It's my second favorite movie of all time (behind the Labyrinth) and since it takes place at Christmas time, I have to watch it every Christmas. Actually last year, Gremlins and Gremlins 2 came on a couple of times each on the Sci Fi channel. That was the first time I noticed it on tv though, I usually watch by DVD.
I know i'm in the minority here, and maybe completely on my own, but I HATE A Christmas Story. I'm not really big on Frosty the Snowman or Rudolph or any of those either. Charlie Brown and the Grinch I do like though.
"mama mamacita, donte el Santa Cleese, the vato with the bony knees? Coming down the street with no choos on his feet." Classic.
What about Die Hard 1 & 2?
And Rudolph the psychotic stop-motion Reindeer. To me it's not Christmas until I hear "Island of Misfit Toys." The idea of something like actually existing makes me chuckle.
Like somewhere out there there's this island of Punk-Rock toys.
I would like to congatulate Al Snow on his contact with La-Z-Boy. Because we all know Al doesn't sell chairs. - Mick Foley
It's never Christmas until I watch "A Christmas Story". Now with very cool 20th Annversary DVD my viewing pleasure has been enhanced 10 fold.
Also Miralce on 34th Street (the original) is a must see in my household.
EDIT: Spelling and stuff
(edited by Ffej on 12.12.03 1055) WIENER OF THE DAY! July 6, 2002!
Wienerville Survivor League Co-Champion If I lived back in the wild west days, instead of carrying a six-gun in my holster, I'd carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy said something like "Hey, look. He's carrying a soldering iron!" and started laughing, and everybody else started laughing, I could just say, "That's right, it's a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice." Then everybody would get real quiet and ashamed, because they had made fun of the soldering iron of justice, and I could probably hit them up for a free drink.
I was forced to watch "A Christmas Story" a couple years ago by "She who stands next to Bradshaw" in my avatar. Nope. Never again.
Absolutely "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Beyond that, it's always good to see "A Wish for Wings That Work" and maybe the first-season "Married With Children" Christmas (where Santa crash-lands in the back yard.) That still cracks me up.
-Mickey's Christmas Carol. We used to have it on tape and I'd watch it every day that I could. The tape eventually wore out, though, so I have to rely on catching it on TV.
-How The Grinch Stole Christmas. I've got the cartoon version on tape, have never seen the live action one. I've already watched the tape about 4 times this Christmas season with plenty more to come.
I know i'm in the minority here, and maybe completely on my own, but I HATE A Christmas Story. I'll join you in that minority. I don't know why I don't like A Christmas Story, but I don't. It's probably because I always catch the same two parts every time they run it on 24/7 Christmas Eve/Day.
AND it's not watching, but I MUST hear the Chipmunks "Christmas Don't Be Late" or whatever it's called in order for it to officially be Christmas. It was playing on my way to class this morning, which was fun, but there's just something warm n fuzzy about putting the record (yes, vinyl, second-hand copy since the original is MIA) on the player at home and playing it over and over and over...
Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change. 093093-012103
PSU 3-9 (1-7 Big Ten). Officially the worst season ever. Look what you did, Penn State, you've driven me to solving soap-opera serial killer crimes. Thank God for basketball.
Actually I'll tell you what killed "A Christmas Story" for me. It was Xmas Eve 1997 I came down with a 102 fever and couldn't sleep for longer than 30 minutes at a time, and for whatever reason I had my TV on TNT, and forwhatever reason didn't bother to change the channel (I was too beat to go hunting for the remote. most likely) and they were showing the 24 hour, 12-showing Xmas Story marathon. Which I must have seen at least 10 times in one day thanks to illness.
Although the scene at the mall with the special ed kid in the aviator mask in front of Ralphie in the Mall Santa line cracks me up every time.
"I like Santa Claus!"
EDIT: There's been so much talk about A Charlie Brown Xmas, that I'd be remiss if I didn't point out I have exactly one Xmas CD and it's the one with Vince Guaraldi's score from said cartoon. Probably my favorite bit of Xmas music ("O Xmas Tree"), and probably the saddest as well.
(edited by Blanket Jackson on 12.12.03 1121) If Martha Stewart's obituary had a typo in it, would it read "Beloved Aunt"?
<----actually saw "Christmas Story" when it was released in the theater.
A couple of years ago my dad (EVERYONE tells him he's the father in that movie) was given a leg-lamp just like the one that's the "grand prize". They display it right in the front window of an otherwise very classy home. Every year it's fun to watch the hilarity ensue when those get the reference mark out over it... and it's even better when someone DOESN'T, and looks dumbfounded at this testament to bad taste that completely "ruins" the otherwise tasteful displays.
For me, it's not Christmas until I hear Eazy E's "Merry Muthafuckin' Christmas".
God, I haven't seen "A Wish For Wings That Work" in forever... I really loved that one, too.
*****
Let's see. By Christmas Eve, every year, I watch
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS: Good Lord, does it depress me that this movie's turned into some sort of goth icon. Dammit, people - what about those seven or eight years when no one even remembered the fucking thing except me? You may not have my movie. You can just go sit in the corner and listen to your AFI CDs and let me watch Oogie Boogie do his stuff in peace. (What are you going to do? I'm gonna do the best I can.)
A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS: I don't know what's stranger - the fact that a lifelong atheist such as myself gets such great pleasure out of such an overtly religious Christmas special, or that it was created by another lifelong atheist in Charles Schulz. Either way, I watch this every Christmas Eve without fail. (I had to buy my own copy, because they've taken to showing it sometime around Thanksgiving in recent years.)
One time, I found a two foot fake tree that looked exactly like the tree Charlie Brown buys, but it was still November and I have this big thing about how the Christmas season isn't allowed to start until December first. (I hate hearing Christmas music or going into a store decorated for the holiday in November. Drives me fucking batty. Eventually, we're going to be at the point where the Christmas season is eleven months of the year.)
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CHRISTMAS VACATION: The other Christmas Eve tradition. I never get tired of this movie. Never. Everything Aunt Bethany says ("Don't throw me down, Clark!"), the sled scene, Clark's nervous breakdown at the end ("...we're going to have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced under the mistletoe with Danny-fucking-Kaye, and when Santa Claus squeezes his fat white ass down the chimney this year, he's going to find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse!") That's my family up there, depressing as that might be. (Oh yeah, we've got a Cousin Eddie.)
A MUPPET FAMILY CHRISTMAS: I love the Muppets, but deep down, I know I'm mostly just getting some weird sadistic pleasure out of the fact that the Swedish Chef spends most of the movie trying to kill and eat Big Bird. Ya, ya, the gobbly-gobbly is humungo!
A CHRISTMAS STORY: I'm honestly suprised by the lack of love for this one. We've got an honest-to-goodness modern classic right here. And I'm reasonably sure that my sister's buying me the desk-lamp version of The Old Man's "major award", which is just the coolest thing ever.
HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS: The cartoon, not How Jim Carrey Ass-Raped Everyone's Childhood Memories.
"I already know nobody likes me. I don't need a whole holiday season to rub it in." - Charlie Brown
WHOA WHOA WHOA!! I can't believe no one has mentioned possibly the best Christmas tale ever: Emmitt Otter's Jug Band Christmas. The Riverbottom Nightmare Gang are the baddest-ass muppets in history, and when they do their song the stagediving in the audience was years ahead of its time.
"The grass does not grow on the places that we stop and stand RIVERBOTTOM NIGHTMARE BAND!!"
Lethalwrestling.com: If you don't read us, you're probably gay
I am a huge fan of the Christmas Story, and I also love watching Christmas vacation. Since South Park started, watching the South Park Christmas song episode has become a tradition. As far as radio bits, I always loved Hadji's 12 days of Christmas from the Bob and Tom show, its kinda corny but it makes me laugh especially when he gets to 5 shots of schnapps.
Mr. Burns: You are of course familiar with our state usury laws? Homer:U-sur-y? Mr. Burns: Oh silly me, I must have just used a word that doesn't exist.
The 1951 "A Christmas Carol" with Alistar Sim is classic and one video I own. The Patrick Stewart Version on TNT was really good also.
What no love for "Holiday Inn" with Bing, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and company. Just to watch them sing "White Christmas" at the end is worth watching the whole movie.
Other must sees for the family are "A Christmas Vacation" and our favorite "A Christmas Carol". I am old enough (but not that old) that I relate to the whole atmosphere. Love the kid with the bandage on the tongue and the chinese resturant scene at the end.
I'm a real sucker for "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street" (not the inferior "Elmo Saves Christmas") Oscar convinces Big Bird that Santa can't make it down the chimney of the apartment building because it's too skinny. Big Bird camps on the roof during a snow storm to find out how Santa does it. ("Maybe he's stacked up at Kennedy" "My Giblets are freezing") You feel so bad when Big Bird realizes he slept through it and want to slap that mean ol' grouch. Well done special. Still gets me after all these years.
For me, it's this silly British Christmas movie from '92 called "Bernard and the Genie," starring Alan Cumming and Lenny Henry.
It's a tradition that started in university with some of the guys. A&E used to show it all the time, but haven't in years. Really funny movie...if you can track it down.