Erin Wooddell
Did you all know this is the most wonderful time of the year? Andy Williams is currently crooning that message to me over Pandora's airwaves, and I must say I agree with him. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way, because Hollywood has been making movies about this holiday for generations. Movies to teach and inspire, entertain and amuse.
The movies featured in today's post fall into the latter category of making us laugh. They also all involve human acting, as opposed to the animated greats we discussed earlier this week.
Did you all know this is the most wonderful time of the year? Andy Williams is currently crooning that message to me over Pandora's airwaves, and I must say I agree with him. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way, because Hollywood has been making movies about this holiday for generations. Movies to teach and inspire, entertain and amuse.
The movies featured in today's post fall into the latter category of making us laugh. They also all involve human acting, as opposed to the animated greats we discussed earlier this week.
Christmas Vacation — My family and I have watched it every year, and it never gets any less funny.
-Myra
Christmas Vacation is my all-time favorite holiday movie. To this day, it's impossible for me to watch it and not have tears rolling down my cheeks from laughing so hard. My family is a lot like the Griswolds—always getting ourselves into sticky situations despite the best of intentions. From accidentally getting little old ladies lost on the metro when trying to give them directions, to visiting the ER on two of the past six family vacations. We could give the Griswolds a run for their money! As you can imagine, every "Vacation" movie was required viewing at my house. Growing up, watching Christmas Vacation was a bit of a tradition for my family. The weekend after Thanksgiving, we would gather around the TV and kick off the holiday season with a family viewing. Now we are scattered across the country, but it still doesn't officially feel like Christmas until I watch Uncle Eddy crash the Griswold Family Christmas.
-Libby
Elf — I always loved Elf. Will Farrell is an amazing actor and there are so many memorably hilarious scenes. Will Farrell can play an adult child in the same way Jim Carey can play a cartoon-esque character, like in The Mask and Ace Ventura. Plus, the end of the movie where they sing to give Christmas "spirit" to the sleigh is heart-warming.
-Matt
Elf is the most quotable Christmas movie of all time: "The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear." -Val
Love Actually — First off, I can't answer this without a shout-out to the best Thanksgiving movie ever--Planes, Trains, & Automobiles. Growing up, this movie was more of a holiday tradition in my house than any Christmas movie out there. Now that I'm making Christmas traditions of my own, the Christmas movie I watch without fail is Love Actually. I love so many things about this movie. All those British actors that make you say, "Hey, weren't they in...?", the Heathrow arrivals terminal (which will always be special to my Anglophile heart), and of course (obviously) the best Christmas song ever—"All I Want for Christmas is You."
-Marilee
-Myra
Christmas Vacation is my all-time favorite holiday movie. To this day, it's impossible for me to watch it and not have tears rolling down my cheeks from laughing so hard. My family is a lot like the Griswolds—always getting ourselves into sticky situations despite the best of intentions. From accidentally getting little old ladies lost on the metro when trying to give them directions, to visiting the ER on two of the past six family vacations. We could give the Griswolds a run for their money! As you can imagine, every "Vacation" movie was required viewing at my house. Growing up, watching Christmas Vacation was a bit of a tradition for my family. The weekend after Thanksgiving, we would gather around the TV and kick off the holiday season with a family viewing. Now we are scattered across the country, but it still doesn't officially feel like Christmas until I watch Uncle Eddy crash the Griswold Family Christmas.
-Libby
Elf — I always loved Elf. Will Farrell is an amazing actor and there are so many memorably hilarious scenes. Will Farrell can play an adult child in the same way Jim Carey can play a cartoon-esque character, like in The Mask and Ace Ventura. Plus, the end of the movie where they sing to give Christmas "spirit" to the sleigh is heart-warming.
-Matt
Elf is the most quotable Christmas movie of all time: "The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear." -Val
Love Actually — First off, I can't answer this without a shout-out to the best Thanksgiving movie ever--Planes, Trains, & Automobiles. Growing up, this movie was more of a holiday tradition in my house than any Christmas movie out there. Now that I'm making Christmas traditions of my own, the Christmas movie I watch without fail is Love Actually. I love so many things about this movie. All those British actors that make you say, "Hey, weren't they in...?", the Heathrow arrivals terminal (which will always be special to my Anglophile heart), and of course (obviously) the best Christmas song ever—"All I Want for Christmas is You."
-Marilee
(Twentieth Century Fox.)
Home Alone — Home Alone is my favorite Christmas movie because it makes me think of pizza, and I've never outgrown laughing at people falling victim to clever pranks.
-G
My brother didn't participate in this little questionnaire that I sent out, so I'm posting this on his behalf. I'm fairly certain he'd want to talk about Home Alone, considering he watches it every year and used to look remarkably similar to little Kevin McCallister. Also, notably, after this movie came out, he got his hair cut and when he paid the female barber, he said the infamous quote shown in the above gif. He thought it was hilarious. My mother thought otherwise.
-Erin
The Santa Clause — When this movie came out, I was nearing the age where all my classmates were starting to question the reality of Santa. I wouldn't hear of it, and would argue that he was magic and that's all the explanation we needed. Then I saw this movie and felt completely vindicated. It explained so many things about the magic of Santa! How does he get down chimneys in houses that only have a small pipe or no chimney at all? He turns into Jell-o—duh—and then a fireplace magically appears while he's there. Gosh, people...
It also led me to believe for many years that Santa's last name was spelled with an 'e' at the end, because I was too young to understand the movie title's play-on-words.
-Erin
-G
My brother didn't participate in this little questionnaire that I sent out, so I'm posting this on his behalf. I'm fairly certain he'd want to talk about Home Alone, considering he watches it every year and used to look remarkably similar to little Kevin McCallister. Also, notably, after this movie came out, he got his hair cut and when he paid the female barber, he said the infamous quote shown in the above gif. He thought it was hilarious. My mother thought otherwise.
-Erin
The Santa Clause — When this movie came out, I was nearing the age where all my classmates were starting to question the reality of Santa. I wouldn't hear of it, and would argue that he was magic and that's all the explanation we needed. Then I saw this movie and felt completely vindicated. It explained so many things about the magic of Santa! How does he get down chimneys in houses that only have a small pipe or no chimney at all? He turns into Jell-o—duh—and then a fireplace magically appears while he's there. Gosh, people...
It also led me to believe for many years that Santa's last name was spelled with an 'e' at the end, because I was too young to understand the movie title's play-on-words.
-Erin
Did we miss your favorite funny holiday movie? If so, comment below or Tweet @adventuringMISS using hashtag #xmasmovies.