The holidays are a time for family, for friends, for giving, for eating, and (of equal importance) for watching movies. It is sometimes the simplest of moments when family or friends gather together that are the most memorable. We all have memories of laughing or crying with the ones we love during our favorite movie.
When the LCN staff are not scrambling to cover municipal meetings and meet deadlines, we are enjoying these simple moments as well.
This holiday LCN staff will take some time to spend with their friends and their family. They will share their good fortune with the less fortunate. They will eat (a lot), and they will spend time on the couching watching their favorite holiday movies.
The LCN staff would like to share their favorite holiday movies with their readers, and wish everyone, everywhere, happy holidays, and a wonderful new year.
‘Gremlins’
“Gremlins” (1984, is a movie that has it all. It has action. It has adventure. It has fuzzy cute creatures. It has nasty scaly creatures. It has mysterious Chinese folklore, ugly sweaters, and hairstyles from the 1980s. “Gremlins” is an action movie, a horror movie, and a comedy. It is, also, (and less well known) a Christmas movie.
In the movie, an ancient Chinese creature named Gizmo is given to the main character Billy as a Christmas present. The creature has three conditions for its care: don’t spill water on it, don’t feed it after midnight, and don’t expose it to bright lights. These conditions are violated and the cute cuddly Gizmo spawns demonic off-spring that unleash wanton destruction and devastation on a quiet suburban town on Christmas Eve.
The Gremlins is a holiday movie not only because of its setting, but also because it teaches us the most valuable of Christmas lessons. It teaches us about forgiveness – Gizmo is still loved despite the terror he inadvertently unleashed on the town. It teaches us about valuing people not things – the wide-spread property damage done by the evil gremlins just brings the town closer together.
It, also, teaches a crucial lesson that our digestive system will appreciate – don’t eat after midnight.
– Abigail W. Adams
‘Elf’
In “Elf” (2003), Will Ferrell plays the main character Buddy, who was adopted by Santa Claus and raised by elves. What’s not to love? Buddy finds out he was adopted and goes to New York City to find his biological father. Add in a mixture of funny elves, funny narwhals and penguins, too-serious bio-dads, who end up actually funny, and a little brother who loves Buddy from the beginning, and you get “Elf.”
Common Sense Media describes Elf as, “a peppy holiday favorite for both kids and parents,” and I agree.
– Michelle Switzer
‘Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer’
Claymation stop-motion Christmas movies were the ones I grew up with, and I think children of all ages can continue to grow up with them. This 1964 classic tells the story of the misfit reindeer who eventually helps Santa Claus deliver toys to children on Christmas Eve. Of course, it wouldn’t be a good movie without a little conflict along the way. Rudolph and his friends, all misfits, run into mean reindeer, the Abomidable Snowman, and foggy, bad weather before being able to help Santa deliver his presents. This is a must for holiday viewing.
– Michelle Switzer
‘The Homecoming: A Christmas Story’
My favorite Christmas movie is one I usually receive a fair amount of ribbing over. “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story” (1971) is a CBS made-for-television movie focused on a Blue Ridge Mountains family on Christmas Eve, 1933.
Based on Earl Hamner Jr.’s book “The Homecoming,” the film was later spun off into the hit TV show “The Waltons” with much of the same cast.
Hamner’s characters are as believable in their anger and pride as they are in their humility and innocence, making it easy to slip away into a situation some 80-years gone.
“The Homecoming” uses the lens of a simpler time and a family that is lean in dollars but rich in spirit to subtly demonstrate themes of gratitude, love, and growth.
At the Walton’s homestead, the family is busy with chores on Christmas Eve as they await the return of the father, John Walton, who left Walton’s Mountain to take work in the city.
Tension mounts as, with snowy roads, the hour grows late and news of a bus accident comes via the radio, and still no John Walton.
With no telephone and little other recourse, John’s wife Olivia sends the oldest son, John-Boy, out to look for his father. Borrowing a benevolent bandit’s car, John-Boy runs out of gas and seeks help from a Baptist preacher played by Cleavon Little, best known for his role as Sheriff Bart in “Blazing Saddles.”
John-Boy and the preacher finagle a sleigh ride with two boot-legging spinster sisters, but are forced to give up the search after a tree blocks their path. With John-Boy returning alone, the family is left to wonder: will John Walton make it home in time for Christmas, or at all?
– Dominik Lobkowicz
‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’ (1989)
If there is only one movie that our family has to watch this time of year, this is it.
Meet the Griswolds, a picture-perfect, all-American family. Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) is overly excited to get his family to go out and get their own Christmas tree, the right way. Tramp through a few feet of snow to the middle of nowhere until your children freeze. Pick the best tree you can find. Drag it back, roots and all, and strap it to the family station wagon, only to get it home and realize it’s too big to fit in your living room.
Unfortunately, not all the Griswolds have that merry spirit.
Of course, what makes the movie is not only the humor but it seems to have every relative that you can relate to (no pun intended): The mom who only smokes when she’s stressed, the grandmother that pinches your cheeks, the father-in-law that thinks his daughter could do better, the mother that still babies her grown up “little boy,” and the crazy cousin that shows up in an RV when he needs something.
This classic is also full of crazy mishaps and of course, sappy, happy moments. Everyone can relate to things not going quite right with so much going on; the few hundred attempts to get the Christmas lights just right and to find that bad bulb; siblings sharing a bed so family can stay for the week; your Christmas tree going up in flames; and an explosion: the holidays at their finest.
If you need some holiday spirit check out this Christmas classic. Clark Griswold has enough to go around.
– Kathy Lizotte
‘Die Hard’
Guns and explosions galore; this action packed 1988 cops and robbers film tells the tale of photogenic, lone cowboy-hero taking on and taking out various photogenic bad guys.
The original “Die Hard” launched Bruce Willis as a major movie star and introduced audiences at large to the future Snape, Alan Rickman.
There is plenty of butt to be kicked in this movie and all of it is kicked with serious gusto and a precious lack of holiday hoo-ha. This is the perfect Christmas movie for guys who hate Christmas movies. Bonus points for the famed Roy Rogers reference.
– Sherwood Olin
