best christmas movies of all time

Welcome, Christmas, bring your cheer. Cheer to all Whos far and near. Christmas Day is in our grasp so long as we have hands to clasp. Christmas Day will always be just as long as we have we. Welcome Christmas while we stand, heart to heart and hand in hand.

top ten christmas movies ever (in no particular order):
1. white christmas: i cannot even tell you how much i love this movie. i adore bing crosby. his christmas music has been a staple every year that i can remember. i always end up with the song "sisters" stuck in my head, and a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart.

2. a charlie brown christmas: i have already talked about my love for this movie.

3. a christmas story: do i really need to say anything about the joy this movie brings? the red ryder bb gun. ("you'll shoot your eye out!") the leg lamp. (his major award....careful, it's frag-eeeee-lay....) the pink bunny suit. the tongue on the pole. i just love that movie.

4. home alone: just watched this one the other day, in fact. it's funny how my view of this movie has changed now that i'm a mom. i still love the ingenuity of kevin.

5. christmas vacation: i remember watching this movie as a kid and only understanding about half of it. now i'm an adult and i fully understand everything in the movie and laugh my rear off every time i see it. when we were younger my sisters used to LOVE quoting the dinner scene, mostly aunt bethany and uncle lewis.

(you know, this one:
Clark: Since this is Aunt Bethany's 80th Christmas, I think she should lead us in the saying of Grace.
Aunt Bethany: [turns to Lewis] What, dear?
Nora: Grace!
Aunt Bethany: Grace? She passed away thirty years ago.
Uncle Lewis: They want you to say Grace.
[Bethany shakes her head in confusion]
Uncle Lewis: The BLESSING!
Aunt Bethany: [they all pose for prayer] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands/ One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Clark: Amen.)

6. the santa clause: one of disney's best. tim allen does a fantastic job as santa. and the way they portrayed the reindeer, the elves, the north pole, the list checking: it's all spot-on. i suppose one of my favorite things about this movie is seeing the transformation tim allen's character makes. i love the change of heart movies.

7. the preacher's wife: i have never seen the bishop's wife, which is the original. i remember seeing the preacher's wife, however, and falling in love with it. we taped it (on VHS, remember those?) and i watched the grainy tape over and over again. i love the romance in it, the restoring of a beautiful marriage, the music (oh how i love that christmas gospel music!), and the christmas spirit. i mean, come on, denzel washington and whitney houston are in it. could it possibly be anything less than awesome?

8. mickey's christmas carol: this is one i watched over and over again, every year as a kid. with a million versions, adaptations, spoofs, and retellings of dickens' "a christmas carol," from serious films to "the flintstone's christmas carol," it's hard to pick just one. i think this one is my favorite because it's so nostalgic to me. and who better to play scrooge than scrooge mcduck?

9. it's a wonderful life: see my post about this beautiful movie from last year.

10. how the grinch stole christmas: another christmas movie staple. this book is amazing and so is the movie. what a great story. it teaches us that "Maybe Christmas (...) doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!"

christmas movies i don't really care for:
jack frost--weird. weird animation.

jingle all the way--arnie at his most obnoxious. and sinbad, to boot. ugh.

little drummer boy--i've never liked the little drummer boy song. that pa-rum-pa-pum-pum stuff just rubs me wrong...it's a great story, but i don't care for the movie.

polar express--i was a bit disappointed in this one. could have been so much better. one of the best christmas books ever...i wasn't surprised that i was disappointed.

beauty and the beast: the enchanted christmas--beauty and the beast is my favorite disney movie of all time. i didn't like this one, it just wasn't the original and i'm sure that's why. besides...a villain that is an organ chained to a wall? weird.

how the grinch stole christmas (with jim carrey)--again, not the original. and i'm a rather picky carrey fan. some of his movies i love and some i hate.

more recent christmas movies i liked:
four christmases--funny. i liked both reese witherspoon and vince vaughan in this movie. add on top of that tim mcgraw, robert duvall, sissy spacek, jon voigt, jon favreau, dwight yoakam and kristin chenoweth? great.

muppet's letters to santa--this was on tv last week and i loved it. of course, anything with the muppets is just fantastic. i loved rizzo and pepe, as usual, and fozzie bear told stupid jokes, and kermit and miss piggy argued and made up, and gonzo was as weird and lovable as ever.

christmas movies i loved as a kid:
the muppets' christmas carol--again, love anything with the muppets.

santa claus is coming to town--this one is my favorite of the "classic" rankin-bass movies. i always loved "knowing" where santa claus came from, how he came to be who he is--at least from the rankin-bass perspective.

emmett otter's jug band christmas

mickey and co. christmas cartoons--my favorite? the one where mickey chops down his tree with chip and dale still living in it. pluto didn't care for a couple of chipmunks in his house too much! i also loved the one where donald duck builds a snow fort to have a snowball war with huey, dewey, and louie, complete with flaming snowballs. these were on the tape before

mickey's christmas carol so they hold the same sentiment for me.

rudolph the red nosed reindeer--another good rankin bass movie.

ernest saves christmas--used to watch this one a ton. i remember being intrigued by santa's bag in this movie.

winnie the pooh and christmas too--that lovable bear and friends, especially tigger. pooh bear tries to save christmas when their letter to santa doesn't make it. so cute.

christopher and holly--ever seen this one? obnoxious teddy bears that come to life. but i loved it.

other notable christmas movies:
the nightmare before christmas--tim burton...i know i've talked about this one before. (i loved it before it became trendy! so there!) i usually refer to it as my halloween movie but it is a great christmas movie, too.

edward scissorhands--tim burton. i ADORE tim burton. and johnny depp is fabulous as edward.

elf--i normally don't care for will ferrell, but this movie is just hilarious.

LDS christmas movies i love:
luke 2--a very short film, only about five minutes, but extremely powerful. it leaves me in tears every single time. i would HIGHLY recommend taking the few minutes to watch this.


mr. kreuger's christmas--another great movie starring jimmy stewart. about 25 minutes.