5 Favorite Christmas Films

They may (or may not) be the best, but I like them best.

The internet has plenty of "Best Christmas Movies" lists, and most of them contain the same flicks. But I still consider the label "best" to be subjective, and in fact only three of my five holiday-movie favorites are on those lists. Yet I'm confident in my regard for them, and I've no reservations about recommending this quintet of feature-length films for your seasonal viewing pleasure.

A Christmas Carol (1984)

Director Clive Donner fills his moody yet sentimental TV adaptation with terrific British character actors, including David Warner, Roger Rees, and Edward Woodward. But the great George C. Scott commands the screen with his flesh-and-blood take on Ebenezer Scrooge. Long before I ever read Charles Dickens' classic tale of an old miser who recaptures the spirit of compassion with the help of three Christmas ghosts, it was Roger O. Hirson's script in my head when I produced my own amateur video version.

Home Alone (1990)

Parents and children watch director Chris Columbus's comedy for the antics of 8-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) as he keeps two inept burglars (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) from robbing his house, where he's accidentally left when his family goes on Christmas vacation. But I appreciate it for John Hughes's nearly perfectly constructed script, in which nothing is wasted as every purposeful scene runs smoothly into the next, culminating in a satisfying conclusion that wraps everything up neatly.

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Director-scripter George Seaton dramatizes Valentine Davies's wonderfully unique story so that it's warm and charming yet still suspenseful. Edmund Gwenn deservedly won an Oscar™ for his performance as a kind old man who must prove in court that he is actually Santa Claus so he's not institutionalized. Maureen O'Hara and John Payne have great romantic chemistry, but beautiful young Natalie Wood nearly steals the show.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

Ignore the fact that the Griswolds don't actually go anywhere in this surprisingly sweet third installment of the raunchy series, in which Clark (Chevy Chase) and Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) must deal with the havoc that ensues when they invite the whole extended family over for the holidays--and Randy Quaid's redneck-cousin Eddie crashes the festivities. Even if my late father had not adored it, I'd still highly regard this flick that is filled with famously quotable lines.

Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)

The producers of the first three Christopher Reeve Superman movies present an origin story for Santa Claus (David Huddleston), who must contend with an elf (a surprisingly understated Dudley Moore) who is manipulated by an unscrupulous toy manufacturer (scenery-chewing John Lithgow). Some people may find David Newman's script, as directed by Jeannot Szwarc, to be an odd mixture of sentiment and cynicism, but I saw it at an impressionable age and am quite attached to it.

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