Traditional
JB and I watched It's a Wonderful Life together last weekend, and I cried and laughed in all the right places again. I get something new from this movie in every stage of my life. People have often quoted it to me, because the girl's name is Mary ("Of course I like her, she's a peach!").
White Christmas. I have to watch this again soon, I can feel it in my bones. From doing the "Sisters" song with my sister Rebekah when we were young, to laughing & quoting it with my friend Autumn in our single days, to trying to get my children to love it now....it's the best.
The boys and I watched Elf on Sunday, it's another yearly quotable favorite. Max enjoys the Home Alone movies. JB likes to catch A Christmas Story when it plays on TV. The little boys like Arthur Christmas and the Grinch movies.
I also recommend Christmas in Connecticut (Barbara Stanwyck) and Shop Around the Corner (Jimmy Stewart again), Holiday Inn (Bing Crosby again and my fav Fred Astaire -- speaking of peaches, "These are great on, uh, or even plain!") And Scrooge is one I watched every year with my mom ("That's the nicest thing that anyone's ever done for me!")
I never got into the Peanuts specials or Rudolph that much when I was young (DON'T BE MAD. I was too busy watching the other classics above)
While You Were Sleeping is one I've loved since 1994 ("Should have gotten a blue spruce, they're lighter"), and you could argue Princess Bride is a Christmas movie because I spied a Santa decoration in the boy's bedroom.
Netflix
Operation Christmas Drop was fun because it is military and it is in Guam. I loved the actual drop over the islands and atolls.
Knight Before Christmas was ok. Funny lines from the guy suddenly finding himself in the future. Probably won't watch again. Same with Princess Switch from last year.
I hear good things about Christmas Chronicles and Holiday in the Wild.
I have not watched the Christmas Prince 3. I have to draw the line somewhere. And I heard Holidate starts with the worst of bad words, so it's out.
Hallmark
I've been watching Hallmark Christmas movies for weeks now. I have no shame in this. Most of the time it's on in the background on my phone while I do other things.
Of their new movies this year, I highly recommend One Royal Holiday. There are so many different mashups of this title or prince/princess theme, but this one has Broadway stars and it's just cute, there's no other way I can say it.
Christmas by Starlight and Five Star Christmas this year also made me laugh. They felt different, with snappy dialogue even while kind of following the formula.
Here are some others from past years that I enjoyed that are replaying in the rotation:
Check Inn to Christmas has the similar, "girl from big city goes back to home town" plot, but it was more well done than the others. It had lots of fun Christmas feels. Plus it was filmed in Utah.
Double Holiday was nice to learn more about Hannukah and see the importance of family. Christmas with Holly also shows brother bonds and was sweet.
Dashing Through the Snow combines a Christmas road trip with FBI intrigue (I love a good police drama), and though this was pretty hard to believe, it was still fun.
A Veteran's Christmas, Homecoming for the Holidays, Holiday for Heroes, Operation Christmas, and The Christmas Card all deal with the troops and faith and I like that. USS Christmas from this year is on a naval carrier, go Navy! But as I told JB, it wasn't realistic. The guy was way too tall to be a fighter pilot. (JB: you're saying a Hallmark movie isn't realistic? haha)
A lot of people love Nine Lives of Christmas. Maybe because the cats are co-stars.
Lifetime
Christmas Around the Corner and Christmas Pen Pals I saw last year, and they are worth watching if they come up in the rotation again.
This year's offerings have been less than stellar from Lifetime, but A Sugar and Spice Holiday was really cute. And Once Upon a Main Street had some ok moments.
I have no time to list all the duds from Hallmark and Lifetime. Best of luck, haha.
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