Spend the Holidays with Heidi’s Top 5 Faves!

Christmas is one of my very favorite times of year. (Halloween probably tops the list, but that’s just because I’m a little twisted and have much more in common with witches and vampires than elves and Santa Claus. ;)) But staying inside where it’s warm while watching the beautiful snowfall…curling up with a mug of hot chocolate and a good book…enjoying all the fun decorations and holiday music… Oh, I love it so much, I’m as happy and excited as Buddy the Elf!

And one of my very favorite parts of the season is all the great Christmas movies and specials on TV! I hope you’re familiar with my top faves, because if you’re not, you’ve really missed out. :( But if you’re not, this will just give you an excuse to check them out and realize just how wonderful Christmas movies can be! :D

Only five, right? I can only list five? Okay, I’ll try…

SCROOGED – My absolute favorite holiday movie! The snark…the bah-humbugs…the very Scrooginess of Bill Murray until peace on earth and love for all mankind wins out in the end. I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen it…(12 times per Christmas x the *cough-cough* 29 years I’ve been alive = a heck of a lot of being Scrooged over!)…yet it never grows old or fails to bring a tear to my eye.

Die Hard – Oh, yes, it is! Sorry, I thought I heard somebody say Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie. Behold the holiday music playing as John McClain…the giant decorated tree I the lobby of Nakitomi Tower…& the “Ho! Ho! Ho!” message John scrawls on one of the terrorists’ sweatshirts. Uh-huh. This one is also great when you’re kind of in a holiday mood, but also kind of fell like kicking ass. ;)

Gremlins – In addition to Die Hard, Gremlins is another hill I’d be willing to die on. To all the television networks out there, please do not start airing this movie before Halloween; it is not a Halloween movie, it is a Christmas movie. Does Gizmo wear a witch hat? No, he does not—he wears a Santa hat. Does Phoebe Cates’s father fall down the chimney and die while putting up Halloween decorations? No, he does not—he gets stuck pretending to be Santa delivering presents. Don’t fight me on this…you will lose. Also: it’s kind of fun to toss a little hair-raising horror into the snowy whiteness of the Christmas season, don’t you think? ;)

My fourth and fifth favorite holiday “movies” are actually a collection of television shows and specials. Together, I figure they add up to a feature film or two, right? ;) Plus, if you haven’t seen them, I feel like you haven’t truly enjoyed the holiday experience. :/

Dr. Suess’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas! (original animated version only; don’t even bring that wreck of a live action Jim Carrey thing near me xP…and I’m reserving judgment of the animated reboot until I’ve had a chance to compare the two) – Is it even Christmas until I’ve seen The Grinch? I don’t think so. I need this special to not only put me in a holiday mood, but to help my tiny little heart that’s spent the past eleven months shriveling into a lump of hard, black coal regain its soft, warm, optimistic (and three sizes larger) shape.

Does anyone else even know about this holiday gem? I’ve never heard anyone else talk about it, and it’s hardly ever on TV. A sweet, heartwarming bit of 70s animation with the voice of Joel Grey, ‘Twas is a fun, original, uplifting story—& the music is contagious!

SHREK THE HALLS – It’s not often that a spin-off special turns out to be as good or better than the movie itself, but this one does it! I just love watching the way Shrek handles his very first Christmas and all the different versions of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” his friends tell.

And in case your family acts more like a bunch of ogres than elves when they get together, just remember this bit of Donkey wisdom: “Christmas ain’t Christmas till somebody cries!”

“A Very Supernatural Christmas” – Who doesn’t love Supernatural? (If you’re not obsessively distracted by Dean and Sam Winchester, don’t even answer that, because…seriously. Seriously. xP) This early episode from the series is a long-time favorite, though, because it’s got everything—humor and drama, Christmas and Krampas, fruit cake, “fudgin’,” and all the feels. (Of course, the feels run deeper if you’re familiar with the brothers and what’s been doing on with the show up to that point. But even if you’re not, give it a chance…I’m pretty sure you’ll be glad you did.)

Every single Christmas episode of BOB’S BURGERS – (“Bob Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins”, “Christmas in the Car”, “Father of the Bob”, “Nice-Capades”, “The Last Gingerbread House on the Left”, The Bleakening—Parts 1 & 2”, “Better Off Sled”) – because they’re just freaking hilarious, okay? And a lot of the situations and dialogue are more spot-on than most of us probably want to admit. *VBG*

So what do you think—do I know how to bring the cheer to the holidays or what? I’d love to know if you’ve seen some or all of these and enjoyed them as much as I do…or if there are a few I may have missed.

And of course, I wish you the merriest, merriest, merriest of Christmases!