Christmas viewing traditions.

[VegaLA]

I think i'll mix things up this year by finally seeing Phil Hartman's Christmas film 'Jingle all the way'.  Will have to endure Sinbad* and Arnie hogging most of the film though.

*Not my XBL buddy but the American Comedian who seems to have disapeared.

[kidsick5000]

Was'nt 'The Wizard of Oz' on TV every Christmas for seven years solid during the end of the 70s into the 80s? Like the slippers my Mum would get from the in-laws it was a Crimbo certainty!

Now that is my enduring memory of a Christmas film. Like having a Bond film on Bank holidays. Also remember not seeing it completely in one showing until I got the DVD  a couple of years back.

[Mini]

I think i'll mix things up this year by finally seeing Phil Hartman's Christmas film 'Jingle all the way'.  Will have to endure Sinbad* and Arnie hogging most of the film though.

*Not my XBL buddy but the American Comedian who seems to have disapeared.

And Jake Lloyd.

[idunnosomename]

Now we've got a toddler in the house The Snowman and Raymond Briggs' Father Christmas have been on rotation everyday since mid-October. Looking forward to sitting down with her and watching the new Snowman animation on Xmas eve though.

Got an MR James Christmas Ghost Stories box set for myself this year. Also I remember back in the 1990's there used to be a bit of tradition of off kilter B-Movies late on BBC 2 over Christmas that seems to have ended now. It was a joy to come back from the pub to find something like Carnival Of Souls just starting. Repeats of Top Of The Pops 2 and those nostalgia list shows seemed to have replaced that kind of scheduling now though.

I haven't seen Raymond Briggs' Father Christmas in years - I think many years Channel four neglected to show it while still showing the Snowman. It's so much better though, and sticks closer to the book I seem to remember. It should be shown every year, if anything, to show kids what Father Christmas is like, a hardworking bastard for who you should have the uptmost respect, not fucking Santa Claus who sticks candy in your stocking.

And a lot of horror films also seem traditionally Christmassy for me too, because of when scheduling was more fun. Channel Four aired around Christmas Peter Jackson's Braindead and Meet the Feebles. Such levels of gore should be a Christmas treat.

[Custard]

Today's watches so far at work have been Home Alone 2, and Mary Poppins

Might be dangerous, and stick on It's A Wonderful Life next!

[Gulftastic]

For the past three years I've attempted to watch 'The Nightmare Before Xmas' but have been too tired and turned off after about 20 minutes. I'm crap at watching films at home since I got old.

[Bad Ambassador]

Santa Claus: The Movie tonight. The first half's a bit slow, but John Lithgow as evil toy magnate BZ is fucking hilarious. He's introduced in court, where it's shown that his teddy bears are stuffed with six-inch nails and broken glass. He sneers, snarls and cackles his way through the whole film like Ultimate King Rat. It's amazing.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Not a fan of that one, I'm afraid.  For a kids movie, the McDonalds product placement is especially egregious.

[Kane Jones]

Not a fan of that one, I'm afraid.  For a kids movie, the McDonalds product placement is especially egregious.

For me it's the bit where the homeless kid is offered some food which he eats enthusiastically, but nowhere near as enthusiastically as the can of Coke he is given, which he guzzles down as though it's nectar from the Gods, then burps loudly and with gratitude; a satisfied smile on his face.  "I had some Coke.  I can freeze to death happy now."

[Neomod]

Tom & Jerry - The Night Before Christmas

Yep.

Also,

Blackadder's Christmas Carol
A Christmassy Ted
Morcambe and Wise

[Replies From View]

Not a fan of that one, I'm afraid.  For a kids movie, the McDonalds product placement is especially egregious.

For me it's the bit where the homeless kid is offered some food which he eats enthusiastically, but nowhere near as enthusiastically as the can of Coke he is given, which he guzzles down as though it's nectar from the Gods, then burps loudly and with gratitude; a satisfied smile on his face.  "I had some Coke.  I can freeze to death happy now."

I loved the film when I was young, but I saw it again for the first time since the 80s about ten years ago, and these things really jumped out and soured the whole thing.  Really very unpleasant.

Funny how the memory plays tricks.  I was sure that 'Santa Claus: The Movie' had a scenario in which Santa is wearing a brown costume, and has to have it turned red to be Santa.  In my mind there was an entire segment concerning his status as Santa being at risk.  After seeing it again I realised I must have mistaken it for a different film, until I revisited my old 1986 Buster Book and saw this:





So is a brown Santa suit being changed to red actually in any Christmas film, or did I simply convert this into moving pictures in my mind?

[Custard]

Willy Wonka is marvellous. Gene Wilder, making Johnny Depp look like a useless fud

[lazarou]

MST3k Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

I prefer plain old Santa Claus myself, though they're both pretty great. The Rifftrax take on Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny might be the best of the lot though, even if it's cheating a bit thanks to the film being that special kind of delirious mess that suits the format so well.

I have the remake of Black Christmas lined up to watch. Never seen it before and I have a feeling that only the sight of Mary Elizabeth Winstead will be able to hold my interest...

Replace MEW with Michelle Trachtenberg and that covers my experience with that one. It's not terrible, just a really nothing film with very little going for it.

[El Unicornio, mang]

OK, gonna watch A Muppet Christmas Carol tonight,  because I've never seen it (not sure how, everyone else has). Followed by Die Hard, cos I'm a bloody bloke!

[Custard]

People hate We All Stand Together/The Frog Chorus, but they're stupid, and it reminds me of childhood Christmases, when Christmas was Christmas, blah blah etc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpevZ0-wUYQ

[biggytitbo]

It's a lovely thing Shameless.


I essentially use it as a bell-end radar, if someone does the usual cliched rant about how awful it is they are definelty an utter bell-end.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Blackadder's Christmas Carol
Patrick Stewart's A Christmas Carol
The Snowman

Can take or leave anything else, apart from Apollo 13, obviously.

[biggytitbo]

Apollo 13s christmas carol is good, the way that saturn 5 learnt the error of its ways by been visited by gemini, the space shuttle and something else funny i cant think of was life affirming.

[Buttress]

Australian television seems to enjoy showing Monty Python's Meaning of Life near or on christmas eve. Mind you, this is probably woefully out of date since I never watch free-to-air tv anymore..

[shiftwork2]

I always enjoy watching Threads on my own with a bottle of cheap supermarket whisky.

[KLG-7B]

Ah - The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Daughter are both good stuff.  Charm in spades.

Hm, it wasn't that. This was a more Shrek-like monster, and possibly involved real footage too.

[Harpo Speaks]

Was it Fungus the Bogeyman?

[KLG-7B]

That's it. Ugh!

[thenoise]

I think from now on I will watch K Gordon Murray's Santa Claus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vDhuZzNRCM

What a crazy, amazing film.

[BritishHobo]

You all need to see Nativity 2. I know it's a kid's film, but it's fucking astonishing for how absolutely awful and demented Marc Wootton's character gets, while David Tennant is portrayed as someone who just doesn't believe in the children for not agreeing with Wootton's

Spoiler alert

kidnapping/stealing.

[close]

The most incredible scene comes when David Tennant telling Wootton and the children

Spoiler alert

that they actually physically cannot get to a castle that's on the other side of a massive cavern, when they're standing on the edge of a cliff with no way down but a vertical drop, is treated as him not believing that the children can win a singing competition, and Marc Wootton reams him out for it. At one point, Tennant has to apologize to Wootton, who ignores him like a precious child, for yelling at Wootton after Wootton kidnaps him, and a baby, steals all of his money, and throws his phone out of the bus window while Tennant's tied up, so he can't call his pregnant wife in case she goes into labour.

[close]

None of that is exaggerated. It's mental.