Well blog fans, it’s that time of year again – A time where people fight for parking spots in front of big box stores and where spending more than an hour a day shoveling snow is to be expected. Yup, it’s Christmas. Hooray. This is a very special Christmas around the Lackie household for a few reasons, most notably because it’s our first as parents. In the first few weeks of our son’s life, we are totally crushing this parenting thing. I mean, our kid hasn’t stuck any of his fingers in an electrical socket yet. Sounds like a win to me. Another reason this is a special Christmas is because I will be turning 30 years old. Not actually on Christmas day, but close enough. Yup, 30 years. Can you believe it? I don’t look a day over 29.
Anyway, to celebrate this most festive of seasons, I thought I would write about some of my favourite things about the holidays. Of course I love the obvious things, you know, spending time with family, exchanging gifts, the Swiss Chalet Festive Special, blah blah blah. But what do I love most about Christmas? The movies. I even enjoy the terrible ones. I just sat through Christmas with the Kranks (which stars Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis) and at no point did I consider changing the channel. This is of course crazy talk because I know in my head that it’s an awful, awful movie, but all Christmas movies have a special place in my heart. But instead of writing about the technically terrible (but still wonderful) ones, how about we focus on the good ones?
There are of course the obviously great Christmas movies like Christmas Vacation (which I am watching as I write this) and the wonderful Nightmare Before Christmas (which I regret to say I haven’t watched in a long time). Speaking of Tim Burton, did you know that Batman Returns is also a Christmas movie? You do, but you just don’t care? But what about the penguins with rockets on their backs? They were pretty cool, right? No? Yeah, that sounds about right.
Fun fact: Did you know that Prometheus is a Christmas movie? Now you do. You’re welcome.
There are also some classic Christmas movies that kick some serious ass. I am of course referring to everyone’s favourite Christmas action movie – Die Hard. Nothing says “Happy Holidays” like watching John McClane crawl through glass, jump off the roof of the Nakatomi building, and take down the evil Hans Gruber. I’m just going to say it – Die Hard is a Christmas miracle.
But what is my favourite Christmas movie? Is it Gremlins? Is it Bad Santa (which features John Ritter’s last on-screen appearance in a motion picture)? No. My favourite Christmas movie is the wonderfully dark Scrooged.
If you’ve never seen it, it’s a fantastic movie that stars Bill Murray and is loosely based on Charles Dickens’ classic Christmas Carol. One of my favourite moments in the film is when the Frank Cross (Murray) is talking to his brother, and on the wall is a definition of the word “cross”.
Hilarious, no?
There is also a super bad ass depiction of the ghost of Christmas future.
Cool stuff. Everyone reading this should drop what they’re doing and watch Scrooged right now. Or Die Hard. Or Christmas Vacation. Or Shawshank Redemption. It’s not a Christmas movie, but it’s a great film. Oh, you know what you should watch? Apocalypse Now – the regular version, not the extended cut. Or you could go with a Quentin Tarantino movie… you can never go wrong with Tarantino…
Uh… sorry… what were we talking about?
BAMPF!
Chris Lackie 