Jon Solo Sebastian 12/21/2024:

Christmas Movie Night

Welcome to the holiday season! Before I get into this week’s topic, which is not about cryptids, I want to thank you all for coming here weekly to read my little articles. I’ve just about hit the one year mark on having my blogsite, and I’m having so much fun with it. There are over fifty articles on here for you to read if you haven’t read them all; I plan to more than double that amount in 2025! So, thank you for being here reading, liking, and subscribing. It means the world to me! I’ll be back after the holiday’s with more cryptid fun! Until then, I wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season; see you soon!

Now, leading up to Christmas, I like to lay out what movies I’m watching to sort of boost the holiday feelings. There’s one film that gets at the very least three viewings each year, and I have four others that are must-watches.

The scenario: It’s Christmas Eve night and the house is quiet. It’s just you and your significant other, or just you by yourself. What Christmas movie are you watching before bed? Me? I watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and laugh my way to sleepy town.

My Five Favorite Christmas Movies

1. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

This is my number one favorite Christmas movie. It’s hilarious from start to finish. Clark Griswold makes big plans for celebrating Christmas with the family. He has a surprise for them—he’s going to use his Christmas bonus to have a pool put in the yard. The problem is that he doesn’t get a bonus, and gets a membership to the jelly of the month club. While that is the gift that keeps on giving all year, it will not pay for the pool Clark already put money down on. Aside from all the hilarious shenanigans, the serious part of the film is that Clark loses his mind over getting the shaft from the company he works hard for. The whole night turns into a disaster, but Cousin Eddie, whose heart is bigger than his brain, kidnaps Clark’s boss as a Christmas gift. Not the smartest or legalist thing to do, but in the end, Clark’s boss meets a family who was directly effected by his poor decision making, and he had a change of heart. This is just an all around classic family movie and loved by so many.

Side Note: My oldest brother showed up at my wedding dressed in the blue suit Cousin Eddie had on in the film and it was absolutely hilarious.

2. A Christmas Story

I know this is number one for a lot of people, but it’s my second favorite. For so many years now, it runs for 24 hours straight on cable television, and I think at one point, it was on at least once a day for all of December. This is indeed a classic. The film is narrated by the adult version of Ralphie; a nine year old boy who wants nothing but the Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model Air Rifle for Christmas. Ralphie spends most of his days leading up to Christmas telling everyone it’s the only thing he wants. Everyone from his mother to Santa Claus himself tells him he’ll shoot his eye out. He faces off against a bully, he gets in trouble for swearing, and he’s forced to where a pink bunny suit his aunt bought him; so it’s hard to argue that he hadn’t earned the gift, which he does end up getting. His father surprises him with it shortly after they finished opening the gifts. The dad is hilarious throughout the film. The characters are relatable, and if you know the movie, I’m certain you’ve used the quote—“Oh fudge” at least once or twice.

A fun fact: The house in the movie is located in Cleveland, Ohio, and several scenes were shot in Cleveland as well.

3. Home Alone

This film is in a way, Rambo for kids. There’s even a meme that floats around titled: Home Stallone where someone photoshopped Sylvester Stallone’s face onto Macaulay Culkin. I’ll admit I was never really a big fan of this movie growing up. My number one and two above were the only ones I’d watch aside from Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. It wasn’t until my early 20’s that I found myself having a blast with this film. Joe Pesci was brilliant as always, and Macaulay Culkin was perfect for the part. He played the perfect little kid; if you haven’t seen him in Uncle Buck, check that one out too. So, Kevin McCallister (Culkin) is an eight year old boy whose family leaves for Paris and forgetting to take him with them. Kevin manages decently on his own even after burglars (Joe Pesci) start to case his house. Once he realizes what is going on he goes on the defensive and sets up all sorts of Rambo-like traps for the burglars. While it’s still a family friendly Christmas movie, there is a lot of action packed into it. In the end, Kevin defends his home very well, and then his mom, feeling like a terrible mother, finally gets back home to him.

4. Die Hard

“Welcome to the party, pal.” Yes, I am one of those people ha ha. I wasn’t always on the side of Die Hard being a Christmas movie, but a couple of years ago, I bought it in 4K and have watched it on Christmas week ever since. It wasn’t even billed as a Christmas movie; especially since it released in July of 1988. When you look at the plot and watch the movie, you have to wonder how it isn’t a Christmas movie. John McClane (Bruce Willis), a New York City police officer goes to Los Angeles where his wife and kids live to spend Christmas with them. He is picked up by a limo and taken to the Nakatomi Headquarters where his wife works because they’re hosting a Christmas party there, and also because she wants to wait until they go home together to surprise the kids; they don’t know their dad is coming for Christmas. Christmas movie, right? In comes Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his group of terrorists or robbers, who plan to rob the Nakatomi Corporation. They interrupt the festivities and hold everyone hostage; everyone other than New York City cop, John McClane. The phone lines are cut, so the police can’t be alerted. The security guards have been dealt with, so it’s all up to John to save the day so he and his wife, along with all the hostages can spend Christmas with their families.

I look at it like this: It starts out as a family friendly Christmas movie, but Hans Gruber in a sort of Grinch fashion, tries to ruin that for everybody. John McClane says, “Not on my watch,” and he saves the day with the help of his new best friend, Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson). The main characters and all the hostages get to spend Christmas with their families thanks to John. He saved Christmas.

5. Lord of the Rings

I can’t be alone in this one. I could pick tons of different movies for my top five list, and I know this one is a bit different because nothing about the Lord of the Rings Trilogy screams Christmas. There’s just something truly magical about these films, and each of them released in mid December, so you get the Christmas vibes simply from when you got to see them in the theater. A fellowship is formed putting together humans, Elves, Dwarves, and of course, Hobbits to set off on a quest to destroy the One Ring. What day does the fellowship set off on this quest you ask? December 25^th, Christmas Day. It isn’t Christmas Day in Middle Earth, but the date was not unintentional by Tolkien. You can make parallels to other Christian themes throughout. Some examples: Frodo bearing the burden of the ring like a cross, and Gandalf’s sort of resurrection where Gandalf the Grey died and returned as Gandalf the White is another. While you won’t see Santa or gift giving’s, you will see good triumphing over evil in this epic story along with Christmas-like themes imbedded into it.

Honorable Mentions:

The Santa Clause starring Tim Allen is a classic that I might have been a little too old to fully appreciate it when it released, but I still have a great time with it. It’s a magical and fun story about Scott Calvin becoming the new Santa Claus.

The Christmas Chronicles starring Kurt Russell as Santa Claus. I watched this with my family on Christmas Day in 2018 and we loved it. Why did it take until 2018 for Kurt Russell to deliver us his version of Santa? This is a fun family film that honestly should already be considered a classic. It has everything I want in a Christmas movie—good vibes, fun, adventurous, and magical. This movie almost made it into my top five—maybe next year.

I know my list is a bit different than you might expect a top five Christmas movies list to be, but these are just mine, and what I’m feeling this year. Next year, you might see my honorable mentions in the top five list, and one or two in the top five list taken out completely. If you’ve never seen any of these movies, now is the time to check them out! Happy Christmas to you all! And I’ll see you at the start of 2025 with so many more cryptid and fun articles!