On November 6th, I watched a Christmas movie.
Ok, it was A Very Brady Christmas, which qualifies as a Christmas movie but not the shining star of this blog by any means. When it was over, I watched another movie -- this time it was The Christmas Calendar. The story of a struggling baker in a small town who receives a handmade Christmas Calendar from a secret admirer and people from the town speculate who it may be.
I have always been a proponent of celebrating each holiday at the proper time. After Halloween it is acceptable to celebrate Thanksgiving and the Christmas Tree can go up no earlier than Black Friday. But with our recent move to Minneapolis, and the "holiday-like" crisp temperatures and a bite in the air beginning in early November, I broke my own rule.
So what happened? I had been filled with so much hostility which had built up from a rough year at work that upon watching a Christmas movie, all all that anger immediately evaporated as soon as boy kissed girl in The Christmas Calendar. I was filled with joy and hope and began to embody the Christmas Spirit that I just couldn't stop. I put up the Christmas tree on November 9th and began to buy presents.
And yes, if you were wondering, I was drinking hot chocolate, wearing fuzzy pajama pants and was joined only by two unwilling participants, each with four legs and a tail. But this is a judge-free zone.
One movie begot the next and the next and the next. When I realized that I watched the first movie exactly 50 days before Christmas, I joked with my co-workers that I was going to watch 50 Christmas movies in 50 days. When I made the the initial statement it was purely to generate some laughter. But, just like being 5 years old and putting milk and cookies out for Santa and hearing reindeer on the rooftops, I started to BELIEVE! I could really do this.
I devised a plan to watch 50 Christmas movies in 50 days, that would culminate with A Christmas Story on Christmas Day. And the challenge was born!
My main focus has been on the Hallmark Channel genre, not classics or movies that can be portrayed as Christmas movies like Bad Santa or Die Hard. I want that feel good feeling of a Hallmark movie. I want to see Candace Cameron Bure as an over worked business woman in the city who is engaged to marry a high powered attorney, but is forced to return to her small hometown where she discovers the true meaning of Christmas and falls in love with a local boy who wears flannel shirts, operates the local cafe and may or may not be widowed with a young daughter. Or where Erin Karpluk is struggling to get over a break up, but leverages her big city contacts to help a single dad revitalize an old lodge in the mountains where her family spent Christmas as a child and desperately wants to see it renovated (with the help of her general contractor family) just in time for Christmas so her grandfather (with ailing health) can see the project complete and be present for the looming wedding proposal from the grandson of the people who originally built the lodge.
There have been several movies that I started, end up fast forwarding, or not finishing because the premise was so campy or just awful. Movies like A Very Nutty Christmas where a Nutcracker soldier comes to life to help Melissa Joan Hart with her bakery were not the best cinema had to offer. Needless to say, you won't find A Very Nutty Christmas on the list. Only movies I watched beginning to end make the final list.
Do I have a favorite so far? I have included IMDB links for the ones in my list that I would recommend. I enjoyed Dear Santa, The Engagement Clause, Christmas With A View and Christmas Pen Pals but I was especially touched by Christmas Lodge,
I am a relatively smart guy, so I am entirely aware that every Hallmark movie has the same premise. And I know that within the first 5 minutes that girl will meet boy who she will fall in love with, and either be kissed or engaged in the last 5 minutes of the movie. So why watch? Because in that last 5 minutes, where the main characters are able to overcome tragedy or diversity just in time for Christmas, I am filled with so much joy and happiness that it is all worth it. I want to take that Christmas sprint and spread it to everyone in my life. I want to remember the reason for the season. I want to smile and feel the warmth of Lord. Then I want to have that same feeling stay with me the entire year.
So with 20 days left until Christmas, I have 20 Christmas movies left to watch. I will continue to update this list until the Sons a bitches! Bumpuses (dogs) run through the house and steal the Christmas turkey, forcing the Parker family to have Chinese food on Christmas Day. And until then, the Christmas spirit will fill my heart and I hope that it does the same for you.
(updated December 26th)
- A Very Brady Christmas
- The Christmas Calendar
- The Spirit of Christmas
- Christmas in the Smokies
- A Holiday Engagement
- Christmas Inheritance
- The March Sisters at Christmas
- Christmas in the Heartland
- Naughty and Nice
- Christmas Crush
- Dear Santa
- Christmas With A View
- Let It Snow
- My Santa
- The Engagement Clause
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas
- Christmas Perfection
- Girlfriends of Christmas Past
- A Cinderella Christmas
- Falling for Christmas (Snowcapped Christmas)
- Christmas Miracle
- Holly Star
- A Christmas in Vermont
- Holiday Road Trip
- A Very Merry Toy Store
- Christmas Pen Pals
- Coming Home for Christmas
- Christmas Lodge
- Switched for Christmas
- Christmas Crush
- The Princess Switch
- The Family Stone
- A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish
- The Rooftop Christmas Tree
- The Perfect Gift
- Hitched for the Holidays
- Love Actually
- Holly's Holiday
- Snow
- Christmas Grace
- No Sleep 'Til Christmas
- Back to Christmas
- Holiday in Handcuffs
- A Gift Wrapped Christmas
- Christmas Around the Corner
- Christmas Comes To Willow Creek
- My Santa
- The Christmas Project
- It's a Wonderful Life (on a 50's style movie theatre big screen)
- A Christmas Story
Bonus Films on Christmas Day
- Christmas With the Kranks
- The Grinch (2018)
- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation