Shelby Parker
Staff Writer

With the holidays just around the corner, it’s time to break out the festive sweaters, gather around your loved ones and park yourself on the couch for a Christmas movie marathon.

One of the wonderful things about Christmas is not only does it fill us with cheer and glee, but it also reminds us of valuable lessons about what’s really important in life. Often, we learn those lessons from these movies, mixed with a little bit of chaos that helps put things back into perspective.

Here are some of my favorite holiday films to help remind you of the spirit of Christmas:

Christmas Vacation
Chevy Chase is always running into some sort of problem in his Vacationmovies, and this tale is no different. Clark Griswold and his wife Ellen invite both sides of the family to their house for Christmas, which involves a cat in a box, a squirrel running loose in the house, redneckcousins coming for a visit and a bonus from work that might not have been just what he had in mind. This will surely make your family feel much more normal with plenty of laughs in between.

Elf
Will Ferrell takes on the role of Buddy, the delightfully charming and oblivious elf who makes his way from the North Pole to New York in search of his father. He ends up finding him, but suddenly realizes that he isn’t exactly the most cheerful guy around. Buddy spreads Christmas cheer all around, through his quirky and childlike ways, and is able to help everyone else remember what the spirit of Christmas is all about.
“You sit on a throne of lies,” is one of the best lines in the movie.

Santa Clause Trilogy
Scott Calvin, played by Tim Allen, is a businessman who isn’t exactly thrilled with Christmas. His son spends the night on Christmas Eve, and hears a noise on the roof. They quickly discover it is Santa Claus. When he falls from the roof, Scott must now fill the shoes of the big guy himself. The rest is history, as he starts to realize he has to take the place of Santa and bring joy to many kids all around the world, while also bringing him closer with his own son.

Polar Express
This animated film shows the transition of having faith in Santa Claus to growing older and how believing isn’t quite as simple as it once was. A young boy gets awakened in the middle of the night by a magical train that appears in front of his house and takes him on the trip of a lifetime to the North Pole, where his belief in magic and the impossible might just happen to be restored.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
In the Dr. Seuss 1966, we are reminded that this time of year, anything is possible. The Grinch is a greedy, selfish creature that doesn’t want anything to do with Christmas and wants to keep it away from all townspeople, as well. He’s mean and loves keeping to himself, until he starts to see the errors of his ways, and that he just might have a heart, deep down in there after all.

I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Kids of the 90s will appreciate and remember this film with Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Jessica Biel. Jake is a college student who doesn’t want to go home for the holidays, until his dad says he’ll give him the Porsche, if he can make it home by 6:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve. That might be the original goal, but as Jake finds out along his journey and race against time, there are far more important things in life than cars.

White Christmas
This 1954 classic, starring Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney is one of the greatest holiday films of all time. After World War II, Bob Wallace and Phil Davis decide to come up with a song and dance act, which matches them up with two beautiful women. They decide to put on a Christmas show at a lodge, where their former commander is the owner, which leads to many mix ups and kooky moments, with a lot of songs to keep things fun.

This is just the beginning of a long list of holiday films that have been touching audiences all over for the 50 years or so. When in doubt, Lifetime and Hallmark are always showing some of their original movies, whether cliché and predictable, they’ll have you in the mood for Christmas in no time.