Welcome to blogmas day 2! Like I mentioned in my last post, let’s get to the good stuff first! December is always a whirlwind of work, travel, and shopping. Before you know it, December is long gone and we’ve entered the dark and cold bleakness that is January. That’s why, in order to get in all the Christmas movie essentials, you have to start early. Andddd in order to get a jump start on vlogmas, start now!
Face it, the best movies were made for Halloween and Christmas. With diligence, (sheesh, I am so ambitious) I plan to watch all of the below between now and Christmas! Most of these are so special and warm to me that they’re basically tradition at this point. So grab some popcorn, enter your email to the right to follow along, and let’s go, because these movies aren’t going to watch themselves!
The Classics
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation Fact: This is my favorite movie. Not my favorite Christmas movie, my favorite movie. Of all time. And Chevy Chase is my favorite actor of all time. Like all of the best things, (me and Taylor Swift) this movie debuted in 1989, but lives on timelessly. In the eternal words of Cousin Eddie, “Merry Christmas, sh*tter was full!” 
The Santa Clause No movie gives me the warm and fuzzies quite like this one. If your cold grown up heart needs some rekindled Christmas spirit, this movie does just that!
Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York And that’s where it ends, people. Just say NO to 3, 4, and however many additional ones there were. If mischievous Kevin McCallister (the oh so adorable, and now a little strange, Micaulay Culkin) isn’t in them, trust me, you want no part of it!
Elf If this isn’t a a Christmas staple for you, then you’re just an angry elf.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carrey. I’ve had a lifelong obsession with Cindy Lou Who (fun fact: I played her in an elementary school Christmas play) and I’ve always loved the idea of the innocence of children reminding cynical adults of the magic of Christmas.
The Kid Classics
The Year Without A Santa Claus I am a huge fan of all the claymation oldies, but this is by far my absolute favorite. So much so, that my best friend and I went as Heat Miser and Snow Miser for a Halloween party one year, and we won awards 🙂
How the Grinch Stole Christmas Need I say more? Cindy. Lou. Who. ❤
A Charlie Brown Christmas Hi, have we met? I love everything Peanuts (but Linus Van Pelt a little more than the rest) and this short makes my heart so freaking happy. I have never in my life been able to walk away from the tv if this is on, plus I own it, so…..
A Christmas Story Dude, do you even do Christmas if you haven’t seen this movie literally one million times? For whatever reason, this movie is such a giant part of Christmas day for me, that I just don’t mind it on repeat. I’m looking so forward to the live remake on December 17th!
The Romcoms
Just Friends This one is filled with attractive and hilarious people and has one of my all time favorite movie lines, “I’M BUSY, YOU’RE A DICK.” lolololol
The Family Stone For some reason, I feel like my dad and I are the only people obsessed with this movie. It’s incredibly underrated. It has every actress/actor you’ve ever loved, and a whole lot of dysfunction, and frankly, it’s freaking relatable when it comes to holiday family dynamics.
The Holiday Speaking of every actress/actor you’ve ever loved though… I’ll never get enough of this movie.
Love Actually I absolutely saved the best for last in this category. This movie will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It will make you wish for the millionth time that Hugh Grant would take you on a date. And if this isn’t just the cutest and saddest thing you’ve ever seen….
The Honorable Mentions
A Christmas Carol with Patrick Stewart. All the remakes of this movie are excellent, but Sir Patrick Stewart holds the number one spot for me. I actually find this one a little bit scary and kind of sad, so I keep it around the bottom of my list in case I don’t make it there!
Scrooged What kind of comedy-loving gal would I be if this movie didn’t at least get honorable mention? I guess it’s no surprise that I put these two in the same category. This one gets a lot of tv time during the holiday season, so I’m sure I’ll catch it at least once before Christmas! (Don’t worry though, I get my Bill Murray fix when February 2nd comes around…)
What are your favorite holiday movies? Chatting with friends today, I’ve already heard a few that don’t quite make my list. It’s fun to see what festive movies mean most to others. See you Christmas cats tomorrow!
xoxo Ellen Griswold
laughingatleighann.com 
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