Top 12 Christmas Movies/Specials

If I haven't made it clear, I love Christmas. Best Holiday ever. The one day where you can spread joy and goodwill, while also buying nice gifts for your loved ones, and maybe even yourself. One thing that I must do every year on Christmas is watch bunch of Christmas specials on ABC Family (Soon to be Freeform, unfortunately) So here are my top 12 Christmas movies/specials. Be reminded that this is only opinion based, so don't get all pissy if you see something you don't like, or if you don't see anything that you do. 

12. Elf

I loved watching this movie as a kid. Will Ferell's funny portrayal of Buddy the Elf just makes my day every time I see him. Zooey Deschanel as Jovie is a very fun, cynical character, and it's just so refreshing to see Zooey Deschanel playing "not" the quirky adorkable girl. Aside from them, there's not very much else to this movie. The plot is very generic and the humor that doesn't come from Buddy is a bit too adult for a Christmas movie. But as a whole, It's definitely worth the watch.

11. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Yup, you know this one. The classic zero to hero story of young Rudolph, a reindeer born with a glowing red nose. Because of his ability, the other Reindeer shun him for being Different, In the end, he uses his glowing nose to lead Santa's sleigh through a very foggy night, and he becomes everyone's hero. This might have placed higher on my list, but when you take the Nostalgia goggles off and watch it for what it really is, you get a cheaply made TV special with bland acting, not that creative set designs and very odd animation. But no matter how cheap or poorly animated it is, it's hard to love Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.

10. The Polar Express



This movie is good only because of the visuals. The story is pretty basic. A young boy begins to doubt Santa Claus, but in the middle of the night, a train pulls over by the curb and invites the little boy to the North Pole to meet Santa, proving he is real. There's one big plot hole in the story, such as the train is only supposed to take non believers, yet the main boy character is the only character that seems doubtful. But the visuals are nice, I guess.

9. Dr Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas



This movie is by no means good. It's the typical remake of a classic Dr. Seuss story injected with innuendos, pop cultural references, and other things that seems to rape the good Seuss name. But there are some redeeming  qualities. Number one, it's not as bad as The Cat in the Hat. Number two, Jim Carrey is the Grinch. He looks exactly like The Grinch does in the books. Props to the people who did the make up for this. And three, It sticks to the message it creates. Unlike that sellout move The Lorax, which tells you to save the environment and say no to commercialism, yet made commercials for IHOP an Mazda, and turns the Onceler into an Anime fangirl's hipster wet dream, The Grinch sticks to the message it enforces. Christmas is more than just presents and candy, it's something more.


7. Barbie in the Nutcracker



It was either this, or that Nutcracker in 3D movie from 2010, and honey, this is definitely the better Nutcracker. In Barbie in the Nutcracker, Barbie plays Clara, the protagonist of the film, who receives an antique Nutcracker from her Aunt Drosselmeyer for Christmas. But things turn for the weirdest when her nutcracker comes to life, and she's shrunken down to his size by the evil Rat King. So she ventures off into a fantasy land full of fairies, gingerbread houses and air that smells like Peppermint. For a straight to DVD animated movie from 2001, the animation isn't half bad. The CGI rendering of Barbie and her Nutcracker isn't all weird to look at, it's definitely better than some animation that came out recently (Food Fight) The music from the ballet is put in very well, and the dance sequences are very nice. This one definitely gets my approval.

6. Barbie in a Christmas Carol



What can I say? Barbie makes really good Christmas specials. In this remake of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Barbie plays Eden Starling (E.D. Get it? Eden Starling Ebeneezer Scrooge) The female version of Ebeneezer Scrooge. But instead of being a grouchy old Miser, Eden is a self absorbed songstress who forces the Employees of her Theater to work over Christmas. Just like the original, She's visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, who show her what her life was before, what it it currently, and what it will become if she continues her selfish ways. Despite the typical Barbie tropes (Main character is a young, skinny white girl, and that it has to be marketable in doll form) It definitely succeeds in delivering the message of the original story, which is don't be a jerk on Christmas.

5. Santa Claus is Comin' to Town



This is one of the better Rankin Bass specials. Santa Claus is Comin' to Town tells the origin story of Santa Claus, originally called Kris Kringle by the Elves who raised him. I like this special because it's so creative with the telling of Santa's origin, like why Santa delivers presents, or how he first met Mrs. Claus. Rudolph even makes a cameo, and speaking of Rudolph...

4. Rudolph's Shiny New Year/Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas In July



People usually consider the original Rudolph to be the best Rudolph themed special, but if you ask me, I think the sequels are much better. Yeah, I'm kind of cheating on this one, but these two specials are so good with each other, they're even played back to back on ABC Family's (Soon to be Freeform for some reason) 25 days of Christmas. These specials are better than the original, in my opinion, because of the world building in it. In the original, you only ever got to see Santa's Castle and the Island of Misfit Toys, and they were kind of cheaply made. In the sequels, you get so much more. The sets are made much better, and it's also far more imaginative. There's a desert of time, a circus by the beach, and different islands of different time periods. Another thing to note is that the animation is done much better. It's more pleasing to look at, compared to the original, which was at best "tolerable".

3. Rise Of The Guardians



This movie, in my opinion, is the most underrated animated movie ever. It didn't do well at the Box Office and it only got moderate reviews, and that's so unfair. It's such a good movie, it doesn't deserve all this "Meh" It should be up there with Shrek or How to Train Your Dragon. But I guess you can't win them all, I guess. This will however, become a cult classic in the future, like Return To Oz. I really like the film's take on the different holiday characters, like The Tooth Fairy, who this time, is a half human half bird half fairy creature. The Easter Bunny, instead of being the cuddly white rabbit carrying a basket full of Easter eggs and wearing a pink bow on his neck, is this time a a badass warrior armed with boomerangs and has an Australian accent. Jack Frost, instead of being the sneaky trickster wearing pointy shoes, is now a peter pan/boy band heartthrob hybrid with powerful ice powers. And they even turned Santa Claus into a big, Russian swordsman. That's how much creativity went into this movie. Definitely give it a watch.

2. Frozen



Okay, I know what you're thinking "Frozen's not a holiday movie, you jerk!" Well, are you sure? It did come out on the holiday season. It has snow and Ice, and one of it's main characters is a lovable snowman, so yeah. It's a holiday movie. If Winter Wonderland and Baby It's Cold Outside can be played on the radio on Christmas time despite not having anything to do with Christmas, then Frozen counts as a Christmas film too. What can there be said about it that hasn't already been said? It's a brand new Disney classic, it dethroned Toy Story 3 as the highest grossing animated film of all time, and it introduced us to Elsa, an ice princess who is the only Disney Princess to ever become Queen. and it also introduced us to Let It Go, a song so powerful, it permanently burned itself onto the minds of everyone forever.

1. Muppet's A Christmas Carol



We all know the classic story of The Christmas Carol, but you know one thing that will spice it up? Muppets, of course! Any other version of The Christmas Carol is fine (Except the Jim Carrey one, which was creepy and unpleasant to look at), but my favorite version of the story is always The Muppets Christmas Carol. Like all Muppets productions, it's always fun to see the different Muppets play different characters. For that, this takes top place on my list.