Christmas Marathon: My Christmas Must-See Flicks!

Yesterday was pretty much a snow day.  Everything was called off and other than shoveling snow, doing chores and drafting blogs, its the best time to snuggle up with some hot tea/water and watch some Christmas classics.  I may not have gone through this whole list but it did spark the inspiration for a Christmas must-see list! Its pretty much movies I watch every year during Christmas 🙂 Last year, I reviewed them all so I’ll just link them all back to their respective reviews so you can just click through and read it if you’d like.

1) A GARFIELD CHRISTMAS

I love Garfield and I love Odie.  This little short animated flick is fun and all about family love during Christmas.  Its meaningful and totally great.  I tend to kick off my Christmas marathon with this one. If you’d like the review, you can check it out HERE!

2) DISNEY CLASSIC HOLIDAY STORIES/MICKEY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL

Classic Holiday Stories is a pretty cool one with 3 features: The Small One, Pluto’s Christmas Tree and Mickey’s Christmas Carol. If I have no time, usually I always watch Mickey’s Christmas Carol.  Its a great Disney version of A Christmas Carol all Disney-fied.  I love it! It has the whole Disney crew and just so much fun to watch 🙂

You can see my review HERE!

3) DR. SEUSS’ HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS!

I’m a HUGE Dr. Seuss fan.  I’ve written a few posts related to it already, you could search it up if you’re interested.  So, it goes without saying that my go-to Christmas movie has to be How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  I don’t read it as much as say, Green Eggs and Ham or The Lorax but this animated flick is one of my faves.  It has some catchy songs and pretty fun to watch with the awesome narrator and all 🙂

Check out the full review HERE!

4) A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS

Who doesn’t watch this for Christmas? Its a classic! Thats really all I have to say.  Every single time I watch this I want to sing O Christmas Tree.  And then I have a blast when Schroeder and Lucy talk about Beethoven 🙂

You can check out my review HERE!

5) MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (1994)

I haven’t watched the original but I promise that I will this year so expect it probably some time soon 🙂 But this one seriously rocks. Why? Mara Wilson is adorable. She’s one of my most fave child actresses.  She doesn’t act anymore now that she’s older but still, she was fantastic.  Plus, Richard Attenborough is fantastic as Kriss Kringle. I totally buy that he is Santa Claus! Watching this one warms my heart 🙂

Check out my review HERE!

6) WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

While You Were Sleeping is one of my feel good Christmas movies.  Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman are amazing together.  The chemistry is fantastic and the whole family they used is great.  Warm moments, happy moments, mixed in with some funny ones as well. Love it SO MUCH!

You can check out my review HERE!

7) LOVE ACTUALLY

Love Actually was the first movie that had these multiple rom-com storyline and probably the only one that was actually great.  It had a really great cast and it was a nice balance between funny, cute, happy, weird (*ahem* Bill Nighy’s character) and just the whole deal.  Its just so great! Lots of wonderful moments and just pure awesomeness! 🙂

Check out last year’s review HERE!

8) ELF

Elf is a must-see mostly because its my boyfriend’s most favorite.  Why its so low on the list is because this is somewhat the order I watch my movies and we always watch Elf on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve depending on work and holidays that year and in between our family parties and all.  I’m not normally a Will Ferrell fan but I am one when I watch Elf and plus, there’s Zooey Deschanel and I have the biggest girl crush on her, especially now that I love her as Jess in New Girl 🙂

Check out my review HERE!

9) POLAR EXPRESS

Polar Express is a fave for both me and my boyfriend so we usually put either this (or Elf) on Christmas day/eve.  Similar to the deal with Elf.  Just depends how we feel.  Polar Express has a great story about believing, a fantastic job by Tom Hanks and has beautiful animation, packed with some fun and sweet songs.  Its one of the ultimate Christmas movies that I always find time to watch. 🙂

FINALLY…

I still have one more but I have opted to do a separate post for it which should be up later this week.  How about a few honorable mentions which rotate every other year: Alvin and the Chipmunks  (REVIEW), Serendipity(REVIEW), and Home Alone (REVIEW).  This year, I decided to put in Rise of the Guardians (REVIEW) into the mix.  Not sure if I’ll get to it but its a pretty festive one as well 🙂

What are your must-see flicks on Christmas? Did I cover some of them? Are there others you would add?

Christmas Marathon: A Pink Christmas (1978)

A PINK CHRISTMAS

Anybody out here doesn’t know this pink cat- Pink Panther? This short flick, originally aired on TV in 1978 (and probably the years after).  I don’t know the details but I remember it drifting into my childhood some 10 years or so after.  I’m not as familiar to Pink Panther as others are.  Pink Panther’s quest in this Christmas special is to find food in every possible way.  During the process, he brings us into sing song moments and many Christmas traditions: the shopping rush, the sweets in the bakery, the meat at the butcher’s , Santa at the department store, skating and outdoor activities, carolers and choir singers, etc.  Of course, he eventually will get his meal with a little companion.

This has children’s movie written all over it.  However, this is also a character from the past so I’m not exactly sure whether kids these days would dig this type of movie.  The whole animation is moved by music and singing in the background to complement the situation but there is no actual dialogue.  However, I did like the music quite a bit.  There’s this song that I really like because of its simple, cheery Christmas music, exactly what I like called “Holly Jolly Holiday”.  I couldn’t find a video with the actual snippet from the movie.

What else did I like? I like all the different aspects that making up the Christmas spirit.  Other than the ones mentioned above, there was also shoveling snow in the winter and feeding birds in the park.  The final lesson is always to learn how to think of others and if you do, good things will happen to you.  After so many attempts of trying to earn food, he finally gets his meal from sharing his doughnut with a small stray puppy.

This flick may be predictable but for some, I think the value is of its reminder of our childhood.  As I’ve mentioned multiple times, nostalgia rules me during the holidays.  Anyone else in the same boat? I’m not as big of a fan of Pink Panther in comparison to Peanuts or Garfield, but I’m sure there still are fans out there who likes this silly pink cat.

How does this TV movie hold up for you after so many years? Are there any movies you loved as a kid that doesn’t have the same feeling as an adult?

Christmas Marathon: Garfield’s Christmas Special (1987)

As much as I love Garfield’s Halloween Adventure, I HAVE TO watch Garfield’s Christmas Special every year for the holidays.  This wasn’t too long though so I ended up watching Garfield’s Thanksgiving as well.  My DVD was a Garfield Holidays Collection. Who can have enough of the lasagna loving orange cat?

GARFIELD’S CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (1987)

This is only 20 minutes long TV movie originally.  The plot is pretty basic to not ruin it for people who haven’t seen this.  Jon takes Garfield and Odie to his home to spend Christmas with his family on the farm.  Quoting Garfield, “Christmas is not about the giving, its not about the getting, its about the loving.”

Honestly, I have no idea what makes me like this so much.  I have no idea ever why I like Garfield ever, especially now that I’m in my mid 20s.  Jon is hilarious with his helplessness with Garfield and how he just sometimes does the silliest things.  Odie is the ever cute companion and friend to Garfield and is the absolute sign of unconditional love.  Garfield is always so cunning but then things never really go his way.  In the Christmas special, what I like a lot is Jon’s Grandma.  Whenever animations put in a Grandma with that type of personality something between rowdy and fun mixed with sentimental and sweet always makes me happy.  An example being Grandma Puckett from Hoodwinked.

There really isn’t much to say about this one.  Garfield TV movies are always quick and to the point .  They captured spending time with family doing their own traditions (no matter how old you are) is always times to treasure.  It touches my heart to see that.

To people who actually still watch TV, I only have bunny ears so I don’t catch much anymore.  Do they still air this during the Christmas holidays?

I know this is more ancient compared to my previous selections, do you still watch it? Do we have any Garfield fans out there?