Breaking the Christmas Movie Canon 

I tell you truly: the first time I saw Tokyo Godfathers was probably the purest experience of cinematic joy a movie has ever given me. I didn't expect to feel that way about a film as an adult. Unadulterated.

Let's not forget John Water's Female Trouble where the driving point that sends main character Dawn on her path to being a super criminal was because she didn't get cha-cha heels for Christmas. Her dropping the Christmas tree on top of her mother should be right up there with George Bailey running through Bedford Falls saying "Merry Christmas".

I'll mention Batman Returns. Not only is it set at Christmas but it's one of Burton's more "himself films" where he got to do whatever he wanted, making it bizzare at times but still memorable. And an example of a director getting to make a film he wanted as opposed to one designed by studio.

This thumbnail makes me really happy because it means that Kyle knows about Tokyo Godfathers, the best Christmas anime.

Terry's Pratchett's "Hogfather" (a miniseries based on the Discworld book of the same name) is a pretty fun and emotionally involving romp. If you like slightly off-kilter fantasy stories, ramshackle special effects and a satirical look on the nature of belief, it may just be your cup of tea.

I am very fond of The Apartment (1960) as a Christmas film. Unfulfilling relationships, the soul crushing nature of the corporate machine, suicidal despair, terrible work Christmas parties. And it's warm and funny, and my favourite Billy Wilder flick. I'm also fond of the part in Remember the Night (1940) where the main character (played by Barbara Stanwyck) is reunited with her estranged mother and... it's depressing. The mother is incredibly unkind to her daughter. The reunion doesn't change that. Barbara Stanwyck's character has to find a new family and her own happiness in the end.

If you do a list next year, I recommend The Green Knight. The action takes place on two Yuletides one year apart.

"traumacore xmas movies" is exactly what i needed. this time of year im usually uncomfortably bitter and i need bitter comfort foods. this is perfect, thank you

If you're curious about the mandatory christmas film canon in other countries, the equivalent of It's a Wonderful Life/How the Grinch Stole Christmas/etc in Germany and much of Europe is Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella, a Czech-German Cinderella adaptation from the 1960s that's almost violently lovely. Then for New Year's Eve, it's Dinner for One, which is an entirely different ballpark :D

Years ago, you were the RU-vidr who introduced me to Derek Jarman. So I'm kind of surprised The Garden (1990) isn't on the list. Its going to be the film I watch this year - a film about how queer people are unfairly mocked, made fun of, killed, or simply ignored as they die while the mainstream culture will encourage them to buy shit they don't need with money they don't have...but pledge "Peace on Earth and good will to all men" regardless of ALL I've just written.

Honestly, I am so glad you mentioned "The Lion in Winter" and broke down the history of it, because it is one of my favourite films and Eleanor of Aquitaine is one of my most favourite people in European history. I have been known by ex co-workers to shout in frustration "It's 1183, and we are barbarians!" at their uncouthness.

Excellent point regarding the naked old people. It probably has something to do with the fact that nudity in film is often supposed to be titillating, and older people tend not to fall into that category. If one views nudity as inherently sexual and supposed to be tittivating I can see how it is supposed to be horrifying, I suppose. I found the movie 'X' (Ti West, 2022) took an interesting approach to it.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence also features one of the most beautiful and haunting songs ever to accompany those final lines.

That walking in the air cover was simply enchanting 😊

Surprised Joyeux Noel was nowhere on the list. Possibly the most affirming film about the power that the season can have when good people give it that power, even if it can't last

The original Black Christmas is one of the few holiday movies I watch annually. Not only is it a suspenseful and well made proto slasher horror film, but the complex themes and conversations it brings forward, not to mention just that nostalgic feeling of seeing the sorority house done up in classic holiday decor (and I want a replica of Barb's booze bottle wreath). It's one of the few films to genuinely give me a chill while watching it, and I prefer it infinitely over Bob Clark's other holiday film.

Instantly smashed the like for The Lion in Winter. John Castle as Geoffrey is one of the most underrated performances-- and you can absolutely see GRRM pulling from there in his writing of both Tyrion and Littlefinger. The unexpected Christmas movie I'd put on the list also has a theatre pedigree- Martin MacDonagh's In Bruges. Hitmen lay low by taking in the beautiful lights of the Belgian town at Christmas time! There are SO many little snatches of Christmas carols woven into Carter Burwell's score. I'm OBSESSED with the way Ralph Fiennes's villain theme has this bit of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" in it. Look it up under "Harry Walks- In Bruges"

The funny thing is that, had you actually been Swedish, you wouldn't have included Fanny and Alexander because the TV-version is a holiday staple here in Sweden on SVT (the public service channels). Bergman wasn't unpopular in Sweden but he was more appreciated aboard then in his own home country. But Fanny and Alexander is one of his movies that we consider to be a staple here.

The Dead is so delicately perfect that I sometimes watch the final monologue with Donal McCann's touching performance to remind myself of how flimsy is the veil between the two worlds and how short our span.

As a native Rotterdammer, the scene with the Dutch orphan hit me like a ton of bricks when I watched Miracle on 34th Street. Sinterklaas Kapoentje has never sounded the same again since.

2:04 I never saw Miracle on 34th St. but I should have connected that it was right after WWII. I've seen what I assume is the updated version of this scene in the remake, where Santa signs with a deaf child. Both very sweet scenes, but yeah, that context of Rotterdam makes this a powerful gesture beyond crossing a language barrier. Thanks for highlighting that.

Tokyo Godfathers is not only among my favorite Christmas movies--scratch that, it's number one, no doubt--but one of my favorite movies of all time. I remember watching it with my mom one Christmas; it takes a lot to get her invested in an animated film, let alone one that requires subtitles, but she genuinely enjoyed it (she said that Hana was her favorite of the trio as she reminded her of Carol Burnett). It's a movie that maintains its quality with every viewing I've had. Dramatic, tragic, beautiful, and comedic, all at once.

Fanny and Alexander (or at least the first episode of the tv version) has been my go to Christmas tradition for five years now, so I'm really happy to see it here. I love it because it feels like a Christmas tradition i've cultivated for myself seperate from the sometimes stilted traditions i've learned (and still take part in) from my family. I try to show it to at least one new person every year as a way to connect and spend slow time together with a piece of art that is not - on the face of it - immediately concerned with building a plot or narrative but is for a while just content on showing us a festive celebration and introducing us characters and relationships taking part in it. I think as a work of art it is for me the perfect Christmas film. There is something beautiful and honest in the way the film celebrates tradition and family and exuberant festivity, while not shying away from showing how the traditions also work to hide and excuse unfortunate realities and conditions such as debt, sexual promiscuity and patriarchal excercises of power within the family structure. The drunk Carl who takes out his frustrations about being second rate on his wife, but appears just a merry drunk to his family because that is the role he holds in the family and is indebted to his own mother. Gustav Adolf is able to make Maj pregnant without regard for her and gets away with having a fragile ego because of his charisma as a paternal figure for the whole family. Though we never had troubles so melodramatic, Fanny and Alexander somehow reminds me of my own experiences with the holidays as a child, where the merriment and joy was truly real, but also worked to hide certain tensions and uncomfortable realities in our family which we would rather not aknowledge. And christmas was a way to ignore the realities for a day and pretend to be functional, as well as truly joyful. It's a conflicted holiday in that way for me. I'm going to spend the holidays with my family again this year. We still don't really talk about our tensions unless we absolutely have to, but we still feast and try to be merry. And at least I have my own tradition to hold close as well. As well as traditional ways of togetherness with my family, Christmas can also mean making new connections with people, who i've chosen to be close to, through a film that means so much to me personally.

Holiday in the Wild market itself as a Christmas movie, but it's actually a sweet story of middle-aged self-actualization, and elephant conservation

It's not out yet but Violent Night should be up on next year's list, where it's christmas eve, and you're santa claus coming down the chimney during a violent home invasion

The short story by James Joyce for the dead is very profound, more so then in the movie and I think it’s because of the medium. You sit in a written work, you sit outside movies, your imagination is active when your reading making it more intimate, your just watching a screen with movies.

Kyle, man, you're doing great on this criticism thing! I understand the self-doubt, but I'd say I've enjoyed years of your analysis!

My pick for an unconventional Christmas production is moreso a play, but it has a free recorded version on RU-vid. So it's the Christmas season, specifically it's a month beforehand on the musical's namesake, Black Friday (Dir. Nick Lang, written by Nick and Matt Lang, songs composed by Jeff Blim). You're trying to get the most popular toy around called a "Tickle-Me-Wiggly". As the play lampshades in the opening scene, it's based many other Black Friday toy crazes everyone tried to get for Christmas, though one that goes unnamed and is the most obvious inspiration would be Tickle-Me-Elmo. You're specifically trying to get your son one of these in order to try to connect with after his mom and your wife died in a car crash last December. You underestimated the demand for the doll and end up having to find a way to cut in line to the toy store, managing to get through by accidentally meeting an old high-school lover and being allowed to thanks to the gossip the rest of the line makes about you. However, once the Doors Are Open, chaos reigns. It starts out calm at first, but quickly escalates into an all-out brawl as grown adults fight over this strange, green, tentacle-mouthed doll that radiates a strange energy about it. This isn't just happening in your town, but across all the US to the point where the president knows about it. It turns out to be a Lovecraftian entity, taking advantage of America's need to fill a void in their lives caused by the many regressive policies the states have (no public healthcare, student debt, ETC.) with "the only comfort they have left..." Products. He just enhances it with trance-inducing powers to make sure there are loyal cults made in his name, so he can summoned to become a new god of this world. The whole thing is a socio-political critique of capitalism and America in general. Most of the songs are great stuff (aside from Monsters And Men IMO). Any musical that can make me actively love its ballads is doing something right. It's made by the lovely group Starkid, who also made various parody plays like Twisted and A Very Potter Musical, as well as my personal favorite of theirs The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, which is in the same series as Black Friday. The performances are amazing, especially considering most of the cast was sick during that filming. And Feast Or Famine is an absolute banger as well. Highly recommend for any time of the year, but it's especially resonant if you're worried about your relatives getting trampled over the latest TV deal. 9/10 from me!

More King Arthur movies should be considered Christmas movies. So many things in Arthurian legend happen around Christmas time. I would like to submit The Sword In the Stone, as in Arthurian legend the stone appearing is literally a Christmas miracle, and The Green Knight, as the knight appears at Christmastide to play his little game and vows to return by the next Christmas.

Don't know if it counts, but I'm thinking Joyeux Noël (2005), about 1st World War soldiers from France, Germany and UK having a Christmas truce, could potentially be on the list. Anyway, great video o/

Thanks for normalizing the thought that not everyone celebrates Christmas. And that there are other celebrations which instill a sense of family and community. Every region in India can be an example of this.

Merry Christmas! Hope you're well and if you're not, just know there are people who enjoy your work!

Something I've been learning is that the Philippines gets overlooked during the Christmas season but they really go all out when it comes to the Christmas season. They start Christmas as early as September. I also "discovered" a classic Filipino Christmas crooner: Jose Mari Chan. You learn something new every day.

I just watched Tokyo Godfathers for the first time based on you recommendation and honestly I don’t think I have ever seen a movie that more honestly dealt with what a miracle is

Two I can give that I am not sure will be talked about or not is called "It Happened on Fifth Avenue" -1947 which brings up an important issue still around (unfortunately) homelessness and the gap between rich and poor while still being a feel good Christmas film. While the other is called The Hogfather which is a two part I guess special each is ninety minutes long and apparently takes place in this thing called Discworld.

Just at the start, but already two favorites (Lion in Winter and Fanny and Alexander) celebrated. And both are def part of the canon.

This is a great list of recommendations. The ones I've seen are excellent and the ones I haven't sound excellent. Another one I'm fond of is The Apartment. So it's the Christmas season and you're an office worker climbing the corporate ladder by lending out your apartment to your bosses so that they can hook up with their mistresses. Then one night you come home to discover the elevator girl you like so depressed about being The Other Woman that she's trying to insert-euphemism herself with sleeping pills. Cheery, festive stuff. I guess what I like about it is the acknowledgement that Christmas doesn't just magically make people happy the way a lot of Christmas movies act like it does.

I just watched The Lion In Winter for the first time and it is the perfect movie to watch in the November-December family holiday period. Just pure family drama, but there's actually huge potential consequences because they're royalty. And what an incredible cast.

Guillermo Del Toro's directorial debut Cronos takes place from just before Christmas to just after new years, it's also just a fantastic film.

I also had a garbage truck outside when Kyle called it out and I had a brief existential ebullition.

speaking as an Australian, my idea of christmas involves going to the beach and eating an obscene amount of prawns and cherries

1:17 Nailed it! You're now fluent in Swedish, Kyle. Congratulations! From: an actual swedish person.

Night of the Comet. One of my fave movies, it's a horror movie set not long before Xmas. It doesn't get seen as a holiday movie by many folks, since it's in California (I think) and there's no snow, but it does feature the actor who played Chakotay in Star Trek Voyager dressed as Santa at one point.

the "You Have Options" line while talking about Inside made me burst out laughing such a good read with a genuine feeling of distress

Ok I'm half way through the video and I'm giving a like for the off the cuff joke about the radiator. Way to roll with it Kyle, I love your videos and critical analysis is my jam but I apparently needed to laugh like that so thank you for leaving that in.

Arthur's perfect Christmas cause it's just nostalgia as well as just the power of the seasons.

13:02 Well, if that joke is good enough for Shakespeare, it's good enough for you!

That Rare Exports one is on prime, so I'll give it a shot. Hope you're doing well this season Kyle. And don't beat yourself up about it if you're not. Much love.

Lion in Winter is on my to watch list every Christmas!! My history teacher used to do an amazing Hepburn impression and quote LiW constantly haha. This list is just what I needed, always is when I see Kyle uploaded!

I appreciate the shoutout to The Snowman. Hated it as a kid, but it's a goddamn beautiful film and a technical achievement. Also literally watched Black Christmas yesterday, genuinely chilling movie. While "the call is coming from inside the house" has become something of a joke/cliche, it's brilliant in context and the feminist themes are super interesting, especially in context with how puritan the genre got with the whole final girl themes.

Great work and hopefully the start of a new yearly tradition. For next year, I recommend two Christmas movies that actually are in my personal canon every year: „Metropolitan“ by Whit Stillman is an absolute indie gem, with the brillant introductory title card of „Not so long ago“. It's set during a string of private Christmas parties of the upper New York preppie class and features only teenage characters. Its bittersweet melancholy and dialogue about literature, love and class has accompanied me for my whole life. „Make Way For Tomorrow“ by Leo McCarey. Yes, the guy who brought Laurel and Hardy together and directed all the Marx Brothers classics did a movie so utra-sad that Orson Welles famously said „it could make a stone weep“. It's about family alright - about poverty in old age, sacrificing yourself for the sake of the next generation and about love despite horrible hardships and separation. A timely reminder to take care of those who suffer during this time of year. Also, some honourable mentions: „Wonder Boys“ is actually set right after Christmas break, but still brimming with the spirit and featuring lines like “It’s the kind of house you’d like to wake up in on Christmas morning.” Just like the movie's protagonist, some Christmas stories just come a little bit late to the party. Chaplin's „The Gold Rush“... okay, hear me out. It ends with a New Year's party back in the mining town, so in the timeline his Christmas dinner probably was the leather with shoelace spaghetti extravaganza. (Also I can't believe that Chaplin didn't do more Christmas scenes... it seems like such a Chaplin thing to do, but still I can't recall any!) Kurosawa's „Ikiru“ - it's not TECHNICALLY a Christmas movie, but... c'mon! Of course it is. Monty Python's „The Meaning of Life“. It IS Christmas in Heaven, after all...

My family has put up a printout of "It Chrismus" every holiday season since 2018. We forgot to do it this year, because we had a housewide covid outbreak starting the day before Christmas Eve. The closing lines here filled me with a mildly deranged sense of joy and comfort. It's January 4 already, but Merr Chrismus.

Next time you do this, please consider including The Proposition on your list. A wonderful Australian drama about, uh, toxic family members on Christmas. I absolutely love it.

Can I point out how the lead of "Black Christmas", Olivia Hussey, also played Mary Mother of Jesus and Juliet in Zeffirelli's classic films. Quite poignant casting especially with the Roe v Wade subtexts Also, even if belated, many continued thanks to your work Kyle. I'm not sure if the pallidness on camera was lighting, make up, or you ain't feeling well, but we do love you as you are. Keep at it, we need you here.

Tokyo Godfathers I force my family to watch every year. Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence I first watched thanks to your 2016 video, and while I don't watch it quite as often, I still love it

This is an awesome list that's ripe with potential to start new holiday traditions with found family next year. After all these years, I'm still finding new joy in your videos so thanks for that and happy holidays. Also, omg we should rise up and demand 12 days off from work in the us. What the heckkk

John Ford's 1948 film "3 GODFATHERS" was the sixth purely Western movie adapted from Peter Kyne's 1913 novel. It also happened to be the second time Ford directed a film based that novel, the first being MARKED MEN (1919). The title is a reference to the three Magi who brought gifts to the Holy Infant.

I have a lot of thoughts about this list (all good ones), but I am SO glad to see Rare Exports given a mention. Love that movie! :) so very weird.

“1941”. Takes place during the season. And Belushi pinned under the big Santa screaming “Jap sub!” is an indelible holiday image. I’d also recommend Rifftrax’s recent upload of “Christmas Circus with Whizzo the Clown” as a demented classic that’ll make you laugh!

Years ago, Max Scoville from the podcast The Comedy Button said it best (not a direct quote): "When someone says that Die Hard is their favorite Christmas movie, what they're really saying is that they haven't watched enough Shane Black movies."

In the name of Like, Comment & Subscribe, The Holiness of Ones & Zeros blesses this video.

My alternative Christmas watching is often the various anime holiday specials. In particular the ones that lean harder into the specifically Japanese traditions. Like, a LOT of romcom anime holiday episodes start to make a lot more sense when you know that in Japan, Christmas is a lover's holiday. Also possibly the most ageist and sexist Christmas pun imaginable with the term 'Christmas Cake'

So glad I watched this video. Definitely need to see some or all of these movies. Thanks for truckin' onward, Kyle.

It is more a winter themed movie than a christmas movie, but it's still my favorite movie to watch around christmas, it's Ernest & Célestine, a french animated movie from 2012. The animation is breath taking watercolor style and the story is probably one of the most based ACAB anti racist you'll found for kids or in general. The same creator made The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales... which is made of 3 stories and one of them is christmas themed

A really great list you've compiled here Kyle, including a good few of my personal favourites. If you're serious about maybe doing this again next year then perhaps you could consider including Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" (1985) in that video? Feel free to debate whether or not it can actually count as a Christmas film, but it does get mentioned enough times within the film that it's hard not to ignore.

My go-to film is Wong Kar-Wai’s “2046” since there are three episodes set on three consecutive Xmas Eves. “Trading places” is up there as well.

I first watched Tokyo Godfathers at my college anime club, which was a big-ass club -- almost a hundred members, technically registered as a fraternity, a whole deal -- and as you can imagine, we watched a lot of anime, covering a wide range, because everybody had different tastes. Tokyo Godfathers is the one and only screening that ended with the entire club cheering and applauding with unadulterated joy. One of the best movie viewing experiences I've ever had.

Allow me to recommend The Lodge (2019). A somewhat overlooked film, probably because of its generic title, but well worth your time if you're into unpleasant thrillers. Set about a week before Christmas its story is about two children spending time in a lodge on a snowy mountain with their new stepmother, whom they barely know and hold quite a grudge against. On the surface it can barely be called a Christmas movie (the Christmas decorations disappear about halfway in, along with most supplies, medicine and winter cloathing), but there is definately something there in terms of subject matter: family members (involuntarily) spending time together and religion... lots and lots of religon. Directed by the duo that made the original Goodnight Mommy. So yeah, don't expect it to be pleasant. But it is really well made; great shot composition and terrific acting by Riley Keough.

My favorite Christmas movie is Kurosawa's Scandal. The image of Mifune driving a motorcycle delivering a Christmas tree to a dying kid fills me with joy...... even though she dies.

“Slattery rules, fight me” won me over forever

Of course he has a knife! We all have knives! It's 1184 😂 Man I need to watch this

In Bruges. Set during the holidays, the protagonist finds himself in an old town that he longs to leave but for reasons outside his control he is stuck in. Having found himself at the end of his rope after botching something at work that wasn't intentional, he contemplates suicide until he is stopped and convinced to keep on living his... wonderful life?

In France our actual canon of “films de noël” includes a subversive one that is nowadays a classic (though not shown to children) : “Le Père Noël est une Ordure” ( Santa Claus is an Asshole), set on Christmas Eve in a suicide helpline agency. There is a depressed transvestite, a white trash pregnant woman and a psychopath in a Santa suit, very dated jokes on foreigners and SPOILERS in the end someone’s corpse get fed to the lions in the Zoo de Vincennes. Worth a watch for the madness of it and the fact that this comes back every year on french TV.

Merry Chrysler to you too Kyle.

Can't think of any movie examples, but the song "Cabinet Man" has its eponymous cannibalistic arcade machine get beaten to death by vandals on Christmas Eve, thus making it arguably a Christmas carol

You look fantastic! The whole ensemble, especially your hair, all looks great. Anyway, I freaking love Tokyo Godfathers, saw it ages ago and it became my tradition

"Hey mom, get over here. Kyle's got a new vid!"

La Casa Lobo contains multiple frames of christmas. And inside no 9 has three christmas episodes that range form neat (The Devil of Christmas) to excellent (Love's great adventure) with a 4th one due out on the 22nd. Thinking off it that entire series would fit into cinema of the interior.

This past Christmas I watched one of the Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō OVAs. If it takes place during Christmastime it's impossible to tell, but it's about finding beauty and feeling nostalgia during an post-apocalyptic time. Also the girl robot kisses another girl robot and I love them dearly.

6:01 Barry arranged the Bond theme, and is certainly the one who finished it to some extent, but the actual melody was written by Monty Norman.

Can we talk about the checkered flannel under the business casual? Iconic, no? Very nice to see your shortlist of offbeat Christmas/Holiday/Cold Time classics 💕

This might be my favourite of all your videos! And I'm beyond tickled you name dropped Karl-Bertil - just disappointed you didn't go deeper into it, even if it's just a short story.

1:15 I really do hope you watched Karl-Bertil though, it's absolutely timeless. 1:22 If you have Swedish roots, your last name was probably originally "Källgren", which would be pronounced "Shell-gren" in Sweden

Are you…telling me there exist MULTIPLE films involving zombies in penguin suits? I know that shouldn’t be my main takeaway but that’s the tidbit that hit me like a freight train watching this Christmas morning

I love how in this video English curse words were bleeped, but Finnish "Perkele" was left uncensored.

20:27 i'm glad that you bring up Gaspar Noe's Climax. His films are/can be just as hard to watch as Inside/À l'intérieur but i would definitely recommend Climax to someone looking to get into the New French Extremity genre as well.

The Lion in Winter is just awesome.

Terry Gilliam's "Brazil": the only Christmas movie to feature Hava Nagila, and the only good post-apocalyptic movie to feature a plumber who is a wanted menace to the state. The other is the Mario Brothers Movie.

Great picks! I watched Anna and the Apocalypse last year and it’s now in my yearly rotation. In terms of ones that weren’t on the list, I love Krampus and Batman Returns.

My family ushers in the Christmas season with the The Ref! A fun christmas story about a thief on the run who takes a bickering couple on the brink of divorce as hostages.

So brilliant! One way I like to deal with "Cannon" is by changing my list over time. I don't think Christmas Story is my vibe these years,but Nutcracker and the Four Realms is. Disney's Wardrobe doesn't challenge tradition as much as I'd prefer,but Prince Caspian does. Carol is a reminder to keep lesbianism with me all year long. Die Hard 5 just doesn't excite me,but my brother and I still have Live Free. Not all Rankin\Bass is sacred,but Frosty still reminds me of my sister and how much rewinding that tape preserved something beautiful and good. Christmas will always be bittersweet to me. But I think the holiday taught me both how to be happy and how to be sad. Americans can't live on anger after all.

Thanks for your clip. I know about a fifth of the movies you talk about and your analysis of the genre was well done.

I absolutely loved Tokyo Godfathers and it's fantastic as an unconventional Christmas movie. I'm struggling this year because I've been sick with a head cold and it's taking its sweet time to leave. Plus record inflation that doesn't seem to be getting resolved is also putting a damper on my Christmas spirit. However, a childhood best friend that my husband and I had a falling out with apologized and reached out to us a couple of months ago and it's been such a weight lifted off to mend our fences and forgive. Last Sunday, we went to a service and the sermon touched on holding a grudge vs. forgiveness. Holding a grudge isn't strength. It's bitterness. Forgiving isn't weakness. It's freeing.

My current favorite christmas film is Survive Style 5+, which is the only film by Gen Sekiguchi, a japanese ad exec who made an exceptional piece of cinema. It runs a little like Love Actually in concept even if wildly different in execution. One of the key character moments involves a vengeful spirit decorating the house for christmas and it's an incredible moment in an already visually rich film.

If TV miniseries count, Pratchett's Hogfather.

Rare exports is fantastic in its bizarreness, highly recommend tracking it down if you can.

Black Christmas, I watch it every Christmas Eve and it’s always a great and enjoyable tradition… Shane black movies are also always a real fun blast, thanks for giving them a spotlight

Congratulations on making an Xmas-themed piece that didn't make me want to vomit. Quite an achievement! If you do this again, perhaps you could include TRANCERS (1984)?

I was gonna be ticked if Anna wasn't on here. No Such Thing as a Hollywood Ending ALONE makes it a fantastic watch.

re-watching this to mentally prepare for the upcoming Christmas season. Have I mentioned that I love the eyeshadow? Because I do love the eyeshadow!