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Top 3 Favorite Holiday Films

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I feel like I should have at least one Hallmark movie on this list, or maybe even a classic like It’s a Wonderful Life, but you know what? These are the three holiday movies I can watch over and over and over again, and I unapologetically love all of them.

1. The Sound of Music

At the top of the list is Sound of Music. I try to watch this one every year, but I don’t always get to because it’s so long — almost three hours (!) — but when I was a kid, every Christmas it was a staple holiday movie in our house. I realize that it’s not a traditional Christmas flick, but for me, because we always watched it over the holidays, it will always be the ultimate holiday movie. I love the music, love the scenery, love the acting and everything about it, and my dream is to someday go and visit all of the places where the movie was filmed. I especially want to go to the gazebo where Liesal jumps from bench to bench so I can leap across the benches, too (Side note: Here’s a story with a whole lot of fun facts about that scene).

2. Love Actually

Just watched this the other day for the umpteenth time, and it always amuses me to no end how the video camera guy is Sheriff Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead. This movie has everything! It’s got the multiple story lines, the music, the cheese, the happy moments, the tender moments, the laugh-out-loud moments… I might watch it one more time before Christmas, ha ha ha! Oh, and if you watch it, stick around for the credits because there’s a Kelly Clarkson song at the end called The Trouble With Love Is where she sounds exactly like a young Mariah.

3. Elf

Um…you know you’ve been writing about beauty for a while when you first type “elf” as “e.l.f.” (as in the beauty brand, ha!).

Man, Will Ferrell just cracks me up. I can’t even look at his face without laughing! This Christmas movie always puts me in a good mood, and I love how sweet and innocent it is.

How about you? What are your favorite holiday flicks?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. OK, OK, you know I couldn’t stop at just three. I can’t NOT have Little Women with Winona Ryder and Christian Bale on this list!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Nice list! Are you going to go see the new Sound of Music when it comes out? Emily blunt is a wonderful actress so I’m sure it will be good. Funny story, my boyfriend and I have the same Netflix account and I saw that he must’ve watched Love Actually sometime by himself when I wasn’t around, lol!

    Reply

    • Hi Rachel,

      Hmmm, are you talking about the Mary Poppins remake? That’s the only one with Emily Blunt that I know about right now.

      And how sweet that your BF watched that movie, aww!

      Reply

  2. Good List! I would definitely have to say Love Actually. I also love The Family Stone, SJP is such a good actress. Also can’t forget National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. My holidays aren’t complete without those three!

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  3. Funny, I’m Danish and we also watched sound of music every Christmas when I was a kid 🙂
    Die Hard is obviously also on the list here 🙂

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  4. I love the Sound of Music! I actually bought it a couple of years ago. I should watch it when I’m off work next week. Also, this is not a holiday movie at all, but we’ll watch the full Lord of the Rings trilogy around this time of year. It’s so long and takes a few days to get through.

    I haven’t seen Little Women in years. Adding that to my list too!

    I also like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

    P.S. This is totally random, but I had some lumpia yesterday! My husband has a co-worker whose wife is Filipino. She will make a big batch for him to bring into work and my husband snagged a few for me. They were so good!

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  5. I don’t have a favorite holiday movie per se, however, I love The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz is also a favorite in the Lemberg house. We are planning on watching The Star Wars original trilogy on Christmas ( I remember when the first one came out in “77 and was just called Star Wars), The Empire Strikes Back is our all time favorite. My favorite musical by far is “Singing In The Rain”.

    Hope you have a good holiday!

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  7. We don’t really have a traditional Christmas movie in my family (though who hasn’t watched “A Christmas Story” when it plays all day on TNT or TBS?). For Christmas, we normally rent a DVD from the library ahead of time, or pull up something on Netflix. Last year, we watched “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2”.

    I watched “The Sound of Music” a ton growing up, since we had a TV and VHS player in our car and would watch it during road trips.

    I’m living in Austria right now, and while it was nice to go around Salzburg, the church where the wedding scene was filmed (in Mondsee) is my favorite. It’s absolutely beautiful. The funny thing is, most Austrians have never seen the movie before! They only know it from tourists. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

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  8. Okay this is tough but here’s mine:

    1. A Charley Brown Christmas – can’t wait to watch this with my girls this week and it just reminds me of the good times of my Christmas past when I was a kid.

    2. Scrooged – one of my favorite Bill Murray movies and I watch this every year! Also, I love any movie featuring NYC in the 80’s.

    3. Love Actually – believe it or not but I just recently watched this for the very first time. I hated myself for waiting this long. Ugh seeing that little boy running from security through the airport to tell that girl he loved her…dying! Oh and Colin Firth and his love for Aurelia. When he tells her the that his favorite time of day is driving her to the station and she says back to him in Portuguese that’s the saddest part of the day for her? I almost cried! Why did I wait so long to watch this?

    Here’s some others I love:
    Elf – duh, of course but I also feel like you can watch this year round.
    Die Hard – for my husband and again you can watch this year round, as well.
    Nightmare Before Christmas – blending my family’s two favorite holidays together!

    Reply

  9. My ringtone during the holiday season is: Ringing phone …. “Buddy the Elf, what’s your favorite color?”. I love Elf and have watched it at least 6 times so far this season. Also, love Polar Express (the ending gets me every single time), A Charlie Brown Christmas, the original Grinch cartoon, It’s a Wonderful Life. I love all of them. This is my absolute favorite time of the year.

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  10. My husband and I usually watch National Lampoon ´s Christmas Vacation, Love Actually, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands.

    I also love The Muppet Christmas Carol 😍

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  11. I love The Sound of Music any time of the year. Christopher Plummer is an all time favourite of mine.
    Die Hard 1 and 2 are absolutely on the Christmas film list.
    I plan to watch Game of Thrones. I’m not sure how many seasons I’ve seen so there will be quite a lot of rewatching.
    Apart from the Die Hard movies, there aren’t any real Christmas films, I notice.

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  12. Okay so my list is totally different: Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase I absolutely adore. That’s my favorite of all time.
    I also love Christmas with the Kranks because I’m an only child and I know holidays for my parents totally changed when I moved across the country. We’re together now just 20 minutes apart but there was nearly 20 years when we were separated by 2,000 miles.
    And with my son nearing 16 and his thirst for travel, I know I’m going to be spending a few Christmases without him sooner rather than later. 🙁
    My third favorite is Home Alone. I adore a young MacCaulay Culkin and Catherine O’Hara.
    I also like Jingle All the Way, Christmas in Connecticut and Santa Clause–I think the third installation.

    Elf mystifies me. I don’t understand why I don’t care for it. I absolutely adore Will Ferrell and would leave my husband for him in a nanosecond. (my husband knows this so it’s okay). But I really don’t like Elf.
    Jennifer recently posted … Unlock Your Mind: How to Start a Meditation Practice

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  13. Yup, Elf is the first movie we watch every year. It never gets old haha. Will Ferrell is probably my fave comedic actor.
    I grew up watching The Sound of Music, love it 😏 That’s a family Christmas tradition.
    And for me, my fave Christmas movie is A Mom for Christmas. I loved that one as a kid. And then there’s our other family staple, A Muppet’s Christmas Carol! 😁🎄

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  16. Love Actually is EXTREEEEEMLY problematic and sexist. There’s been tons of articles re-examining the film since and the criticism is spot on. I honestly can’t even watch it. It’s a whole mess. Ugh.

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  17. LOVE the Sound of Music. My mom took me to watch it when it came out. I was all of five! But she said I behaved very well. It’s always been my fav movie of all time, brought my girls up on it too. Some other fav’s are It’s a Wonderful Life and White Christmas with Bing Crosby. They just don’t make classic movies like they used to. Favorite traditional Christmas song is Silver Bells…
    non traditional… Mele Kalikimaka

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  18. I’m gonna advocate some old-school movies that you should not dismiss out of hand. We watch ELF every year, but only after the original Grinch cartoon with Boris Karloff … though I’ll be damned if I know where Whoville is

    Fans of the podcast “You Must Remember This” will recall a recent episode about Mary Astor. She plays Judy Garland’s mother in Meet Me in St Louis, which I think helped introduce Margaret O’Brien to American audiences. It’s corny but delightful.

    And finally, the original We’re No Angels. Humphrey Bogart does deadpan comedy wonderfully well. This is NOT the abomination of a sequel made with Sean Penn. Bogart’s version is heartwarming and droll, starring a veritable who’s who for film lovers, including Peter Ustinov and Basil Rathbone, who was the definitive Sherlock before Cumbatch, You’ll love him here as the smarmy villain.

    I fell in love with old musicals and comedies in college. Each of these gets a showing in our house every year. I think they hold up, but in a different way than the more modern movies like Love, Actually and ELF. The one I just don’t get at all is A Christmas Story. Finally saw it last year for the first time. Meh.

    Cheers!

    Reply

  20. 1, Scrooge with Albert Finney and Alec Guiness. This is on YouTube, so even when I am without my DVD I can watch.
    2. Christmas in Connecticut with Barbara Stanwyck! I love female lead driven films and she is so much at the center of this screwball comedy of errors.
    3. The Preacher’s Wife with Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington. Jenifer Lewis is also perfect as Whitney’s mom! and the glorious music, and ’80s hair and clothes. Penny Marshall, may she RIP, did wonders with this remake. a must watch.

    Reply

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