‘Tis the season to give us your Musts!It’s four days into December, the Rockefeller tree is lit, and I wore gloves to work this morning. I guess I can finally accept that the Holiday Season is in full swing.
If you like your yuletide with a side of irony just like I do, then you should probably check out my Ho-ho-holiday (get it?!) Must List No. 1: Scared of Santa, 250 photos of frightened youngins with Mr. Claus culled from submissions for a Chicago Tribune feature that was too funny not to release in book form. Getting my photo taken on Santa’s lap was always more of a curiosity than a traumatic experience, but my younger sister was captured mid-cry in one of our holiday photos (I’m happy to report that 18 years later she has no residual Santa fear). She’d fit right in with this collection of anti-Claus kids. I feel for the poor, bewildered Santas, but the juxtaposition of their cheerfulness and the children’s terror is too hilarious for words (and timeless, really — some photos are new, some are decades old). There’s also totally bored toddlers, bribery captured on film, and questionable fashion statements. The book is broken down into different chapters (you’ve got your criers, your lungers, your sibling rivalries) for easy searching.
What are your Holiday-themed musts, PopWatchers? List up to three items from old and current Holiday-related TV/movies/music/books/games/online. Don’t forget your e-mail address, in case we decide to use your submission in the magazine. Deadline is tomorrow, which is Friday, at 10 a.m. ET.
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to me, it’s just not christmas without:
a charlie brown christmas
love actually
elf
mariah carey’s “merry christmas” album
it’s a wonderful life
a christmas story
disney’s “a christmas carol” (i think that’s what it’s called; it’s the one where donald is ebeneezer scrooge and mickey is visted by the ghosts of christmas past, future, and present. LOVE it.)
I love love LOVE A Christmas Story and I wait all year for TBS to do a 24 hour marathon starting on Christmas Eve. I fall asleep to it and we watch it all day while eating and opening gifts. Ralphie and his red-rider BB gun are as much a tradition as anything else we do. You’ll shoot your eye out!
The two best (I think) are:
A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim and It’s A Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart. Timeless.
The two best (I think) are:
A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim and It’s A Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart. Timeless.
The two best (I think) are:
A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim and It’s A Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart. Timeless.
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.
“That tree wouldnt fit in our yard!”
“Its not going in our yard, Russ….its going in our living room”
Love it!! Its not Christmas without Clark and Eddie!
For me, it’s not fully Christmas until we put up our tree and watch our two favorite, must-have Chrismas movies, “Home Alone” and “The Ref.” Yep – they both even have main characters that are burglars. I’m sensing a theme here… But “The Ref” is BY FAR the most HILARIOUS Christmas movie with the best lines ever. (“Do you know what I’m going to get you next year for Christmas, Mom? A big wooden cross. So whenever you feel unappreciated for all of your sacrifices, you can climb on up there and nail yourself to it.”) Classic.
Alister Sim as Scrooge. Everyone else pales in comparison to that performance.
I too love ‘24 hours of a Christmas Story’, falling asleep to it, and watching it all day on Christmas. I learned recently that my husband hates that movie. Who hates “A Christmas Story”? I’m considering divorce.
The Portrait Album- The Carpenters
The Colbert Christmas- it has to be a new staple
Robbie the Reindeer- the funniest reindeer movie yet. Who would’ve thunk that femme reindeers had boobies?
I second whoever said Christmas Vacation. I can’t let a Christmas go by without watching that movie.
It is not Christmas until I get to see Peter come home and make coffee. Kind of sad, I’ll admit it, but I have loved this commercial since I was a kid.
1. Christmas Story – again and again and again.
2. Charlie Brown Christmas
3. Holiday Inn & White Christmas back to back
4. Christmas Vacation
5. That perennial holiday favorite Die Hard–because nothing says Christmas cheer like Bruce Willis wielding an uzi.
Song: “Baby it’s Cold Outside”
Movies: “Elf,” “White Christmas,” “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “It’s a Wonderful Life”
I’m just glad Garfield’s Christmas Special is available on DVD since it doesn’t get played on TV anymore. To me it’s just not Christmas until I see Odie make the back-scratcher and Grandma say she’s eating for three – Or Doc Boy wearing his footie pajamas! When I was a kid we had a VHS copy of it my dad recorded off the tv, with all the awesome 80s commercials included (and the California Raisins’ Special afterwards!)
Christmas Vacation is among my Christmas Musts. It’s just so funny. I love it.
My favorite Christmas song is “Rudolph the red-nosed Reindeer”. It always makes me feel good.
My family’s staples:
A Christmas Story – every year we threaten my mom with a leg lamp
White Christmas – love me some Danny Kaye!
A Charlie Brown Christmas – been watching this as long as I can remember
Christmas Vacation – love the squirrel in the tree and the jello
the Christmas Eve Harry Potter movie marathon started year before last when all the kids in the family piled into my mom’s house for their school vacation – kids, cookies, and cocoa make for great times even as an adult
Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Mannheim Steamroller – both sets are worth the money
and nothing screams the holidays like receiving the first Swiss Colony catalogue in the mail
Bing Freaking Crosby! His Christmas album and White Christmas. That’s it – nothing else.
After a couple hellish years in holiday retail, I hate Christmas music for two straight months, but I put it aside for Bing – he’s the king!
Love Actually: My friends and I get together in relaxing clothing (yes that can be pjs!), eat popcorn, cry a little, and feel good!
With my family: The must at Christmas Eve is Miracle on the 34th Street.
My uber retro Must: White Christmas
My just-plain-retro Must: Watching Santa effortlessly glide along freshly-powdered hills atop a Norelco electric shaver.
My not-too-distant past Must: *Nsync’s “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays.” The appeal lies primarily in the accompanying dance moves my sister and I painstakingly created.
My millennial Must: Elf. Simultaneously poking fun and embracing holiday traditions is my kind of yuletide perspective.
This year’s Must: A Colbert Christmas. Less embracing, more poking, all awesome.
Obviously A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. A new addition: “The Strike” episode of Seinfeld. A Festivus for the rest of us!
A must Christmas song is Jack Johnson’s cover of “Someday at Christmas”. He has such a beautiful voice and Jack is always at his best when the melody is simple and words speak volumes!
Time Life Treasure of Christmas Music
It’s a Wonderful Life
A Christmas Story (just watched it last night!)
The Bass-Rankin animated specials, of course
I echo A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Grinch that Stole Christmas (animated only!!!)
Squirrel Nut Zippers Christmas CD
and lastly, The Snowman…that wonderful lyrical animated film…
I love Christmas…
Holiday musts? LOTS of mulled wine.
Oh! I forgot!
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with Burl Ives et al!
Movies:
Love Actually
Home for the Holiday’s
Alvin and the Chipmunks: A Chipmunk Christmas
Music:
Baby It’s Cold Outside
All I want for christmas is you
Walking in a Winter Wonderland
Man, I love the holidays!
Top holiday movies that I must watch every year.
It’s a Wonderful Life
Scrooge
The Ref
Home Alone.
How about:
“Your husband ain’t dead, lady. He’s hiding.”
The Ref is the funniest movie ever!
Hanson’s “Snowed In” gets played every year at my house, haha.