Muse and Mischief

One thing I love about the Christmas season are the movies. It really isn’t the season until I have watched my collection of films that are intricately tied to my memories growing up. Today, I want to go over my top picks for the season and how some have inspired my writing or general disposition. Before getting into the countdown of the top 5, some honorable mentions. 

Honorable Mention: The Family Stone

I had a tumultuous past with this movie. Honestly from my first time seeing it in theaters in 2005 it took 19 years for me to watch it again. The reason for this lies with the fact that the holiday season of 2005 was a really shitty year. My dad died on November 20^th so the whole period was pretty rough. 

But, I saw the preview for this movie and was like “That looks hilarious and what a palate cleanser leading up to Christmas.” So I went to see it with one of my little sisters. So the movie starts and we’re laughing, a jolly old time.

For those of you who have seen the movie probably know where this is going. Then we find out the mom (Diane Keaton) is dying! My sister and I turned to each other and were like, “fuck.”

But after watching it last year I have a new appreciation for it because Christmas isn’t always pure happiness. For a lot of people there is grief or pain mixed in with everything else. I think that is one of the things I wanted to capture in my novella When the Candles Burn.

Honorable Mention: Elf

This one is just fun. It tickles a bit of nostalgia for me with its homage to the Rankin and Bass Rudolph movie. Honestly this movie was made for all of the adults who grew up with that movie every holiday season. While some may hate it, I do love the unadulterated hope of it all. I never finish this movie in a bad mood and that goes a long way in this day and age. 

#5: National Lampoons Christmas Vacation

Endlessly quotable and hopelessly irreverent, I first saw this movie when I was seven, which in retrospect was probably too young. Eh, it was the late 80s when frontal nudity was still PG-13. It remained a mainstay of the Christmas season though. 

Maybe it was watching someone else’s dysfunction that made our own more tolerable or just being able to laugh at all the ways the holiday can be chaotic. 

#4: Love Actually

Talk about quotable. This gem from 2003 came at just the right time. I was going through a messy break up and this movie just lifted my spirits and in a weird way brought me hope that things were going to be okay. 

While most of the jokes do not quite hold up in today’s culture, there was something about it back in the mid to late 2000’s. I usually kick off the holiday season with this movie and have gone to one or two quote alongs at the Alamo Drafthouse here in town. This one will probably stay in my top five for a while longer. 

#3: Scrooged

I love Bill Murray. Definitely one of my favorite actors and I think this was one of his best ones. My opinion there, not going to change it. It was an interesting take on the Christmas Carol with a little bit of meta magic sprinkled throughout.

I remember watching this on cable with my parents when I was a kid, again the late 80s. I still love the warm fuzzies it gives me when we get to the end of the movie. 

#2: White Christmas

They don’t make them like this anymore, they really don’t and that in some ways is a shame. I first remember watching this movie with my parents on Christmas Eve when I was six. We always watched it after dinner and opening our one Christmas Eve present. I have watched it every year on Christmas Eve ever since. 

I know most of the damn thing by heart now to which my sisters and I can quote it pretty well. As I have gotten older I watch it more than once a season, if anything because it is comforting.

It takes me back to those years when there was nothing but magic in the season and my parents were both still here. It is one of those traditions we never let go of and that I hope my kids will carry on. 

#1: It’s a Wonderful Life

I never wanted to watch this when I was little and would happily go to bed when my parents put it on Christmas Eve. It wasn’t until I knew the truth about Santa that I stayed up to watch it because I got to help my parents get Santa presents and stockings ready. 

I have seen this movie well over 30 times and it still gets me every year. Watching George Baily come back to reality and be so thrilled to be alive and celebrate with his family while the whole town rallies around him.

There is something magical in that movie that taps into something innate and primal in us. That sense of hope in spite of harshness is something I really wanted to capture in my novella. I set out to write a story that would leave the reader with that same feeling I get from this movie and I think I got pretty darn close. 

So what movies land in your top five? I would love to hear from you in the comments.