Top Five Christmas Movies/Specials

Tis the season to be jolly and tis the season to be watching Christmas specials. This is a time of the year where I log many more television viewing hours then I usually do. I'm enjoy watching the Christmas movies, cartoons and documentaries. I was watching Christmas Unwrapped on the History channel last night before going to sleep, I was locked in...just found it fascinating. Their references to a variety of the Christmas movies & tv specials had me thinking about what are my true favorites, the ones I can't get through the year without viewing at least once.

This will be a countdown ala Casey Kasem style. Starting at number 5 and working our way up to number 1.

Number 5. Santa Claus is Coming to Town: This Rankin-Bass stop motion classic is fun on two levels. First off its one of the origin of Santa Claus stories, which is just cool. Finding out how the big man got to where he is today is just an interesting little tale. Secondly, there are some fun voices and quotables in this movie that are hilarious to repeat while watching this one with my wife. The Burgermeister Meisterburger is the most fun of them all for me. I could speak in that voice all day...and just might one day.

Number 4. It's A Wonderful Life: This is another movie with plenty of fun quotables and voices for me, but it also used to signal the beginning of the holiday season for me. When I was a kid NBC used to show this movie immediately after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Only recently they switched over to showing a dog show after the parade, so I've been forced to watch the movie on DVD...which is fine. This is an often imitated story, but it's never done quite as well as the original. This is one is good for a couple viewings during the Christmas season.

Number 3. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: I know this one is hardly a surprise pick. What can I say, I never promised that this would be a list of "deep cuts" or obscure picks. Does anyone but me notice that Santa is a pretty crusty, intolerable crank through most of this little tv special? I mean his attitude towards Rudolph's nose wasn't too jolly at first. Gotta love the Abominable Snowman.

Number 2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Dr. Seuss story brought to life by Chuck Jones and narrated by Boris Karloff...man it doesn't get better. And yes I'm talking about the animated version. I'm not talking about that live action version with rubber-face funny man Jim Carrey. The live action version couldn't make it on this countdown even if I was blitzed on spiked egg nog and wassail.

NUMBER 1. A Christmas Story: Jean Shepherd's hilarious, semi-autobiographical tale of Ralphie Parker and his family is by far my favorite Christmas movie and one of my favorite movies regardless of the season. There are too many reasons I love this movie to boil it down to a few. Even though the time period was set decades before I was born, it still gets across how Christmas felt when I was a kid. My brother & sister love this movie just as much as I do, so watching it with them in the best. We have whole portions of this movie memorized. I know TBS or TNT puts this movie on continous loop on Christmas Day, I still watch it a couple times that day if I can, at least in bits & pieces. Since I know every portion of the flick I can watch it for 10 minutes for a good chuckle and move on.

Honorable Mentions: Polar Express, Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty's Winter Wonderland, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Let me know your favorites... you might remind me of another that I like. Heck I might have to stretch this into a top 10 now that I'm thinking more about it.