Christmas is a time where families and friends come together to celebrate the holidays. While the wind is howling and the snow is falling, they cozy up on their couch with snacks and blankets in hand, pajamas on with their Christmas tree lighting up the room and all the presents under the tree waiting to be opened. This is the perfect scenario to watch Christmas movies to get in the Christmas spirit. 

There are many different types of Christmas movies to watch. While some are considered jokes, or don’t really grasp the spirit and true meaning of Christmas, here are some movies that do and are worth watching. 

Elf

Released on November 7th, 2003 and made $220 million worldwide.

Elf is about a boy named Buddy (Will Ferrell) who lived in an orphanage as a baby. When Santa (Ed Asner) came on Christmas, Buddy snuck into his sack and made it all the way back to the North Pole. The elves found him and Papa elf (Bob Newhart) raised him as his own. As an adult, he found out his real father, Walter Hobbs (James Caan), who is on the naughty list, lived in New York City and did not know he had another son. Buddy was able to travel all the way to New York City to meet his father and when he gets there, his father has a hard time believing Buddy is his son. After a DNA test, Walter reluctantly starts a relationship with Buddy. Meanwhile, Buddy experiences life in the city and human culture rather than elf culture. When Walter’s relationship with Buddy interferes with his job, he has to reevaluate his priorities. Along the way he teaches everyone about the true Christmas spirit and what Christmas truly means. He lights up New York City and makes an impact on everyone he meets. This movie is a classic, and hilarious movie to show real Christmas spirit and how it is important to put top priorities first. 

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Released November 8th, 2000 and made $345.1 million worldwide.

This movie is based on the classic Dr. Suess cartoon How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Inside a Snowflake, in a place called Whoville, lived the Grinch (Jim Carrey) and the Who’s. As a young child, the Grinch got rejected by all the Who’s which started his hate for the Who citizens and Christmas. A young girl, Cindy- Lou Who (Taylor Momsen), sees the Grinch when he comes down from his mountain and tries to befriend him. She invites him to the holiday Cheermiester which ends with his public humiliation. The Grinch comes up with an evil idea to ruin the Who’s Christmas by acting like Santa but with a twist. He was going to steal all of their Christmas decorations and presents. Christmas eve comes around and his plan succeeds. When the Who’s wake up, they still celebrate and have Christmas spirit even though all their Christmas decorations and presents were gone. Cindy Lou Who tries to stop The Grinch succeeds and they become great friends. The Grinch realizes what Christmas is all about and the Who’s welcome him into Whoville again. This movie is a funny movie that shows true Christmas spirit in learning how to believe what Christmas is truly about. It also shows that just because everyone else views someone differently, doesn’t mean you have to as well and I think that is one of the more important themes in this movie.

Home Alone

Released November 16th, 1990 and made $476.7 million worldwide.

Home Alone is a movie where Kevin (Macaulay Culkin), a little boy has his family over ready to go on vacation. Some burglars hear that they are going out of town and set up a scheme to rob them. Kevin gets in trouble and is sent upstairs for the rest of the night. In the morning the whole family is rushing around trying to get everyone ready to get to the airport. They forget about Kevin while he is asleep upstairs. When he wakes up, his whole family is gone and he is overjoyed because he wished just the night before for his family to disappear. Kevin decides to do all the things he isn’t normally allowed to do and even scares off a pizza man. He soon realizes that the burglars were gonna attempt to rob their house. He comes up with a giant scheme to stop them from robbing him around Christmas and they fall for all of his tricks and the police catch them. Meanwhile his family is desperately trying to get home to see Kevin. On Christmas Eve, he has been feeling lonely and wishes for his family to come back. The next morning his family makes it home and he is excited and happy his family is back. This movie is a classic, hilarious movie for the whole family. It shows how to stick up for yourself against robbers, and how family is so important through the holidays. 

The Polar Express

Released October 30th, 2004 and made $309.6 million worldwide.

In the Polar Express, a young boy who is having doubts about Santa being real, gets a magical opportunity. A train to the North Pole comes to his house and the boy debates getting on. After a while the train starts moving and he runs to catch up on it and jumps on. On the way to the North Pole he meets some new friends that help him start to believe. They also run into some problems on the way to visit where Santa lives. The train almost falls in ice, The train almost runs into some Caribou, and the back of the cart where the young boy and two of their friends disconnect from the train and they try to stop it. When they get to the North Pole, after their cart stops, the kids go through the elves workshop and see how presents and everything is made and delivered. They then go to see Santa before he goes to deliver all the presents and that is when the young boy truly starts to believe. This trip embarks a journey of self-discovery which shows him that the wonder of life never fades if you believe. This classic Christmas movie shows learning true belief in not only Christmas, but yourself. It is a great movie loved by millions.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Released December 1st, 1989 and made $71 million worldwide.

The movie is about a family, the Griswolds, preparing for the Christmas season.Things however, have not gone very smoothly for Clark (Chevy Chase), Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) and their two kids. This year, they invited both of their families, who are not very fond of each other to the Griswold household to celebrate Christmas. To prepare, he gets a very large tree that barely fits in their house, and 20,000 lights on their house. Many disastrous events happen in the Griswold household before Christmas time is here. A cat chewed up Christmas lights, a squirrel ruined their house while they were trying to catch it, and his boss would not give him a bonus but instead a month in the jelly club. Even though all of this and more happens. He keeps the Christmas spirit and shows everyone even when things get bad or tough, that you should never lose hope in keeping everyone happy and celebrate family and Christmas time. This movie is a classic, hilarious movie that shows what is really important on Christmas, being with people you love. 

Christmas movies can have a wide variety of plots and stories, but most always come back to a similar theme. These movies, I believe, are the best Christmas movies that are enjoyable to watch, but also show you true spirit and what Christmas is all about and I think that is important while watching movies during the holiday season.