40 Best Christmas Movies of All Time: 2. Christmas Vacation, 1. It's a Wonderful Life

[BleedGopher]

per Esquire:

3. A Christmas Story

Nine years after Black Christmas, director Bob Clark made another holiday classic—albeit of a very different sort—with this beloved nostalgia-soaked saga of nine-year-old Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley), who wants nothing more for Christmas than an air rifle. If you have cable, it'll no doubt be playing on a 24-hour loop on some Turner network this December 25.

2. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Rarely has a series' third installment been the equal of its two predecessors, but such is the case with this threequel involving Clark (Chevy Chase), Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), Audrey (Juliette Lewis), and Rusty Griswold's (Johnny Galecki) mishap-besieged family get-together.

1. It's a Wonderful Life

Few films define Christmas like Frank Capra's 1946 fantasy starring Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, who, on the verge of committing suicide, is visited by an angel who shows him the true importance of his life.

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a50565/best-christmas-movies-of-all-time/

Go Gophers!!

 

[gopher_alum_2005]

Die Hard is not a Christmas movie!! And Eyes Wide Shut - that's a Christmas movie??

 

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

Sh*tter was full!!!

 

[Bad Gopher]

And Eyes Wide Shut - that's a Christmas movie??

I have to say, the various Christmas decoration visuals were an important, if hidden, theme in the movie. Whether it's a Christmas movie or not...

 

[SelectionSunday]

I love both #1 and #2.

But I'd flip 'em. George Bailey is tough to beat, but Cousin Eddie and the Jelly of the Month club puts Christmas Vacation over the top.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K8-kNuDgoA

 

[JimmyJamesMD]

Rocky 4.

Rocky stopped the cold war in Moscow, on Christmas

 

[short ornery norwegian]

I'm partial to the classics - "Miracle on 34th Street." great courtroom scene at the end.

and, if you want to stretch the definition, "Holiday Inn" is at least a partial Christmas movie - and it was the movie where Bing Crosby first performed the song "White Christmas." (along with some of Fred Astaire's best dance routines...)

 

[GoodasGold]

Taxi Driver 5.

Travis Bickle hung tinsel in his cab.

 

[GophersInIowa]

I love both #1 and #2.

But I'd flip 'em. George Bailey is tough to beat, but Cousin Eddie and the Jelly of the Month club puts Christmas Vacation over the top.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K8-kNuDgoA

"Clark, that's the gift that keeps on giving the whole year."

 

[Cruze]

Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" with Alistair Sims as Scrooge is No. 1 for me.

 

[GoodasGold]

FYI...TCM is airing A Night at the Movies Sun(tomorrow) 6:30-7:30am; which will be exploring iconic holiday films including: "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th St". Find out if some of your favorite films are considered any Good by the critics. Enjoy!