (2011) I've never seen the Disney Channel sitcom that this film is based on but I'm always a sucker for a movie version of a sitcom. The movie follows the sitcom Duncan family on a half-cross country Christmas week trip from Chicago to Palm Springs. My middle son was in kindergarten when this movie debuted and we watched it one afternoon and enjoyed it well enough. That same year it was playing late Christmas eve and I put it on while prepping the house for Santa's arrival. The following year it aired again late night on Christmas eve and I had it on while getting things ready. At this point, I decided it was to be a tradition to watch this movie on Christmas eve while doing prep work so I secured the DVD and have now literally seen this movie 11 times...and it won't be Christmas without viewing #12 this year.

8) JINGLE ALL THE WAY (1996) From the director of The Flintstones movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger battles Sinbad for 89 glorious minutes in order to obtain the hottest toy of the Christmas season. Phil Hartman is in it and there is a very brief cameo from Harvey Korman. Like a fine wine, this movie only gets better with age.

9) A CHRISTMAS STORY (1982) It took me about 30 years to finally come around on this film. I saw it the very first time it played on HBO - didn't like it. I showed it to my kids when they were little - still didn't like it. I gave it another chance somewhere in the last 10 years and something clicked - I loved it. Now, it's still fairly fresh for me and my kids because we never watched it on an endless loop on Christmas Eve. 

10) MICKEY'S TWICE UPON A CHRISTMAS (2004) A follow-up to 1999's Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas, this movie isn't even as good as the first one but it made this list because we've watched it so many times it's now a personal favorite. The first movie is beautiful and in my opinion, one of the very best things Disney has ever done with their classic characters. My kids really liked this second effort and I've now seen it so many times I'm not sure if the other one is still my favorite. In a brief 68 minute running time, this film offers up 5 short stories featuring the Disney gang. This was the first time Disney used Mickey and gang in 3D animation and the result is different from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse which premiered a year later. Of the 5 segments, Donald Duck trying to get some peace and quiet to enjoy a cup of hot cocoa is our favorite, although Pluto running away a joining up with Santa's reindeer is a house favorite too!

***Movies come and go from the streaming services but for the 2021 holiday season all of these movies are available on one of the major platforms; Grumpy Cat you'd have to rent from Amazon and Jingle Bell Rocks! appears to only be found on the public library supported service Hoopla.