Christmas is coming and, even before the real holiday, television has begun its continuous stream of holiday-related content for those of all persuasions to binge. This time of year can bring out the best (and the worst) in all of us. The family and the decorations come along with the debates and the consumerism.
Here we will focus on two types of holiday attendees: those who think A Christmas Story is the best holiday movie around and those who think Home Alone takes the crown. We're keeping it simple here, so if your vote is for Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, or It's a Wonderful Life, that's a different list altogether.
10 A Christmas Story: It's About Christmas
This may sound obvious, but it's not. A huge amount of Christmas movies are not in fact about Christmas; they merely take place over the holiday. Think Love Actually and The Santa Claus. They both take place around and on Christmas but they are about other things, namely relationships and, of course, acclimating to a new job.
A Christmas Story literally centers around one young boy trying desperately to get the gift of his dreams on Christmas morning. That's both wholesome and very focused. It doesn't take pyrotechnics and reindeer to make a perfect (and entertaining) family film.
9 Home Alone: Macaulay Culkin
Has there ever been a child star more perfectly cast than young Macaulay Culkin? If we look at the fact that Home Alone 3 (a movie that does exist) does not make the holiday rounds like the Culkin variety, it's not hard to understand why. Culkin spends the bulk of the movie alone, talking to himself (and the audience).
If that kid didn't work, neither would the movie. He makes the film. He's the reason people watch. The reason people continue to watch. And he wears perfectly matched Christmas pajamas.
8 A Christmas Story: The Bunny Suit
When you have icon recognition even to those who have never seen your movie, you know you've done your job. Consider the Superman logo, the Grinch, Mickey Mouse, and his silhouette. How many people have never read a comic, watched the classic cartoon, or ever seen Mickey act on the screen while still being able to point out the symbols in everyday life?
Well, that's where the bright pink bunny suit pajamas rank amongst classic symbols known to relate to something larger than themselves. Thrown in A Christmas Story's leg lamp, and you have two symbols that have slid their way into general popular culture.
7 Home Alone: Stair Sledding
Alone at home, Kevin McCallister gets into all sorts of trouble and tries some not so safe stunts. Much of his antics are to serve the protection of his family's home, but some are just for fun, and those are the ones appreciated most by audiences.
Who hasn't imagined sledding down their front stairs? (Even if you never considered sledding right out your front door into a snowbank?) It's a perfect winter stunt and a very loveable moment in the snowy classic.
6 A Christmas Story: The Frozen Tongue
No movie, Christmas or otherwise, has been more successful as an infomercial than A Christmas Story. This movie alone has likely saved thousands upon thousands of children of all ages from making the mistake of sticking their tongue to anything metal in the wintertime.
No triple dog dares will convince a viewer of this Christmas classic to attempt this once dangerous schoolyard tradition. This is a success that ranges far wider than cinema itself. What's not to love?
5 Home Alone: Sequel
If you don't start off successful the odds are against your ever getting a sequel, well, Home Alone was greenlit for a second outing almost immediately. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York took the magic of the original and put it in the snow studded streets of Manhattan.
It's almost as beloved as the original, especially because there is a giant toy store involved. Who doesn't love a film you can watch, enjoy, and then keep enjoying the characters later on? In our binge culture, sequels are king.
4 A Christmas Story: 24 Hour Marathon
Since 1997 American network TBS has used Christmas day as a time to air an annual 24-hour marathon of A Christmas Story. Not even Rudolph gets that kind of run time on the holiday.
What channel would invest that much screentime in a movie that no one loved? That no one would ever watch? Certainly not any television channel that wanted to keep being a television channel. Sometimes variety is overwhelming, and TBS continues to bet on tradition when it puts Ralphie and family back on screen every December.
3 Home Alone: Joe Pesci
Again, Home Alone, gets a huge boost because of its casting. Martin Scorcese mainstay, Joe Pesci, stars as one of the "Wet Bandits," Harry Lime. It's a far cry from his work in Goodfellas or his more recent role in The Irishman.
That's why he's part of the reason this movie gets so much love. Audiences love watching actors play against type, and it even looks like Pesci is having a good time in this one (despite the bumps and bruises his character sustains throughout).
2 A Christmas Story: Family
While many holiday films focus on bringing a family back together (The Santa Claus, Home Alone, Home Alone 2, It's a Wonderful Life, Elf) in A Christmas Story we get to watch a family in all its complicated glory maneuver their way through the holiday season together.
It's not always pretty, it's not always nice, but it's certainly entertaining (as well as relatable). It's one of the few movies the whole family can enjoy because, for once, the whole family is in it, from start to finish. If that's not relatable during the holiday season, then when is it?
1 Home Alone: Self Reliance
While fans of A Christmas Story appreciate the central role that family plays throughout the film, the holidays can also make us all crave some personal space and alone time, and Kevin gets just that.
Who needs turkey, and stuffing, and all the trimmings when you have icecream and full control of the television remote?
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