My Favourite Christmas films

I love Christmas, I would be quite happy to keep my decorations up all year round, have the flashing lights on outside the house and watch a Christmas film at least once a day. Supposedly it's bad luck to keep the tree up longer than Twelfth Night, and as I need all the luck I can get, I don't want to risk it, but at least I can indulge in my secret passion of watching Christmas films all through the year, and no one will know about it .... well that is until now!

Our elves showing off their favourite films

The main Christmas film that is a must see is Santa Claus: The Movie, it must have been the first ever Christmas film that I saw, and no Christmas is complete without having watched it. This is the film I grew up with, and David Huddleston will always be my Santa Claus.

That said, I do rather like Tim Allen in The Santa Clause and he also stars in Christmas with the Kranks. A comedy film about a couple who decide to skip Christmas and go on holiday until their daughter announces that she is coming home with her boyfriend to spend Christmas with them. Cue lots of fun and mayhem as they rally around to get the house decorated and get hold of the last Hickory honey ham in town. ( I can totally relate to this as I usually leave it till the last minute to go and buy a Christmas ham )

Of course Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a musical, and so next on my list is The Muppet Christmas Carol. Michael Caine is wonderful as Ebeneezer Scrooge, Kermit makes a great Bob Cratchit and Gonzo does a brilliant job of narrating. All the favourite Muppets are in there.

Speaking of A Christmas Carol, I have to include Scrooged, a 1980's take on the classic story. Bill Murray stars as the heartless boss who is visited by the three Christmas Ghosts ( minus Slimer and the proton packs of course!*) to show him the error of his ways.

Jingle All The Way sees Arnold Schwarzenegger rushing around trying to find the one present his son wanted for Christmas, but that he forgot to buy.

My last family friendly favourite is The Snowman, every year without fail we have to watch this, and every year I secretly hope for a different ending.

When I get time to myself, then I do like to watch something Christmassy that isn't PG rated,

I love Bad Santa, Billy Bob Thornton as a small town crook trying to rob a department store. Lots of swearing, lots of drunkeness, and one to definitely watch whilst the kids are in bed!

Lastly on my list are two of the non conventional Christmas films, Gremlins and Die Hard. Although one is about strange little creatures that like to maime and attack people, and the other is an all action blow shit up and kill a few people whilst you're at it sort of film, both are set around Christmas so they are Christmas films ( not like Frozen which is actually set in Summer, and creates a whole separate debate about Christmas films but I'm not going there, not today anyway! )

*a small nod to Ghostbusters
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Do you have a favourite Christmas film? why not share your stories below.