Your Top 10 Xmas Movies

Home Theatre
1

OK, for a bit of festive bandwidth-wasting fun…

What are your favourite Christmas movies? They don’t have to have a festive theme, or be about Christmas. They just have to be pictures you like watching over the season, and which make you feel all Christmassy.

I’ll get the ball rolling– in no particular order:

Doctor Zhivago
The Muppet Christmas Carol
Casablanca
The Great Escape
Die Hard
Trading Places
Bad Santa
The Ref
Some Like It Hot
White Christmas

2 Likes
2

I like a mix of action films plus Christmas favourites
In no particular order:
Home Alone
Die hard
Great escape
Wizard of Oz
Gremlins
Miracle on 34th street (the 1947 one)
Top Gun
A Bond film, The spy who loved me perhaps
…. TBC

2 Likes
3
  1. A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim. The best Xmas film of all time and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise
  2. Die Hard. Obvs
  3. It’s A Wonderful Life. If you can sit through the final scene and Auld Lang Syne with a dry eye then you’re not human
  4. Muppet Christmas Carol. Michael Caine and Animal - what’s not to love?
  5. Trading Places. “Merry New Year!” (Plus Jamie Lee Curtis)
  6. Love Actually. Sugary crap but I love it and have a secret mancrush on Hugh Grant
  7. A film with special effects by Ray Harryhausen because that was always part of TV viewing in the school holidays. Probably ‘Jason and the Argonauts’
  8. The Apartment. SLIH is excellent but this has Billy Wilder, Jack Lemmon AND Xmas.
  9. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer have never been better than in this detective comedy set at Xmas
  10. Eyes Wide Shut. Because who doesn’t enjoy an emotionless Kubrick film with a Xmas tree in every scene and a terrible orgy scene at this festive time of year ?

And finally - better than all these is the Xmas ghost story on BBC. Over the years I have been delighted/ scared witless by gems such as The Ash Tree, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, Lost Hearts and The Signalman. I can’t wait for the latest from Mark Gatiss - The Mezzotint- on Xmas eve on BBC2

6 Likes
4

I think most people’s favourites will be among that lot in first three posts.

Though I could add Elf, if only for Zooey Deschanel (sigh).

Home Alone, 1 and 2.

Scrooged (Bill Murray is Bill Murray)

Gremlins. Lols.

Anna and the Apocalypse (Not a musical fan generally but this is…different :grinning:)

If we can add Xmas TV then…

Although not originally shown at Christmas first time around, it has been since so I would add the Inside No.9 episode, ‘The 12 Days of Christine’ which is right up there as greatest TV ever.

I have very fond memories of the Porridge Christmas specials, esp. The Desperate Hours, I think that was the first time I’d twigged about Christmas specials.

OFAH Jolly Boys Outing too🙂

Just this evening Beeb 2 had the Christmas episode of The Good Life on, lovely.

1 Like
5

Also in no particular order:

A Christmas Carol (Sim) **Watched 2021
A Christmas Carol (Stewart)
The Muppet Christmas Carol
Die Hard
Trading Places
White Christmas **Watched 2021
Miracle on 34th Street
The Grinch **Watched 2021
The Snowman
The Santa Clause
While You Were Sleeping
Its A Wonderful Life

6

Christmas Vacation
It’s a Wonderful Life
Miracle on 34th Street
A Christmas Carol, George C. Scott version
Elf
Scrooged
Any Other version A Christmas Carol, I like them all
A Charlie Brown Christmas

7

I have just watched (again) the utterly brilliant Guys and Dolls with Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons and Frank Sinatra. Can I add this to my Xmas film list?

3 Likes
8

Agree with many above, and no need to repeat for the sake of it, but The Snowman (1982) is particularly special to me.

Not only was I exactly the right age when it was first shown, but Walking in the Air was the trigger for me joining my school choir at the age of 11, teaching myself to read and, eventually, write music and generally opening up an entire world that my family could not have led me to and which, nearly 40 years on, continues to give me and my family more consistent joy than I can ever describe.

Mark

2 Likes
9

Whenever I say “Merry New Year”, and with the same emphases as Eddie Murphy, people stare at me blankly, so I don’t bother now. And it’s hard to work the best lines, from Clarence Beeks like “No funny business or the w***e loses a kidney” into normal conversation, but nevertheless Trading Places is my favourite Christmas movie!

4 Likes
10

Santa Claus conquers the martians……….
Yes it’s a real movie! A total waste of time but funny if you have had a few.

11

The Bishop’s Wife
Niven, Grant, Young.

Perfect.

3 Likes
12

My favourite Clarence Beeks line is the one he gives to the woman who is interrupting him whilst he is in the phone booth!

2 Likes
13

You can indeed. We went to see this a few years back just before Christmas at the BFI on the London Embankment. The restored picture was utterly stunning, and with the wrap around screen I felt like I could stand up and just walk into the room with Sinatra, Brando et al.

1 Like
14

Gotta be:

Elf
Arthur Christmas

Carrot chomped!

15

Oh yes! Both these lines were overdubbed on the last version of the film I saw. I also chuckle every time someone mentions Barry White…

16

Strangely, this.

image

G

17

That was one stoned groove….

1 Like
18

Yes, that is strange!

Great movie though.

1 Like
19

A Christmas Carol ( Stewart)
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows (part one)
Persuasion ( Amanda Root)
Die Hard ( for it’s lack of Christmas Spirit )
The Godfather
Avanti
Manon des Sources
The Fellowship Of The Ring
No Time To Die ( this year’s Christmas Day viewing)

1 Like
20

image
image960×504 38.1 KB

6 Likes