Christmas Marathon - Here's the Rest of Them!

White Christmas

We were socialising the night we watched this. No one gave it their full attention. We did make a lot of comments about how incredibly skinny Vera-Ellen was… plus my mum kept saying that Danny Kaye made the fact that it was a Bing Crosby movie a whole lot better. Ha! Not even sure if I want to re-watch this one next year!

Elf

I love this film more than you can imagine. My friend and I used to watch it together each year but have missed the last couple. This is such a warm, fun film that doesn’t take itself too seriously. If you get past the adult male in bright yellow tights, it’ll probably have you laughing out loud for all the great reasons!

All I Want for Christmas

I watched this film repeatedly when I suspected my parents were going to split up. Watching it now, a long time on, I definitely feel the nostalgic buzz. There’s a lot to enjoy about the film, the ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ duet between Lauren Bacall and onscreen granddaughter Thora Birch, is not one of them.

Santa Conquers the Martians

Okay, I definitely need to rewatch this next year as I fell asleep. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I was actually enjoying it (thanks for the recommendation, JM!) in all its kitsch glory! Here’s the thing, I was so into my marathon challenge that even though Mister T arrived home the night we watched it, and even though we were staying at the Hilton over night, I still brought a film to watch…!

The Santa Clause

I haven’t seen this since it first came out. If memory serves my Aunty took us to see it at the East Kilbride cinema and we went to Burger King afterwards. I bought it this year after Subtle Kate said it was one of her favourites and I have to say I loved it. There was a lot I didn’t pick up on as a child, a lot of funnies for the adults to appreciate. Tim Allen is very good in it and Judge Reinhold is just great at playing a dick. Oh man, the reindeer, Comet (?) was a hoot!

Santa Claus The Movie

I know a lot of people hate this but I love it. This is pure nostalgia for me, pure shite for others! There are a lot of really corny ‘Elf’ jokes. Elf-help and Elf-improvement, but it’s just good clean fun… John Lithgow’s character used to scare me when I was a child. I can’t really tell you what I love about this film. I’m not sure. It just seemed magical at the time. I realise now it’s not a great film but I’ll still watch it quite happily.

The Polar Express

FAR better than I was expecting. In fact if you can get past the pervy moustache of Tom Hanks’ ticket collector character, you’ll probably find this enchanting, as I did. It’s a bit long, but being woken up by a fantastic, unexpected cameo by Steven Tyler of Aerosmith definitely makes up for it!

A Christmas Story

This film is weird. Maybe if I’d grown up watching it, I might embrace the nostalgia element, you know, like The Goonies. I enjoyed it. It made me laugh out loud on a number of occasions. I shall definitely rewatch it next year.

The Muppets Christmas Carol

Dickens’ story is utterly captivating. It’s marvellous. I should have read it this year and I didn’t. I guess there’s time tonight, it’s certainly short enough. Caine plays the part of Ebeneezer particularly well, and as for the Muppets, of course they are wonderful!

Scrooged

Ah, I saved the best for last! This is, hands down, my favourite Christmas film. It has just the right amount of black humour and festive cheer. I love Bill Murray, he is perfect in the role of the TV executive who’s a total grinch. I can’t find anything to fault about this film. His boss comes back from the dead and drinks Bacardi Gold before a mouse crawls out of his skull… oh and when Calvin speaks at the end of the film, it makes me cry every time. Even the year that I fell asleep before the end, I woke up just before it happened and started crying on cue. I LOVE IT!

Weird product placement? Here’s a quick run down: Coca Cola (of course!), Pepsi, Denny’s, the New York Ballet (yeah, I’m claiming that one!), Ben and Jerry’s (yum!) and loads of stuff in ‘A Christmas Story’ among loads of other brands that I’ve forgotten!

What on earth am I going to do now that the Christmas marathon is over…!?

Well, I could watch a few more just to make sure you don’t have to go cold turkey (pardon the yuletide pun!). Did I miss out your favourite? Do you have a suggestion of one I should add for next year? In the run up to this marathon, I did a heck of a lot of training. I watched a LOT of Christmas 24 movies, almost too many to mention… Should I pick a new theme/challenge for 2013?

Happy Christmas/Eve!

Ms Katykins